graphic design portfolio
Just an informal portfolio of some of my design work. This whole website is one example.
I do a lot of graphic design work for fun, for my own website and self-promotion, for shows I work on, and for the online game I play -- Battleground Europe. I generally don't get paid for any of my work, but I felt like just in case that should ever happen, I should have some examples.
Paper prop design
Bingo Miami brochure.
Bingo Miami brochure.
In the musical Bingo the characters win a vacation to Miami at the end of the show, and are given a brochure. When I was the production coordinator for the initial productions following the Off-Broadway run (which were opening in Florida), we needed new brochures, and I took the opportunity to have some fun and designed it myself. I still have never been to Florida, although I'll be there on tour in March! Click to see them big (and imagine them folded, brochure-style).
Rock Show Band Logo
I was the original PSM for a play called Rock Show, which is the story of a band named Group Therapy. For the first workshop we needed to design fake CDs for the band, and this is the logo I came up with.
Military
Unit Logo
A friend asked me to design a new logo for his company in the US Army, whose nickname was "Dominators." They were having a contest to choose the new logo, so he asked me to come up with something, preferably reflecting the unit's primary function as mechanics and drivers.
I also created an alpha version so it could be used in other formats.
Battleground Europe
A lot of my design work is for one of the online games I play, Battleground Europe. These are a few examples of some of the in-game organizations I design for.
High Command Signatures
As a member of the Axis High Command, I was chosen to modernize the forum signatures for high command members of division level and below. I designed a series of over 200 signatures that kept the basic design principals of the existing signatures for higher-ranking officers, while introducing subtle differences in color and content that would differentiate between members of different korps, and the focus of each brigade (i.e. armor, infantry, fighter, bomber) while still maintaining a uniform look. There's a really complex logic to how each one reflects the chain of command, historical accuracy and in-game details that's too much to go into, and these are just a few examples.
Awards
One popular aspect of Battleground Europe is the giving of awards for exceptional skill or service to the game. These are not derrived by some kind of points system or scoring, they are given by humans, when merit is recognized. Often awards are invented for specific circumstances when something extraordinary has been done, and in these cases I will often find an email in my inbox asking for an award to be designed. Below are a couple of my recent ones:
The one on the left is for the breakout of Axis forces through the Allied lines in Campaign 55, and the one on the right awards members of the Kriegsmarine (navy) for exceptional defense. The castle used is a silhouette of the in-game Willemstad Castle, which is in a city strategically important to naval combat.
Squad Signatures
Members of my squad, the 1775th Rapid Deployment Force, show allegiance in the game forums with individual signatures that follow a general pattern that was devised long before I became a member. After 30 days' membership, a squaddie can apply to have a sig custom-designed for him (generally by me, these days) containing photos of his choosing, or just a general idea (i.e. "my favorite plane is the Bf-109" or "I like tanks"), and generally including, as is the squad custom, a scantily-clad woman, with what little clothing she wears usually having some relation to the squad member's name or interests (mine is a scantily-clad guy, with which I delight in making everyone else in the squad as uncomfortable with my sig as I am with theirs!)
A few examples of my work:Belletor only said he wanted a picture of a Tiger tank, so I went with that.
Wencil asked for something involving anti-aircraft guns, and a stuka bombing. And no lady, cause he's happily married! After chosing the AA gun, I found this beautiful and complimentary picture of a Stuka, and discarded the ones I had of Stukas bombing.
This was a special request. We did a drop of about 100 paratroops one night and I spun in midair taking screenshots and stitched them all into a panoramic picture. This picture went pretty much everywhere: it was on the game's homepage, it was blown up into 10-foot-long posters by one of our guys who has a printing business, and it hangs on the wall in the game developers' offices.
Our squad commanding officer, MrFreeze, asked me to design him a new signature somehow incorporating this image. He didn't say what he wanted, only "I think you might have the same idea I do." So the first thing I did was to convert the photo into a winter scene (the game doesn't have seasons, only a springtime-like appearance), and then add on his name, the squad logo (with snow-capped peaks), and the snowy ladies that were on his old sig. When I presented the finished product, it was exactly what he assumed I'd do.
