Creative Direction, Illustration, & Motion Design

The original concept for this one didn’t work out, but this rendition emerged as a happy accident while cleaning up in the studio sink (which is, incidentally, where all of these takes were filmed). The result is weird and amorphous — and if you know anything about experimental film (and MIX specifically), it’s totally on point.

This marks the first time a MIX branding project was conceptualized first as a native motion/video entity, as opposed to a static print concept (which is ridiculous if you think about it — it’s a film festival, after all). Most the the promotional materials were motion-based (video, gifs and projections), with still shots extracted for print and merch.

AfterEffects & Motion Design: Edgar Flores

Illustration & Design

The landmark ‘68 Olympic typography is nearly as ubiquitous in México as a Frida Kahlo tshirt. However, given that 2018 marks not only the 50th anniversary of Mexico City’s Olympic games, but also our designation as World Design Capital, the CDMX committee felt strongly about incorporating Lance Wyman’s trademark technique into the event branding.

The theme of the designation is Socially Responsible Design, and the programming centers around several related themes, including city identity, public spaces, mobility, and creating economic opportunity for Méxican artists. Not wanting to simply replicate Wyman’s technique in 2D typography, I tried to push it by applying it to 3-dimensional landmarks and cityscapes that represent the event themes.

Wyman’s trademark is beautiful, but it’s also a beast to execute. Nothing makes you respect another designer’s work more than attempting to replicate and expand upon it!

Creative Direction & Design

Design Week Mexico is a festival rooted in architecture and industrial design. As such, it seemed appropriate to explore design themes related to dimension, form, and space. The final solution pivots on the intentional distortion of typography, with letterforms that contour otherwise hidden structures and give the illusion of depth to a 2D surface.

The festival takes place across the city with several branded touchpoints, including a 300+ page directorio, exhibit and environmental design, merch, and digital media.

Research, UX, Interface Design

Petitions are an important organizing tool at Transportation Alternatives. Nearly every major organizing campaign had a petition component, and many of these lived online in a collection of disparate microsites.

Leading the design research, wireframing and UI aspects, I worked with the senior leadership, advocacy, and technology teams to build a digital tool that would unify all of our online campaigns under the Transportation Alternatives brand. campaigns.transalt.org unified, streamlined, and amplified our organizing efforts, and empowered our constituents to be creators of transportation advocacy, not just supporters.

Development: Arthur Hanna

Design and Materials Fabrication

I was asked to design the founders award for interACT (formerly Advocates for Informed Choice), the first organization to consider legal questions surrounding children with intersex traits, and to use the law to end harmful and disfiguring medical interventions on intersex children.

Anne laid much of the original groundwork for the organization from her home on Sonoma Mountain. Having worked closely with her on the logo and branding for the organization in 2006, I combined those original illustrations with her rustic base of operations into the concept.

The award was hand cut, sanded and stained from native Bay Laurel wood (taken surreptitiously from her wood pile) and combined with a 3D printed elevation map of Sonoma Mountain.

Special thanks to Thibault Leroy of Craftworks Mexico for his assistance with AutoCAD and MakerBot output.

Photographed in Anne’s garden by Doron Hovav.

Creative Direction, Print & Digital Design

No longer the scrappy* band of bicycle nerds they were in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, they needed their brand to speak to a range of constituents (cyclists and non-biking pedestrians) and reflect the highly diversified and intelligent "livable cities" organizers they've become.

Highlights of the branding include the incorporation of reflective ink and fabrics wherever possible (substituting silver and neons when it's not), and the cast of characters, based on the dot illustrations used in crosswalk signals

The project took over a year and included many touchpoints, including the usual stationary and collateral, a complete website overhaul, the launch of a new digital organizing platform TransAlt Campaigns, and the renovation and redesign of their new offices in the Financial District.

Graphic Designers:
J Oberman
Ron Morrison

Original logo design:
Doyle Partners

 

Art Direction & Logo Design

After working with her for years on the Advocates for Informed Choice brand, Anne asked me to draw the logo for her personal practice. She wanted something that blended conventional legal symbolism (civil rights, in particular) with her roots in Sonoma County as a “country lawyer.” The result is a discreet monogram that combines the rolling hills of the North Bay with the scales of justice, and keeps human rights at the center of everything.

1-color letterpressed stationary on Crane’s Lettra with turquoise edge painting.

Design, Illustration, Web

DO YOUR BUSINESS / MIND YOUR BUSINESS is a free guerrilla art campaign designed to increase bathroom safety for transgender and gender nonconforming people. Designed for easy distribution, the website supplies free downloads for use as stickers, posters, and social media sharing.

www.bathroom.support

Branding, Creative Direction, Story development/writing, Strategy

Tui Bian – or, 'transformation, becoming something greater than you were' – is an HIV intervention campaign targeting gay and bi men in Nanjing, China. Funded by the Chinese and US Centers for Disease Control, the campaign is a first of it's kind anywhere in China.

Background
Currently, HIV transmissions are on the rise, and the Chinese government has no culturally relevant information on HIV transmission, safer sex, and treatment. I worked with a small team of public health officials in the US and China to transform months of extensive Chinese gay/bi behavioural research into a visual communication strategy that targets homophobia and AIDS-related stigma, encourages regular HIV testing, and empowers young men with a sense of hope and community.

Graphic storytelling as a communication strategy
Fear, stigma, isolation, and homophobia – all emergent cofactors in HIV transmission – manifest literally as ghastly slime demons in urban China. The storylines detail how certain characters, all of who represent common themes in the research, overcome these obstacles, battle the monsters, and transform into superheroes with the power to transform the lives of others.

The campaign includes interactive and print components: an informational website, posters and comic booklets, and wearables like branded tshirts, underwear, and silicon bracelets (photos of wearables to come just as soon as they arrive via post).

Funding outlook
Our grant renewal, which was recently ranked in the top 5% of all similar grant proposals, is highly likely to be funded again. If so, the work will continue with new storylines and enhanced digital/social media components.

Phase I launched August 1, 2014.

Illustration: Ian Bertram
Web Development: Niknaz Tavakolian

Art Direction

Having recently undergone a major branding overhaul, the Garment District Alliance needed help translating their new look and feel to their digital presence. Using guidelines established by design partner Brand Union, we developed a visual and content strategy that reflects the energy, business diversity and lightning-fast growth in this historic NYC neighborhood.

Designed for Blenderbox.

Creative Direction & Design

Experimental film is full of hidden meaning. Quite often, plot and narrative are reflected back at odd and distorted angles; it's up to the viewer to determine the message. These were the driving themes behind the MIX26 branding.

I worked with art director and typographic illustrator Nim Ben Reuven to develop a system of broken letterforms that come together when reflected along a vertical axis. The result is a playful but cryptic and esoteric visual system that begs viewer participation via mylar tip-in. Secret messages abound!

Creative/Art Direction, UI and Visual Design 

The subjective, anomalous experience of experimental film is reflected in the 25th anniversary theme: Rorschach.

Typography and supporting graphics were created using a symmetrical ink blot technique, and incorporated into the responsive website, catalogue, posters, tshirts, and venue environment.

Art Direction, UI, Visual Design

When Halogen transitioned from a digital agency specializing in social media to a social tech startup, I took a leading role in developing the brand across key digital touch points.

The challenge was to develop a strong and energetic visual vocabulary that complemented but did not directly relate to the logo, which had fallen out of favor with the CEO. The solution employed color and simple patterns and pictograms to demystify social media strategy and tell the story of a young tech company's coming of age.

Logo Design: Director of Marketing

Social Media Strategy, Art Direction, UI and Visual Design

3M tapped Halogen to develop a social media driven microsite to promote their new line of colored and patterned duct tape. The site targeted young women DIY/crafters with a shareable quiz (a la Cosmo) that reveals projects that match user interests. DIYers could also submit their projects for inclusion and, if selected, win cash prizes and products. How-tos for each project are detailed, as are interactive tape rolls that allow the users to play with, mix and match tape swatches.

Concept, Design and Production

EXPERIMENTAL JETSET. Promotional posters for a workshop series given by the renown Dutch design studio. Concept plays on the studio's typographic work. Poster series includes 15 handmade posters and a larger sculptural piece for the main event.

Creative Direction, UX and Interaction Design

WHAT MAKES YOU STRONG? is an interaction based social media campaign combining projected messages and real-time SMS capabilities. The project responds to the one sided nature of print and web-based communication by enabling street level public dialogue on issues central to community health and wellness. The audience becomes the message maker by responding to messages (and ultimately eachother) in a public street-level environment.

Tech: Twilio API, MySQL (database), Processing
Physical Computing/Development: Niknaz Tavakolian and Mike Clemow

Creative/Art Direction, Strategy, Copywriting

GAYMETH.ORG was a multi-tiered crystal meth intervention. Our manifesto ran as a full page ad in the New York Times, and coupled with interactive and environmental strategies to form a comprehensive response to New York City’s meth problem. 

Photography: Leslie VanStelten

HOOKUPSURVEY.INFO utilizes interactive infographics to break down the complicated data compiled in this extensive public health research grant.

Development: Mike Wang and Miranda Li

Projections, Photography and Design

KINETIC TYPOGRAPHY developed for a presentation given on social marketing and the need for risk-taking in communication campaigns.

Creative Direction, UI and Visual Design

I teamed up with co-conspirator Tee Chomdej to write, edit and design this interactive zine exploring the lives of people with nocturnal chronotypes. Anthropological research compliments 20 on-the-street, 3AM interviews we conducted in exploring this unique perspective.

Photography, Art & Creative Direction: Tee Chomdej
Development: Mike Wang & Miranda Li

Creative/Art Direction, illustration

MY ARMS ARE TIRED is a handmade typeface developed for use in the Nocturnal Admissions interactive project. It was created using a flashlight and digital camera. All letterforms are 99% photoshop-free.

Photography: Tee Chomdej

Art Direction, Masthead and Book Design

Columbia approached me to redesign the masthead and layout of their renowned literary journal. The masthead is constructed with letterforms from a mixture of display and text faces. This treatment is carried through in the titles.

Work completed does not include fish logo.

Concept, Design and Screen Printing

BETWEEN THE FOLDS is a more conceptual alternative to the existing movie poster. The square format mimics origami paper and can be folded into traditional origami figures (instructions printed on reverse). Once folded, the white lettering yields a playful typographic texture.

Also pictured: process photographs and alternative designs

White ink screen printed on black folding paper.

Additional charicatures courtesy of Irwin Keller aka "Winnie"

Creative/Art Direction, Photography and Illustration

Branding for the 23rd annual MIX experimental film festival.

Creative/Art Direction, Logo and Illustrations, UI, and Information Architecture  

ADVOCATES FOR INFORMED CHOICE protects the rights of children with developmental differences who are vulnerable to medical negligence and malpractice. Original illustrations convey the caring, sensitivity and autonomy central to their mission.

Development: Niknaz Tavakolian

A little of this, a little of that...