Irony, Exaggeration, Metaphor

For this Art Direction II assignment, we were to choose a brand of interest, and then create 3 separate ads. The first one dealing with irony, the second one exaggeration, and a third ad acting as a metaphor without using copy, only a visual and logo.

The brand I chose was Shure SE210 In-ear Headphones. They're sound isolating, and so I wanted to focus on that benefit. In fact they isolate sound so well that you can virtually hear nothing at all when you put them on. Clear, crisp, quality music is the result of wearing Shure Headphones, and those are the benefits I wanted to convey in my ads.

















Before jumping on the computer and executing my ads, I needed ideas. And so, I sketched quite a few thumbnails in order to get as many ideas as possible. I found The Kickstart Catalogue from Mario Pricken's Creative Advertising, to be quite helpful in the ideation process.






















I went for a minimalist approach for my irony ad. The tag-line reads, "less noise sounds better." In this case, less is more. I decided to keep the rest of the page white to heighten the impact of the tag-line, logo and call to action at the bottom. There is less noise on the page visually, and less noise in your ears with Shure Headphones.






















For my exaggeration piece I had the idea of bringing dead musicians back to life. This could be expanded into a campaign potentially. I took the Apollo Theater Marquee sign and manipulated it into the Shure Theater. The headline reads boldly, "The King of Pop Like You've Never Heard Before." Not only is it timely, but it exaggerates by bringing Michael back to life through the clarity of Shure Headphones. Listening to MJ on your Shure Headphones is equivalent to hearing him live, minus all of the noisy fans of course.






















My final ad was to be metaphorical with a visual and logo only. I will let the visual speak for itself.

Why Do You Do What You Do?

For our first assignment in my Art Direction II class, we were asked to answer the question, "why do you do what you do?" through graphic and type.






















"Because existence is interdependent" means that we are all reliant on each other as a human species. I know one reason I'm here is to help other people, and so I try my best to be there for my family and friends when they need me most. We're not isolated. We are all connected, and thus, the circle is a link, a symbol, that is representative of US as a whole.






















"Because of a hole in one" is meant to be playful. When you know you've found the one, it's as sweet as a hole in one. I chose the simple typeface because that is what Love should be, simple.

















"Because I love white space" is pretty obvious. Perhaps the most important technique a designer has in his arsenal is the use of white space. Not only is it simplistic, but it just looks good.

Not My Typical Saturday

Titled Not My Typical Saturday: A Photo Story from my Converses' Perspective, this is my first photography assignment. Taken for my design for Journalists course, I choose to photograph my Saturday, because normally, Saturday's are very uneventful for me. The decision to shoot in b&w was because as I went about my day, I noticed that I came across many strong visual representations such as temple banners in the Bell Tower shot, the H&M signage, the American flag, and that special someone's pink Converse. And so I thought the images would have more visual impact if I made everything b&w except those strong visual representations.

All in all, this project was a fun and interesting one. It made me pay closer attention to the details in my photographs as well as taught me a lot about how to edit and adjust my images. It made me get out of my comfort zone, get out there and take pictures that I normally would not take.


















Here I am, early in the morning, on a Saturday, waiting patiently as the R7 train to Center City, Philadelphia approaches.






















Destination, Temple University. Here's a shot of the infamous Bell Tower that I cross everyday and on this particular desolate morning. Yawn, now it's time for me to head into work at the Howard Gittis Student Center.























Alone at work, on a Saturday with nothing to do but read blogs, do homework and stare at the decorated wall in front of me. What a life.






















Work's done. Just caught the Broad Street Line into City Hall. I can't help but notice a dank smell of urine and spacious skylines. Time to explore the area.






















William Penn atop the City Hall Tower. It's astonishing every time I see it.






















Ah, H&M, one of my favorite places to shop. Stylish and affordable and it's always got me thinking red.
















The Kimmel Center, such a classy and elegant place. I've always imagined what it would be like performing in a place like this.

















Feet are tired. Time to head home. Suburban seems like the closest train station. Another 15 minutes until I'm fast asleep aboard the R7 as sweet symphonies of Beethoven prove to be quite soothing.


















And the best part of my day. Coming home to that 'special' someone. All you really need is love.

Temple Ad Club Open House Poster

A poster I designed for the Temple Ad Club Open House Event.

Team of Destiny

Here's a wallpaper creation of one of my favorite teams, the Philadelphia Eagles. Designed in Adobe Photoshop CS4.

You & I

Here is a wallpaper I created a while back using grunge brushes in Adobe Photoshop CS3.

Class Pride 2010 T-Shirt Design Contest

Here are my 6 entries for Temple University's Student T-shirt Design Contest for the Class Pride 2010 Campaign. The campaign is a campus-wide fundraising initiative driven by members of the senior class. The winning design will be featured on a T-shirt that is offered as a gift to students who participate in the Class Pride Campaign next academic year.

Electronic Gaming Monthly Magazine Cover

As an ode to my favorite video game of all-time, I designed this EGM magazine cover, featuring none other than Snake from Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

Heroes Too Logo/Identity Redesign

This was the final project for my Art Direction I class in Spring '09. The assignment was to design a company logo for Heroes Too which is a start-up social enterprise concerned with global warming and other environmental threats. It is dedicated to encouraging, connecting and channeling the participation of individuals to create a collective and lasting response to the environmental threat facing humanity. They are planning to launch the company globally in the future and so it is our chance to show our design to the world.

The target audiences are environmentally conscious individuals, students and young people, schools, community organizations and corporate partners. The tone & manner is supposed to be inspiring, uplifting, personal or engaging, focusing on the "human element" side instead of just the "environmental" side. One to two colors are preferable, but more colors considered for really good design. The typeface & font are to be light, modern and smart in style. No heavy or bold font. Variations of Heroes Too are allowed such as H2 or Heroes 2. Lastly, professor doesn't want an over-emphasis on 'green', a commercial or corporate look & feel, too fancy or heavy, blunt/bold typefaces.

Logo 1: The font used was Orson Casual, I particularly liked this font because the O's were perfect circles, and so I could incorporate the earth into the logotype. I wanted to execute it much better than the original logo, all the while trying to avoid being cliche. Focusing on the human element, I thought that one hand reaching out to another is a really strong image of helping one another accomplish something really special. As one you can be strong, but together we can be powerful beyond measure, and so I utilized the silhouette of one hand reaching out to another as a part of the O in Heroes.

Logo 2: For this logo, I went for a different, more modern approach, aiming for the future. Particularly I wanted to play with ligatures. By connecting the horizontal bar of the H with the curve of the two, a unity was created. Heroes Too is all about coming together as one and making a difference in the world. The light blue color is refreshing and definitely has a clean feel to it.

Logo 3: If I was to choose one of the 3 logos to recommend, this would be it. I went through the entire design process in the presentation for this logo and I felt it best represented the Heroes Too brand image. The type is Futura LT Book Italic. I felt that this typeface was perfect because it stood out more than the other choices such as Helvetica Italic and Myriad Pro Italic, but it wasn't too domineering. For the colors, I thought the green and gray went together quite well, creating a unity between the Heroes and the 2. The smoothness of the 2 as well as the pointed edges are meant to invoke swift action in the target audience to get up and take action. Perhaps the most important element of the logo is the fading earth below the 2. By fading the earth, it gives the viewer a sense that there is something more to the logo. It gives them something to be hopeful for.

Introducing The Apple MacPad Chameleon

This was the final project for my Interactive Media & Advertising course in Spring '09. The assignment was to test our cumulative knowledge of the unique ways in which interactive destinations can tell a brand story. As a part of the assignment, we were to devise 3 creative comps - 2 of the homepage, and one sublevel page. The product I chose was the Apple MacPad Chameleon, which is a made-up product that I thought up in my Strategy & Positioning course last Fall. The MacPad Chameleon is Apple's first netbook. The main USP of the MacPad Chameleon is that it allows for the user to change the color of their netbook to a variety of 9 different colors. The target audience is females ages 18-25 in college who are avid users of social media, and quite fashionable.

Ultimately, I wanted to design sleek and clean creative comps that didn't stray from Apple's current brand image. The first creative comp is the homepage of the Apple Store taking a more traditional approach. The second creative comp is brighter and overall has a different tone and feel. The third creative comp is a sublevel page from the first comp. The sublevel page is the Mac page of the store. I wanted to keep everything consistent with the homepage, creating a fluid and positive user experience for the target.