September 16th, 2009 § Add a comment
Greetings and welcome to the online portfolio of Rowan Design, based in Ashland, Oregon. I am a graphic designer, specializing in print media, visual identity and branding, and design consulting.
You can browse through my portfolio here, or click on a category (listed on the right) to look through only those items which fit that category. Feel free to leave comments or ask questions.
New portfolio pieces will be coming once I find time to write up the essays to go along with them.
August 14th, 2012 § Comments (1)
My biggest project to date, as the owner of Rowan Design: Henry’s Puzzle. The author, Henry Dahut, was working with an artist at the Ashland Art Center, Miles Frode, for illustrations for his book. My office was upstairs from Miles’ studio (we’ve both since moved out), and Henry and I ended up talking for some time. Eventually, he hired me to design the book cover and interior for self-publishing.
The cover alone was a major project. Miles painted the puzzle-piece infinity symbol, and I photographed it and edited the photo in Photoshop, adding the 3-D quality and adusting the color to make it pop. Once the infinity was ready, we had to put the rest of the elements in place. The starry background and the sun glinting over a planet were separate images. I drew and tweaked the glowing string of infinities, and I added the lens flare at the center of the the puzzle-piece infinity. It sounds much simpler than it was.
In addition to the front and back matter and the text of the book, the interior included illustrations by Miles, which I scanned in and adjusted for print, as well as multiple diagrams, sketched out by Henry and recreated digitally by myself.
Cover to cover, I laid out every page, drew every diagram, manipulated every image, and even proofread and edited the entire book. It’s available as a softcover and an ebook (Kindle | Nook | iOS), and if enough people buy it, Henry might decide to publish another book.
August 14th, 2012 § Add a comment
I’ve designed several projects for Wellspring Centre for Body Balance in Ashland, Oregon. These two are giant posters (30” x 40”) I designed for use at a trade show booth.
August 14th, 2012 § Add a comment
An online friend of mine, whom I had never met in person, asked me if I would be willing to design his wedding programs. Although I had never designed one before, that didn’t stop me from jumping on the job.
His invitations were blue and white with butterflies, and both blue and butterflies were to be prominent in the wedding. After he mailed me a hardcopy of the invitation, I designed the program with the same fonts, found a stock image with butterflies that fit well with the fonts and the other butterflies, and picked out a blue paper that would compliment the other blues.
The final approved program was printed in Pantone Reflex Blue on the offset press, on Royal Fiber Ice Blue cardstock, and scored for folding. Since they were printed on cardstock, they will hold up well for years to come, and will make wonderful keepsakes for friends and family.
August 14th, 2012 § Add a comment
This is the second project I designed for Seanna Higgs. She was performing a solo piano recital to benefit Hearts With A Mission, and needed a flyer to put up on bulletin boards.
I was able to contact Hearts With A Mission and get a copy of their logo, with permission to use it for this one project. After Seanna approved the design, we submitted it to HWAM to get their approval before printing it. (It’s always important to make sure you have the approval of anyone whose name or logo you use on your materials.)
August 14th, 2012 § Add a comment
Richard and Jan have been sending holiday photo letters for years. Although I charge by the hour, I’m fast, and when you’re sending out a letter to everyone you know, you want it to look good. I was able to design this for them quickly and at a low cost, and kept the template for future years.
August 14th, 2012 § Add a comment
The Return of the Feminine was the first of two book covers I designed for Dr. Orleane. The art was done by a local artist and I was given a scan. I ended up working on the image, enhancing the woman and adjusting the color, then played around with concepts for the title and author name.
Once the book had been published, we had a number of ads to make for various catalogs and publications. Once I came up with the color scheme and background image for the ads, I designed multiple versions for the various ad sizes and promotions.
August 14th, 2012 § Add a comment
When designing the logo for Ashland Family Dentistry, didn’t have much to go on. Women make most dental and medical decisions, green and blue are most commonly used for health care, and the dental practice was a family practice.
The blocky logos, while not feminine, are friendly and easy to read. The lighter logo, also friendly, is more casual and emphasizes ‘family’. The final logo, which was the one we ended up using, is more elegant and feminine.
Of course, the final logo is also the result of careful editing and revisions to an earlier version. This one uses two different fonts in the monogram, to get the curling descender of the F and ascender of the D. The serif font chosen for the logotype (the written out name) has a matching sans serif version, which was used in the letterhead and business cards for the contact information.
August 14th, 2012 § Add a comment
All Flow Plumbing teamed up with Inward Bound Wellness to create a promotion that would end up benefiting both. At the end of every job, John Elliget, the man behind All Flow Plumbing, wanted to hand out a comment card with a coupon giving away a half hour massage.
John is the kind of guy who hands you the bare bones and trusts you to get it done right, so this was a fun project for me, from a creative standpoint.
I browsed comment card images online, trying to get ideas, and the best idea I found was a simple question, “Did we make you happy?” Using this, I was able to come up with a list of questions for further clarification, and designed the card to fit 2-up on a standard sheet of paper. The back of the comment card was laid out as a postcard, complete with address, so that only a stamp was needed. The back of the coupon had, in large, friendly letters, “Thank You from All Flow Plumbing”, so that people would remember where they got the coupon, even after it was detached from the comment card.
August 14th, 2012 § Add a comment
Ocassionally, I am forced to design in Microsoft Word. This was one of those times. Heidi Weeda needed a flyer that she could update herself, and she doesn’t have InDesign (my graphic design program).
Actually, I did design this in InDesign, at least, at the start. After the design was approved, I took out the date and location information, then saved the blank flyer as a high resolution jpeg. I then placed the jpeg into an MS Word document as a background image. With the blank flyer now in a Word doc, I placed text boxes where the information would need to go, and put in placeholder text, which I formatted to be the correct font, size, and color.
Now, with a few keystrokes and the click of a mouse, Heidi can have an elegantly designed flyer for each event, without having to pay someone to do it for her.
