Montell Jordan Knows How He Does It

I did this album cover more than a year ago, and as far as design goes, it's nothing groundbreaking... but it was fun. This was a digital-only greatest hits album, and although it's a somewhat random job, I think it's kinda cool. I used to jam out to this dude when I was in high school, so this brought back some memories. I put This Is How We Do It on repeat (for a couple times through... didn't want to completely ruin the song) and put together some concepts one night... and what you see to the left, as the final version, is one of those original concepts. The only change I made was swapping out the album name once that decision was finalized. 

Exciting stuff, right? Yeah, thrilling. Sometimes when I under-design something, I feel like my client is going to think I'm being lazy... but a good client gets it, if it works. Montell gets it.

Cofactor: Still Sequencin' DNA All Day

I recently got to create this magazine ad for Cofactor Genomics, which was (for such a scientific company) actually a lot of fun. We initially sat down with a lot of ideas as to what this ad needed to convey, but the big goal was to say it more creatively than most of the other ads they would be competing with in various scientific publications. We settled on this idea of the "cup game" and suggesting that there's an obvious choice. It's not groundbreaking, but it was a fun way to get their message across: better results, faster. If you choose Cofactor first, you'll get what you're looking for (and more) in a fraction of the time.

So, with the idea in-hand, I set out to make it happen. I had an impromptu photo shoot on the coffee table in our living room, which had to look pretty ridiculous. I had several large lights set up to photograph three styrofoam cups. As per usual, my wife thought I was nuts... but as you can see, the end result looks great. 

Whenever I can, I like to take my own photography. Not only am I able to get exactly what I was looking for, but it helps give my projects even more of a custom look. A little creativity and a camera can take you a long way.

St. Louis College of Pharmacy

One of my last client projects with SteadyRain was this interactive Flash recruitment piece for the St. Louis College of Pharmacy, and I'm really happy with how it turned out. In previous years, they had been reusing the same basic piece and just updating the content, sometimes the color scheme, so this year they decided to revamp the whole thing and for me, the goal was simplification.

The final product is a clean, simple, easy to navigate walk through the College of Pharmacy, featuring lots of video and images to accompany the content. In addition to the top navigation, we also used 'next' and 'back' buttons to allow users the option of walking through page by page, or jumping directly to any section or page.

Artfix Is Coming...

Thursday night is Artfix 2010, and since I'm excited about it, I decided to show off the piece I created for the event. It's a digital collage called Orangefield Road. The final product is a 24" x 36" canvas, so it's a pretty bold piece to say the least. People will no longer wonder where you stand on the color magenta after you hang this sucker on your wall. 

If there's a good response, I may start offering prints like this one for sale... so drop me a line and let me know how you feel about that idea if you've got nothing better to do. See you at Artfix on Thursday!

Also, don't forget about my show on Friday at the Gramophone.

Artfix 2010

Let me tell you about a great event that I'm participating in: Artfix. It's a great cause... but I'll let them explain:

WHAT: 4th Annual ArtFix Art Auction & Party 50+ gifts, 23 artists, 11 restaurants, live music and one great benefit party! Music by the Matt Rowland Band

WHEN: Thursday Night, November 04, 2010 | Cocktail Hour 6pm – 7pm | Food Begins 7pm – 10pm | RSVP at Facebook

WHERE: Dave Mungenast Lexus, 13700 Manchester Road, Ballwin, MO. Map it/Get Directions.‎

HOW: Tickets for this event are now available online! Click HERE to get yours now! At the door, a $40 donation allows you to enjoy this fantastic evening with art, music, good food and friends!

WHY: To raise money for Rebuilding Together – St. Louis. All proceeds from the event and auction are put directly to use helping to bring volunteers and communities together to improve the homes and lives of low-income homeowners in Saint Louis. More About the Event.

I donated a brand new print of mine called "Orangefield Road", a digital photo collage on canvas. I will toss a sneak peak at it up here sometime before the event.

Also participating are some good friends and fellow artists of note: Katie Roberds, Michael Forbis, and Sara Keller. That's not to say that everyone involved isn't great, because they're all of an incredibly high caliber, so not only is it a good cause, but it's a great showcase of some of the stellar talents that St. Louis has to offer.