What started off as a joke.......

...ended up as a final project.

It was the 11th hour of all the design and paper work before the festival deadlines. We were short 3 people on the team of the Multicultural Festival, and someone asked me to whip up a Parking Permit.

I was tired. We all were tired. We were looking at tired in the rear view mirror. So I took the time allotted to  produce something and just got all my silliness out.  After working as a Supervisor of Parking Services at a hospital for 4 years, I  had grown accustomed to parking permits and wanted to have some fun.

Using the 'mascot' image we had for the festival, I put her in a found free vector clip art, and made her to look like she was having a fun time parking,

The resulting laughter at the 11th hour put everyone back into a more cheerful mood. What was even better was that the design was approved and went forward as the official parking pass for the festival.

I've always believed that a little bit of silly is needed from time to time, just to keep us all human.

Looking back on some old stuff

I've been going through a bunch of old files and decided to share the designs I've done over the years...some horribly grotesque (looking back) and some a little smarter than I gave them credit for at the time.

BASELINE Flyers: my first time playing with a Wacom Tablet to reproduce an illustrated style for promotions.

 Annual BBQ for the ISCANS Membership

 Fast and dirty poster for the Impersonation show...literally 30 minutes and 8 people to pass it by before print.

 This would be the "slap/chop" style of producing a poster...love American Gothic style.

 Baseline reunion Facebook cover

 In-Town Show poster for ISCANS

 More modern rednition of the ISCANS BBQ with the annual host worked into a portrait of Queen Victoria

 Another quick and dirty poster, this time for  MENZ BAR

 ISCANS ICP Ball Poster....loved the prom theme, made it just a wee bit dark and gender neutral.

2005 Pride poster featuring RuPaul. Using one of the images provided by RuPaul's media team, I was told this was one of her favourite uses of her image.

 Another quick and dirty work, a full hour this time.

 My first attempt at making a 3D space within an ad...not bad for a first go at it.

 They asked for an "iPod" look for the comedy show with muted colours....

 One of my favourite events of the year, inspired by 1930's style baseball posters.

 O'Gurl Productions base poster for events held across the Maritimes

Halifax toen clock headpiece I built for a friend competing in the Halifx Pride Ambassador Pageant

Cafe Istanbul poster for Rouge Fatale of O'Gurl Productions.

Halifax Gay Garden Tour poster for 2005 Pride events. Worked the pride flag with close-up images of flowers.

Simple as it is, the debate for the first gay film fest was that it would most likely be a series of slightly pornographic films, I played with the text of POPCORN to make it NOTPORN.....I have to say, even with it's flaws, it's still one of my favourites.

I gotta say, looking back at these pieces, they are full of flaws, some bad design choices, and some elements that make me cringe a little. However, in these pieces I can see a the growth I've gone through as a designer and artist with my works. As bad as some of them are, I'm thankful for the chances I've had to play and be a little witty with the design project put before me. What could have been a cookie cutter copy ad of what was present in print and digital media, I decided to play with the concept a bit more and bring it to a different level.

Hope you enjoyed my little walk down memory lane. These represent less than a fraction of the projects I have completed over the last 10 years, but they stick out in my mind for one reason or another. Some because of the 20 revisions needed

Halifax Multicultural Festival

So I've been asked to help out with the Halifax Multicultural Festival this year. It's a new type of challenge for me though. I'm having to deal with a committee (that's nothing new...) and a bunch of corporate sponsors, all with strong opinions and requests. I'm actually enjoying the whole experience, but it's requiring a bit more of my energy than I had expected when I signed on.

Thought I'd post a few of the works we've been able to nail down recently.

General Banner for web/easy-slap-it-on print:

Large format poster for bus shelters and ferry terminals

and an ad for Where Magazine.

None of these are the finals, but I'm really enjoying the process.
I'll add more as the project evolves and gets closer to completion.

Baseline Reunion poster/flyer ideas.

 Variation 1

 Variation 2

 Variation 3

And variation 4

much delayed postings on here...*sigh*

I've been slacking on this site for a little bit....work(day job), other work (night job) and planning  awedding have been eating up my special time I have to work on this blog space.

So, first up, is a rough for the Eden party fundraiser in May.

Next up, a poster tweak for Hello Gorgeous, Menz and Mollyz event.

Another tweak (they like this style/template...what can I say) for the Guild Theatre

This was just a quick Vinyl insert for Bloody Diamonds new 5" release.

ISCANS AGM poster...last minute rush job, but fun to put together with an hour's notice.....

And lastly, FETISH BALL poster for a fundraiser event. Another somewhat rushed effort, but the results were alright.

Ok, just a burp of posts for now....there's a few more for the year so far, just wanted to post something as I've neglected this blog for a while.

Interactive Wellness Flyer ideas

VINCI PARK Carpool Permit Roughs

Below are some sample styles and variation of Carpooling Permits for your perusal.

I have taken the design guidelines and used them as a set of tools to guide me through this process.

The guidelines were as follows:

• we'll take care of the consecutively numbering
• make them look quite different than your other dash passes you sell.

Here is an image of the current monthly and daily dash pass that we sell.

The following images are some permit styles for you to consider:

Standard Carpooling Style

Carpooling in Popular Culture

Festive and Fun Carpooling

New environment style

Pride Edition Carpooling