Angela & Jeremy Wedding Invites, RSVP, Table Numbers, Place Cards and Thank You Cards

Project Angela & Jeremy: Complete. Yay. I loved working on this project so much. Angela is a very spirited adult who was totally excited about her wedding invites. She wanted peacock meets art deco and we decided on these designs, which she absolutely loved. I custom created the peacock illustrations for them, as well as hand carving a rubber stamp of a deco peacock feather. This stamp was used on their invite and rsvp envelopes. Pictures to the stamps and envelopes here. The entire design collection can be found on my Flickr, check them out! In addition to invites, rsvp and thank you cards I also created table number lanterns and a interactive/editable pdf for place cards where she can type in all of her guests names and tables and print them out. Angela is also having the peacock illustrations etched on pint glass as the wedding favors at the reception.

Andrea’s Wedding Invites, RSVP cards, Maps and Thank You Cards

Andrea & Mike’s wedding stationery is complete. This project consisted of A7 sized invites, A2 sized rvsp’s, A2 sized maps and also A2 sized thank you cards. Mike and Andrea asked for something simple and not too elegant with calla lilies. They came out beautifully. The couple loves them (and so do I). More pictures are available on Flickr. Click on the image below to see full layouts.

Andrea’s Bridal Shower Invites and Thank You Cards

These invitations and thank you cards were so much fun to work on and I am so glad that I got the chance to be a part of Andrea’s day. She is such a sweet person and I made it my personal mission to make sure that she absolutely loved them. I make that my mission with all of my projects, but I would have gone to the ends of the earth to make it happen this time for sure. Pictured below are the invitation for the shower and then the thank you card. I created the vector art myself from a photograph. In the large version of the thank you card (click to see) the “thank you” is the front of the card and we thought it would be cute to have their names on the back of the card when folded. The invitation fits and A7 envelope and the thank you fits an A2. More pictures available on Flickr.

MARD – Medical Alumni Reunion & Clinic Day 2009

Every year the School of Medicine holds the Medical Alumni Reunion and Clinic Day for all of our medical alumni. There are many print and web pieces that accompany this event, including a web site, evite, flash panel, brochure, 2 biography books, signage, dinner program, promotional buttons, direct mail invitations, and registration forms. Featured below are the web site and the post-registration brochure. Each piece was made to fit the theme “Back to the Future.” The idea was to take this theme and use it as a travel concept where the alumni are traveling back to their past to view the future of the WSU SOM and the field of Medicine as a whole. You can view the site here. Two variations of the brochure are shown below (images 2 & 3). 

Hard Hat Tour

This was a fun project. I had the freedom to go outside of the Wayne State look and do something more lively. View the live site here.

Strategic Plan 2007-2011

As usual, a rush project. There is nothing new about that. What was unusual about this one was that we started from scratch. Writing, editing, concept, layout, art selection, color scheme, design, project management.. all of it. Once the writing was done, I took it from there and was responsible for everything on all 40 pages that didnt have to do with what it was saying. Overall it was a rewarding project (I only say that now that it is off of my desk, of course) and I’m getting emails saying “I LOVE U!!!!! Thank you sooo much!!!”

I think it turned out quite nice and its good to know that this is the first strategic plan document that the School of Medicine has ever seen like this and I helped make that happen for them. Check the whole thing out here.

Cover Design (below)

Selected spreads throughout publication (below)

The Pulse of 2007 – Wayne State University School of Medicine’s Year in Review

This publication did not reach my desk until four months after it was supposed to be mailed out. An outside vendor did the original design and we felt that the quality of work was below par, so I stepped in to start over. A completely new design, layout, color scheme, photos, and articles were used in the version you see here, making it a much better representation of the year 2007 for the School of Medicine. A better late than never kind of mentality was taken with this project. We wanted it to be good rather than just out of our hands. Though it was rushed and chaotic trying to get it out the door in addition to my normal load of projects, I was responsible for the entire layout, selection and creation of artwork, ad creation, some editing of content, and everything else short of writing and major editing, that this project entailed. It is a 70 page publication and it took about 3 weeks from the time it reached my desk until it was shipped off to print.

Cover Design (below)

Table of Contents (below)

Sample 1 (below)

Sample 2 (below)

Sample Ad (below)

Wedding Invitations

Some of many sample invitations that I created for this client (aka my best friend) are shown below. Not being very sure of what she wanted and liking so many different kinds of styles, I was given the direction of “Grace Kelly, James Bond, Jackie O.” After many hours of discussion, I am still not completely sure what that means – and neither is she. She wanted something elegant, classic and simple, but nothing girly, flowery, too traditional or contemporary. A monogram, a script font mixed with a ”cool funky” font, and possibly using the design that will be on her cake were some suggestions, along with my color options being brown. I am not sure how a cool funky font is elegant and classic, but its all about what the bride wants and doing your best to decipher the meaning behind the messages. She was very pleased with the outcome of the first round of mock-ups and is still trying to figure out which one she likes best. An update to follow.

Wedding Invitations, etc. Update

Well the wedding was a success. The bride and I came up with a solution that she loved. In the end we ended up doing Invitations/RSVP/Dinner Card, Program, Menu, Table Numbers and Place Cards. Everything turned out beautifully and the couple loved them. More pictures are posted on my Flickr.

Personal Gallery Web site

This site is still a work in progress. My good friend offered to code it for me to keep herself fresh on the skills. So she is working on it and I am anxiously awaiting its completion. My goal was to create a gallery for all of my work including my photography, stained glass, fine art, illustration and design. I feel that I was very successful in creating a look and feel that encompasses who I am as a person, designer & artist. Each gallery highlights one project at a time, just like an actual art gallery, with a full description of each project. It makes it easy for the user to quickly browse or to get the full depth of the project.

IKEA Newspaper Ad – Rug Sale

These ads were created for IKEA in Canton, MI to promote their Oriental Rug Sale. They wanted something playful and a little edgy to really get people’s attention. I came up with the idea, chose the art, and designed each piece. The only thing provided to me was the sale announcement and the address information. They were thrilled with the outcome.

Satellite Sounds Web site

This project taught me a big lesson. Always get a signed contract even if its a company that your friend works for and even if it is a favor to them because they are friends with the boss. Though this site will probably never see the light of day, it was a very fun project for me. Satellite Sounds is their current site that I was asked to redesign so it would be more modern, cutting edge and something that could really compete with their competition. I made over their navigation and layout to be more functional and intuitive and gave a fresh face to their company. After completing designs, they decided that they did not need a new site designed because they were going to take their current site down due to decreasing sales. It is what it is, but the new designs are much more functional and pleasing to look at. I really enjoy the challenge of taking something that is just ok and turning it into something great.

School of Medicine’s Detroit Fireworks Registration for 2008

The 15th Annual Fireworks Extravaganza brochure was created for the School of Medicine’s Alumni Association as an invitation and registration form for 2008’s event on June 23rd. It is a trifold brochure with a perforated mailer panel that fits into an envelope to be easily and securely mailed back for registration. I love this piece for its creativity and its outside of standard university look. This event was a great opportunity to take the initiative on creating an out of the box look for the SOM and the Alumni Association and it turned out to be a great success. I was in charge of art direction, design layout, working with the client and the print vendor for this project.

School of Medicine’s Medical Commencements Web site

The Medical Commencements web site is brand new for the School of Medicine this year and was long over due. I designed this site and our clients in the Student Affairs Office loved it. Hopefully it will provide a resource for the students that will be graduating to receive up-to-date information on everything they need to know prior to graduation. Staying within the guidelines that we’ve created for the web at the SOM, I feel that I successfully gave the Medical Commencements site a clean look with a personal identity for the yearly event.

School of Medicine’s Alumni Association Web site

The Alumni Association’s new site is finally up and running and long overdue. Waiting on content is the story of our lives. We help as much as we can, but nobody knows their information better then they do. I played a leading role in the direction and design on all of the Office of Development sites which include: Alumni, Alumni Association, Development, PR & the Web Team. On the Association’s site I also designed the flash piece, “The Legacy is You” while working with our flash developer to get it looking good and working properly. This piece was part of a larger campaign concept that had print pieces to go along with it. I was in charge of creating those print pieces and working heavily on the concept and execution of this campaign for 2008.

Medical Alumni Reunion & Clinic Day Direct Mail “Thank you for Registering”

The Medical Alumni Reunion & Clinic Day is a entire day event that starts with lectures for Continuing Medical Education (CME) credit for doctors and ends with a reunion at the Downtown Detroit Marriott. This direct mail piece is 16 pages and was created as a thank you for registering, that provides registered alumni with specific information about the event, hotel accommodations and guest speakers. This is one of many pieces that were produced for this year’s event. Some others include: a 5 page dinner program, direct mail invitations and registration forms, an email invite to all reunion class members, biography books for the 25th and 50th reunion classes (one for each class member), all signage indoor and out, table cards, class signs for the 12 special classes, two powerpoint slideshows and a web site (see next).

I was responsible the theme’s direction and art and was in charge of the Thank you mailer (below), the dinner program, some of the signage, and the website. Luckily I had the help of another designer to get all of this done in time for the event.

Medical Alumni Reunion & Clinic Day Web site

As talked about above, this is the web site for the Medical Alumni Reunion & Clinic Day. The event had a large turnout and was an overwhelming success. The web site provided a good resource for those who were already registered to get more information and also played a major role in getting additional attendees. We are very proud of what we accomplished here, as this project held a large learning curve for us. Being a web team we are not used to taking on such large scale events that require so much print work to be done, but we worked out all of the obstacles and challenges that it brought to our attention. I created this web site from the look that I designated for all of the print pieces. Overall it is a wonderful collection of work that created a strong visual identity for 2008’s event.

Wayne State University School of Medicine Web site

Wayne State University School of Medicine was long over due for a new web site. Finally coming to fruition in August of 2007, the School of Medicine community was overjoyed, including the dean himself, which is a major accomplishment. Currently undergoing mini redesign to better use the primary space above the fold, this site is on its way to being one of the best medical education sites available today. We have used this time of transition to see exactly how the web site is used and what people want to see. It holds many purposes, for example: recruiting new students, informing current students, faculty and staff, and being a resource for the community, so it needs to reach all of those separate audiences appropriately. I was responsible for the layout, design, and art direction of this site and its child pages along with help from a team of experts and a committee that gave its valuable input. As long as the dean is happy, so are we!