Something for Nothing

All professional Artists and Designers dream to have enough work to keep them steadily busy and fed, lol.  Most all deal with people on a regular basis that don't understand the amount of time, energy and at times, the emotional toll it takes to create good, professional work.

I recently encountered my lastest round of "Something for Nothing" inquires.  Below is the email correspondence from start to finish I recently had with an individual wanting to use an image of mine he found online.

The names and locations have been changed to protect the innocent.

Dear Bryan:

I came across a photograph of a billboard on the website: http://www.bryanfinch.com/2011/08/here-are-couple-of-pictures-of-actual.html that I'd like to use this photograph in a book chapter I've just completed titled "Technology and the Changing Geography of Religious Media" for a book being edited by KERMIT THE FROG of THE MUPPETS called "The Changing World Religion Map."  I would be grateful if I could have you permission to use the photograph. I am happy to credit you as the source of the photograph.

Best wishes,

FOGHORN LEGHORN, THE GIANT CARTOON CHICKEN

My response:

I would be happy to let you use the photo. The only thing I ask for in return is either a copy of the completed book or a "tear sheet" of the page the photo is displayed on. Please let me know if this is something that can be done before you move forward. I can also provide you with the proper info to credit me with, after we reach an agreement.

Thanks for asking before you used the image. It's nice to know that there are still people will to go the extra mile and seek out the permission to use someones original work before they just steal the image off of google.

Thanks again and please keep in touch,

Bryan Finch 

MR. LEGHORN'S response:

Dear Bryan:

I would be grateful to be able to use the photograph. Unfortunately, I can't provide you with a copy of the book. I would be happy to send you a Xerox copy of the page with your photo (or the entire chapter). As far as the photo credit, it will consist of your first and last name.

If this isn't an acceptable arrangement I understand.

Best wishes,

FOGHORN

My response:

Why is it not possible for me to obtain a copy of the book? It's normally standard professional practice for the artist/designer to receive a copy of the book or at least a "tear" sheet (professionally printed page of the layout with the artwork on it) that their work is displayed in. This is has never been an issue for me in the past and I'm curious as to why this cannot be done in this instance.

Bryan Finch

MR. LEGHORN'S response:

Dear Bryan:

My chapter is appearing in an academic book that is likely to have a relatively small number of copies printed. I’m receiving no compensation for writing the chapter (and I would be required to pay for any copies of the book I request beyond the chapter author’s copy I receive). In terms of the subject matter being shown in the photograph, my interest is not in the design but rather, in the fact that religious media is being promoted on a billboard.

The best I can do is to send a copy of the page with your photograph when the book comes out (or a copy of the entire chapter if you would prefer). If this isn’t acceptable to you I understand and I will look elsewhere for a suitable photograph.

Best wishes,

FOGHORN

My response:

FOGHORN,

Again, thanks for asking to use my image but unless I can get a copy of the book or a professional tear sheet, I think I will pass on letting my image be used in the book. It's a shame that you are not be compensated more for the time and energy you are spending working on this. It's nice that the publisher is giving you one copy of the chapter you are writing.

I'm also a little concerned with how the image maybe represented. I don't fully understand what the purpose of the chapter is but I know the statement you made: "my interest is not in the design but rather, in the fact that religious media is being promoted on a billboard" has me concerned with the motives behind it. I would not want the church on billboard to be part of some editorial spin that would try to cast a negative light on the real message of the church.

If I'm wrong, I apologize for jumping to that conclusion.

Obviously you liked something about the "design" or you would have picked a different image from the thousands of church billboard designs you get when you do a google image search.

Thanks again and good luck in your search,

Bryan Finch

FOGHORN'S response:

Bryan,

Thanks for your response. I will look elsewhere for an image to use.

Best wishes,

FOGHORN LEGHORN, THE GIANT CARTOON CHICKEN

As you can see, Mr. Leghorn was very polite throughout our correspondence.  I am legitimately upset that he is not being better compensated for his time and I don't believe I was asking for all that much in return for allowing access to my work.  I'm almost 100% positive in saying that there are other images that will be displayed in this book that someone had to pay royalties for to have access to them.  All I wanted was one copy of the book.

I do appreciate the chance to have my work displayed in a book but I was more concerned with the context in which the work would be displayed.  The fact that I didn't get a direct answer to that question, I believe is actually the answer to the question.

I think we all the see the moral to this story...

Never let giant cartoon chickens write books...or something like that.

Come Awake

I previously did some design work for a local organization call The One Initiative (or TOI).  If you scroll down a bit, you can see some of the other work I did for them.

The next TOI event is titled "Come Awake" and is scheduled for Feb. 11th of next year.  The event's theme is centered around this simple idea; "You're not the only one who feels like the only one."  David Crowder fans out there may recognize the event's title and the tag line since it's from one of his songs.  The song obviously was the inspiration for the event and has become the unofficial theme song as well.  Hope he doesn't mind, lol.

So many young people deal with things in their lives and think that no one else could possibly image what it's like to deal with whatever that thing is. 

This event serves two purposes; One, to let them know that they are not alone.  God is always right by their side. Secondly, to show them that others have dealt with the same issues they are dealing with and made it through to the other side with God leading them all the way.  All you have to do ask for his help.

Go to www.coroflot.com/bryanfinch to see the other promo items I designed for the "Come Awake" event.

Making Boring Tradeshows Look Good Since 2010

With my day job, I don't get the chance much to really let the creative juices flow as much as I would like. But when an opportunity comes up to create flashy banners for what most would consider a boring trade show, I jump all over it.  Hey, it's all I've got.  Plus, It's a nice challenge to try and make something out of nothing so to speak.

Change you Can Believe In

Obviously by now most people have realized that that this has become the new home to all things Bryan Finch.  New layout, new logo, same guy.  I have several new things to post so be on the look out. 

Have a Happy Thanksgiving.  Take time out to thank God for all that he's provided you with over the last year.  Be thankful for what you have and don't dwell on what you don't have.

Embrace the Finch

COMING SOON

Home Sweet Home

Well, it's official and it's been a long time coming.

http://www.bryanfinch.com/ is no longer the boring and drab website that it was.  That domain will now (and for the foreseeable future) bring you to this boring and drab blog you are currently viewing. : )



I've wanted to update, redo, throw-out, throw-up, regurgitate, start over my website for a long time and this is the first step in the process of doing such.

Expect some changes to the layout and design to the blog/my new home as I experiment with what I want to make it look like.  Think of it as me trying out paint samples on a wall in your house.  Not such much your house but the interwebs.  And not really so much paint samples as much as pixels and CMYK values.

You get the idea.

Against the Odds: Standard Layout

Here is what I'll calling the "standard" layout for the Against the Odds logo I'm currently working on.  The client really wanted to have a version that had some sort of dirty or grungy texture applied to it.  The bottom version is that. 

I played around with a bunch of custom made textures.  The first texture really eroded the logo to the point that I thought it was too distracting.  I eventually went back to the pencil shading texture I did for the sketches and turned it into a vector texture.  Then I just made a clipping mask with each letter and a copy of the texture.  I normally like a lot of texture but in this case, I think less is more.

 The logo is basically complete, I just need to finalize some color options for the client to look at.

Against the Odds: Process Work

I took my original sketch into illustrator and created letter forms based off my initial thought process.  I normally start with an existing font and alter it fit my design but in this case, I just started from scratch.  The lighter shade of grey in the upper left under my sketch is the first version.  The versions progress along in order from light to dark.  If that makes sense. 

In about the 4th version, I switched gears a bit with the details of the logo type.  I originally intended for the type to have tiny serifs on the "backside" of each letter form to lead the eye from one letter to the next but after spending some time really studying the overall design, I decided to lose them.  I decided that a sans serif look was better suited to this design.  I did add rounded corners on certain points of each letter form in the place of the serifs for more detailing.

The last design is not the final version but is much more in line with what I had envisioned for this design.  So far so good I guess.  I'll post the next steps soon.

Against the Odds: Round 2

This round of sketches were much more successful. The client really wanted to focus on two key ideas/thought:

•Truth, coming out of darkness.
•The messy work of emotions

I personally, really wanted to spend some time reflecting on what being "against the odds" means and how to represent that graphically.  One of the critiques I received from the client on the first round of sketches was that it was too clean to represent what she dealt with in the counseling of people with serious problems.  She also wanted the logo to not necessarily scream "hey you, I'm a logo for a mentoring/counseling service!!"

So first I considered what worked in the first couple of sketches, which wasn't much, lol.  The client really liked the "rough" texture that was made made be my diagonal pencil shading.  So I brought that over in the top concept.  In the top concept, I tried to elude to the fact that a lot of people might look well put together on the outside but on the inside, they are a mess.  Sometimes, the messy things they are trying to keep bundled up in there becomes to much to contain and breaks through to the surface.  I wanted this concept to almost purely be based on text design.  To symbolize what I was trying to do, I chose a serif font that I slightly altered.  I connected the serif on the "g" and the "a" to signify the partnership the client forms with her patients.  I used the same pencil shading texture in this design as I used in the first round of sketches.  The overall design relates the idea of internal emotional conflict and how it can affect our outward dealings.

The next concept with the arrows is where I kicked it up a bit.  For this concept, I really wanted to explore want being against the odds would look like.  I tried to break it down to the simple idea of being out numbered.  Out numbered by what? Something physical? Something emotional? Maybe a combination?  It doesn't really matter what it is, it's only matters that you feel like you can't overcome your current circumstance.  I started playing around with different variations of arrows and how they could interact with each other and BOOM!! It hit me.  A symbol that not only utilizes positive and negative space nicely but also works as a metaphor for "Truth, coming out of darkness." 

I continued to mess around with the direction of the arrows along with positive and negative space which can be seen in the bottom design that has the "A" in the arrows going up and down.  I wasn't as crazy about this design as the design with the arrows going horizontally but I included it anyway.  

Up next, Round 3. 

Against the Odds Unused Sketches

 

Sometimes you think you have a solid idea that totally rocks and you just know everyone involved will go gaga over it.  This is not one of those times.  I took on a logo design project at the beginning of August for a mentoring/counseling service called "Against the Odds."  After talking to the client, a couple of initial ideas popped into my brain really quick (see the images above).  I showed them to the client and although she liked them, she didn't believe that they fit the over all feel of her organization.  I was a little disappointed because I thought I had hit the nail on the head.  But after more creative discussion with her on what she wanted out of a logo, I went back to the drawing board, or desk in my case.  My next round of sketches were much more in line with her own vision of what she wanted.

Two important life/design lessons learned from this so far:

(1.) Your first solution to a design project is probably based too much off of your past visual history.  Take that initial design, push it aside and push in deeper until you are drained creatively.  Don't completely forget about it though.  It might have some value in helping you determine where to go next.

(2.)  At some point, you have to get past your own references.  I'm all for using references and doing research for my creative work. Seeking out knowledge is never a bad thing.  But eventually, you have to put them away because they will start to hold you back.  They can cause to have self doubt in your abilities.  Eventually, you have just let them go and design from your gut.

The Horizontal Church

I've been pretty busy as of late working on a new logo project so I haven't had much time to post anything new.  So in an effort to tide you over, here is a piece of eye candy for you to enjoy.  It's a graphic I quickly put together for a sermon series my pastor was working on.  Unfortunately, it didn't get used but I thought I'd show it anyway. 

I don't really mess with photography in my work that much so this was a fun exercise in doing so.  Not my photo mind you but a free stock photo from www.morguefile.com.  I altered it from the original to suit the message I was trying to convey.

Let me know what you think in the usual place.

Final Elevate Student Ministry Logo Layouts

Here are the final logo layouts for Elevate Student Ministry.  Not much changed from the last post.  About the only thing different is that I eliminated the version that had the mountain in the "A" over just the text.  I thought it was redundant and too similar to the layout that has the fading and transparent mountain.  Let me know what you think...

Agents of Change...

Quick logo design for another ministry apart of Harvest Christian Centre.  This ministry focuses on people entering into college and stepping out into the career field.  Catalyst basically means, if you break it down into a simple definition, something that causes change. It's often used in dealing with scientific jargen. The question is what is the change we are talking about here? The change is the cross.  When the cross is applied to your life, everything changes.  Then the cross becomes central to your life, you in turn become an agent of change. The idea behind the logo is all based on this.

The overall design is rather simple.  I wanted to design something that had an almost "scientific" look to it because of the scientific use of the word. I started thinking about protons and neutrons and stuff like that and how they where normally represented visually.  I thought about the complete atomic change that happens when you introduce a new element into the mix.  Just like the cross. 

I also wanted this logo to have a similar look to the "element youth ministry" logo because of them both being under the same Church ministry umbrella.

Batman Redesign

Final line work and color for my take on Batman.  I used a muted color palette on the Dark Knight to contrast the bright, vibrant colors of my Superman design.  If I was going to do this over, I think I would reexamine my solution for the belt.  The more I look at it, I think it might be a little clunky.  We'll see what happens.  Stay tuned, maybe next I'll work on a certain heroine who has been seen flying an invisible jet.  I know, that didn't really make any sense.  Neither does an invisible jet. : )

Holy Batman Redesign!!

So I did a Superman redesign a while back and almost immediately started doing a Batman design right after I finished.  Then life happened, lol.  I became so busy with other things & other projects that this was buried under piles of stuff on my desk. 

In recent light of and in total disgust of DC Comics "relaunch," (which is really a reboot, but don't argue with dc fan boys, you can't win) I decided to finally finish this.

Above are scans of all my preliminary work up to the finished line work. In the first image of the line up, I stole the legs from my Superman design so they would be similar in design and because I was feeling lazy.  Hey, I'm honest.  Don't judge me. 

Obviously the legs changed as I changed the over all look of my Batman, which by the way, happened about a billion times in my head and translated into about 3 times on paper.  I couldn't make up my mind what kind of Batman I wanted my Batman to be.  Technical with a lot of armor and gadgets or sleek and streamed lined? Ultimately I think I was able to merge the two ideas to some degree.  Overall, the costume is fairly simple.  All the classic Batman elements are there, minus the underwear. That was an easy choice.  It's sleek with out the look of armor. It reminds me that under the cowl is just a man, not a "superman." My design allows for focus to be on his skills as a detective and as a martial artist, two of Batman's core elements.  The utility belt is deigned to show the technical side of Batman.  I wanted to make sure that the belt was able to contrast the simplicity of the suit & at the same time reiterate the fact that he is just a man.  He needs the bat-a-rangs, gas pellets & shark repellent to help him get the job done more effectively. Oh, and the grappling gun to scale all those buildings in Gotham. Not sure where he keeps that though. : )

The finished line work on the far right was all hand done with a few elements, like the batman symbol and parts of the utility belt, being drawn in  to photoshop after it was scanned.

Final color version coming soon...stay tuned, same Bat-time, same Bat...uh...Blog!!

Harvest Christian Centre Billboard in Action

Here are a couple of pictures of the actual billboard I posted the design for a couple of weeks back. The billboard company had it printed and hung up early this week. Pretty cool feeling to see your work in actual use. It never gets old. : )

Elevate Student Ministry Layout Options

Okay, here's what we have come up with for the "Elevate Student Ministry" logo. Notice I said student, meaning the client liked using "student"over "youth" for the logo. The client also likes the blue and blue/grey color scheme as opposed to the others I had shown them.

I also came up with a few other layouts for the logo utilizing the different elements of the original design. Not intending to use them all but I wanted to explore the possibilities. I personally like the one with the faded mountain in the back and the bottom layout with just the text. One more go at it and I should have everything finalized.

Elevate Student Ministry Progress Work

After settling down on a design, here is what the logo has advanced into. Working now to decide which is a better fit for the design; either "student ministry" or "youth ministry." Also trying to come up with a color scheme. Next step, after the before mentioned is finalized, is to make alternate layouts/versions of this design to use in different instances.

Elevate Student Ministry Preliminary Work

Here are some quick sketches for a logo I'm currently working on for another local youth group. The group's name is "Elevate." I'm trying to work out concepts now but I keep coming back to mountain imagery. The group's leaders focus on teaching youth to "rise above the enticements of this world." I guess that's where the mountain theme I keep coming back to comes from. A verse from the Bible, which also fits in line with the mountain imagery I keep coming back to is Mathew 7: 13-14: "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." That verse reminds me of a mountain and how it is wide at the bottom and narrow at the top which fits perfectly in line with the youth group's teaching. Another thought I had is about how difficult the climb up a mountain can be but the verse from Philippians 4:13: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me," shows us that we don't have to be alone on the climb. Trying to work all this into the logo. Wish me luck.

Harvest Christian Centre Billboard Design

Here is a billboard design & layout I did for my church. The photo has a watermark on it because it is just a place holder. The company that actually prints the billboard will replace that image with a high rez photo that they have the rights to. The bottom design was my original concept, the top is what actually will become a billboard. Although I like the bottom layout better, the top design should hopefully be easier to read zooming 65mph past it.

ONE Initiative Logo & Branding Elements

I actually made this a while back but forgot to post it so here you go.

Here is a logo design and some other promo stuff I did for a local body of churches that have banded together, regardless of denomation, to reach out to the teens/youth in the area. About every 3 months or so, we get toegther and have a large youth rally with high enegry music, games and several speakers that speak and teach on the bible in a way that youth can relate and understand. Here is a link to the one inititave's website: http://www.theoneinitiative.org/. You can also view a poster I did for the last event back in March.

Spins a Web Any Size, Look Out Here Comes...

Here is a Spider-man standing pose I did recently to work on a redesign of his costume. After several attempts and 3 erasers later, I have personally come to the conclusion that his costume is just about perfect. I just wasn't happy with any of the overhauls I came up with. I don't think there are too many comic characters out there who's costumes are able to stand the test of time (see my Superman redesign for an example of this) like Spidey's. I believe it still has a nice modern feel and look even though it's over 40 years old.

I only made a couple of slight alterations in my take on Spidey. I simplified the webbing pattern on his costume to make it almost just straight lines intersecting the vertical lines. I also made the spider emblem on his chest more angular and less rounded. I think it makes it more stylized and slightly edgier. Probably the biggest change I made was removing all the blue on his suit and replacing it with black. Typically, Spidey's suit has blue with a ton of black shadowing drawn into it. That always confused me as a child. Was his suit red and blue with black shadowing or red and black with blue highlights? Well, I have removed all confusion.

You are welcome.

Vibrant Glow Logo & Business Card Design

Here is a logo and a business card design I made up for a friend who starting up a spa. The design of the logo came about with inspiration from the sun and how it causes us to "glow," is a manner of speaking. How the sun component is breaking apart and peaking over the horizon line signifies how her spa can "break part" the current condition of your skin and revitalize your skin. The color choices where made off of the initial idea made by the client because she said she liked the color orange. : ) No other reason than that. Sometimes it's just that simply, LOL!!

As she gets her new business endeavor up and going, her primary focus is on spray tanning. I made the business card design reflect that.

You Belong Banner

This is a vertical standing banner I just designed for my church.