Digital

Dig­i­tal

E*TRADE Web Animations

These web ani­ma­tions use the E*Trade aster­isk in unique ways to illus­trate exclu­sive fea­tures such as high­er mon­ey mar­ket rates, risk man­age­ment tools, and port­fo­lio bal­anc­ing aids.

ViralGains | Case Studies

Viral­Gains is a video plat­form that engages con­sumers in a two-way con­ver­sa­tion to dis­cov­er exact­ly what they want and how they feel. Brands can then build a unique jour­ney that con­nects con­sumers with rel­e­vant mes­sages. This cre­ates authen­tic con­nec­tions, not cur­so­ry clicks. We gave them a mantra: Don’t Chase Eye­balls, Cap­ture Hearts.

 

I wrote these head­lines to intro­duce their com­pelling case stud­ies. As is often the case in free­lance assign­ments, the client exe­cut­ed them. My orig­i­nals includ­ed the spe­cif­ic brand names in the headlines.

 

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Con­cep­tu­al and strate­gic think­ing always come into play in any visu­al com­mu­ni­ca­tion, whether it’s a bill­board or a book cov­er. I think the best ideas trans­form the famil­iar and invite the view­er to “get” the joke and enjoy the sat­is­fac­tion in fig­ur­ing it out.

Then I looked at it anoth­er way: by the rig­or­ous require­ments of media pro­duc­tion, fac­to­ry-shipped Macs are incom­plete. I also rec­og­nized that the famous Apple logo was incom­plete, too. This gave me my solu­tion: a hand (Reloaded Mac) plac­ing the absent piece back into the apple. This was a big­ger state­ment than just show­ing a spe­cif­ic machine and also rein­forced the com­pa­ny’s name.

I found I had to flip the logo hor­i­zon­tal­ly so that the action moved left to right in order to read as intend­ed; the hand appeared to remove the piece when it was on the right side of the apple. This mod­i­fi­ca­tion had the added ben­e­fit of avoid­ing copy­right infringement.

E‑Book Cov­er Designs | IAT Interactive

In this series of text and ebooks, stu­dents exam­ine the impact humans have on the envi­ron­ment. They address spe­cif­ic land-use chal­lenges, choose solu­tions, and defend their choices.

I was tasked to design the cov­ers. I didn’t want them to be gener­ic, or even all typog­ra­phy, but want­ed them to illus­trate each top­ic and engage the stu­dents in a unique, delight­ful way. I researched the stock pho­tog­ra­phy and did the retouching.

Urban. Stu­dents decide whether to pre­serve a nature trail or build an ath­let­ic field for the school.

Among my ideas for the “Urban” cov­er was one lane of the run­ning track as still an unde­vel­oped trail, or flow­ers push­ing through cracks in the track. But since the stu­dents must choose one or the oth­er and defend their choice, my idea lit­er­al­ly evolved into a fork in the road depict­ing their two options.

Sprawl. Stu­dents con­sid­er the pro­posed con­ver­sion of farm­land to a sub­ur­ban hous­ing development.

My first ideas for “Sprawl” includ­ed an aer­i­al view of a hous­ing devel­op­ment that formed a giant ques­tion mark, or was shaped like an arrow point­ing toward and encroach­ing on pris­tine land. Then I rec­og­nized that, in a way, these devel­op­ments were like farms them­selves; instead of orchards or fields with even­ly spaced crops, they con­tained even­ly spaced homes. This insight led to the idea of a farmer plant­i­ng hous­es instead of seeds.

Ama­zo­nia. Stu­dents must pre­pare a plan for a small region of Ama­zo­nia, jug­gling such land uses as soy­bean farm­ing, cat­tle ranch­ing, and for­est preservation.

I thought about a pie chart to depict land use options, while also being mind­ful of the glob­al con­cern over defor­esta­tion of the Ama­zon. Com­bin­ing the two I came up with a pie chart carved into a tree slice, since each des­ig­nat­ed use would come from the elim­i­na­tion of trees.