Print is Here to Stay

This is an artist proposal for an Internet-of-things controlled electronic five-foot 85-pound rocketship sculpture repurposed from steel scuba tanks. This proposal had a unique illustrative opportunity since the sculpture was partially constructed - about 30% complete. This allowed for some fun imagery opportunities not typically available for use in an art proposal. The early photos were low-quality and blurry, but I was able to use them as a base for some exciting illustrative layout styles.

I'm happy to say that the client accepted the proposal, and every word written in the the proposal made was made real. How many proposals have you seen that can claim that?

Seven Cycles is a custom bicycle frame manufacturer in Watertown, Massachusetts. I was lucky enough to be working for Seven when they were seeking a full-time in-house graphic designer.

Seven Cycles 'Love to Ride' is a radical departure from the brochure strategy of past years: instead of taking pictures of all the different bikes Seven builds and trying to write something brief but captivating about each one, Love to Ride is a document to show show you the how and the why. Rather than showcasing the end of the work, the bikes themselves, we highlight the beginnings of the work, the methods, reasons and inspirations behind every bike Seven makes. It was designed to be a coffee table book, but it also serves as a marketing piece for Seven Cycles.

Love to Ride is a sixty-page book. That's big enough to have a spine, not just a saddle stitch. They are no longer available in print, although hundreds were made.

'Inspiration and Ideas' was the follow-up to the successful 'Love to Ride' Book, comprised of snippets about bikes, bike building, rides, and some of the things that have inspired the people at Seven to do what they do. It's the same form factor as the previous book and looks quite handsome next to 'Love to Ride' on the bookshelf.

This publication's design strategy was to leverage strong photography covering entire spreads, with copy on top. Unobtrusive design allows the content to shine without getting in the way, striking the balance is more challenging that you may think. It's important to get spread-worthy photos with enough open space to get your words on the page in a way that doesn't feel forced. Therefore photographs need to be taken with specifics in mind. Layouts like the one in this book put a lot of pressure on the writers, since space for words is more constrained.

I've help to design and produce many brochures for Seven Cycles over many cycling seasons: page layout, design, and lot of the photography. I wind up being in a lot of photos because I feel guilty asking people in production to stop what they are doing to be a hand model for a few hours.

The 2012 brochure was one of Seven's most ambitions designs to date. Each spread was styled differently while maintaining cohesive design elements throughout the publication. Oh, and 'Belgian toothpaste' is mud, so I've been told.

I was into zines in my 20's - but all the zines about bicycles, particularly in Boston, seem to be centered around the frustration and anger. I set out to create a zine that reminded people that riding bikes can be about joy. Ghostride Magazine is a publication of stories and art submitted by adventurous cyclists, curated and beautifully layed out. Each first printing came with a special price attached to the inside back cover. Issue five was particularly cool because we printed using an old wax-toner printer for super rich colors. The printer's feed tray had to be modified to accept 8x5 X 14" paper, and each page needed to go through the printer four times: one for each page.

Making a zine is pretty easy. Making five issues of the zine is an accomplishment worth noting.

Complex training procedures can be overwhelming for both students and the teachers. The SCUL cadet passport is a pocket-sized document that allows cadets to track their own progress and have access to additional website support pages. There's even a space for the custom-made stamp of pilothood at the back of the book.

One of the most important aspect of this booklet is the ability for more than one person to train the cadet - this was a big problem in the past as the cadet could not attend any training missions without the original host. With the booklet, progress is documented so the new wingmate knows what's left to learn and do.

I'm quite proud of this little wonder - it was been successful used to train dozens of pilots despite it's fairly recent release.