I just want to say that I got lots of great feedback from friends and strangers regarding the redesign of my portfolio site. And thanks to all of you for it.

The two biggest issues (and I whole-heartedly agree):

1. The logo was weak and didn’t fit in.
2. The italic typeface didn’t read well in longer chunks.

So, instead of spending days on a logo treatment, I just put my name up in big, simple VAG Rounded Bold. And I used it for any type that was living on a white ground. I think things got balanced out with the change. Feeling better about it now, at least from the side of legibility.

Ta-da!

Yesterday, I was trying to unload the charge of my (now old) MacBook Pro, in an effort to calibrate it. I thought, what better way to kill the battery than to open up Netflix Watch Instantly, pump up the volume (or the jam), and jack the display brightness as high as it would go. Movie of choice: Helvetica.

I was drawn into the interview at the beginning with Wim Crouwel and his description of his use of the grid. The man is absolutely masterful using the grid as a constraint and rule system — and exploiting the hell out of it.

Inspired, I decided to continue playing with that word pair “Hyper Violent“.

Also, my first time using the new Illustrator CS4…

On my new 15″ MacBook Pro…

On a news podcast, I recently heard the term “hyper violent” used. It really stuck in my head.

Tonight, I didn’t know what to draw — my mind still wrapped up in the back-end of a secret project — so I went toward that phrase. Then I just let it flow. I think I might actually go back into this one and keep working on it.

Or maybe I won’t.

Jeez, someone get me away from the computer. I seriously have no idea what I’m doing.

I’m not shooting for anything big. I just want a one-page portfolio site for myself. Something very, very simple. I’ve been meaning to do this for ages. So, while I flounder with the Flow project, I’m re-branding myself and my main web site.

This treatment of my name isn’t too over-the-top (hopefully) and is absolutely inspired by the lovely hand-made type treatments of Si Scott. I’ll be correcting and modifying a lot of those curves once I get it into Illustrator.

UPDATE (01-03-2009 6:07PM):

I went ahead and simplified. Like I said, I didn’t want it to be too over-the-top. Something clean with some character.

I’ve been noodling with drawing some typography with linear textures inside. The story behind the chosen sentence is this:

I was looking for something figurative to draw. I searched through the latest Guardian at a coffee shop. Got all the way to the back without finding anything — except for the “sexy” ads. Apparently, if you’re a transvestite, it’s a favorable thing to be “fully functional”.

Disclaimer: In no way does this sketch imply that I am a transvestite. Or fully functional.

Taking the typeface from a couple days ago and merging with the original sketch comp of the bear in a puddle, I’ve colored and created this general identity / mood board for the Cordial Avoidance label.

Definitely still needs some work. I need to continue to think about how this translates to web / web typefaces / interactive elements. Since this will likely never result in tangible artifacts (i.e. print collateral), I can definitely keep web top of mind.

Today I realized that I was a bit behind on the development of the Cordial Avoidance identity. It was time to formalize the typeface sketch that I had done a couple days ago. I wanted to make this typeface hand-drawn but not too loose, so I used some graph paper created from a great PDF grid generator (via 43folders wiki). Here’s a shot of the drawing on the lightboard:

So, I’m still toying around with ideas. I want serene. I want nearly baren. And I want to start playing with typography considering how bad I am at it. Oh how I wish I started things off in the Graphic Design department at SCAD.

Anyway. Gothic faces. Gothic is what I’m thinking.