I’ve been waiting ages to be able to talk about this. It’s a project I worked on with QMx to design the packaging and all the marketing pieces for the new, limited-edition Bad Robot statue, which we created for Bad Robot Productions. Continue Reading »

I designed this limited-edition, animated-style Battlestar Galactica Starbuck maquette for QMx in 2008, and it quickly sold out, thanks to great buzz (like this mention from io9.com) that spread like wildfire.

As I mentioned in the tutorial on creating a retro sci-fi poster in Photoshop, when you’re creating retro-themed artwork,  choosing the right font is critical. If you want to evoke the old pulp sci-fi novels or WPA posters, you’ll need fonts that have the right mix of authenticity, imperfection and character to sell the illusion of time and place. Whenever I work in this style, I spend a great deal of time browsing through my font collections to find just the right font for the mood I’m trying to create. Over the years, I’ve found a core group of go-to fonts that I return to again and again. Here’s a small sample of my favorites, with titles generated by the Cornelius Zappencackler’s Derange-O-Lab Pulp Sci Fi Title-O-Tron! Continue Reading »

No new clients this week, and a couple of promising leads have been put on hold. While I’m a little disappointed, it means I can work this week on getting myself better organized.

This evening, I’ll finish and upload the blog post I promised on retro fonts, and then I’ll start one on digital organization for designers. It’s a topic I’ve struggled with myself; hopefully you can learn a thing or two from my (many) trials and errors.

Since I’ve got less on my plate this week, I’ll also be working on my resume and my e-mail pitch to prospective clients. I wrote a couple of weeks ago about subscribing to production reports to see what movies and tv shows are currently in production. I’ve found a new source called Below The Line, which is significantly cheaper than the two I mentioned previously. I’ve still got a while to go before I move to L.A., which means I can’t be quite as gung-ho about job hunting yet. So this less-expensive alternative is a great fit for me right now. I’m going to keep an eye out for productions that will be filming in San Francisco, and try to send out at least one resume a week, just to test the water. I’ll let you know how it goes.

The Make-It-Worth-Your-While Link

While I hope my Monday updates are interesting (and with any luck, inspirational), I also want to offer at least one thing that’s tangibly useful. So check out this interview with Go Media’s Jeff Finley on designing for the film industry. If you could dog-ear a web page, I would have worn the corner off of this page long ago. I’ve read it countless times, and it’s a great source of inspiration and advice.

Designing for the Film Industry: A Chat with Go Media’s Jeff Finley [from Colorburned]

I’m working on a longer post on great sources for retro / vintage fonts that I hope to have done by this weekend, but in the meantime, I wanted to share this quick post on attention to detail.

I’m a big believer in the idea that it’s the little things — more so than the big ones — that truly help sell a design. A tiny drop shadow here, a subtle highlight there can be enough to turn a “good enough” design into a bona fide portfolio piece.

Take for instance this image of the History of Search Engines from one of my favorite infographic designers, Paul Horn, aka Doc Splatter on Twitter.

The layout and presentation of information is professional and compelling, as his pieces usually are. But what caught my eye and inspired me to write this post was the scroll bar along the right side of the image. As it follows the timeline down from 1990 to the present day, the scroll bar gradually changes from a Mac OS 9 interface style to a modern OS X style, reflecting the changing times.

There are other similar touches, like the archaic beveling on the labels which gradually shift to a more modern aesthetic to a shifting color palette that echoes corresponding shift in web design trends over the last 20 years.

The designer could have gone without any of those added elements, and it still would have been a well-designed piece. But by pushing past “good enough,” he created a piece that really resonates with the viewer.

Hmm, let’s see … Not a whole lot going on this week. Just the usual top-secret work for QMx, a couple of freelance projects … oh, and a Photoshop tutorial that got linked to from i09 and Gizmodo (to name just a few) and is currently flooding my blog with new visitors.

Continue Reading »

If you read my recent tutorial on creating pulp sci-fi art in Photoshop, you’ll remember that I mentioned that adding “flavor” text, like the price and titles of featured stories, is a great way to breathe life into the magazine cover. I just discovered a great resource for flavor text at a site called “Thrilling Tales of the Downright Unusual.”

Continue Reading »

Here’s a tutorial I did a few years back for deviantART. I needed to create an ad for a local rec program, featuring a picture of a young man happily working with a kid. The problem was, while I had the perfect stock photo for the job, the young man had a very serious look on his face. It didn’t look like he was having much fun, which really wasn’t the best look for the ad.

The solution? Perform face transplant surgery, Photoshop style!

Continue Reading »

I recently did a podcast interview with the folks at Giant Fire Breathing Robot, in which I discussed my work with QMx and my freelance graphic design work, among other topics. It was a pretty fun interview to do, and at the end, I mentioned that I planned to start working on some tutorials here on my blog, to help other aspiring designers learn from my experience.

About a week later, GFBR’s host, Andrew, contacted me to ask if I could create some promotional items for them to take to the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) in September.. They needed a rush job, and I needed inspiration for these tutorials, so I offered to waive my standard rush fee in exchange for permission to create a process tutorial from the design. They happily agreed, and this is the result.

Continue Reading »

It’s Monday, so it must be time for an update.

Had quite the productive week last week, which included a couple of new projects for QMx. Unfortunately, as per usual, they’re of the can’t-tell-you-about-them-without-getting-fired variety. Oh well.

The highlight of the week was an interview I did with the Giant Fire Breathing Robot podcast, which was released today. You can check out the podcast here. My interview starts at about 32:30. In it, I talk about my career with QMx, my work on the Save Hiatus webcomic, how important (or not) formal art / design training really is. Oh, and I also talk about how awesome geek girls are, because it’s true, and always fun to talk about.

No new contacts or freelance work this week, but hopefully the podcast will help with that. It’s all about baby steps, people!

Oh, and stay tuned. I’ll have another tutorial up sometime this week.