Bridge of Hope

Here's a logo I did for a counseling service that I forgot to post back when I created it. Very simple texted based design with subtle colors. The client was very pleased.

Brothers in Chrome

Here's a logo I just finished for my churches men's ministry. The men's ministry is called "band of brothers" which obviously evokes thoughts and images of WW2 thanks to the HBO mini-series from a few years back. For the above reason, I wanted to do my best to stay away from designing a logo that had military elements. 

Many of the men in my church are into motorcycles so I thought to would be appropriate to try and work up a design to suite that crowd. I don't usually use many "effects" in my logo designs but this design was just asking for some chrome-like effects.

So it's been a while, but here's something I did for fun here recently. Pencils first then the finished inks.

Help Find A Cure

T-Shirt Graphic I did for a t-shirt fundraiser (just the top part). I'll post pics of the finished shirt once I have one.

Youth Retreat T-Shirt Graphic

Quick T-shirt Graphic I put together for a friend. I had a blast adding in vector textures to make the design have a well "worn" feel to it.

Footlloose VW Beetle

Ah, the things we do for love. My wife was put in charge of decorating for a local festival by her place of employment. The place she works decided to use "Footloose" as their theme for this event. She asked me if I could create a large cut out of the VW Beetle Kevin Bacon fixes up in the movie to use as decoration.

Of course I said yes. If your wife asks you to help out, you better help out. Free advice for the day.

I decided making a vector graphic of the VW beetle would be the way to go. Since I was kinda pressed for time, first looked inline to see if maybe there was a suitable vector graphic of a VW Beetle I could use as a jumping off point. After some searching, I found this:

Not a graphic I would ever want to use "as is" but I thought it was decent enough to get the basic shape. The color is horrible. Looks like someone picked their colors out of MS Paint. Anyway, I need to turn that into something that looked more like this:

This is actually the VW Beetle from the "Footloose" remake but it's was the best profile shot I could find of the car. For all you Footloose purists, get off my back. As you can see, there are several differences between the vector graphic I found and what it needs to look like to make it more authentic looking. After a lot of details were added, more dynamic coloring, and some drawing changes, it turned into this:

What do you think? I'll post some pictures of it (when I have some) of how we used it as decoration.

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