You’ve probably seen my business cards by now, whether “in the flesh” or here on my website. These are custom laser-cut wooden business cards with red alder as the background and walnut for the logo part! Another fun thing about these cards is the logo is actually thicker than the background, making it stick out ever so slightly (this was on purpose) – giving it a 3D quality that not even “raised lettering” business cards can’t top!

JA Design Wood Business Cards - by NW Laser Image

These are the result of the highly creative, exceptionally skilled work from NW Laser Image! The business cards even got featured on their website (not to mention mine!).

If you have engraving, sand carving, dye sublimation, or CNC routing needs, this is who you want to see! To see more of Laser Image’s work and to contact them, visit the website here: www.nwlaserimage.com

I’m a huge fan of clean, simple looks which allow the product (or site or whatever) to speak for itself. If given the opportunity, I will always suggest something which pushes into modern styling and takes advantage of weights and makes a pass at metaphor.

Living Earth Technology Company is a very large company. Unfortunately the creator of their corporate identity was asleep at the wheel when it came to creating a “look” that explained Living Earth in of itself.

This is tragic, and so is their old logo. We’ve done a lot to clean up what they have, but a polished bucket-of-bolts is still a cruddy-looking car if I can be so bold. But back to the point, they are in need of a serious logo (corporate identity I mean) redesign.

That’s the part I come in and tell you about the “new look” I hope will inspire the company to change to. With the playing of font weights (Myriad Pro – my totally favorite font of all time), to the emphesis of the “Living” – to bringing in the tree in place of the “i” which does indeed symbolize life/living and consequently the main source of the by-product [bark] they sell.

I had a really fun time creating this entire product line, from the bag design to the Flash website, to the tri-fold brochures – I did it all!

I got to try out new concepts and ideas and challenge myself pretty hard utilizing some of the more complicated aspects of Flash CS3 Pro.

I have to admit I felt over my head for a lot of it but still managed to learn a bit while achieving the look that had been sketched out on paper! To me this is a massive achievement, and a massive billable-hours load too – we’re talking weeks to develop from the ground up!

Check out the site at: www.pureheatpellets.com when you have a chance. The content may not be what you’re looking for but what I’m really showing here is the total-experience.

Okay, so this isn’t my favorite design piece, or even top 50.  As most designers know, it’s not about you, it’s what the client wants. Our job is to gently pursuade into better directions. And believe it or not, this is a better direction than the original request.

Now I’m not going to post most of the mundane work I do day in and day out, who needs a double-dose of that right? The reason I’m posting this is I’m always tickled to see my work in tangible form; this just happenes to be the largest form out there! 10 feet high by 32 feet wide in all its glory!

I just wanted to share one of my “bigger” jobs (quotes indicate irony mixed with pride, wrapped in indignation!).

I get to do a lot of design work for Lane Forest Business Development, which is no surprise as I’m the lead graphic designer five days per week! I still enjoy a lot of what I get to do, plus I’m given creative freedom occasionally to come up with my own concepts.

I was asked to create an Info Rack Card for their information wall, and I was happy to do it!

The image shows the front and back separate only for the purpose of showing the entire design. The card is 2-sided, and does not “open” on a hinge.

Click the image for a larger view.