The First Project for Sight Picture Design Group

Due to the graciousness of a close friend, I was given the opportunity to work on a regional project for Monarch Dental. The regional dental hygiene mentor of Monarch Dental needed a card designed that would have information on the front and back that could be shown to their customers who received periodontal measurements during their check ups. The card needed to fit inside the pockets of the scrubs that the dental hygienists wore and would be laminated for durability. She wanted one side of the card to look cartoon-ish and the other to look scientific. The main line drawings for the project were created in Adobe Illustrator and then finished with color and touch-ups in Adobe Photoshop. I used a semi-heavy weight paper for added durability and slight texture to give the print some character. All of the text and layout of the card were added in Adobe InDesign, as well as the final print setup for the project. The two bottom photos are of the finished product. These cards will be mass produced and eventually sent to Monarch Dental offices across the country. This was my first freelance design project and I learned so much about design as a freelance artist. This was an eye-opening experience. The clients were very pleased with the finished product.

Texas Rangers Game Day Promotional Fliers

The one project that became a monster were the countless game day promotional fliers that I created in my six months as an intern with the Texas Rangers Baseball Club. The request for more never seemed to end. With no exaggeration I probably created at least fifty of these or better. The photos were all enhanced and cut out in Photoshop while the overall design and layout of these fliers were created in InDesign. It all started with an email with a text file of everything they wanted the flier to include (which normally went through three or four revisions before the final print) and I was free to design the flier however I choose with a few minor guidelines. These guidelines normally were what player to use, which typeface to use and what logos to include, the rest was up to me. These five are just a glimpse of the many I created. I tried as best I could to be diverse for each flier depending on what it was for. Most of the school fliers were the same though, just different players pictures were used.

Texas Rangers Player Autograph Cards

One of my projects as an intern with the Texas Rangers Baseball Club was to create autograph cards that would go to print and be used by players and staff to sign autographs for fans at different Academy Sports stores across the metroplex. The first step was to design a uniform template that could easily be transferred from player to player. After that was complete, the only thing I had to change for each card was the picture and the players name. I was pretty much free to make them however I chose and got to choose whatever picture I felt best fit for each player and their card. I stuck to a simple baseball card type design with a vertical bar on the right side with a blue and white gradient that each name would go in. Then I used curves in Photoshop to enhance the crispness of each photo. These went to print and thousands of prints were made for about twenty plus cards that I designed. 

Dallas Stars Game Day Program and Game Flier

During my internship, I created many many many fliers and the occasional page for a game day program. The top picture is of a page I created for a game day program for one of the Dallas Stars games. The bottom picture is a flier that was mailed out to Stars fans. Both were created using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe InDesign.

Layout Project, Redesigned Newsletter

This project comes from a layout class I took back in 2008. We were given text and picture files and instructed to design a newsletter that was both creative and visually appealing. We were also instructed to use a color theme and could only use two typefaces. We were allowed to place the pictures and type however we chose. The main idea of the project was more about the layout anyway. I used a san-serif font and wanted to use curves and lines that are similar to what one may see when viewing architecture (after all this is an architecture newsletter). These pictures are of the print versions that would go to print. The top picture has the back page (left) and the front page (right) while the bottom picture has the inside pages (as would be seen when opened). I love the curve design that runs through both inside pages and how the colors swap. It's very eye-catching. I got an "A" on this project. I really enjoy typography and layout projects. Most people think they are boring.

My First Work to Ever Go to Print (Seen All Over DFW)

While I was a graphics intern with the Texas Rangers Baseball Club (yes that's a Dallas Stars postcard, Tom Hicks owned both teams at the time), I learned many things about what it is to be a graphic designer. One of which is the editing and revision process. What you think is the best work you've created or the best solution for the concept of the project, someone else may have other ideas and the final product may not be ultimately up to you. This isn't necessarily a bad thing but it can get frustrating if you have to make change after change, however, this is part of the job. The above was the final product (not my favorite of the six designs I had made) that was mailed out all across the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex to inform Dallas Stars fans of this promotion for that specific game. The black and green backgrounds seen were actually pieces of paper I had ripped and scanned into the computer and enhanced with Photoshop. I used photos of ice for the right side of the (top) card and messed with different texture ideas to place over the left (second card) side of the card. The third and fourth picture is one of the many ideas for the card I submitted for the final product. I personally liked the first and fourth pics for the card.

Toyota Sponsifier Competition (Design a NASCAR)

This project was something I heard about when watching a NASCAR race one March day in 2010. For fun I thought I would design a car for the Toyota Sponsifier contest. I entered this car into the contest but there were some issues with the competition and how the voting was done so they started all over. I never bothered to re-enter into the contest since I was a little bitter about them entering their own cars into the contest despite it being against the rules. I used my company logo, slogan and color scheme for the car. This was the end result. After seeing some of the other entries, I'm pretty sure I could have made it at least into the top ten. The top picture shows the car I initially entered into the contest. The bottom is what I had leftover from Photoshop. There are a few differences in the two. I personally liked the top car the best.

Faux Pokemon Trading Card (Photoshop Class)

In order to advance my Adobe Photoshop skills (and because it was a requirement for all graphic design students) I took an entry level Photoshop class. The professor was a bit of a kook but a really nice guy and extremely talented when it came to working with Adobe Photoshop. He had been a computer artist for over twenty years. He had an infatuation with Pokemon playing cards and for one of our final projects, he had the class create their own playing cards. This was extremely time consuming but upon completion, very rewarding since I knew very little and turned out such a good product. My card was voted in the top three in the class. The above picture is the finished product. I had painstakingly hand drawn the picture in a sketch book (not realizing the full power of Adobe Photoshop) and then scanned it into the computer. All of the color and touch-ups were done using Adobe Photoshop CS2. The moon in the background is an actual picture of the moon that I used curves and color filters to create and place behind the main character.

Chick O Stick Logo Revision

I took a typography class in the fall of 2008, very interesting and fun class. One of the projects we were assigned in this class was to pick a product (randomly drawn) and give the logo a new twist that held aspects of the previous logo intertwined with new aspects that we created. The main focus would be the type (after all it was a typography class) which we would totally redesign. I used a simple san-serif font and connected the "c" and the "k" in chick and stick to give it uniformity. I also used red and yellow in the logo as well and I didn't make the main lettering too bold as I didn't want to take away from the rest of the design. This also gave it a cleaner look. My design is the top photo. The bottom photo is what the Atkinson's Candy Company currently uses for the Chick-o-Stick product, a very tasty treat I might add.

Iwo Jima Hi-Liter Ad

During the spring of 2009 I took an Ad Design class which focused on designs for advertisements of common products. My group was tasked with designing a three part series for Hi-Liter.
The difficulty was figuring out how to show use of a Hi-Liter in a visual way other than the typical marking of words in a textbook. We came up with the tag-line of "Hi-Lite what's important" and the ad I designed was geared towards history. For instance, students would hi-lite the important words or phrases out of a history text book about the famous World War II Battle of Iwo Jima. To show this visually, I used arguably the most famous picture from the war and brought the hi-lighting of those words to life. Using typical hi-liter colors, I colored the stars and stripes on the flag and the fatigues of the Marines in the picture in a way that looked as though each were hi-lighted. The phrase for the ad, "These colors don't run" has a double meaning. Typically heard when a patriotic American refers to the nation's flag, the phrase also means that when used, Hi-Liter brand markers won't bleed or fade on the paper it is being used on.

Welcome! Check It Out!

Welcome

Hello. Thanks for taking the time to check out my work. I am in the process of establishing a website for my company, Sight Picture Design Group. Until that is up and running, this blog will be how I show some of my work. The work showcased on this website ranges from projects I worked on during college to work I did as a graphics intern with the Texas Rangers Baseball Club to some of the freelance work I have done for clients of Sight Picture Design Group. All work on this site is shown with the watermark of my company, for protection purposes. I hope you enjoy the site and feel free to leave feedback; after all, what would design be without constructive criticism?

About the Creator

I am a recent graduate from the University of Texas at Arlington where I received my B.A. in visual communications with a minor in military science in the fall of 2009. I am an aviation officer in the Army National Guard and a freelance graphic designer. My future plans include completing flight school and turning my business into a competitive design company.