Fashion-Oriented Artwork for a Fashionable Fitness Tracker

This November has been a busy one—still acclimating to living in the SF Bay Area, working behind-the-scenes toward launching a couple of new ventures, and trying to keep up with my freelance practice at the same time. I've had a variety of projects going on, and one of the more enjoyable has been this campaign for Amazfit, a fitness tracker that's stylish and minimal, comes in a number of sleek styles, and has a nice digital interface to boot. 

As part of a social campaign for Amazfit, I've art directed, style and photographed a fashion-oriented series of images and GIFs, picking out a palette that fits their modern aesthetic. In keeping with the general brand feel, I chose a handful of pastel colors, and accented them with a crimson and aubergine that bring a punchy splash of vibrance to the otherwise airy look. I also created by hand a brush-lettered pattern, exploring type-as-texture. The second textural pattern I created, also by hand, I call (in my sophisticated terminology) "squiggles." 

I'm posting a review of the product here as well, as part of the campaign! It comes in a variety of styles, more masculine and feminine, and can be dressed up or down easily. It's minimalistic and slots right into everyday outfits as a nice accessory. The one I'm wearing in these photos is the Sport version, in black. In the photos I art directed, you'll see the Moonbeam, in white—it also comes in black for those who prefer a darker aesthetic. You can connected it to your computer and set goals for the number of steps, and it'll track your motion. As an added bonus, it tracks your sleep! What's more, it lasts for 10 days on a single charge. Quite a nice piece of hardware to keep around, and it's incredibly comfortable and easy to use as well. Not to mention, it makes for some stellar product photos, as I've discovered while working on the visuals for this campaign. 

Fitness Tracker: Amazfit Sport Jeans: J Crew Shoes: Allbirds

I'll be rolling out the images and GIFs on my Instagram and Twitter (as well as my Facebook and my mostly-forgotten Pinterest) so be sure to follow me on any or all of the above to see the rest of the work, and check out the Amazfit gear while you're at it!

SwissGear Campaign Artwork

Hey friends! I haven't been blogging regularly for a while, what with a lot of life happening recently, moving from Denver to the SF Bay Area, settling into a new and exciting city. However, I want to make an effort to begin sharing more of the process behind my work, whether cursory looks at simpler projects or in-depth step-by-step process documentation. When I started working on this project for Swissgear, it seemed a perfect place to start. 

If you're unfamiliar with SwissGear, they're a pretty widely distributed manufacturer of travel gear—backpacks, suitcases, etc. The project brief was to emphasize mobility and versatility and how the product can help maintain a mobile lifestyle despite the summer drawing to an end and everyone buckling down to work after their vacations. A traditional lettering style ended up being the best route, but I pitched the textural approach of using many strokes to evoke motion and connectivity, visually incorporating some key thoughts from the brief. 

Hella scribbly.

As usual, I started with hella scribbly sketches, beginning with tiny ones to work out basic composition of lettering and photography, and gradually getting larger as I fleshed out the letterforms. My process isn't very glamorous, but it's particularly unglamorous during the "tiny scribbles" stage. 

In keeping with the truth that a freelancer wears many hats, I also directed the photo shoot to match the sketches compositionally. I guess I can add "Director of Photography" to my résumé—look out, Hollywood. This means I also had to use the backpacks, which the agency asked me to do as part of the project anyway. I'd been using a canvas Frank & Oak backpack, but I actually upgraded the heather gray 5311 ScanSmart backpack to my day-to-day. It isn't unwieldy but has a gazillion pockets, to keep the iPad, MacBook, sketchbooks, cords, camera, and pencil collection from jumbling around,  and the heathered texture gives it that slightly classy vibe even though it emphasizes practicality. I also tried out the 6752 ScanSmart TSA bag, which is slightly more austere but larger, and can fit a week's worth of stuff. I preferred the heathered 5311, but my girlfriend co-opted the 6752 as her day-to-day and it's worked pretty well. I think my favorite thing about the backpacks is that they're the kind of bag that you can take to Yosemite for the weekend and then dust it off and take the BART downtown on Monday to lunch with a friend and then work for a few hours at a coffeeshop because you have your entire office with you on your shoulder. Which I in fact did. All in all, a great day-to-day bag in the 5311, and then the gargantuan 6752 ScanSmart TSA that I'd take on a flight to Alaska or something.

Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled programming. With photos in hand, I revised the sketches to fit the visuals and pulled them into Illustrator to vector it up. All those little strokes were a time-consuming task, using a mix of Illustrator Blend Tool wizardry and manually pen-tooling it as a form of self-torture. I tried to vary the gaps a little to maintain that feeling of motion and avoid weird gaps that distract from the composition.

And there we have it—2 pieces for a social campaign, from start to finish.

And if you fancy having one of these fine bags of your own, you can acquire them here—the 6752 ScanSmart TSA bag, and the heather gray 5311 ScanSmart. This post, as well as the project, was sponsored by SWISSGEAR, but all thoughts and opinions are my own, obvs.

Work Hard And Smart

“Work smart, not hard”—we’ve all had an uncle, teacher or boss repeat this popular phrase to you once or twice. We generally have an aversion to hard work, because it’s, well, hard. We’d rather envision success bestowed upon us easily, and gloss over the agonies of effort and failure and small victories offset by large disappointments; but I have a feeling that whoever coined this phrase never accomplished anything in his or her own right. So many factors go into achieving anything—focus, circumstance, goals, luck, etc.—but none of these mean anything without the sheer effort. 

Hard work is the cornerstone of accomplishment. 

Everything else is built on top of that foundation. If the foundation is shaky, the rest of the structure is weak and doesn’t last. I was speaking with a friend the other day who postulated that we don’t often hear about doing the hard work from people who have ‘made it’ because we tend to subconsciously gloss over the difficult stage of pouring into the foundation without seeing much in the way of return—it can be so trying that we don’t want to remember it; and thus we often miss seeing it as an integral part of the process. But hard work is the common denominator among those who have found success. There is no replacement.

Hard work means constantly working to improve, to make every project better than the last. Hard work means revisiting that concept that didn’t work out and making it into something. Hard work means keeping going when things aren’t going right. Finding what went wrong with a bid, an idea, a project, and figuring out how to avoid that mistake next time. Getting up early to stay on top of things, or not going out so you can stay up late and finish a personal project. Avoiding copying things you’ve seen elsewhere in order to come up with something fresh. Hard work is pushing yourself outside your comfort zone.

Have you ever felt like you’re working hard but nothing comes of it?

I know I have. I’ve done a lot of working hard, and then have become discouraged when I don’t begin seeing results. I’m sure you can relate—scenarios where you give it everything you’ve got, but it simply isn’t working. That brings us back to the adage of working smart. It’s apparent that the idea of replacing the concept of hard work is nonsense, but who says that there has to be a hard/smart dichotomy? When I look back at my own habits, I’ve realized that while I do a lot of working hard, I don’t do enough working smart. Suddenly the question changes from “why aren’t things working out” to “how can I make all this hard work more effective?”

How can I work smarter?

Full disclosure: I’ve struggled with working smart, turning hard work into effective work, and I’m still figuring this out as I go. What’s more, there are always new ways to adapt, and the tactics you used to work smart last year might be different this year. That being said, here are a few things that I’ve found helpful.

Relax wisely. It’s common to mistake being busy for hard work; but while it’s easy to make oneself busy, but it ends up being counterproductive. Working hard isn’t subjecting yourself to drudgery—it’s focused and also acknowledges when a break is necessary and actually makes the time spent working more productive.

Set defined goals. Hard work needs a direction to go in. I had a chance to work with Target a few months back—a client I had long been interested in working with. I was doing work that would be of interest, and I sought out a couple people on a friendly level, showed this work regularly. I’ve interacted with a number of people there but Eventually the opportunity arose to do a couple of pieces for them. That’s one example of a specific goal that I set—a good client that I wanted to work with—and took steps toward, and it eventually came together.

Be friendly. Going back to the previous example—nobody likes a salesman type. Make friends, not connections. Share with others, and people respond. Getting to know someone who may be a potential business connection doesn’t have to be slimy; and realize that not everyone you talk to who may be a potential business connection will be! I’ve known a few people at Target for years, but the opportunity wasn’t right until this project came about.

Don’t be (too much of) a perfectionist. I tend to be detail-oriented and stress over minutiae, and I end up wasting a lot of time by overthinking. Often it’s better to polish something to a reasonable level and put it out there, avoiding this trap, than to agonize over details that don’t end up improving the project substantially. Ship it, don’t overthink it!

Figure out what makes you feel more productive and do more of it. Something like taking a 20-30 minute run when you’re beginning to lose focus is beneficial on a number of levels—it’s healthy physically, but it also lets your mind take a break, and you can come back to the project with fresh energy and. The 30 minutes you spent running would likely have been spent checking social media and foggily staring at the screen anyway—it’s time spent in a way that improves productivity later.

There’s No Magic Bullet.

There’s no formula for success; we can’t just plug in the numbers and find ‘x’. There’s no owner’s manual for life, or any of the meaningful aspects of it. But this is about the closest to a formula as it can get. I’m currently in that stage of pouring in the foundation, figuring out as I go how to do this best and how reach the next level; it can be a long and trying stage, and if you’re reading this, you’re very likely in this stage too. But don’t let up—building anything takes a lot of hard work, a lot of smart work, and a lot of time. So ignore your uncle/boss/teacher and keep working your tail off, making smart decisions—use all the tools in your box!

Tools Of The Trade (Or, How To Think Like A Freelancer) Part 2: Sh*t Happens

You probably thought this was all going to be inspirational material, didn’t you? Well, surprise! It’s not—this series is on things I’ve learned as I’ve navigated the rapids of freelancing, growing creatively, and building a career, and this is one of them. It would be great if it were all creativity and rainbows, but more often than we’d like it’s an emotional roller coaster.

We aren’t open enough about missteps or disappointments.

Failure isn’t fun. We don’t like to talk about it, and when we do, it’s wrapped in vague expressions of what this looks and feels like. We worship the concept of failure and frustration as a route to creative growth without wanting to deal with the real-life experience of these things. It’s something for talking heads and keynotes, for those who have “made it” to stand on a stage and deliver this message of embracing failure to an audience of those who haven’t “made it” and are still in the throes of the process; but I feel we often forget that it’s real, intensely personal, and everyone goes through it on a regular basis—even those who are standing on the stage.

Putting the finishing touches on the 'S', which I later smashed.

The first half of this year has been rife with mishaps. I’ve had an opportunity arise that appeared to meet all my personal criteria for a dream gig come up, and it took over a month to hammer out details only to have the client unexpectedly go in a different direction. I’ve had times I wondered if my email were broken; I’ve had a slow month give way to an awful month, an overwhelming percentage of projects dropped and bids declined. I’ve dealt with some personal things. I’ve had episodes of depression; I’ve called or texted friends and driven them crazy looking for reasons. There have been good things too, but I’ve let anxiety get the best of me more than I’d like to admit.

But it’s OK.

Shit happens. It’s not the end of the world. I’m willing to bet that most of you reading this can relate—we all go through periods of anxiety; times of failure, unlucky streaks, whatever you might want to call them. It’s not just you—it’s a shared experience, something we all feel but usually keep under wraps in favor of the perennially confident face visible on social media. But the bent nails, the broken tools are normal; everyone has a toolbox full of things they’ve tried but fell apart on them. I’m being honest with you about mine, and you can feel free to be open with others about yours too.

Beginning the large 'S'—scale references at the left, the ruler and ratchet for width measurements.

A friend told me once that it’s not a true failure unless you give up. When shit happens, sometimes you just have to shrug it off, learn from it, maybe laugh a little over it, and keep building. Sometimes it requires a little extra ingenuity, which brings me to my process!

Turning small into large

Scale references. I draw as many references on the same piece of paper as I can—these are used on both sides—to conserve paper.

This entire project has been making a lot out of a little. I’m always resourceful—I use every corner of every paper; as I write this, I have credit card offers, phone bills, and used envelopes on my desk covered in my scribbles—and this served me well in turning a box and a half of tools into compositions that could be as large as 40”+ square. I start small, sketching tiny drawings to decide on a composition. Since I’m working with a limited amount of material, I can’t create more than 1 glyph at a time (unless they’re small characters, where I have managed 2 at once!). Because of this, I have to create each letter separately and composite it in Photoshop—not at all ideal if you’re used to working with the negative space around words and characters!

This necessitates a scale reference. Because the larger characters range from 18”-22”, I have to tape multiple pieces of copy paper together to create the references, tracing my small sketches blown up on my 15” laptop screen in parts. As shown you can see some of my references, drawn across multiple pieces of paper (on one corner, you can see that it is a shipping receipt–turned–sketch paper). I think I put on a pretty professional face, but yeah, I pretty much just hack it!

Finishing up the large 'S', scale references on the left. Hand for scale; the entire character was about 12"x24" in size. The weird thing I'm pointing to is a sort of blade-less hacksaw handle.

Then, I sort through the tools I have, finding which parts could fit curves or compliment the letterforms. Sometimes I find something that works and use it in the same context in multiple characters. Often I try to switch it up so it’s not redundant. It’s a puzzle, but one in which I make the rules and the design as I piece it together.

Each character is photographed individually and composited. This is more time-intensive even than building the glyphs, since I’m working with daylight and there are tiny variations of color with each photo spanning the days and time windows that I may take building the forms. But in the end, parts become a whole, the components become a composition, and voila! It emerges a masterpiece.

And then, Photoshop crashes, and I lose hours of work just as I’m trying to save out images… but hey, shit happens!

The 'S', before setting up to photograph, and smashing it with a wrench.

Tools Of The Trade (Or, How To Think Like A Freelancer) Part 1: Show Up Every Day

I'd say that showing up every day is difficult, but even that is something of an understatement. Putting in work whether or not you feel motivated, wrenching problematic projects into shape and hammering out ideas even when nothing comes easily—this requires dedication. Why do we do this, anyway? We wouldn't be worth much if we give up when we get tired and things aren't going right. Here are some things I've learned this year about doggedly taking to my desk whether or not I'm feeling it.

Show up mentally.

It’s easy to go on autopilot when I’m feeling depleted—and of course, the results are never impressive. When was the last time you made something half-heartedly and it turned out amazing? This quickly becomes a dangerous habit—giving in allows your drive to atrophy, and makes it that much more difficult to get back into a mental groove. I like to take a quick break every now and then, like a jog or fiddling with an instrument, when I feel myself losing focus or becoming anxious, to tighten up the loose screws in my brain. One of my tricks is making coffee before sitting down to work on a project; it's one of those tiny luxuries that helps me focus and also requires me to spend a few minutes doing something else so when I come back to the desk with my coffee I feel fresher. Finding little ways to check in mentally helps immensely.

Show up creatively.

This may be a cliché (I thought we were talking about being creative here, Joseph!), but the adage about creativity being a muscle is true—use it or lose it. I’ve found that if I let myself get lazy and stop pushing myself creatively, fewer ideas come, and farther between. Don't settle for something you've always done, or go down the trendy path—flex that muscle! I've recently been looking less and less at the work of other designers, looking for ideas in what I see around me and trying to pull my perspective out of the plane and think in surfaces and animation timelines. Looking for new angles is rigorous but rewarding. 

Show up consistently.

This is not only keeping your mindset on the right path and flexing the creative muscle, but proving to yourself, and to others, that you're capable of putting out great work, project after project. Consistency raises outside expectations, which can be intimidating,but putting yourself out there consistently keeps you exploring and breeds a healthy self expectation as well. I commit to get something done every day, even if it's just emails or writing a couple of paragraphs (unless I am taking the day off, which is also healthy on occasion). When I'm working on a piece like this that takes several days or a week to complete, I can't finish something within the day, but as long as I make measurable progress I can know I've accomplished something.

I've been struggling with several of these issues recently—a dry spell, anxiety, lack of creative drive; this project is one result of my commitment to show up every day despite how I feel. Showing up is something we do in faith; this doesn't mean immediate results, but I'm creating something I'm proud of, that means something to me, and I hope this will encourage you to do the same.

Show up every day. It exercises your creativity, maintains your drive, and grows confidence. Showing up isn't easy, but nothing worth doing is easy anyway. If we wanted easy, we wouldn't be doing what we do!

Tools Of The Trade (Or, How To Think Like A Freelancer)

Every now and then I am asked for my thoughts on how to get started as a designer or illustrator. When I’m asked these sort of questions, I’m never quite sure how to answer. Beginning a career, discovering a path, building a freelance practice can get ugly—it’s by no means a simple progression.

That being said, there are a few principles that hold true for everyone. I’ve learned a lot over the past year or so, and learning has been a common theme for me of late as I evaluate circumstances, observe myself and others, and generally work towards building a creative identity. The mindset is as important as anything, and with the understanding of these basics you’re equipped to battle the odds and with some perseverance, elbow grease and maybe a little crying over rejection emails, construct a creative career ex nihilo.

With this in mind I’m beginning a series titled Tools of the Trade (Or, How To Think Like a Freelancer). These principles apply to any area of design, and honestly to most areas of life, but these are particularly lessons that I’ve been learning in regards to freelancing and the creative industry. They’re mental tools, if you will, to stash in your mental toolbox and pull them out regularly to hammer things into shape. Disclaimer: I’m not one for inspirational phrases, which become clichés without context, and these shade a little closer to that line than I’m usually comfortable, but these have personal meaning and I think can mean something personally to you as well. Less of a meaningless mantra, more like lessons learned.

So, get your toolboxes ready and stay tuned! 

Creative South '15: Thoughts & Impressions

Those I met at Creative South 2015 will remember me primarily for one unfortunate occurrence: I was the guy who lost his voice. But even while I hoarsely whispered my way through the weekend, I felt like my voice inside was growing stronger.

The past several months for me have been full of highs and lows, hopes unsubstantiated. I felt frustrated and isolated. A number of people I knew were going to Creative South, and many of those I spoke with beforehand were exhausted, mentally and emotionally. One friend had been dealing with a persistent follower. Another friend was struggling with the feeling that her work wasn’t her own anymore; we were texting about how we were looking forward Creative South and she said, “I think we both need this.”

Shauna opening her talk like a pro. Photo by Alicja Colon

I didn’t realize how much I needed it until I stepped off the plane at ATL and started running into friends in the airport. There were friends I knew well and had seen several times, friends that I’d known online for years but had never met in person, and people whose names I’d heard but hadn’t interacted with. Hugs were given, introductions made, and thus the highlight of 2015 so far began. It felt like coming home.

Right away, on reaching the venue, it’s evident that Mike, Lenny and other Creative South co-conspirators set the tone for the entire crowd—there’s an incredible sense of welcome and warmth. It’s disarming, drops barriers, opens people up. It’s almost like you walk in to the room and can feel Mike’s bear hug surrounding your soul—OK, maybe that’s a little weird, but am I wrong?

The kickoff party on the bridge, somewhere between Georgia and Alabama. Photo by Alicja Colon

Thursday was workshop day, which I spent primarily hanging out with great people, and that evening kicked off the conference in style with an amazing party held on the bridge over the river separating Georgia and Alabama. Mat “The Beard” Helme brought the Ink Wars; there was music, chicken-and-waffles, drinks and a massive crowd having a good time.

The next few days were a blur, and I regretfully missed more talks than I made, even ones that I had wanted to be sure to attend. I had to intersperse a few naps and wash my hands excessively to overcome the cold I was dealing with, although nothing could save my voice, which faded to a raspy whisper by Wednesday evening and remained that way until a day after I returned home. But what made the greatest impression was the people. The talks were great, but we really come here for the face-to-face relationships, the personal connections. Meg Robichaud, in her talk, reminded us that we are humans first, designers/illustrators second. We may bond over our work, with similar struggles and interests; and particularly in creative fields, we often invest a lot of our personal selves in our work. But viewing someone simply as their work flattens them. They’re now an entity, not a person. (Don’t do this to people! They don’t like it.) We’re all just people, after all, with our failures, weaknesses, hopes and fears.

Jen laying down the knowledge and repping living lettering legends Carnase and DiSpigna. Photo by Alicja Colon

You know the great thing about opening up? It’s that people open up to you in return, and an acquaintance becomes a friend. Learning to open up has been a struggle for me, but I felt comfortable sharing portions of my experience that I’d kept mostly to myself, and this to people I’d just met or have only seen a handful of times. There’s an element of risk in being real—sometimes people push back or are scared away—but everyone at Creative South was incredible. There’s an aura of realness (is that a word?) that pervades the conference, and it’s like a drug.

A few conversations, thoughts, people and experiences that really stood out to me, in no particular order: the party on Thursday, and the fireworks? Wow. Great job to everyone involved. Nick Slater, such a great dude; love your infectious enthusiasm and realness. The incandescent emcees Justin and Rogie, you guys were amazing on stage and off. Jen Mussari, Meg Lewis and Laura B. of the Ghostly Ferns crew, and Jonnie, always a pleasure hanging out with you all! Danielle Evans, the type of person you want to have as a friend; thanks for continuing to be awesome but still staying humble and real. Some great conversations with Jen and Danielle on the curse of trends, pushing limits, historical precedent and the future and health of the field; incredibly thoughtful and intelligent people. Getting real with Mattox; always great to talk with you, and hope to do so more often. Shauna, a long overdue meeting; you’re awesome. Molly—funny that we both live in Michigan but meet in Georgia! Great talking with you and good thoughts shared. First person I ate with there, Scotty, your enthusiasm and drive to learn. Mackey and Trisha Saturday, great meeting you and hanging out, good perspectives. Allan and Maria, good to meet you in person finally and chat about family, work, and everything in between. Bob, and Colin, more long overdue meetings! Great to meet up in person. Rob, it’d been too long—and Peter, finally got to meet you! Lenny, great to see you again and wish we’d been able to hang out more! Dave and Laura—wonderful meeting you two, impressive dance moves and good conversation! Meg, whose great thoughts I mentioned earlier. Shuttle ride back to ATL with Sean, Laci and Cory. Tad Carpenter on the importance of concept: “We’re not cake decorators.” I’m sure I’ve left so many people out, as my list is already getting long; but when you get hundreds of amazing people in one place, of course it will be a long list! So many people I wish I’d been able to spend more time with.

The man himself, Mike Jones. Photo by Alicja Colon

Mike, amazing job putting together a conference that is more than a conference. If you think you can come to Creative South, pass out business cards and act like a professional, you’re probably wrong. You could if you really wanted to, but you wouldn’t enjoy yourself much. Make friends, not connections; your work may be personal, but it’s not you. It’s about dropping the façade and being the person behind the name and the work.

The first day at Creative South, I already knew I wanted to come back. I had arrived feeling down and isolated (a common malady amongst freelancers), but left encouraged and surrounded by people I can trust and be real with. My friends came away with similar experiences—struggles alleviated by being around people who legitimately cared; we’re a community, and we look after each other. “Come as friends, leave as family” was more than just a conference catchphrase—it’s really what happened. The conference was over all too quickly, but the feeling lives on in the friendships started, relationships deepened, the thoughts shared; I had come as an individual, with my struggles and doubts, but left as part of an amazing family.

Tad taking questions. Photo by Alicja Colon

I can’t be the only one already looking forward to the family getting back together next year—who’s with me? Here’s to Mike, and Creative South ’16!

Writing New Chapters

We're beginning February of 2015, and settling in to the new year. The holidays are well over, the Super Bowl hype is fading, and we have months of ahead of us uninterrupted by cultural roadblocks—space in which to do new things, create opportunity, explore.

I did a piece near New Year's to express some of my hopes for 2015—finding new opportunities, building on past efforts to reach new goals. One thing that I am going to begin is, quite literally, writing. I have written sporadically before but intend to revisit it as a way of sharing my thoughts and things I find interesting with you all.

The blog will cover both personal and professional things, with a lot of typography- and lettering-related thoughts. I'm looking forward to sharing with you, and hope you enjoy!