Lincoln's Clubhouse

As I'm sure with most kids, my son (who is growing up way to fast mind you) loves Mickey Mouse. He also loved Barney but I can't bring myself to drawing that purple dinosaur. Any who, I started a project a while back where I was going to make Lincoln into cartoon character and put him with the rest of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse gang in front of the clubhouse entrance. I've got the basic character's drawn, Next is the clubhouse background.

Stay tuned to see the process work.

Need Job

Well, things haven't gotten that bad yet but being without a job for close to three weeks starts to mess with you. The company I worked for finally closed their doors due to years of incompetent business practices and mismanagement from the corporate level.

I was so busy trying to wrap things up at that place and searching for a new job that I haven't really had time to post anything new in here. I have been fairly busy though. 2 weeks ago I completed a pretty large project that I can't post of here yet. Actually, I did post the first part of the project on here but was asked to take it down until a later date. So be on the look out for that. I've got a couple other irons on the fire that I will be posting in the next day or so.

In the mean time, be on the look out for a job for a guy qualified to do nothing but make pretty pictures.

It's in your hands now. : )

Here is the final design for the Preferred Realty Logo. Like I said in the last post, I turned this one around pretty quick. The client honed in quick on this concept (which is always a nice thing) and the there really wasn't much to the finish.  They had mentioned early on that they wanted to have some sort of blue & green color scheme incorporated so all I had to do was plug in colors. The only thing that is different from the sketch to the finished art is the tiny little square flourishes I added to the corner of the blue square the "P" and "R" sits in.

It seems like most of logos I design revolve around letter form concepts and designs. It's not intentional. I always try to show a client a few concepts and try to vary them from each other quite a bit. I try to show a symbol or "mark" based design, obviously a letter form design, and I usually try to make a hybrid of the two previous. For what ever reason, it seems like most clients I deal with lean towards the letter form designs.

I guess they really like the ABC's. Thank you Sesame Street.

Preferred Realty



It's been a slow start to the new year but hopefully that will change. I have however just finished a quick, fly by night logo for a up-starting realty group. I wouldn't really considered this a freelance job since the client came through my "day job" but none the less, I thought I would share. From meeting the client to the final design, that will be shown on here a little later, including a weekend where I did nothing, took 6 days. Probably the fastest turn around on something like this is a long time. Reminded me of college where most of us suffered through what we thought were insane deadlines. How little we knew then huh?

On a side bar, taking on actual graphic design projects for local people as apart of my "day job" will not happen again. I really don't have the time to dive into the creative process as much as I would like and the higher ups don't really have a clue what I do (or what goes into good design work). Also, the pricing put in place on something like this by people other than me was way off. I will offer my personal services on a freelance basis if a situation rises like this again. I am more than happy to create printed material (like signage, banners, etc.) as a part of my daily responsibilities.

The three sketches/concepts I provided the client are shown above.

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.