Try to imagine a goat/flamingo mashup… This is a lot of fun!
This illustration went straight from brain to design and I skipped my sketchbook… I feel a little sorry for doing that, like I shortcut the creative process a little. I guess I jumped the gun.
I will be screen printing this design on a bright pink Tshirt with the two colors of ink shown above. Should be fun!
Posted in Illustration, New Work, Technical Issues | Leave a Comment »
There are some universal steps that ad agencies and creative directors take to create an ad campaign. I thought it would be fun to illustrate some of those universal steps… this is an info-graphic illustration that I sat down to do and I found some interesting things that I didn’t even realize percolating to the forefront of my consciousness (see the management portion of the infographic).
Creating an Ad Campaign - An Info-graphic
The tricky part about any info-graphic illustration is uniquely interpreting the data in a visual way that imparts a new understanding of the process or concept. A picture is most definitely worth a thousand words.
Posted in Illustration, Tutorials | Tagged Illustration info-graphic advertising campaign | Leave a Comment »
What the heck is a Cobster? I am so glad you asked…
The Cobster in the Flesh!
Posted in Illustration, New Work | 1 Comment »
The Final Hellephant design
I have, for some time, been threatening to illustrate a series of Tshirts based upon a little known “science” called cryptozoology defined as:
the study of and search for animals and especially legendary animals (as Sasquatch) usually in order to evaluate the possibility of their existence.
Posted in Tutorials | 2 Comments »
The other day, as I sat on my back porch and designed a few comps for client it occurred to me that I had a process! I had never thought of my creativity following any certain channels because of the nature of inspiration. While that process is somewhat varied and inherently chaotic, I think that I will strive to capture what I do and how I do it. I will start with one of my favorite tools.
When I mention sketchbooks, the voices in my head immediately conjure up images of college freshmen sitting on the quad either furiously scribbling in a large pulpy tome or snoozing over a blank page in a bound book of some sort, firmly ensconced in an array of conte crayons and colored pencils. In most cases they have something in common:
Scribbles from my noggin
They are doing something worthwhile and the sketchbook is vitally important to what illustrators do. Why is it so often abandoned in a world of bezier curves and graphics tablets?
Just as writers write, Illustrators draw. We always need to be doing it… it feeds our creativity and helps us stay awake in church. But the barriers to convenient illustration are many.
Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »
Flash will be relegated to funky game sites and designers who don’t know how to code…
Recently I have been re-thinking my web design strategy and I ran across a blog that rated 10 things every developer should know to survive the next 10 years. While I agreed with most of the blog article I had to take exception to the last entry: “Flash”.
Flash is a great product that allows artists/developers like me to crank out animated and interactive sites that are dazzling and entertaining. I know how to use Flash so I feel safe for the next 10 years (according to the recent blogger) but I take serious issue with what Flash doesn’t do.
Flash makes neato looking animations but renders the page un-searchable by the search engines. What good is a great looking page that no one can find?
Similarly, Flash is not readable by the iPhone… silly to say at first, but when you see the mounting numbers of smart phones hitting the market and realize that 80% of those phones are iPhones… you feel the pressure to develop pages that work on the little buggers.
Lastly, based upon my knowledge of the market and that knowledge telling me that 60% of the viewers of web pages are still on Internet Explorer 6… I can only wonder at how many of those cavemen haven’t updated their Flash either! That is to say that if a view comes to a Flash enhanced site and their Flash software is not up to date, they will not wait around to see what you have to offer. BOUNCE!
In conclusion, I am redefining what I think web design will look like and I think Flash will be relegated to funky game sites and designers who don’t know how to code dynamic pages in CSS, XHTML, and Javascript.
Just my opinion.
Posted in Technical Issues | Tagged XHTML Javascript CODE FLASH CSS | Leave a Comment »
I know it sounds like a new faction of Transformer, but it is not.
The enigmatic and infallible Wikipedia defines it thusly:
A favicon (short for favorites icon), also known as a website icon, page icon or urlicon, is an icon associated with a particular website or webpage. A web designer can create such icons in several ways and many recent web browsers can then make use of them.
The Favicon is the little icon you see on the open tab of the web page you are currently viewing… The one you are on should look like a navy blue ‘w’. Well, Midsummer Night’s Design now has one… I almost forgot it too. It is easy to overlook such a thing. This is why I am commisioning my Project Manager (love you!) to start a checklist of ‘often overlooked items’ in web design… this one goes to the top! When the list is finished (which it may never be!), I will post it here.
The Favicon is not SO important so as to draw great attention… but something does seem wrong when it is NOT there. Such a little thing lends a lot more credibility to a page.
Just a note to those who wish to tinker with favicons in your design… check out a google search on the subject and use the snippet of code in the head of the page… without it, some browsers will not use the favicon. Also — there are favicon generators on that search. It makes it idiotproof.
Posted in Technical Issues, Updates | Tagged favicon | Leave a Comment »
It took me a while to chase down the snippet of code that I needed to do it… but it’s done. IT is the Microblog feed from Twitter that I maintain… you can find it on the main page!
I find that the visibility of the Microblog allows clients to see into what goes on… real time! If a client sees a post that says, “The layout is wooping my butt… I don’t do kids books often enough.” and that is their project… they have more insight into the work than they would normally have. Now, I will probably endeavour to keep the posts more positive than that, but clients deserve transparency in this post-modern age.
The transparency not withstanding, the constant updates of the Microblog also increases relevance for search engine crawlers. SEO (search engine optimization) is a bit of a beast as it is… I still have to work on those meta-tags, but any help I can get is worth it!
Don’t forget the geek factor! I use the Twitterverse to debug and troubleshoot problems on a daily basis. If you see an “@” symbol in front of someone’s name (during the twitterfeed), that means I am replying to them; it is like a direct message. I will ask other geeks out there how to do things or ask why YOUR page doesn’t work on some browsers… it is an open community.
To summarize:
I encourage you to check back in on my feed. It might give you some insight on how well your project is going or just provide some amusement in any other event.
Posted in Updates | Tagged Twitter microblog | Leave a Comment »
Welcome to the blog of Midsummer Night’s Design.
This is not an attempt to break free and make loads of cash while experiencing intense personal freedom. It is a project intent on expressing my love for illustration and web design. It is patently obvious that I don’t work for free, but my passion for my work will fuel great creative process for clients as well as keep me sane (the cycle – It is amazing how this works!)
Current Projects:
Progeny Construction – A custom deck and fire pit builder in Colorado Springs. Richard is the owner and a good friend; Rich knows his image is in need of an overhaul and he has ZERO web presence. We are working on the image of his company and will branch out to web design within the week. The page should be about 4 deep.
Houses of the Blooded – Local LARP:
Live Action Role Playing is a phenomenon that most of us are not even aware of. I am designing a site to bring such awareness as well as player support to a local group. This site should prove to be demanding as there needs to be some interactive components. We are still in fledgeling design phases now…
Posted in New Work | 1 Comment »
