Portfolio Additions

14Aug2011

Since last updating this blog, I added a couple of pieces to the portfolio that I designed earlier this year, the Travel Channel Summer Detour NYC subway wrap and the Man v. Food Nation Press Kit. I believe the subway wrap is now off the subway, but was fortunate to have one of my co-workers film the inside of a car for those who couldn't experience it in person. You can check out the video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak6hq4WSz6I

I also added another piece to the Bourdain Cuba Campaign, a takeover design of the travelchannel.com page.

That's all for now! Cheers!

The Blog Is Alive!

27Jul2011

Welcome to the new-ish sapitot.com! The basic framework of the site has been up for over 7 months now, but with the addition of this blog, it completes the renovation for the time being. A HUGE "Thank You!!" to great friend Brian Schilt (@bschilt) for the coding and back end work. Without you, this would have never gotten off the ground.

In the spirit of simplification, instead of having a separate news section on this site, this new blog will do double time to cover any relevant career or site news as well as serving as a conduit for my more rambling posts, which will more than likely have to do with music, design and/or my ongoing love of bacon, sometimes at the same time. I hope to keep this blog going a lot more regularly that I have in the past. You can see below, it died a slow death a long time ago.

To give you a little background on the site design in general, I wanted to answer to the comments that I've gotten about this site being very bare bones and structured, as opposed to my work, which tends to be very layered and organic. Going back to my last design, I felt the need to really push the portfolio pieces to the forefront with this site, with my main goal to let the work speak for itself, letting the the pieces really shine without distraction of the site shell. In addition to cleaning up the shell, I’ve also tried to simplify the navigation to an instinctive structure that allows you to get anywhere within the site with just a couple of clicks. Simplicity is something I'm really searching for in my concepts and layouts nowadays. By pushing the thumbnails to the index page, I’m hoping to give the viewer access to the most desirable content immediately upon loading the site.

I hope you take some time to look around and enjoy the work as much as I enjoyed creating it. Based on the portfolio samples, you can probably tell I’m currently a lead designer at Travel Channel where I’ve worked for the past 3 and a half years. I also do a small amount of freelance work on the side when time and sanity allows. You can also follow my exploits on Twitter (@sapitot), which is very conducive to small blasts of spontaneous thoughts that I normally have.

I’m currently prepping a few new projects to be placed in the site, including some pieces from the Man v. Food Nation campaign and Travel Channel’s Summer Detour campaign. You can currently see a large piece of the Summer Detour campaign by riding the NY subway wrapped shuttle on the Manhattan S Line. Hurry, it’s only up until Aug 11! Here’s a video preview of the exterior (although the interior is the really cool part) for those who aren’t able to make the journey.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCu2W5eJgnI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLSD0gR-5uo&NR=1

Sapitot Now Twittering

13Sep2009

You can now follow Sapitot on Twitter! Promise you'll never see what I've had for lunch. twitter.com/sapitot

Portfolio Update

9Aug2009

If you hadn't noticed, I updated the Sapitot portfolio with a couple of new pieces last week. First up is Mike Grutka's charming new album, Ria. This is the 3rd CD design in as many releases I've done for Mike. The challenge for this project was bringing the large amount of photos that Mike provided me of himself and locations in and around his home of Saratoga Springs, NY into a cohesive design. I used a moire pattern and bright, bold colors to give all the photos a common theme and thread throughout the digipack and 8 page booklet. The cover is below - you can view the rest of it in the Sapitot portfolio. We're both really happy with how it turned out.

Mike Grutka - Ria album cover

If you haven't checked out Mike's tunes before, this is a good release to start on. Ria is easily his most experimental, yet still poppy album and it has been on constant rotation on my iPod ever since he sent it to me. It's available for digital download on his site now (mikegrutka.com) and the CD should be returning from the manufacturer in the coming week or so. Another project still in the works is a logo/branding job I'm working on for Haute Dog Bows, an Arizona-based dog bow business who is looking for an upscale and girly look. Below is the logo created for them, along with the business card system. Next up is a dynamic, shopping cart enabled website. Stay tuned.

haute dog logo and business cards

Poster in a Video

3Jul2009

Wow, long time no blog. I was doing pretty well with this, up until the past 6 months. Will catch everyone up to speed eventually. Anyway, the reason for this post...Harlem Shakes recently shot a very clever video for their crazy catchy song "Strictly Game". If you've ever watched a pirated song on YouTube, you'll totally get the parody concept. Quite genius and hilarious too. Keep your eyes peeled at around the 2 minute mark for a Sapitot contribution to the video. Came as a total surprise when I watched it for the first time. Kind of cool, cheggit out below. Harlem Shakes - Strictly Game Video I'll be making some updates to this site soon, have a couple of new projects in the works that I'm excited to share.

Harlem Shakes Tour Poster

10Feb2009

The Harlem Shakes approached me about doing a new tour poster for their upcoming tour with Tokyo Police Club and I was more than happy to oblige. Drawing themes from their upcoming first LP artwork, Technicolor Health, this is the end product. The print is 18x24, with 4 screens. Two versions are being printed of this design, one for sale while they are with TPC and one for when they head out on their own for a few weeks.

They also graciously gave me the LP in its entirety, and let me tell you, it's ridiculously good...you'll be hard pressed to get any of the hooks out of your head, just a fantastic CD. They seem to have tapped into the zeitgeist of the new presidential era, and will be soundtracking the foreseeable future for me. I'll be very surprised if this doesn't get quite a bit of buzz in the indie-sphere.

Harlem Shakes/Tokyo Police Club Tour Poster

A few copies will be on sale here on Sapitot in a few weeks, or even better, pick up one when they come near your home town.

For more tour information, visit harlemshakes.com

uniquecss.com

8Feb2009

For the month of February, Sapitot is being featured in a poll for "site of the month" at Unique CSS. Head over to uniquecss.com and help vote us to the top!

Link Love

12Jan2009

Sapitot has recently been getting some link love from the world's CSS aggregate sites. Below are links to sites that are featuring Sapitot. Thought I would return the favor and give them a link back. Check out these great sources of inspiration.
luvthatdesign.com - Sapitot is a featured site!
my3w.org
cssburst.com
foliostars.net
quandtnet.de
rgbgarden.com
csscount.com
css-design-yorkshire.com
bestcssdesign.com
cssstar.com
mabucplus.com
css-imagine.com
csscookie.com
pixelcss.es
yoursiteisvalid.com
csssnap.com
onecss.com
cssblaze.com
cssseason.com
styletheweb.com
csspig.com

AOTY 2008 List

2Jan2009

A little late, but like any music geek, I've got to make a list. Here are the albums that soundtracked my 2008 (in no particular order).
23. TV on the Radio - Dear Science
22. The Streets - Everything is Borrowed
21. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
20. REM - Accelerate
19. M83 - Saturday=Youth
18. Kanye West - 808s and Heartbreak
17. Sigur Ros - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
16. Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs
15. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
14. Arms - Kids Aflame
13. The Notwist - The Devil, You + Me
12. Nada Surf - Lucky
11. Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride
10. The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound
9. Ray LaMontagne - Gossip in the Grain
8. Q-Tip - The Renaissance
7. Atmosphere - When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold
6. Conor Oberst - Conner Oberst
5. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
4. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
3. The Black Keys - Attack and Release
2. Okkervil River - The Stand Ins
1. Cut/Copy - In Ghost Colors

Pepsi

23Oct2008

Pepsi, Mountain Dew and Gatorade are redesigning their logos and bottles. I'm interested to see where this new direction takes the company. http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/pepsi_new_bottles.php If you haven't been to Brand New before, it's an excellent blog that documents companies who are rebranding, by giving before and after shots of old and new logos. Great source of inspiration. Now playing: Underoath - Lost in the Sound of Separation

Everything is Borrowed

14Sep2008

Seriously can't wait to get my hands on this album. Judging from the previews on MySpace, it has the potential to return the Streets to the great lyrical work and sentimentality of Original Pirate Material and A Grand Don't Come For Free. Haven't stopped listening to the preview songs since they were posted last week!

The Streets - Everything is Borrowed Album Cover

Album comes out October 7th.

Kids Aflame

11Jun2008

I've had the distinct pleasure of being able to sit with Arms' new record, Kids Aflame, for the past couple of months ahead of its release in late June, and I can hardly thank Todd Goldstein enough. I feel like I've had a good amount of time to digest the complete work of art and I can honestly say that this is perhaps one of my favorite records of recent memory. I'm not just saying this because Todd is a friend, or that I'm trying to hype a record from a client. It is simply a great indie pop album, with hooks galore and enough quirks to keep things from getting too saccharine sweet. Take a listen to the classic guitar hook in Whirring (how has that riff never been written before?) and the slow build of a lone guitar to a symphony of synths and disco beats on Shitty Little Disco. One of my favorite tracks, Pocket, starts out as a typical indie rock song before climaxing midway with a chorus of barn burning, jazzy horns.

Arms, Kids Aflame CD cover

I can't imagine a better musical companion for the come-down drive home after a night out in the big city. The combination of sentimentality, sadness and hopefulness that the lyrics and music manage to juggle is exquisite. Arms soundtracked my summer back in 2005 when I first randomly happened upon his music on myspace, and I have no doubt that the expanded songs on this debut will continue that tradition. I absolutely cannot wait to hear what Todd does next...which should be the new Harlem Shakes disc, so thankfully the wait will not be long. Apparently the album is already available on iTunes, so cheggit out. www.armsarms.com www.myspace.com/armsongs

It's Our Time

3Jun2008

June 3rd, 2008. What a wonderful day for our country and our history. Thank you America. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/03/obamas-nomination-victory_n_105028.html

Accelerate Your Life

26Mar2008

Just got done streaming the new REM CD, Accelerate, (which you can too...just go to iLike) and I'm now officially excited for the release next Tuesday. I'm very pleased to hear one of my favorite bands of all time roar back to life. After several albums of more downtrodden, subdued, and meandering rock, the group has returned to form (not that I hated those albums, they just didn't sound like they were giving it their all). The opening riff of Living Well Is the Best Revenge recalls the live feeling of one of my favorite albums from them (and the very underappreciated), New Adventures in Hi-Fi. Stipe has returned to his pointed, freewheeling lyrical ways again, and is sporting a tone that is starting to get more gravelly as he ages. I like that! Mike Mills' bass lines are alive once again and fun to listen to on their own right. He's also back to the backing vocals that compliment Stipe in the very best way. Peter Buck is rocking like he hasn't since the mid-90s, with Monster and the aforementioned New Adventures. Much like Pearl Jam's last album, it seems that at the very least, the current president and his administration are very capable of inspiring some great new, politically-charged music out of bands that many have written off. Pick up Accelerate this Tuesday, April 1st.

Weekend Rally

10Feb2008

On the eve of the Virginia primaries, I was fortunate to secure tickets this weekend to see Sen. Barack Obama speak at a town hall in Alexandria, VA. I have to say, it was a site to behold. We arrived over an hour before the doors were scheduled to open and were greeted by a line of at least a thousand people ahead of us. The news reports definitely have it right, there were whites, blacks, Hispanics and Asians, running the gamut from very young to the elderly, from those that were obviously well off to those who looked to just be getting by. He truly has support from all walks of life. After standing in line for over an hour and the line probably doubling in length behind us (along with dropping temperatures), we were efficiently moved through the lines to the high school gymnasium. From then, we probably sat for another hour. Obama was running late, but at no time did I hear people complaining. Everyone was excited to be there and the crowd was electrified, entertaining themselves with cheering and doing the wave. Once Obama stepped out into the crowd, the place exploded in cheers. After taking an introduction from Gov. Tim Kaine and a testimonial from a Hispanic mother, he went into his stump speech, frequently interrupted by applause, but also got into specific details of his plans. He also took at least 30 minutes worth of questions from the crowd, showing his wide knowledge of world issues, tackling problems in Africa, school funding, and bridging the bi-partisan gap. In one of the more touching moments, an undecided immigrant voter asked him why she she vote for him saying she was torn between her husband's choice of Hillary and her son's admiration of Obama. He brought her 9 year old son on stage for a photo op and then in reply, he took 10 minutes to sell himself, showing he cared enough for this one woman's vote as if her vote was the only one that matters. From the look on the woman's face after his answer, I think she's voting Obama.

Obama Rally

I'm proud to have a candidate that I am proud to support. This has been the first time I have felt not only interested, but engaged in the political process, and in 2 day's time I'm going to my polling place with a sense of dignity in my choice, not just a decision of the lesser evil.