Recent Project: Hickman County Education Association

Recently I have been working with Steven Lassan in helping build a website for the Hickman County Education Association. My role was mainly visual enhancements, however the most of the work was completed by Steven Lassan.

You can click the image above to be redirected to the live site.

Thank you to Mrs. Ella Lassan and the Hickman County Education Association for allowing me the opportunity to work on this site.

Announcement In Paper: July 22, 2008

I just wanted to quickly share with you a recent announcement in the paper. I don't like to brag, but this is fourth time I have achieved Dean's List honors at Austin Peay State University and I have maintained Dean's List honors my entire time at APSU with a 4.0 GPA.

This announcement was published in the Fairview Observer on July 22, 2008.

Recent Design: Hypoderm, Inc.

I have recently become a partner in a new medical sales and supply company, Hypoderm Inc, and my job is to do all the graphic design and web design for the company, as well as all marketing and advertising.

Here is a quick glimps of the temporary site I designed to start to gain some type of web presents online. If you click the image it will take you to the actual site.

I would love to hear what you think!

Current Project: Signature Finishes Website

My most recent one is Signature Finishes website. It features HTML and CSS coding, with two flash slide show galleries. The website will focus on providing information about the different faux finishing, mural, and decorative painting techniques that they offer. One gallery will display rooms in which a technique was used, and the other gallery will give you examples of finishes that they offer.

This very sleek and elegant site design is very much appropriate to the business and the industry in which they are in. Giving that very contemporary feeling with the black and grey, with pops of color helps shift focus from the background, to the artwork that is centrally located. A plus to this design is that it will not easily nor quickly go out of date.

You can click the image above to be redirected to the test drive of the site in action. Please keep in mind that this site is still being built and tweeked so if something is not working or displaying properly, it will be fixed.

I also want to again thank Signature Finishes for giving me the wonderful opportunity to help construct and develop a powerful marketing tool for her business. I hope that it will become an asset to her business, and allow for growth and coverage in her industry.

Coming Soon...

The more I do graphic design and web design work for my clients, the more I am enjoying creating an entire identity for that company. A corporate identity is the entire look of a company using graphic elements to create unity within the many collateral pieces that a company uses. What I enjoy the most is coming up with a unique logo, and expanding that logo to go to every aspect of the business, such as business cards, websites, stationary, etc.

So what I have decided to start doing is Case Studies. This way you can see how an identity can go in any type of direction, but yet see how they are all connected and how well they flow together.

I will have a link on my portfolio page to see how the case studies look, and in a slideshow format so that you can view them easily.

So Why Hire A Graphic Designer?

So why is it important to hire a graphic designer to help you get your ideas on paper?

I work at Executive Printing, INC where I constantly work with files that clients give that already have their logos that they made or already created their brochure in a program such as Microsoft Word or Publisher. These files that clients make on their computers are fine when they are wanting to print them on their printer or use them in limited web applications, however, they do not work when needed in any other format.

Whether you hire a designer at a printing company or hire them freelance, you are hiring them to make your ideas and the files that you have already to where if you wanted them printed on business cards, or anything else, they come out with the highest, professional quality that you intended for your ideas. Graphic designers and web designers alike know how to take your ideas and your files, and make them ready for either commercial printing or web design. Typically a graphic designer will know a little about web design, or a web designer will know a little about graphic design, or you can get lucky and find a designer that knows the ends and outs of both, which is always best when trying to come up with an identity that you want in print and web form.

So why hire a designer to professionally render your files? Graphic designers have software that they use to create your artwork in vectors--a mathematical line or path that allows for accurate sizing and scaling of artwork, so that the artwork does not loose it's crispness (for more on vectors, please read this)--allowing for better graphics, especially in printing. If you don't take the time to hire and pay a designer to go ahead and do it right the first time, you could have alot of time invested in your brochure, and find out that when it gets printed, its either going to look like crud, or you will have to pay alot more than you intended to get it fixed.

Web designers will know the best quality of image to put on the web. You would hate to have your beautiful picture you tool look pixelated once it goes live. Web designers know how a computer screen works and how to set up images on your site to look the best, and use the less amount of server space.

Even though this is a little bias, it is typically in the best interest to find a graphic designer that does web design as well, so you can find a nice cohesiveness to your projects. Even though it might look good on the screen, it might not look all that good when you take it to print.

Current Project: Signature Finishes

Part of the reason that I decided to start a blog on my website is to have a place for news and events. I also want it to be a place where you can see what I am currently working on.

I am in the works of creating a simple Identity for Signature Finishes. As you can see above, we have successfully completed the logo stage of the identity. A website and stationary system will add to the Identity.

I also want to take the time to thank Signature Finishes for giving me the wonderful opportunity to help create an identity for her, and I hope once the process is completed that it will bring her a lot of business and will help grow her business.