This was another key product launch that required product shots. No units could be spared for photographs, and no mechanical file was available to use as a starting point, so I created this model based on photographs from the product manager. Later, I created more accurate product shots from the engineering model, but my temporary fix made the marketing launch possible.
This was a learning project I devised for myself, but since Teledyne LeCroy does mobile connectivity testing, I thought the results might come in handy.
3D rendering is a great way to get a feel for a booth space with all of the displays and counters in place, and makes it easier to communicate electric drops to event services providers, who typically request floor plans anyway.
One of my first learning projects was to make a couple of iconic pieces of gear from Star Trek. Among the lessons I learned was that creating a sense of realism is all about the details – and the fact that these two items are so well known and easily recognized meant I couldn’t fudge it too much.
This product was a huge rollout for Teledyne LeCroy, but units for photographing were so scarce leading up to the launch that a rendering was called for. It gave us the opportunity to come up with some slightly more daring angles and exotic settings.
Product catalogs are always being updated to reflect new offerings. But having the time to overhaul the design is a rare luxury, so when you finally do have the opportunity, the design has to be one that everyone will be happy with for a while. The Frontline brand of Teledyne LeCroy never had a product catalog until I introduced the first iteration some years before the one pictured here. They received an enthusiastic welcome from salespeople who were used to hauling around loose datasheets to every event.
I’ve done quite a few product and services brochures in my time at Teledyne LeCroy, some of which are depicted on the left.
The interface before the redesign…
The interface before the redesign…
A pencil drawing of a young John Lennon.
My ray gun drawings are based on real-world objects. I use vintage drill parts and other sundry materials, add some paint and wiring, and use a filament bulb to make a cool retro lamp. The illustrations are pretty accurate, if stylized, recreations of those pieces.
Another fun puzzle to solve is product branding, particularly when it also serves as user interface. Limited spaces require a clear and concise approach, and special attention to precision. Some of the products I’ve branded have silk screened graphics directly onto the enclosure (left), while others, like the one pictured above, have applied labels. The Harmony product, which was created by a number of talented people, is currently being used by the production vendor as an example of efficient and attractive product design.
Social media posts are all about the content, but you have to catch the reader’s eye first. Some of the designs incorporate content to split the duty with the post, and a few are purely decorative – either way, branding helps to set these kinds of images apart from straight photo stock downloads.
I’ve created hundreds of social post images for Teledyne LeCroy–so many and so varied that our management asked us to create a poster featuring some of them to hang in our facilities.
New author Bill Cokas from Raleigh, North Carolina asked me to do the cover art for his first book, “Ring of Fire.” He liked the cover enough to ask me to provide the art for his second book, which he was finishing at the time. Since Bill is also a talented illustrator and an experienced advertising exec, he came to both projects with a lot of great ideas, and seemed pleased with the outcome of our collaborative efforts. (The books are outstanding, by the way…)
My Crozet poster (above) is the best seller from a larger freelance endeavor of retro-styled travel posters of central Virginia locales.
Some of these are available in the museum store at James Monroe’s Highland in Charlottesville, and they’re all available on Etsy.
When I first came to Frontline, their product datasheets all had a very dated and sometimes inconsistent feel. I gave them a little color and polish, and brought them all together to help convey the idea of a family of products.
This was a newspaper advertisement for a private school to the north of Charlottesville, Virginia. The client’s previous marketing had been mostly internally assembled, so the challenge was to try to keep things accessible while notching their marketing approach up a bit.
Some of my banners and trade show booth work in action.
I enjoy working on pamplets – the use of linked but separated spaces is always a fun knot to unravel, especially when so much real estate is spoken for (e.g. association logos and bulleted lists). The piece above helped Teledyne LeCroy launch a new product/service package.
Clean and high-tech – that’s the approach we aim for when trying to reach technical people. Interesting banners help, but a clean, well-spaced font with a few colorful graphics can help to keep things uncluttered.
As a graphics designer for Frontline Test Equipment, I’ve done a number of pull up 8′ banners in support of industry trade shows, four of which are represented here. I designed the two on the left to either serve separately, or to be used next to one another as a way of creating a sort of portable booth backdrop.
Buck slips are always a fun challenge because of the narrow aspect ratio and limited real estate. I find the format to be a natural fit for white space and imagery, which I tried to take advantage of in both of these pieces.
Including a few others here for a variety of northern Virginia clients.
This young singer-songwriter recently was recognized by the Washington Area Music Association for Best Debut Album. His first album was the one above, for which I designed the cover and disc art.
For ads like this, the content (whether I write it or not) is the first and most important piece of the puzzle. Some content changes mid-stream have demanded complete redesigns of the layout, so I like to have the words locked down as early and as definitely as possible.
Business cards – they never seem to go out of style, do they? Who knows, maybe NFC and smart phones will bury them one day, but for now, business cards are still a fun challenge, particularly when the client wants everything plus the kitchen sink on one side. Here’s a collection of some of my card designs from various clients (and client personalities).
This was a direct mail piece for a transcription service. This client was great in that they specifically wanted to avoid feeling stuffy. They liked this piece, because they felt it was compelling to turn over, and kept the message from becoming too dry.
Website for marketing small business. Visit at http://www.blueshamrock.net.
Website for veterinarian home euthanasia business. Visit the site at http://www.journeysendathome.com/.
Website for financial advisor. Visit the site at http://barrackyard.com/.
Website for state-wide paralegal organization. Site no longer active.
Website for Washington DC-area waterproofing and roofing company. Visit the site at http://www.pwcompany.com/.
Website for marketing small business. Visit the site at http://www.whistlecorps.com.
Website for regional chapter of a national architects association. Site no longer active.