FilmJabber.com: Website redesign and rebranding

My friend Erik came to me one day with a new name for his movie review site, and needed a logo to make this new brand come to life. I was very honored that he had come to me with this request. 'Film Jabber' was a fun name that had a lot of options as far as logo creation goes, much more than you could think of if you were given the name of the old brand: 'Movie-Source'. I kept the logo simple and the colors fun and lively, as he is a very colorful character. Part of the reasoning behind the name 'Film Jabber' relates to how Erik takes 'jabs' at movies and really critiques the hell out of them. It's quite entertaining. So in the same instance Erik has conflicts with a lot of movies he sees, the 'm' and the 'j' are also conflicting and merging to create a little tension within the logo. I also would say that they help tie the logo together. All right, that was my attempt to explain my creation as best as possible. Sometimes it's hard to do so, and sometimes it just works and feels right.

Erik also requested me to design his newly renovated and re-branded website. I was happy to oblige.

Old design (Movie-Source.com):

New design (FilmJabber.com):

Quick plug: Erik and his entertaining (and sometimes explicit) movie reviews can be read at Film Jabber: http://www.filmjabber.com

(Design created: 2007)

Broken Glass Ceiling logo

Broken Glass Ceiling was a logo creation that never materialized into anything, unfortunately. It was enjoyable to do, and I tried to make it fun. Also, looks like I took a very literal interpretation of the brand name :)

(Designs created: 2004)

Justin Klump Album Art

I had the pleasure of working on the album artwork for Justin's EP 'Something For September'.

And a poster:


Did I mention Justin is amazing, both as an artist and an individual? Find him on iTunes! Support this guy...if you get the chance.

JustinKlump.com website redesign

Justin Klump is a very good friend of mine, has been since I was a freshman at PLU. I will take the time to claim that I was his friend before I realized he was such a talented musician. Whew! Ok, now that I have got that off my chest, let me continue...I volunteered to create Justin's website in order to both build my portfolio and help him out at the same time.

First, let me introduce you to what Justin's site looked like to begin with:

I point the earlier version out only to offer a comparison. Here is the site I built for Justin:


At the time I created this site design, Justin was just beginning to make a dent in the industry and was just beginning to get his name out there. I therefore wanted to incorporate a 'Starving Artist' theme, and this was my reasoning behind the crinkled-up paper, cardboard, tape, etc. I also thought it gave him a sense of mystery and underground, too. And the spotlight you see within the design was just that, a spotlight... used to signify that although he was a 'starving artist' in many ways, he was on the verge of making a breakthrough. (Design created: 2004)

A couple quick plugs for Justin:

Justin is a great musician and I've really come to enjoy listening to his creations. He's also a great friend and incredibly gifted individual. Check out Justin's new site design (very nice!): http://www.justinklump.com. Also check out Justin on MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/justinklump) - listen to a few of his tracks and I think you'll be hooked!

Voss Farms logo

A co-worker asked me to create a logo for her father's farm in Eastern Washington. There were no restrictions for the most part, but it had to be a logo that could easily transcribe to a wooden farm sign...so simplicity was key. Working backward (from winning design to my mocks) here are the logos...

Winning logo: This was actually done by my girlfriend, Jaime. Very nicely done - simple, nice colors, easy to read, authentic, nice pattern to it. I also think it's very vintage in it's presence and has that small town, Eastern Washington feel to it.


Here are some of my mock ups:




(Designs created: 2007)

Chef Boydardee!

I had some fun this last Halloween, creating my own last minute costume from something I had in my own cupboard, and a name I had sometimes joked about in the past. 'Chef Boydardee' was the identity, and it was a blast. I took the legitimate Chef Boyardee logo, and simply Photoshopped in the 'D', to provide me the ultimate name for a magnificent night. Then the only fixin's to get were the chef hat and the stache'...how do you think it turned out?



(Design created: 2008)

The Boyd Massie Rookie Card!

One of my senior projects during my final collegiate classes was to create a website that would act as an online portfolio, and also increase my knowledge of HTML, CSS and even some PHP. Once the website was successfully launched, I started working on ways to promote it, but something a little different than just a business card. I have always had a love for baseball cards, so I decided to create a trading card for myself. Check out my stats:




If you got your hands on the Boyd Massie Rookie Card, I'm afraid it's Beckett value hasn't gone up too much over the years :) If you are wondering about my site, I don't maintain http://www.bnmdesign.net anymore - sorry.

(Designs created: 2005)

'Oil' political posters

My senior year of college I created a three part poster series involving the political issues of oil, or more specifically, the U.S. dependency on foreign oil. I will provide a brief explanation for what each poster describes and then explain some things you may not have seen as you viewed each one...

#1 of 3 - SP'OIL'ED?: Started out the series by just representing some facts about oil that I had researched surrounding oil consumption within the U.S. and how it compared to other nations.

#2 of 3 - TERM'OIL': Things start getting a little more interesting now, as I present some controversial facts surrounding the idea that the war in Iraq is/isn't not a "war over oil".

#3 of 3 - B'OIL'ING POINT.: Projections of our use of oil in the future produce some scary numbers.

You will notice that as the posters progress, the hand (which once started out as a clean and nearly perfect print) smears more and more until in poster #3 there lacks any resemblance of a hand. Look closely in poster #2...you will even see some evil faces (in the left and right palm), which surprisingly wasn't manipulated manually by me. It was just how the filter operated, but I think it's a nice touch, despite how evil it looks.

All handprints and oil production was done by yours truly! I had a fun time smearing oil on my hands and making prints on paper. It reminded me of finger painting in grade school, for sure! After much experimentation, I then photographed the prints and then manipulated everything digitally after that point.

(Designs created: 2005)

Uncle Bob's BBQ logo and collateral creation

As a group our task was to select a cuisine of choice and restaurant name that would belong in a mall food court. Our group decided on BBQ food, then we chose the name Uncle Bob's BBQ. We then started to design individually, only to collaborate later and share our mock ups and then collaborate on a logo we could all agree upon and have a hand in creating.

Here are my mocks:



As a group, we decided that each member had incorporated great pieces to the overall puzzle we would call our final logo. We all wanted some sort of flame within the logo. We also soon discovered that the charred looking text, or branded text was very appealing and great indicator of barbecue.

So our logo evolved into the following:

In addition to the logo, we had to also create some collateral: A teaser advertisement that would fold and stand on the tables in the food court, and a children's hat (like the BK king hat). Here's a look at both:


(Designs created: 2004)