Actor and improvisor Cathy Simpson wanted a website that would attract the interest of casting directors, open doors to auditions, and connect her directly with potential employers. I met with her in person to talk about the purpose, content, and style she wanted for her website, and here are some of the words and phrases that came up during our conversation:

strong
professional
warm
natural
minimalist
muted
minimal text
no pink
no black background

Based on these notes, I came up with several potential color themes for the site. From the swatches I sent her, Cathy selected a naturalistic palette of greens and browns that really made her headshot pop on the finished site.

I decided to employ a clean, minimalist layout that would let the site’s content stand out. To facilitate the site’s goal of connecting her with people interested in hiring her, Cathy’s contact information appears above the fold on all pages, and there is a “Contact Cathy” form that enables people to send her a note directly.

In describing Life Art’s objectives, the artistic director had once used the phrase, “Discover your inner twinkle.” I thought this phrase particularly fitting for headshots, which aim to reveal their subjects’ personalities, so I decided to incorporate it into the postcard that would advertise the company’s headshot services. The postcard needed to showcase the quality and style of Life Art’s headshot photography, mention a discount for students and groups, and include the company logo and website URL. Here are a couple of my initial postcard designs:

The director came back saying he loved the “inner twinkle” line but thought that the natural, outdoor shots called for softer colors and lines in the layout. I incorporated his feedback into the next version:

This design had a more freeform, relaxed layout and played up the colors in the headshots but didn’t tie in as well with the logo’s colors. Something about it just wasn’t twinkling, and so I went back to the drawing pad and eventually came up with this next design, which the director absolutely loved and chose as the final version:

The color palette worked with both the photos and the logo, and the star trails pulled everything together with a very emphatic twinkle.

I did a couple of preliminary business card designs for Life Art, one portrait and one landscape. My client opted for the landscape design, which I then worked to refine. So that the company’s services would be a bit more obvious, I swapped out the original tag life along the bottom of the logo for a more descriptive list of services: “Headshots, Monologues, Reels.” The tag line found a new home running vertically down the right edge of the card, where it would visually balance the contact information on the left side.

Life Art is a business that works with performance artists to deliver headshots, lifestyle photos, original monologues, and acting reels that showcase its clients’ unique strengths. When the artistic director of Life Art approached me to design his company’s logo, he had specific ideas and notes he wanted to incorporate, so the design process was very interactive from the beginning. During our initial phone discussion, we discussed the essence of the company’s work. Here are some of the words and phrases that emerged over the course of our conversation:

timeline
life
moving forward
spirituality
digging below the surface
water ripples
sand dial
clock
sun

He had some suggestions for a tag line as well, and wanted to see versions of potential logos both with and without the tag line:

Making it count
you are here
the time is now

He also mentioned a preference for certain colors:

green
manilla
yellow
red
blue

I sketched a few ideas with pencil and paper, trying to combine the abstract notions of time and the evolution of an individual’s life with the beauty of art and nature.

One of my ideas involved a single water droplet rippling outwards, symbolizing a life’s artistic impact on the world. While I liked the concept enough to experiment with it in Photoshop, it didn’t work as a logo because the upside-down text wasn’t easily readable at a glance.

Another idea I had turned the concepts of a timeline and moving forward into a simple multi-colored arrow graphic. It was so strongly directional, however, that I was concerned it would confuse the observer, who might try to find the object at which the arrow was pointing.

I decided to go with something less linear that still referenced time and nature: the sundial. For the tag line, I chose “The Time is Now,” which both ties in with the sundial and prompts potential clients to take action.

In designing the Falling Anvil postcard, I featured the anvil logo on the front with no accompanying text. Seeing the logo on a bright yellow, unusually shaped and oriented postcard intrigues people to flip it over for more information. On the back, they discover the ensemble’s name and tag line, as well as the website URL and member names running around the border. Enough space has been left under the tag line to accommodate a standard size label with time-sensitive information such as specific show dates and venues. The postcard’s 5″x5″ dimensions also make it ideal for use as a promotional drink coaster.

Improvisation ensemble Falling Anvil wanted a memorable, instantly recognizable logo that reflected their fun, fearless, family-friendly style of comedy. In my initial brainstorming, I associated the group’s name with the wiley coyote and roadrunner cartoons. Fortunately for us, real cliff-hugging roads have caution signs to warn us about falling rocks or rockslides. These signs are designed to call attention to themselves from a distance with their bright coloring and convey a single message with centrally aligned text or a symbol. I adapted the road caution sign concept to create a logo that is both familiar in form yet distinctive in context. Additionally, the two-color design makes for affordable printing on a variety of media, including business cards, postcards, and t-shirts.

To advertise their upcoming show at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, sketch comedy group Smelly Ugly Puppets wanted a postcard design that would grab attention and convey the playful spirit of their work. I chose bright colors, a simple layout, and a lollipop to pique the curiosity of patrons who would see the postcards in dimly lit improv theater lobbies.