It's getting close to the '08 HOW Design Conference and as most HOWies that attended last year's conference know, I designed a T-shirt just for them. Well this year is of no exception. Similar to last year, I have put up a few concepts to let the HOWies decide which design they prefer.

This year since the conference is in Boston, I decided to do a concept based on the package design of Boston Baked Beans candy.

Here is concept 1:




This is concept 2:




Once the HOWies reach consensus on the design, I will post the finished Tees on my Cafe press site.

Labels: graphic design, HOW Forum

While doing some research online, I discovered a project referred to as "Panopticons."

What is Panopticons?

According to a Wikipedia post, 'Panopticons' is an arts and regeneration project of East Lancashire Environmental Arts Network. It involved the construction of series of 21st-century landmarks, or Panopticons (structures providing a comprehensive view), across East Lancashire, England, as symbols of the renaissance of the area.

One of four pieces installed is the Singing Ringing Tree, a musical sculpture overlooking a large town in the borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England. It was designed by architects Mike Tonkin and Anna Liu of Tonkin Liu and constructed from pipes of galvanised steel. Singing Ringing Tree was launched by the Mayor of Burnley, Councillor Mohammad Najib, JP, and designers Mike Tonkin and Anna Liu on December 14, 2006.

The best way to experience the piece is to see it and hear it. I'm sure its even more dynamic in person.

Labels: Art, Personal, YouTube

HOWiezine 11 - Alpahabet - STEP-BY-STEP

Turning on the Heat
When the topic for HZ-11 was announced I went into panic mode. How can I come up with a strong concept around the Roman Alphabet, or any other phonetic character system? I have always struggled when it came to doing projects that required the concept to be communicated through the use of type only. So this challenge truly had me shaking in my Steve Maddens.

I Initially came up with a concept to visually portray the NATO Phonetic Alphabet employing simple icons, but once I got to "J" or "Juliet," the concept became rather cumbersome. Below is a sample of my haphazard attempt.



The Recipe
I was at a point where I was contemplating to just bow out of this one. But the shame of quitting overcame my feelings of inadequacy to develop the concept. Then while shopping at the grocery store one evening, I noticed a can of Alphabet Soup. The light bulb immediately burned bright and I impulsively bought the soup in hopes of developing something fun.

I know. I know. It's been done before, but I haven't ever done it, so to me, it was a new and fun experience. Besides, I got to eat my design once it was completed. And a nutritious composition it was, I might add.

Ingredients
While playing with my soup, I discovered that the alphabet noodles weren't buoyant enough to stay on the surface. When I would bring a few characters to the top, they would slowly drift back down to the bottom of the opaque broth. This wasn't going to work.

To solve this problem, I had to create an environment that would allow me to achieve the result I was looking for. To do this, I used a small paper plate filled with soup broth. To ensure I had enough characters to spell out the necessary words, I also had to cook up some additional alphabets. I then one-by-one, selected the characters I needed from a small sauce pan filled with eatable type using long forceps. Here we see the plate filled with alphabets in a small amount of broth.

Another problem I had to overcome was with the spoon. I wanted the spoon to appear to be floating on the broth as well. The stainless steel spoon was too heavy. I had to find something that I could place in the soup to prop the spoon up without it slipping off. I discovered that a small pencil sharpener I had laying on my desk worked perfectly. I washed it, I washed it! Once the spoon was propped up to my liking, I had to place a small amount of broth into it and then populate it with the alphabet noodles.

Now comes time to shoot the various elements I have created, bring them into photoshop, and finalize the concept.

The first step was to bring in the bowl of soup with the spoon and adjust the image to suit my desire. After tweaking image 1, that is what we will call it, I then opened image 2 - the paper plate composition. Using the elliptical selection tool, I draw a circle around the area I want bring into image 1.



The next step is pasting the selected area of image 2 into image 1 and scaling it down to fit the proportions of the bowl. I then use the eraser tool to blend the outer edges and remove the area covering the spoon and some of the veggies in the soup. I also use a layer mask to apply a gradient mask which gives some of the elements an appearance of being submerged in the broth.

Next, I adjust color and saturation to blend the layer into the original image and make it more believable. In this example you can see I am adjusting the yellows in the image.



Once I have the alphabet noodle layer adjusted to my satisfaction, I flatten the image, do some additional channel adjustments, and crop the image down to the final size for printing. The finished size is 7"x7".



Let it Simmer
Here is a view of all the elements that were involved in the process.



Add Crackers
Here are samples of the finished pages:





What is a HOWiezine?
According to the site, HOWiezine is a limited edition, handmade collaborative book project created by HOW forum members, also known as HOWies. There is a theme and participants create two pages based on their interpretation of that theme. Only participants are eligible to receive a copy of the HOWiezine, and when they're gone, they're gone.

If you would like to get in touch with me with questions or comments, please visit my profile and send me an email.

Labels: Experimental Work, graphic design, HOWiezine, Tutorial

A very good friend of mine, John McDowell, has started a blog of his own titled, "Air Force Scrapbook".

John is a retired USAF Photojournalist after spending over 20 years in the Air Force shooting thousands of images portraying the daily lives of Airman. I had the distinguished pleasure of working with John in the mid 1990s for nearly four years at Airman Magazine while I was assigned to the publication as an assistant art director. John and I shared many projects together and he was one of the best photographers to work with. John was open and receptive to art direction and was awarded the Military Photojournalist of the Year for 1995. The competition included more than 120 military photographers and photojournalists and more than 800 entries in nine still and six video categories. John had also earned first place in the pictorial category in previous year's competition.

Now John is presenting some of his best archived work on his blog to share with the world. Here are a few samples of his work:

B-52 Bombers Retired to the AMARC Bone Yard in Arizona. These aircraft were sliced up into small pieces as part of the START II treaty.


USAF Pilot, Major Jimmy Robins, takes the F-106 Delta Dart for its last flight.


An E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft from Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., flies a mission in 1990.

This is just a small taste of what is to come on John's blog. So when you have the opportunity, check out his online photo collection. You won't be disappointed.

Thanks for the memories John, and thanks for opening up your archives to share with the World.

Labels: Personal, Photography