Yesterday, a project I’ve been keeping under wraps for months was finally revealed. It’s a Super 8 camera iPhone app, which is a tie-in to the J.J. Abrams/Steven Spielberg Super 8 movie, coming out this summer. I worked on the project for QMx, coming up with the concept for the app and designing the core user interface. I then handed it off to my friend and colleague Mohammed “Hawk” Haque, who took my initial designs, polished them up, and got the app ready for primetime.

One of things I’m most proud of is the photorealistic lens I designed from scratch. As soon as I get a chance, I’ll put together a detailed tutorial on this, but in the meantime, here’s an animation of the steps I used to create it.

I couldn’t be more thrilled at how the app turned out, and it’s getting rave reviews from people, many of whom are mentioning how much they love the design, which makes me so happy!

Three of my greatest passions in this world are Star Wars, Disneyland, and poster design.  So when I heard that Disneyland had released the poster for the upcoming grand opening of the newly-renovated Star Tours attraction, I got really excited. After all, the travel posters for Endor and Bespin and Yavin IV were my first inspiration for the Serenity travel posters.

But then, I saw the new poster.

Hmm.

Well.

That’s … interesting.

The more I looked at it, the more it grated at me. My knee-jerk reaction was to tweet, “With Disneyland’s long history of fantastic posters, *this* is what they came up with for Star Tours 2?” I was just so irritated by it. Then someone asked me, “Aside from the type (which needs help) what specifically is wrong with it?” They went on to say that they weren’t disagreeing with me, but wanted to know why it is that the poster didn’t work for me.

It was a good question, and one I wanted to explore a little more. Why did I have such a viscerally negative reaction to the poster?

The first conclusion I came to was that it was overly pedestrian and uninspired, compared to the brilliant posters that Disneyland has produced over the last half century. (Wikipedia has a great archive, here.) But that only explained half of it. It didn’t address why the new poster didn’t measure up to the previous gems.

After thinking about it some more, I realized that the poster was trying to do too much, and succeeding at little. And it was failing to do the one thing that all great posters do: Tell a story in pictures. Regardless of style, or time period, or complexity of design, every memorable poster tells a brief picture story, leading your eye from beginning to end, and, hopefully, selling you something along the way.

In that spirit, let me explain what I mean, using pictures.

Example 1: Classic Disneyland Poster

Starting at the top of the piece, the poster tells you that the Peoplemover is “tomorrow’s transportation … today!” Then, once you reach the end of the text, your eye finds the large, colorful image of the Peoplemover, with its happy families enjoying their futuristic ride.

The art tapers and snakes its way down the page, telling you that there’s probably lots to see on this decently long ride. (And, of course, since this was from the days where you paid with a ticket to get on each ride, a longer ride meant more bang for your buck.)

Finally, following the serpentine path established by the rest of the poster, your eye is drawn to the Disneyland branding at the bottom of the piece, creating a neat bookend, and leaving no doubt as to where this ride lives.

Example 2: Drew Struzan Star Wars Poster

It’s clear from the color composition and the placement of elements on the page that the new Star Tours poster was inspired, at least in part, by the art of Drew Struzan. Struzan is a master of movie poster design, and has worked on countless iconic posters, including Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future,  and Blade Runner. His often-imitated style tends to be filled with lots of separate elements and a frenetic energy that seems almost haphazard. But when you take a closer look, you see that Struzan, like the artist who created the Peoplemover poster, is also telling a linear story, guiding the viewer from top to bottom in a systematic way.

Starting at the top, you learn that this poster is advertising the Special Edition of Star Wars [Han shot first. -Ed.] Then your eye is drawn to the first of four portraits, whose diminishing size, angle and placement naturally guide you through the composition. Notice that Leia is looking to the left, in keeping with the flow of the poster. Luke, however, is looking forward, which stops the viewer’s eye movement, allowing it to be caught again by the portrait of Obi Wan below him. Obi Wan then leads to the Star Wars logo, and the X- and Y-wing fighters come swooping down from that. Each character is placed next to someone they’re logically connected to: Han and Leia’s romantic tension; Leia and her knight in shining armor, Luke; Luke and his mentor, Obi Wan; and all of them surrounded (but not overshadowed) by the conflict that underlies the story.

Unlike the Peoplemover piece, there isn’t one unbroken path for the eye to follow; the X-wing battle in the center of the piece cuts across the composition. But this is done to give the piece energy and conflict, and is done very deliberately. Also, it is the only element of the design that does break the flow, making it stand out in the overall composition.

Example 3: Star Tours 2 Poster

The entry point for the new Star Tours poster is a faded visage of Darth Vader. Unfortunately, it’s so faded that I didn’t even notice it the first time. From there, my eye just isn’t sure what to go to next. The energy and action of Struzan’s work is here, but the narrative isn’t. There’s no flow. There are too many dead ends and tangents, and it’s impossible to interpret how any one piece of the puzzle relates to another.  You get that the starspeeder is the central “character” because of its prominence, but beyond a lot of laser bolts (which, incidentally, should be green from the TIE fighters), there’s no indication of what the story is.

The story that posters tell doesn’t need to be complicated, or complex. And that, in the end,  may be the Star Tours poster’s downfall. I think they were trying to tell the whole story of the new ride in one poster. Look at the elements: three planets (plus the Death Star), Darth Vader, X-Wings, TIE Fighters, a Naboo starfighter, a trade federation droid control ship, the Millenium Falcon, a starspeeder, and more laser bolts than you can shake a lightsaber at. Everything I’ve heard about the new ride says that there are a ton of things to see, and that your experience will change each time you ride it. And I get that the poster is trying to sell that idea. But Struzan’s poster doesn’t include the Death Star, or Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes, or Chewie, or a single Stormtrooper. Yet the poster still gets to the core of the story, and you don’t feel like you’re missing anything.

By trying to say too many things, the Star Tours poster ultimately says nothing. But, being the eternal optimist, I’m holding out hope that this is only one of many posters to come. (George, call me!)

I’ll start with an admission: I’ve always been a fairly disorganized person. I’ve got the stereotypical cluttered artist’s desk, and a computer file system to match. As my design business has picked up speed, it’s become harder and harder to keep track of all the projects I have going at once, what I need to do, and who I’m waiting to hear back from.

I don’t revel in my disorganization. I’ve actually always strived to be very organized, but I’ve failed more often than I’ve succeeded. I’ve tried lots of to-do lists and project management apps, both free and paid, to varying degrees of success. But they all wind up gathering dust eventually, for one reason: they all require me to add an additional step to the already overwhelming number of things I have to do.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve started to accept that this is part of who I am, and that I can’t fundamentally change the fact that I’m disorganized. But I can come up with tools that work around that frustrating trait, and help me stay organized in spite of myself.

Now, I’ve finally stumbled upon a task management solution that works for me, and it works because it’s integrated into something I already do — checking Gmail. Nine times out of 10, if I get an email from a client, there’s going to be something in the email that I’ll need to do, from requests for new projects to questions that need answering. The connection is so obvious, but it took me a long time to finally see it.

It took a bit of setting up, but so far, it seems to be working wonders. Here’s how I did it:

LABELS

First, every client gets their own label when I first start working with them (this includes potential clients, too). To create a label, go to Settings > Labels, and type something in the “Create a new label” field. You can assign custom colors to your labels in Gmail, and I’ve chosen to use green with white text for client labels. This helps me spot client emails quickly in my inbox.

I also have two other important labels: and . (The asterisks make sure the label shows up at the top of the labels list, which is sorted alphabetically.) For these labels, I’ve chosen red with white text so they catch my attention. More on these two labels in a minute.

FILTERS

Once the labels are set up, I set up a filter for each contact I have with a client, which automatically adds the client’s label to emails from those contacts. For example, when I started working on the ElfQuest: A Fan Imagining project, I set up filters to add the ElfQuest label to all incoming emails from the producers, Stephanie Thorpe and Paula Rhodes. This allows me to quickly find all the emails from a particular client with one click of a button.

To create a filter, click the “Create a filter” link next to the search box at the top of the page. Enter the contact’s email address, and click the Next Step >> button. Check the Apply the Label checkbox, and choose the label you want to automatically apply.

I then set up a second filter to automatically add the *TO DO* label to incoming emails from the client. (Unfortunately, Gmail doesn’t allow you to add multiple labels with one filter, which is why you have to do this twice.)

Once I’ve taken care of whatever needed to be taken care of in the email, I simply remove the *TO DO* label. If I then need to wait for the client to sign off on my latest progress, or I need them to answer a question before I can proceed, I manually assign the *Waiting For Feedback* label. I don’t want things that I can’t work on cluttering up my to-do list, but I also don’t want to forget that I’m waiting for something that’s going to need my attention soon.

PRIORITY INBOX

Click to see larger

With the labels and filters set up, all of my incoming client emails are now being sorted into easy to use categories. But they’re still lost in a sea of Woot.com emails, Facebook notifications, emails from my mom wondering why I don’t call as often as I should, etc. The answer to this problem is Google’s new(ish) Priority Inbox. This allows you to divide your inbox into up to four separate panels, each automatically populated with email that matches a particular criteria. I have three sections set up: “All *TO DO*”, “All *Waiting For Feedback*”, and “Everything else” (the default section).

The result is that I automatically have all my to-do items grouped together at the top of my inbox,and I never have to manually add anything to a separate to-do list. The only exception to this is when I get a request over the phone, or in person. For these rare instances, I’ve also set up a filter to add the *TO DO* label to any emails that I send to myself.

FINAL THOUGHTS

This system has been incredibly helpful for me, because it doesn’t require me to remember to remember. Once I set up the label and filter for a client, Gmail takes care of the rest, leaving me free to do my job without worrying about tasks falling through the cracks.

Hope this has been helpful. If you try this system, and come up with a way to improve upon it, I’d love to hear about it!

Photo Credit: Jellaluna / Flickr

I was asked to put together a website for a fan-made trailer for an adaptation of the classic ElfQuest comics. The creators of the trailer, Stephanie Thorpe and Paula Rhodes, needed a site that would be simple, yet evocative, and would capture the woodsy magic of ElfQuest. The site needed to feature an embedded YouTube video, a countdown to the premiere, photo gallery, etc.

The high profile site drew thousands of visitors in the first few days, and was featured in articles on Boing Boing, io9, IGN and many others.

ElfQuest: A Fan Imagining

My good friend Marian Call asked me to create a poster for a music and spoken-word festival, featuring artists from Anchorage, AK. She wanted the piece to feel like an old travel poster, and wanted it to capture the breathtaking colors of an Anchorage sunset.

In addition to being an amazing singer and all around excellent person, Marian is also a graphic designer’s dream client. She knew exactly what she wanted, provided reference images, and gave prompt and useful feedback. I love all my clients, but Marian is a dream to work with!

I was approached the other day by a design student who’s working on an assignment where he needed to interview a graphic design professional about their career, and then present a report about it to his class. He came across my site thanks to the Gawker link to my Giant Fire Breathing Robot poster tutorial, and asked if I’d be willing to answer some questions about my work.

I happily agreed, and then got entirely carried away with my responses, to the point where I practically wrote him a novel by email. In the off chance that anyone else could get some use out of it, here’s what I said:

Continue Reading »

Here’s another piece I put together for The Thrilling Adventure Hour. It’s an ad for Patriot Brand Cigarettes (“They’re Good For Your Constitution!”), one of the show’s “sponsors”. I had so much fun designing the cigarette pack on this one! Continue Reading »

Ignore this post everyone. I’m trying to access an old Flickr account that I no longer have the login info for, and I’m using this post to prove that I am who I say I am.

Hi Flickr people! It’s me! I promise!

If you’re in the L.A. area and you haven’t had a chance to check out The Thrilling Adventure Hour, do yourself a favor and pick up tickets to their next show. It’s like a younger, more absurd version of A Prairie Home Companion — actors on stage reading lines in the style of an old-time radio broadcast. And along with the super-talented main cast (the Work Juice Players, who include people like Paul F. Tompkins, John DiMaggio, and the lovely Annie Savage), the monthly guest stars are like a who’s who of comedic actors. The first show I went to guest-starred Nathan Fillion and The Kids in the Hall’s Dave Foley, among others. I’ve also seen Michael Hogan, Chris Hardwick, Allison Brie, Colin Hanks and a ton of other very funny people at the shows, which are staged at a cozy little theatre called Largo at the Coronet. If you can’t make it to a show, check out their podcast, which they just launched at the beginning of the year.

I fell in love with this show the first time I went, and I’ve been back several times. A few days ago, it occurred to me that their old-timey theme would fit in perfectly with my retro art style, so I asked them on Twitter if I could design a poster for them. They replied with, “We would love if you made us a poster! Get in touch through the website.” Naturally, this made my day, and I set right to work coming up with something.

I was so inspired that I had an idea straight off the bat, which was to feature one of their main segments, “Sparks Nevada: Marshal on Mars”. The skit follows the adventures of a earthling law man and his martian companion, Croach the Tracker, who is grudgingly under onus to Sparks for saving his people.

I’m not sure what the folks at The Thrilling Adventure Hour will do with the poster, but it was fun getting to play in their world for a bit!

I went to the doctor’s office the other day, and while I was waiting for the lady at the registration desk to get back from the office holiday party, I killed some time by reading the various signs they had posted on the wall. One of those signs was a long, text-filled poster informing me of my rights and responsibilities as a patient. Continue Reading »