Envisionary Design | Graphic Design | Web Design | SEO

Spices and Imports Web Site Design

2010-12-14T15:14:00.000-08:00

I recently completed a web site for Mediterranean Spices & Imports, an essential oils importer from the US that provides 100% pure organic and wild grown essential oils that are distilled and packaged in the Albanian countryside. The company promotes economic growth and prosperity for the people of Albania by creating an essential oil distribution channel into the US.

The product page is under construction but when it's done it will provide useful information about all their essential oils such as the Latin name, description, therapeutic uses and combinations with other oils. A feature that was new for me this time was the flash intro on the home page with their mission statements fading in and out over shots of the Albanian countryside.

DNL Builders Web Design

2010-12-06T13:37:00.000-08:00

DNL Builders web site is finally up and running the way I wanted it to. This web design project came from a simple business card redesign I did for DNL builders. I saw what they had and asked if I could "massage" it a bit. DNL and their clients were so happy with the results they asked me to do their web site as well.

DNL Builders is a full-service construction company in Sonoma County and the greater Bay Area that specializes in Custom Homes, Custom Remodels, Project Management and General Contracting.

One of the features of this site that I am really excited about is the gallery page using spry tabs in Dream weaver CS3 in order to display multiple projects on a single page. I used the rollover feature to be able to quickly scan through each project without having to click on every thumbnail. The other feature I managed to figure out on this web design project was building the navigation tabs in CSS and making the tabs active for each page shown with a glowing house behind each word.

This web design project was very personal to me, not only because DNL is a great clients but because Darrel and Nicole Lancaster are close friends as well. My goal was to create a site that reflects the quality of work they provide to their clients in custom homes and I think I did it.

One thing I know for sure is that if you take care of clients there will be plenty of work, even in this economy.

Broken FM Web Redesign Project

2010-10-13T15:33:00.000-07:00

I finally put the finishing touches on a web site redesign for Broken FM, an alternative Christian Radio station here in Santa Rosa CA and heard online all over the world.

I got an email last week to redesign three buttons but I figured it would be easier to just redesign the entire web site. It took me about three days to complete the redesign, one for design, one for the web template and one very long day to build all the web pages.

This project got started a few weeks prior when I designed a 6' banner for Broken FM for the Rock of Ages festival they were attending in Calistoga CA. After getting the redesign bug I took the banner and used it as the basis for their new site. I was able to take the vector elements apart and create those three buttons as well as the one for the "listen now" and "DJ page"

The original free graphic came from Vector Room and the font I used for the logo was called "Chicago House_trial" found at Abstract Fonts, one of best free font resources out there.

Art Car Fest 2010 Flyer Design - Just in time for the weekend

2010-10-06T15:14:00.000-07:00

I love making flyers especially when I am set loose to go out and have fun with it. This years ArtCar Fest 2010 flyer was no exception as you can see. I decided to have fun the logo and add color to make it stand out up against a yellow background. I wanted to convey how much fun attending art car fest is and did this by using lots of color and a paint splatter effect for each of the art cars in the flyer. Driving an art car is like painting splattering all over the road especially in comparison with the other "*mundanes" cars we drive around with on the streets. ArtCar Fest 2010 is this weekend so for a schedule of events click here. The art car on the front are from the top: Darla the dragon, Wet Dreams, Glass Quilt, Vain Van and The Mercedes Pens.

* Mundane is the word we use to describe regular cars

Chapala Market Logo Design

2010-10-06T14:47:00.000-07:00

Chapala Market Logo Design

I just finished the Chapala Market and Deli recently and wanted to post it here on ED. I used Seagull BT Heavy and used the rise warp option in Illustrator CS3 to distort the text to fit the banner.

New Life Birthing Servives Web Site for Claudette Claudette Coughenour

2010-08-02T11:18:00.000-07:00

My wife and I are getting ready to have our fourth child at home in the next couple of weeks with the help of our amazing midwife Claudette Coughenhour of New Life Birthing Services. Having a home birth is an amazing experience and would recommend Claudette to anyone thinking about home birth in Sonoma County.

I started out by creating a blog for her mainly to post birth stories, including the birth of our third daughter. The next step was to set up her web site with the same information that was a bit easier to navigate and link back to her blog. This site was created using a free template I found online and is temporary until I redesign her site from scratch after our son is born.

Violence Free Web Design

2010-07-16T17:49:00.000-07:00

Violence-Free.org is web site I just completed and is up and running for the purpose of collecting signatures to help protect the community from violent crime. I needed a site up and running ASAP to get the word out in time to get my signatures printed out to give to the Judge in charge of this case.

I managed to design the logo, set up facebook, twitter, the blog and design the web site from scratch in Photoshop CS3 in about three days. Amazing things happen when the pressure is on and I even found a countdown timer to give people a visual on the time remaining to get their signatures in.

Broadway Quilts - Web Site

2010-07-06T17:45:00.000-07:00

Finally a new project for a quilting shop located in Sonoma California to put up on Envisionary Design created for Broadway Quilts. I had fun creating the custom navigation bar with the stitching texture. Not only do they have over 2000 bolts of fabrics, books patterns and quilts but they also offer a variety of fun quilting classes.

The Pen Guy T Shirt Hits the Shelves

2010-03-23T19:44:00.000-07:00

I finally found another way to marry my graphic design skills with my favorite project as the Pen Guy and the Mercedes Pens Art Car. I recently discovered Zazzle.com which allows anyone to start up an online store , upload their designs and sell them on pretty much any product available on their site.What's great about zazzle is that you can upload as many designs as you want and see them displayed within 24 hours on many products and modeled on a variety of great looking models, including small dogs. Not only can you get the Pen Guy logo on a T Shirt but you can customize it to fit other products such as bumper stickers, shoes, and even skateboards.

BSR - Builder Supply Resource Web Site

2010-03-09T10:37:00.000-08:00

I am pleased to unveil my latest web site design for Builders Supply Resource - BSR today. BSR has extensive experience in the construction and home design industry and partners with contractors and homeowners to bring a wide range of finish products for remodel and new construction.

One of the things I wanted to do with this web site was to make it simple and easy to navigate without having to scroll down to get to the bottom. I did this by spending a lot of time up front researching websites that worked well without scrolling before I started on the design.

I also wanted to stay away from a boring link filled page I broke up the space with image rollover links to each product category. I also didn't have a lot of links so I filled up the space with really fun looking rollover buttons.

My ultimate goal when designing a web site is to own it, which means I continually ask my self "would I be happy with this site if it were mine?" if the answer is no I keep working it until the answer is yes. For BSR the answer is a definite yes!!!

Energy Efficient Lighting - The new and improved P-30 LED sell sheet

2010-01-28T14:38:00.000-08:00

I recently finished a marketing piece for the P-30 LED product sheet by Tranh Nguyen, president of Solar Inc. His company manufactures and sells an LED light bulb considered to be the next generation "Green" light bulb and a better alternative to the fluorescent mercury filled bulbs. Luckily for me Mr Nguyen had all the copy ready to go and all I had to do was make it look good.

I approached this project from the salesperson point of view and designed it as if I were the one pounding the pavement selling the P-30 door to door.

My first challenge was to give the LED bulb some life by turning the light on. I did this by adding a light source to it in Photoshop and adding a brushed metal texture background, which I also created from scratch.

The second challenge was to organize all the information and make it easy for the client to scan through all the features and benefits of the P-30. I did this by adding alternate bands behind the bullet points to differentiate them from the rest of the copy.

I am really happy with the way this marketing piece turned out and I hope it helps Mr. Nguyen sell a million more units this year.

Solar’s President Tranh Nguyen makes his acceptance speech after his company won the 2007 California Clean Tech Open (CCTO)Renewables Prize on Monday, October 29, 2007, at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre in San Francisco, California USA.

You can also read more about energy efficient lighting on his blog

Bathroom Key Web Design

2009-11-18T13:08:00.001-08:00

The best part about creative ideas is making it a reality and Bathroom Key is one of those random ideas that came to me one day at coffee shop restroom. I was sitting around working on my third cup of coffee when nature called for the billionth time, so off I went to beg for the bathroom key from the Batista. With my prize in hand and the urgency in my step I went off to answer the call. The bathroom key came with it an attachment, a large bulky object chained to my key to make sure it was not lost and second to discourage me from stealing it and using it to open up my own public restroom some were else.

I have seen so many of these interesting bathroom key attachments over the course of my life that I finally decided it was time to start yet another blog called Bathroom Key. The blog is dedicated to posting and writing about this prolific form of urban art found in many bathrooms around the world. So I went looking ob flick for more pictures and found plenty to get me started with my new venture, Bathroom Keys.

In terms of design I wanted to take my blogging/web/design/photoshop/html skills to the next level and create a truly unique navigation bar for it. I created the background tile in photoshop which I used as my repeating background image for my bathroom motif. Next I made the biggest bathroom key attachment I could fit in an 800 pixel wide seen precariously propped up between the handle bar and the toilet tank cover. What bathroom would be complete with out magazines, so I created some covers at fake magazine cover to be used as my navigation bar buttons. Once I had the design the way I wanted it to look I chopped it all and imported it in blogger with linked them to my favorite social networks.

This of course is just the beginning, there will many hours spent writing, promoting and tweaking the layout so that one day Bathroom Keys will become popular and viral (in a good way). And hopefully encourage a new breed of photographers to go out and catalog the vast world of bathroom keys.

Kitchens By Ken Ryan - Web Site Design

2009-11-13T08:32:00.000-08:00

I finally finished a new web site called Kitchens By Ken Ryan for Ken Ryan an expert in kitchen design, manufacturing and construction in Novato California. I designed this web site using Illustrator CS2 and then went on to put it all together in Dreaweaver, a very cool program indeed. The gallery is almost done but I found that Photoshop CS2 has a nice feature that allows me to quickly take a batch of photos and create a custom gallery in a short period of time. It creates HTML pages that gives me the flexibility to further customize my code to fit the needs and design of my layout in Dreamweaver.

They also wanted to add client testimonials so I created a Blog for them with the same look and feel as the rest of the web site to make it easy to add content.

The Pen Guy's Million Pen Recycling Flyer

2009-08-27T08:56:00.000-07:00

The Pen Guy's Million Pen Recycling Flyer
The Pen Guy's Million Pen Recycling flyer is finally designed and ready to be placed along side the new Pen Recycling Barrels place in locations around Sonoma County for people to donate their old pens. I needed a poster that was easy to understand and fun to read so I used Grobold Medium for that purpose that had a fun cartoon quality to it. I also created a new pen recycling logo that hopefully says "recycle pens" in Illustrator from scratch, no clip art here.

The flyer was created so people who want to start a pen drive at their business or school can down load it, print it and post it up in a prominent location. I also made it so you can pretty much see it from space especially the phrase "Recycle Pens Here". Also at the bottom I added a space for a hand written time and date for when the Pen Guy will be appearing for a visit with the Mercedes Pens Art Car. Email the pen guy if you want to set up and start a pen drive at your location.

Secret Service Tour at Redwood Covenant Church - 4x6 Flyer

2009-08-11T10:06:00.001-07:00

This project came along last week to promote a local free concert called the "Secret Service Tour" at Redwood Covenant Church September 2, 2009 from 6-9pm. The four bands playing are Abandon Kansas, Sleep for Sleepers, Hazel and Vine and local band Surrendered. The concert is sponsored by Playit4Word, Broken.fm and RCC.
When I was told the name of the project I went into full creative mode and was able to come up with the initial idea within 3.5 hours, WOW. There are times such as these that the creative flow is there 100% and it becomes and effortless experience for me to create. Others times its like pulling teeth. When they told me about the title of the concert, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. The phrase "secret service" launched me into the idea of creating a secret agent file complete with photos and operational info. I love the details of this piece such as the Polaroid photo treatment, paper clips, the label maker font and the old folder file. Do you feel like going on a secret mission to a free concert? I do.

Rock'n Blues Festival by the Lake - 4x6 Flyers

2009-06-26T09:48:00.000-07:00

Rock'n Blues Festival by the Lake 4x6 Flyers are headed out to the printed to promote one of the biggest festivals held in Novato Ca.It will held September 26 at Stafford Lake and proceeds will benefit the novato public schools. The amazing B-52's will be playing and Blake Lewis the beat-Box guy from American idol will also be there.

Broken FM Bumper Stickers are here

2009-06-26T07:55:00.001-07:00

Pink Broken FM Bumper Sticker

Green Broken FM Bumper Sticker

After much clamouring from the Broken FM fans and especially the DJ's I was able to finally got around to designing the Broken FM bumper stickers. The news about the station is spreading but they felt that a couple of stickers would help their efforts plastered on cars driving around town. They are in such demand right now that 1000 of them will be snatched up in no time.

I must give credit to Leah for coming up with the design for the pink one who has amazing talent and gifting at 16 with no formal training. I took her design idea and just tweaked it a bit to send to Greater Works Printing as a two color job. The originally were going to outsource the job but decided instead to print it in house and saved Broken FM 50% off the original price quote.

This station is definitely a lot of fun to design for because it allows me to explore the grungy side of things. Its a youth radio and they demand edgy, fun and very different so that's what they get.
By the way I like Leahs bumper sticker better, because its easier to read on the road, the big number and the outer glow make a big difference.

NorCal Spirit 11x17 Poster has arrived!!!

2009-06-18T16:33:00.001-07:00

The poster for the 1st Annual NorCal SPIRIT concert benefiting Bay Area Christian Youth programs on August 15, 2009 at Stafford Lake Park in Novato, California is finally done and sent to the printer. NorCal SPIRIT is the biggest Christian concert in the North Bay other than Spirit West Coast in Monterey CA.

On the main stage Sanctus Real, Krystal Meyers, L-Rey and Nevertheless will be performing. Donnie Moore Radical Reality will be there as well as Edogg Montana, Jesse Brewster Band and Heather Powers. There will also be a Battle of the Bands featuring local bands that will compete for a chance to open up for Sanctus Real, win cash prize and a 2-Day professional recording session at Laughing Tiger Music Production Studios.

This project was a lot of fun and I got the job through my work for Broken.FM who is promoting the upcoming event on air. The background is a combination of three images found on istock photo which I believe help capture the spiritual essence of this event. The three images are the abstract light background, the floating figure and the city, photoshoped and then imported into Illustrator for the copy treatment. In this case I used a free font called Philosopher Regular that I found on one of my favorite font websites called abstract fonts.

Broken FM Logo

2009-04-24T15:19:00.000-07:00

The Broken.FM logo has been one of the funnest and most exciting projects in a very long time. I met Keith and Rynie, the station owners, some time ago...they had a vision to start an alternative christian rock station in Santa Rosa,CA. The Press Democrat recently wrote an article called "Christian Rock Fills Santa Rosa Airwaves" which did a great job of capturing the essence of Broken.FM. I was approached in the early stages to design their logo and I jumped at the opportunity help develop the look and feel of this really amazing station. After many revisions the look for Broken.FM was born and we ended up with the Broken "Screamer", a young boy obviously listening to really loud and edgy music-- an image that is both recognizable and memorable. Keith Leitch said in the article that the station is folks of all ages who enjoy hard-edged music with a positive message. I think this logo captures the essence of what Broken.FM is all about, young, edgy, hard core, loud and fun.

The original logo was created as a banner for the web and then the blog. But I also created the "screamer" as a stand-alone image with the word inside to be used as an identity for Broken.FM's Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Twitter Pages. The idea was to create consistency throughout all the social networks.

Increase traffic by blogging - Art Car Central Redesign

2009-01-23T13:38:00.000-08:00

When times are slow it's time to get busy and get ready for the next wave of work. Last December it was painfully slow and I decided that the extra time on my hands was a gift to help me catch up and reorganize my business. So I decided to redesign my art car central blog and take it to the next level. It went from a boring template to a fully customized web site with lots of image buttons, videos, useful links and social network bookmarks on every blog entry. I had a ton of art cars I categorized for easy access, so I broke it all down by medium used, type of vehicle, popular tags, and a few other related categories.

I also designed the banner to reflect my love for typography and the movie marque. Art Car Central is cross between going to the movies and the circus freak show. I do all the non traditional looking art cars and beyond, mutant vehicles, crazy car modifications, and some new ones not yet up. My goal is to allow my readers to have fun exploring all the different categories of art cars for hours. In January my site was listed on Blogs of Note by Blogger, which was a nice way of saying "Good Job" and it sent my stats through the roof.

The lesson learned here is that when you get sense that it's time to move ahead with a project, you better listen to your gut feeling. Because missed opportunities stink and they set you back every time. The upshot of having redesigned the art car central is that, traffic increased, I gained valuable skills and sold advertising on my blog. The best part was that I picked up more work from a big internet company wanting to take their company to the next level.

I believe that every one and every business should have a blog because its one of the best ways to drive traffic to your site through current and relevant information. If your are not blogging, then you're missing out on an amazing online opportunity.

Art Car Central Blog Screen Shot

The Pen Guy 4x6 Postcard

2009-01-23T12:57:00.000-08:00

The Pen Guy 4x6 postcards have been out now since last summer and so far I still have 8000 of them to give out. One of the goals of this project was to continue the "Pen Guy" brand and explain the story of the Mercedes Pens as a road trip spanning the last 3.5 years. The art on the back was from another project that never happened and felt it was a shame to waste all that time. So I actually recycled some design work for the first time ever, but it seemed to make sense in this case. I basically stopped short of the kitchen sink and put all the info I needed to have and I got some feedback saying it was too busy. I meant it that way, because if you noticed the car is pretty much the same way. I also added some important quotes along the way that came out of the buildings, and a few road signs as well. The ironic thing is that I got shot in the eye with a marker the day these came out, ironic since I had put up a sign on the back that said "caution flying pens". Full story here.

Pen Guy 4x6 Postcard Front

Pen Guy 4x6 Postcard Back

The Pen Guy Event Flyer

2008-03-11T16:43:00.000-07:00

Octane Capital Management Logo Design

2008-03-11T16:13:00.001-07:00

Casa By C Logo Design

2008-03-11T16:05:00.001-07:00

Disc Revolt Logo Design

2008-03-11T16:04:00.002-07:00

Deerstone Development Logo Design

2008-03-11T16:04:00.001-07:00

Laser Vaginal Rejuvenation Logo

2008-03-11T16:02:00.000-07:00

PC & Networking Consulting

2008-03-11T16:01:00.000-07:00

Clinical Shared Services - Medtronic Internal Logo

2008-03-11T16:00:00.002-07:00

Create Safety - Medtronic Internal Logo

2008-03-11T16:00:00.001-07:00

The Zepponi Group

2008-03-11T15:59:00.000-07:00

Octane Capital Management

2008-03-11T15:58:00.000-07:00

Portalais of St. Helena Logo Design

2008-03-11T15:41:00.001-07:00

The initial idea for this logo was not mine but Lou Hughes owner of Portalais came to me for some help taking this logo to the next level. When I was done with it, he was very happy and we went on to create a complete package that was both classy and sophisticated. We even created an emboss die for the custom 9x12 folders that was used in packaging the entire marketing system.

Portalais is a luxury home building company in Northern California that provide hand crafted and antique elements imported from France. They specialize in custom doors and windows, French limestone, antique roof and tile, flooring, shutters, custom woodwork and decorative finishes. They also have their own signature french style doors made in America.

Mercedes Pens Art Car Wrap

2007-12-10T16:48:00.000-08:00

One of the fun things about being a graphic designer is get to try stuff out on my own car which is an 1981 Mercedes Benz 300SD covered in over 6000 pens that I call "The Mercedes Pens". Car graphics or car wraps are a fantastic way to promote your business and let the world around you know who you are and what business your in. They get a lot of attention and are a great way to break the ice or give the potential customer a way to look you up on the internet when they get home. With this window wrap I have gotten a lot publicity and exposure of my art car around town and on the web. Just do Google search on "The Pen Guy" and see what you get.

First I designed a distinct logo to let others know what exactly was that "thing" that drove by covered in pens. After some market research among my friends and family I came up with the catchy Pen Guy name. It was a way get the name stuck in people heads as I drove by, and now I hear people all the time saying "its the pen guy" as I drive by. The logo also had to be legible from a distance while moving at high speeds and reflect an upbeat, positive and fun mood that is the Pen Guy. The logo has gone through about three revisions but for the most part I think it works well for what it is.

Accuchex Logo

2007-12-07T16:06:00.001-08:00

This logo was created for Accuchex Corp., a provider of payroll management services based in Novato, California. The logo is just a small part of the comprehensive corporate identity that we created for the company. My favorite part of this logo is letter a over the red box. I generated pages and pages of hand drawn sketches of this shape to finally create a shape that I was happy with. I think I spent about a day or so getting the curvature just right. I then scanned my image and traced it in Adobe Illustrator to create a vector based logo. Another fine detail that I like is how the curve hides part of the letters h and e and the x extends down and under the red box. Those three element are the kind of attention to detail that makes a great logo design.

Analy Field Goals

2007-12-06T14:02:00.000-08:00

Analy Field Goals is web site was created for Analy High School in Sebastopol CA, for the purpose of raising money to replace the old grass field with new Astro Turf. The web site design is based on the brochure which was first created as a mailer to raise awareness for the project.

Forestville Historical Society Logo Design

2007-12-06T13:43:00.000-08:00

ArtCar Fest 07 Flyer

2007-09-11T16:47:00.001-07:00

This was a fun project for this years ArtCar Fest event in which I was able to try out the "Tabloid" look. Bold type and outragous headlines. I also got to include my art car called the Mercedes Pens in the upper right hand corner on the front.

Play It 4 Word Logo Design

2007-09-11T16:32:00.001-07:00

Reach 360

2007-09-11T15:26:00.001-07:00

This logo was for America Print that was redesigned, the new name became Reach360. We had to make it classy, abstract and totally out of the box. After many false starts we decided to look to Frank Stella for inspiration. In the end we found both inspiration and the direction we were looking for. Thank you Frank!