Cincinnati’s annual Books on the Banks festival has been happily heralded by John Maggard for four years and counting. Timelessly capturing Cincinnati’s retro roots, Maggard takes a new spin on an old favorite. Unveiled this Wednesday, Maggard takes us a few decades back with his beautiful illustration of a classic city street.

Check out the article here.

Illustrator John Maggard walks us into the steel heart of the creative designer.

Is “infographics” still a legit term? I’m not sure, since a lot of my reading of late has been occupied with books like “The New Catechism of the Steam Engine”, and my inner engineer is loving every minute of it. Ever see those late-night or early morning black & white films of white-hot slabs of steel crashing through giant rollers while fountains of sparks fly under a busy, dramatic industrial-documentary soundtrack? The mill engine pictured was one of hundreds that used to drive those mill stands, running like fine Swiss watches for years at a time – all polished brass and rhythmic rods and valves, decades before the Sci-Fi mags illustrated giant flying spaceships with “new” electric dynamos as powerplants of the future.

This is a still frame from a longer animation I made for a friend in Youngstown Ohio whose specialty is saving, refurbishing and displaying giant steel industry artifacts – no small feat when dealing with items where the smallest part weighs a couple hundred pounds. He’s reassembled the engine across town at his museum but wanted it shown in its original setting, working under steam, and an animation of the machine seemed like a natural solution.

The animation was seen by a client with a similar desire to show a piece of industrial Americana at work. But this time it was important to show the inner workings of not only the steam engine but also the machinery it operated .They needed a visual of it intact and in place, an image impossible to see from the outside alone.

The second and third stills show a small piece of the next project – a speed governor device – that is at once a thing of sculptural beauty (to some of us, anyway) and emblematic of a past industrial age. These installations had a design and aesthetic that was incidental to their main function, but powerful in its own right.

Sections of the full animations are here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

and here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’ve always believed in the phrase, “To each their own.” But my small town is about to replace its traffic signals and attendant tangles of wire, poles, transformers and guy wires, with newer and sleeker metal stanchions. Allegedly for the purpose of beautification of the intersection…it somehow won’t have the same interesting silhouette at twilight.

A character development like this represents an entire company and a product line, so the process can become detailed and extensive. But jumping over hurdles is Von’s specialty, and the final outcome is a striking illustration that will be the foundation of the brand’s overall development.

Grain Edit interview series lead to Philadelphia: City of Brotherly Love, home of founding father Ben Franklin and the Liberty Bell, and illustrator designer Tim Gough. A man who emerges from the cheese steak littered streets of Philly to do one thing: rid the world of dull illustrations.

http://grainedit.com/2009/04/08/tim-gough-interview/

Tim Gough joins the SHA family from Philadelphia, bringing both brotherly love and a passion for silk-screen conceptual art. Tim melds images of spies and monstrous creatures with bursts of color and densely clustered patterns, creating dynamically rich works that are equally inspired by mid-century graphics and the screen-printing process itself.

Tim has been working a designer/art director for various agencies and design firms for the past 8 years, but in 2007 he left the agency life behind to pursue illustration and art full time. His work can be be found in books, magazines, newspapers, and other ephemera nationwide and abroad. Tim also publishes a limited edition zine called “Cut and Paste” – a regular consortium of his various drawings and ideas – and frequently shows his illustrations and screen-prints in galleries and shows.

So far Tim has worked with The New York Times, Business Week, The Progressive, The Philadelphia Weekly, Nylon Magazine, Bust Magazine, Fast Company, Burton Snowboards, Poketo, Leo Burnett, Warner Bros. Records, and Urban Outfitters. And who knows? If you’ve got a need for some visually arresting, conceptually interesting and rough-textured art, your name could be next on that list.
An Ohio native, Mikey Burton proudly describes his design aesthetic as “Midwesterny” and draws much of his inspiration from artifacts found throughout the hardworking, blue collar Rust Belt: old type-specimen sheets, arcane equipment manuals, ancient textbooks, you name it. “I’m fascinated with how past designers had to come up with ideas and solve problems using limited resources,” Mikey says. “For instance, figuring out how two colors can work harder than four. It helps me get to better solutions myself.”

Mike worked hard and got to a BS/MA in Visual Communication Design from Kent State University, in addition to helping found Little Jacket Design. Since then he has worked with Wilco, The Sundance Channel, MTV2, Facebook, Spoon and Wired magazine, among others, and received awards from Communication Arts, Print, HOW, CMYK, Logo Lounge and recently Print’s New Visual Artist. Mikey now lives in sunny Philadelphia, where he enjoys the myriad culinary delights of his adopted hometown, and continues to nurture his lifelong obsession with bears, which are “so cute and lovable,” despite being “probably the most dangerous animals ever.”

“Health and wellness” are two key aspects in most everyone’s life. They also happen to be two key markets in today’s communication industry. So while the conventional model finds pharmacies pushing the pills, insurance companies offering protection and hospitals and doctors providing knowledge, the question remains: Is that really what it takes to get people well?
 
Just as I was wondering this, my good friend Jose Said Osio invited me to a conference titled, “Healing Journeys.” He said, “This will open your eyes to the value of illustration in this new Health 2.0 – a value understood by few agencies or design groups,” adding, “let alone healthcare providers.”
  
It was an amazing experience. Attendees were cancer patients, family members, doctors and nurses, and there was a presentation by amazing board-certified medical oncologists alongside caring nurses and psychotherapists. It really addressed the idea of “healing the whole person” – physically, psychologically, socially and spiritually.  
 
So where does art come in? What are our creative opportunities here? Well, plenty. Patients don’t stay in hospitals as long as they used to, and art may be part of the reason why. It’s been proven to accelerate the healing process and quicken turnaround. And that’s good for everybody.
 
Doctors like Jeremy Geffen, author of “The Seven Levels of Healing” and “The Journey Though Cancer”, and Bellruth Naparstek, creator and founder of “Health Journey,” emphasize the body’s physiology changes as we go from worry to relaxation, from fear to inspiration – and that the shift can be triggered through the use of art. Art, they say, physically alters the brain by accessing a different brain wave pattern. This, in turn, affects the autonomic nervous system, hormonal balance and neurotransmitters. Eventually (ideally), art affects every cell in the body and reshapes our physiology into a more healing environment. Pretty neat. Arching your eyebrows? Read this:
 
How Art Heals (Scientifically Speaking)

• · Exposure to art slows down blood flow, reversing a typical stress response. Normally agitated blood vessels can contract in response to images of imagination set to music, saving as much as 150cc of blood when administered before surgery.
• · Non-verbal, imaginative images evoke a measurable response – and one that is more universal than what is evoked by written language.
• · Color can be used to convey a sense of joy, beauty and simplicity – all proven therapeutic emotions for patients.

 
Need help making the case to your clients? Keep reading:

Value Points To Consider And Harp On

• · Art can be the catalyst in developing cultural programs for hospitals, helping expose the staff to the wide array of patients they serve.
• · No one would argue that our lives are bombarded with stress, which is known to trigger or worsen illness. By allowing and encouraging us to linger in moments of beauty, art can reverse this process.
• · Art is one way to make patients feel more comfortable and at ease when they walk into a hospital – a mind state that’s obviously much more conducive to healing.
• · Medical research proves that blood pressure, heart rate, and respiration are all positively affected by exposure to the arts. You can look it up and everything.
• · Art-related reduction of stress, lessening of fears and improved communication all contribute to the total picture of health.

 
The art of healing is all about building a more effective doctor-patient relationship. With illustration – a tool that can lift patient and staff morale while cultivating feelings of love, gratitude, protection and support – the arts create safer, more supportive and functional environments. And that goes whether you’re in a holistic wellness center or an old-school healthcare facility.
 
The science is there. Art has the power to heal and help. Will you use it as directed?

Scott Hull Associates artists share how an infinite variety of feelings can come out of 26 measly characters.

I love typography work because it can allow me to play a little more than my editorial-style illustration. I get to think about what the words mean, the emotion that it needs to portray, and go from there – trying different things until the perfect idea emerges.
-Penelope Dullaghan

Drawing your own type steps your work up a whole other notch. It puts you in complete control of the vibe that your type gives off. You are free to take it wherever you want and you don’t have to rely on the same toolbox that every other designer uses.
-Tim Gough

Type has always been my passion. When I was a senior in high school, I used to steal my older sister’s type specimen catalogs (she was a graphic design student) and use it to draw posters mimicking the endless styles of type. Our local Kroger store even had me painting their front windows and mirrors in the meat department with ad specials and holiday messages. When I went to college, I was introduced to the craft of typesetting and ligature design, so when I graduated as a designer, I treated type in a more formal, classic Bauhaus style.
-Lisa Ballard

What the illustrative lettering artist brings to the table is the recognition of type as art. Once upon a time, all letterforms were created by people who could draw. So rather than assembling and contorting computer generated fonts, as the modern designer does, we approach the lettering design with type’s history in our DNA and the drawing ability to create a unique piece of lettering art.
-Mark Riedy

Client: Thriving Family magazine

Art Director: Lexie Rhodes

Title of Project: Finding Friends as a Mother

Target Audience: Parents/families

What was the creative challenge? The magazine needed someone to capture the sense of two mothers sharing stories and companionship and represent it in an illustrative way.

How did you resolve the challenge? The art director had seen an older piece of mine which evoked the feeling and mood she was envisioning for this project. Pairing that with the new concept we came up with helped me pull it all together. Using a collage-style illustration, I was able to communicate visually just what they had in mind.

Share a little insight into your creative process? Having two children myself, I could personally relate to the article, so that part was easy. The concept of a shared speech balloon popped into my head out of the blue, like a lot of the concepts I end up using. The art director really wanted to see the mothers and perhaps a child in the illustration, so this provided a good way for me to incorporate both.

Lexie’s response to the finals was emphatic: “I am in love with these! They are truly beautiful.”

Mesa, Arizona has a plan. The way they see it, their combination of resources makes them the optimal location for businesses in aviation, healthcare, tourism and education, so they’re launching a move-to-Mesa campaign encouraging those businesses to do just that. For help giving the campaign a visual voice, they brought in Curtis Parker.

His creative challenge: Keep the imagery simple yet bold. Maintain a business approach that covers all the bases. And once the project is underway, preserve the integrity of the original vision amidst a healthy amount of client input. To do this, Curtis worked closely with art director Art Lofgreen at Catapult Strategic Design through the entire process, keeping the ideas flying back and forth like dusty tumbleweeds roaming the Sonoran Desert. (In a business-focused sort of way.)

The end result connects the reader, whether it’s a tourist, teacher or captain of industry, to the city itself. It also connected with the client. The City of Mesa Marketing and Business Development Manager confirmed the positivity about their citywide revamp. “We look forward to promoting the campaign,” he said. “And Curtis Parker’s artistry, too.”

1. Concept
You tell us about your audience and what we’re trying to show them. Outline the project’s scope and format along with its content and messaging.* We give you visual ideas, usually in the form of black and white sketches that help us explore different approaches.

2. Presentation
Together we fine-tune the idea(s) until we’ve got a solid, strategic visual for the big unveiling to your customer. If needed, and if budget allows, we’ll provide an additional refined sketch or two and make sure we’re good to go.

3. Image Development
The idea is a hit. We’ve addressed any feedback together, addressed any new findings that can help streamline the strategy, and it’s come down to confirming details. Where will the finished art appear? How big? Will we need an online version as well? Are there any offshoot elements that could help the overall cause?

4. Final Art Production
Presto. A brainstorm is transformed into a living, breathing illustration. We both take a step back, try to look at it with fresh eyes and make any last-minute tweaks to keep it perfectly aligned with the original strategy. Now it’s time to pop corks and discuss the next project.

- – - – - – - – - -

**1b. Pricing
It’s sometimes the most stressful part of a project, but it doesn’t have to be. Asking the right questions up front can help us maximize your investment in the long run. Here’s some of what we need to know – you’ll talk through a few more details with Scott before we get underway.

Scope
What’s the job description and underlying needs?
What is your customer expecting? (And how can we exceed it?)
Technical stuff – Color or B/W, size, format, etc?
What reference materials will we work from?

Schedule
Current deadlines
Reasonable deadlines
When can we start?

Usage
Is the art making, say, a one-time appearance for an internal presentation, or is it the image that will appear in print, broadcast, online and flown from blimps as the new key to branding a global corporation? That all affects cost too.

It’s a lot of questions, we know. We also know how important it is to get this step right.

A brilliant idea can change your life. Just ask Steve Jobs. And think about it – how would one incredible idea affect your work? How would it affect your personal creating? Your career? Your confidence and opportunities?

These days, new ideas aren’t just inspiring; they’re essential. A narrow-gauge mindset doesn’t work in modern business. Consumers aren’t loyal to cheap commodities. No, they love the remarkable, the human, the unique. And those ideas don’t just fall from the sky. (Usually.)

So where do they originate? Since Scott Hull Associates is in the business of ideas, I figured our artists ought to know. They surprised me with their answers, citing everything from “cross-pollinating synergetic associations” to cracks in the driveway. Enjoy.
-Scott

Aren’t you silly…Ideas come from the stork, just like babies. – Andrea Eberbach

From an ever expanding and curious mind. –Von Glitschka

I’m not sure where they come from, but I’m pretty sure – starting in 2012 – that there will be a federal tax on them. -Mark Riedy

Personally, I group them into two broad categories: surprise ideas and task-oriented ideas. There’s an enormous area of interaction and cross-pollination between these, but if I think about it, most everything I do whether art-related, fixing a faucet or otherwise, fits somewhere in the continuum. In the area of ideas for art, surprise! Ideas are just that — out of nowhere, triggered by who-knows-what…smells, memories, dreams, emotions, even stress. Task-oriented ideas are usually, at least for me, more forced and rarely complete at the beginning — they need refinement and tuning, and the trick is to retain something good and fresh enough to keep through that refinement process. Most won’t make it to the end, and many aren’t worth fooling around with from the beginning, but each has to be weighed before discarding. Working in collaboration with commercial clients, most illustration ideas are going to be task-driven, and will be a blend of your ideas and the client’s regarding concept, style and desired results.

Somewhere in here also has to be addressed the impact of original vs. derivative ideas. For a visual artist and especially one working commercially, purely original ideas are hard to come by. We’re bombarded by visual imagery from the first day we open our eyes, then later are drawn to and/or repelled by most everything we see that other artists have done – this can’t help but affect our style and how we see the world through art. How we control and channel our own likes, dislikes and influences through our work, all the while adding whatever personal flavoring we bring to the equation determines how original our artistic solutions will be. Recognizing and utilizing influences is a balancing act that’s always there when generating ideas.

Lastly, I think ideas spring from that overused word, passion. It’s why we do what we do instead of pursuing any of the millions of other occupations available in the world. Speaking only for myself, I want to add my spin and polish to whatever visual problem is put in front of me, as long as it’s something that I can relate to. Generating good ideas is more often than not hard work, and the effort needs to be applied where it will do the most good both for the artist and for the resulting work. -John Maggard

A mysterious internal response to an ever-changing external set of chance meetings. -Lorraine Tuson

My ideas come from nature. I am an avid gardener and I am always in awe of the design found in natural things. The hardest part of drawing nature is keeping its fresh and random quality. I love taking a natural theme (such as shells), and combining the many shapes and textures to create patterns. -Lisa Ballard

Ideas come from playing. -Penelope Dullaghan

The most common comment I hear when asked this is, “ideas are everywhere”. But to me that’s a cop-out because our society cannot see the forest through the trees. For me ideas come from staring at the stars, or a plant in the crack on the driveway. Yes, the Internet is also full of useful images, but where does one start? Back to the basics, I say! For me this is an endless journey, because problem solving is a passion of mine. -Geoffrey P Smith

Ideas come from doing, not planning. The best ideas I’ve ever had came to me in the process of making creative work, not from sitting down and intellectualizing my next move. -Grant Gilliland

Now that’s a good question! Ideas are a kind of cross-pollination of thought and problem parameters that comes from combining one or more unlike things to create a third, more synergetic association. It starts with research; I look through information relevant to the problem at hand, making lists of items and key words that can drive the direction of thought. Next, I take the information and start to play with it without judgment – it’s called free association. I take some of these key words or essential elements from the lists and literally connect them to see if there’s a potential association there. For example, if you take the word magnet and library and think about what associations they make, you come up with a series of thought-play ideas. I’m hoping for some kind of visual metaphor or analogy that will help communicate the concept of whatever it is I’m trying to get across. So… Library+Magnet=What? I think of a place where information storage plus some kind of pulling force comes together. The human brain would be considered a a kind of information storage unit and the attractive force might be a lighted billboard sign. Or the Rosetta stone, the key to interpreting several dead languages, might have Space Odyssey monolith-like properties that attract the monkeys.

Once all of the play is done, it’s time to see which of the ideas might have merit for the problem at hand. Maybe some that are seemingly way off base will lead to something else by association. This is the portion of the event that we must judge or deem relevant to solving the problem. That, and a healthy amount of sketching, usually bring good results. -Larry Moore

Artist/Illustrator used: Meg Hunt

Title of project: Gardening section, Jamie Oliver magazine

Describe your target audience/client base: Those who are fans of Jamie Oliver and his work and food, those who love to cook and desire to get more involved in cooking, or those who are interested in a gorgeous lifestyle magazine which covers a range of topics from food to travel.

What creative/business goals did you have with this project? The Gardening section appears in the front of the magazine with a lot of newsy items surrounding it. As such, the pages really need to sing out – be colorful, attention grabbing, and beautiful. Also, Jamie’s gardener Peter Wrapson is so passionate about his subject, I knew I needed illustrations that would reflect that passion.

Were there any special hurdles or requirements that the artist had to address? In each issue, Peter talks about various things that are in season, gadgets to try out, or new techniques to use. The illustrator I needed to do these pages had to be someone who could illustrate not only food, but also plants, people, activities, inanimate objects… The list goes on!

Describe the final outcome of the project: This section has become an ongoing job for Meg, as her colorful style and attention to detail really combine to create illustrations that jump off the page. Some of the topics are a little tricky but she always comes up with charming and detailed works that enhance the words on the page.

Tell us about your experience working with our artist: Meg is a delight to work with and strengthens the visual brand of the magazine. She’s friendly, delivers on deadline, and most importantly, sets her amazingly imaginative mind to every assignment given to her. You know when you hire Meg for a job that she will always go above and beyond to make sure the illustration is amazing. I’m happy to have this ongoing commission with her, and always look forward to seeing the work that she creates!

http://showandtell.meghunt.com/post/616677212/gardening-from-jamie-oliver
http://scotthull.com/artists/hunt/

There are a lot of art books out there that are how-to’s – How to mix color, how to paint a face, dealing with composition and drawing, etc. But in the many, many paintings I’ve looked at over the years, my first thought is hardly ever, “How did the artist paint that?” Instead, I’m wondering, “Where did that come from?”

The new book Poster and Process is a response to that question. It features the poster series of more than 35 paintings I’ve created for the Orlando Opera, and showcases not just the work but the line of thought that led up to each piece, including sketches and studies. The work is narrative and conceptual, with each painting telling the story of a specific opera in a succinct yet compelling way. Each spread features a synopsis of a particular opera, all of the background work that led to the final painting, and the “Creative Insight” section where I explain how the idea evolved.

This body of work was an opportunity to do more narrative paintings in a collected way. I love editorial art for its ability to tell stories, and this relationship with the Orlando Opera offered a chance to create an ongoing series of them – each connected to an art form that is all about story and drama, along with the stage and music.

The featured paintings have been a commercial success as well. Richard Kessler, the prominent businessman who is the benefactor and proud owner of all the paintings, is a fan as well, and shows the art in the gallery of his hotel. They’ve actually become a trademark icon of the hotel’s brand. “Larry is a very talented artist,” Richard says. “We are pleased that our Grand Bohemian Hotel displays the Opera Collection so many people can enjoy.”

Poster versions of the paintings are also popular, says Robert Swedberg, the opera’s general director. When they are displayed around town, “They don’t stand a chance of staying up. People like them so much they tend to ‘disappear.’” Still, even if we’re not sure where these artworks are ending up, at least now you can see where they started.

11×14,72 pages, soft bound. Designed by Jeff Matz of Lure Design
$50 or $60 signed plus shipping.

Buy the book here: <http://www.posterandprocess.com>

http://scotthull.com/artists/moore/

Client: RAZ Imports

Art director: Ken Row

Title of Project: “Bug Me” product line – Ladybug pattern

What was the creative challenge? The main challenge in licensing is trying to come up with a sellable idea that hits a broad range of tastes. Then you have to choose the right colors and produce it in a way that is flexible enough to be applied to a wide variety of materials and sizes – all while keeping it to a low price point. You also have to be able to turn around the art in a very fast-paced industry.

How did you resolve the challenge? The ladybugs pattern hit many of the sell points above. The theme is universally appealing. It’s happy, and a fitting launch for the summer garden decorating market. The colors fit the traditional red and black of ladybugs while adding a punch of lime green and orange.

Please give us insight into your creative process: In designing for the licensing industry, you are your own client in many ways. You have to be aware of the trends in the gift market. When I shop, I am always looking at what’s out there and, more specifically, what’s NOT out there. I go to the gift shows to see what manufacturers would be a good fit for my style, and look at the themes being sold. When I get back to my studio, I take all of that information and explore style, patterns and color with twists on themes.

The initial sales for the Ladybug line grossed more than $100,000.00 for RAZ.

http://www.scotthull.com/artists/ballard/

As a designer-turned-creative-entrepreneur, Scott Hull is well aware of the demands of creativity. Early on, he learned the ins and outs of the business, and realized he enjoyed assembling the right team to pull off a project as much as the hands-on designing part. This realization led to a new creative alliance serving other artists, art directors and designers, and over two decades later this group has grown to 25-plus exceptional artists and an equally talented management team. Thanks to Scott’s mastery of the networking system, he has connections all over the globe, in various stations of the commercial art world. And if he doesn’t know someone directly, he knows someone who does.

Call him an agent if you like (he’s a pretty easygoing fellow), but Scott carries business cards that read “Visual Ambassador,” and that’s how he introduces himself. Bestowed with this title years back by a friend, Scott discovered it fit him perfectly.

For 28 years now, Scott has looked beyond the traditional rep model, choosing artists not only for their distinctive styles but for their professional demeanor as well. All of the artists on Scott’s team exude professionalism. And in an art world of prima donnas, it’s a refreshing experience to work with artists who understand the concepts, produce on time, and genuinely love their work.

Scott is also an involved member of AIGA and American Association of Museums, and frequently acts as an advisor to colleges and universities and a contributor to such books as Fresh Ideas in Promotion, Artist’s and Graphic Design Market, and The Power of Logos.

CREATIVITY.

So I’ve been trying to understand how the creative process is affecting today’s businesses. What does it take, I wonder, to make the collaboration between creativity and corporate more fluid? To find out, I’m gleaning information from lots of websites and magazines like Harvard Business Review and Fast Company. It goes pretty quickly, though, because they are all saying the same thing: Old ideas aren’t working. “What we learned in business school is upside down and sideways,” they say. “Customers control the company, advertising is driving customers away, and demographics have less meaning.”

And sure enough, when IBM’s Institute for Business Value asked 1,500 chief executives to name the most important leadership competency for the successful enterprise of the future, the CEOs unanimously said “creativity”.

Frank Kern of IBM Global Business Services summed it up. “That’s creativity – not operational effectiveness, influence or even dedication,” he says. “Global complexity is the foremost issue confronting these CEOs and their enterprises.” Now, in the past creativity wasn’t viewed so much as an essential leadership asset, but more as just fuel for R&D. Not anymore. Today creativity must “permeate the enterprise,” he explains.

So what does this mean to agencies, design firms, and marketing groups? What about the illustrators, copywriters, and photographers? How is this big-business focus on creativity trickling down to us folks in the creativity-delivery business? I decided to ask a number of branding firms’ top creative executives to find out.

“What,” I asked them, “is the client expecting from you today?” The answers turned out to be our slogan.

Originality: CEOs have realized creativity isn’t “nice to have”; it’s necessary. At least if you want to reinvent your relationship with the customer. And you do – the current landscape is so template-based and commoditized, there’s rarely an emotional connection between businesses and the people they’re talking to. The estimates say one fifth of revenues will have to come from new sources; if you can’t unleash wealth, you have to create it.

Collaboration: As clients break from traditional, “here’s what we’ll do for the next decade” strategy planning and shift to rapid-fire fluidity that lets them adjust their business models on the fly, it’s more important than ever to have a relationship with a solid partner they can rely on.

Results: The shift in corporate culture is toward something far more transparent and entrepreneurial. Companies must emotionally engage the customer. The customer will reward the company’s ability to build a creative process with fluid business models, not absolute ones. As one creative executive put it, “The right visual combination creates insane loyalty.”

Bottom line, the more complex the world becomes, the more its leaders will value creativity. And today’s CEOs know it.

That’s why, at Scott Hull Associates, we deliver what every CEO wants – meaningful original art for companies that use visual branding to drive markets. And fortunately, with 18 acclaimed artists on our roster, creativity is never in short supply.

It’s amazing. Not only will my work be featured prominently in the Young Scientist Exhibit at the Yellowstone National Park, but I also got the pleasure of creating it during an incredibly eventful and interesting time in my own life. So while there were a lot of great things about this project, I’d say the greatest was the timing. Here’s how it happened: I was already on my way to go live with a close friend in Boston when I got word that Christopher Chadbourne and Associates, the design firm heading the Yellowstone project, was based there! I’d love to take credit for the synchronicity that happened there, but it remains a mystery that still makes me smile.

I remember the first phone call about the project, in the late summer of 2008. I proceeded to sit dumbfounded on a conference call with Scott and the project manager Ernesto Mendoza. The idea that I would be creating characters to be made into giant signs for the Young Scientist Exhibit at Yellowstone National Park was something I could not have predicted or imagined…it seemed so massive, so out of my league, so…perfect!

For the next year, I was on a giant high that even carried me all the way from my home of San Francisco to a place on the East Coast that I’ve always wanted to live. The project began in the early fall of 2009, a particularly scenic time to live in Boston. I would take long walks to the Christopher Chadbourne (CCA) office building and have face-to-face meetings about the work with Ernesto. Being there in person helped me recognize and solve visual problems much quicker, because they could be pointed out to me on the spot. I felt close to the project, and it made me feel so much more engaged. Of course, the whole walking-to-the-meeting thing was cut short by the onset of winter, but communications with Ernesto and CCA stayed strong, and thrived.

In the beginning stage of the character development, I referred to the mockups from CCA and reinterpreted the style to fit my own sensibilities. Once sketches were submitted, I would spend several rounds with Ernesto on the phone and via email. We would also plan additional face-to-face meetings about a week in advance, where we would have conference calls with the client. We discussed details about each character, we brainstormed and analyzed the positioning of the limbs, the facial expression, as well as the overall composition and background pieces. Every round felt closer than the last, and with Ernesto I was able to strike the perfect balance between my stylized tendencies and approachable, friendly-feeling elements.

Once sketches were client-approved, I was able to take them into Illustrator and lay down the vector linework. I was also briefed about how the layering and ordering of the vector file was crucial to the final manufactured product, since each sign was going to be made out of several layers of MDF. The color work was done using Pantone colors, a method which was rather unknown to me at the time. It was startling to see how different the colors looked onscreen. I know I had a few moments of doubt where I pictured the images being several feet tall and printed all sorts of goofy non-matching colors…ahhh, what a nightmare! However, once the images were printed out to check the real appearance of the color, my fears were eased.

After spending part of my time moving back from the East Coast to my home base of San Francisco, I resumed the last leg of the project by tweaking colors, and playing with the sizes and placement of background elements. The heavy lifting was indeed over! I still can’t even imagine how my work will look once it is in place at Yellowstone. It’s one thing to see it on a screen, and another to see it printed out, but to see it several feet tall and mounted on a wall? Now that’s a step up! I plan on being there in person at Yellowstone for the opening of the Young Scientist … besides, I always enjoy a good cross-country trip.