Archive for the ‘Design’ Category

Portfolio Update

Sunday, August 9th, 2009

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

Harlem Shakes Tour Poster

Tuesday, February 10th, 2009

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 18×24, 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

Link Love

Monday, January 12th, 2009

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

Pepsi

Thursday, October 23rd, 2008

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

Portfolio Post Up – Part 2

Saturday, September 20th, 2008

As promised, I uploaded more new work to the Print portfolio today. Just posted a new postcard for Bizarre Foods and some type concepts done for a Anthony Bourdain break erosion spot.

Enjoy

Portfolio Post Up

Monday, September 15th, 2008

Just posted up some new pieces of work that I’ve been working on since joining the Travel Channel, in the logo and collateral sections under the Print tab. It’s been fun to work on new and upcoming show promotion and getting to know the brand at a deeper level. A couple more pieces will be added in the coming days.

On the freelance front, working on a complete business system for a furniture business, as well as lining up a couple of web sites and CD packaging projects. Will share as the work is completed.

Blast From the Past or Remember That One Site That Never Updates Their Crap?

Wednesday, August 20th, 2008

Remember back in the day…say 2000…when every morning you would go to check out your favorite design sites, among them being Surfstation? Somehow tonight I drifted over to surfstation.lu after years since I last checked in and found myself redirected to surfstation.com. After some 4 or 5 years (lost track actually) of no real meaty content updates, I was surprised to see they’ve scaled back the site to what they did best—pulling some great design portfolios out of the web and giving us all a one stop shop for inspiration.

Gone are the self-important collages and obnoxious patters in the background. In scaling the site back, it seems they’ve even squeezed out the pretentiousness (including that .lu address!), of which the last site reeked. Its been replaced with a very eye-pleasing, gentle blog format that feels very graceful to read through. Another great feature they’ve included are photos of the sites featured, so you know what you’re getting into before clicking.

After that inital rush of nostalgia washed over me, I decided to check out another old favorite, Design is Kinky. Yes, I have been lackadaisical about keeping up with all of these Web 2.0 redesigns, thank you. It’s what happens when you get a full time job. Again, another good redesign that focuses on the talent, cutting all the fat of the old site. After a good portion of the evening spent with these two sites, I’m glad to have checked back in to get refreshed with a look at some up and coming design.

Guys, its good to be back.

www.surfstation.com
www.designiskinky.com

Now listening to: No Age – Weirdo Rippers  

Semmering Studios Dot Com

Tuesday, June 24th, 2008

Semmering Studios Dot Com

Sapitot Creative is proud to announce the launch of the Semmering Studios website, version 1.0. Semmering is a photography studio based in Kansas City, run by Sionnie LaFollette, wife of another Sapitot client, Mr. Khorky Custer Khrusty himself (pictured above in all his gold glory)! Granted, this version is a very small mini-site at the moment, but further development into a full portfolio site will occur in the near future. Many thanks to Brian Schilt for his outstanding coding work, excellent job as always!

You can check out the beginnings of the site here, www.semmeringstudios.com

Currently listening to: Sigur Rós – með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust

Greensburg Ekit

Saturday, May 17th, 2008

greensburg photo

I just posted one of the last projects I worked on at Discovery, an ekit design for Planet Green’s new show Greensburg, into the web portfolio of the Sapitot site. The show, produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, documents the rebuilding of Greensburg, KS after being completely destroyed by an F5 tornado into a totally “green” city. The premise seems pretty interesting. Make sure to tune in, the show starts in mid June.

Now Playing: PlayRadioPlay! – Texas

Portfolio Catch Up

Saturday, March 29th, 2008

Finally caught the portfolio up to the present time, with all the new work I’ve been doing the past 6 months. Just added a couple new logos and new ad concepting series.

Life will also start spinning up with Sapitot Records soon, as Kyle just announced he is returning to the studio in April to start recording his second full length…with a twist. It’s going to be a Christmas album. He’s posted some details on his BLOG.