Client: BMF Media Group

My Role(s): Designer

The celebration of Perez Hilton’s 33rd birthday, aka Perez’s Blue Ball, was different for me because I didn’t do the general event design. The evite was created by someone else (don’t know who, tell me if you know) and sent to me so that I could use it to create credentials and a motion graphic logo loop to be projected in the venue.

For the logo loop, I stripped down the supplied evite, reworked it a bit to be in a HD (720p) aspect ratio and slightly animated some layers (the disco lights, the disco balls hanging from the mirror and the eyes in the mirror). Then I added some different levels of camera shake, added the logos, and that was that.

I also put together the video of celebrity birthday wishes that was projected during the event. As far as original elements, I threw together the opening countdown based on the look I did for the step-and-repeat and I created my own take on static for the cuts between clips. The idea for the static was something between analog and digital. If you would like, you can go to perezhilton.com and watch the video yourself.

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Client: BMF Media Group

My Role(s): Designer

This design was a simplified version of a web promotion Express had already designed. I used the crowd image, logo and typography from that promotion and used it as the basis for the event collateral. We added BMF’s Music Lounge branding, the logo and paint wipes.

I made the usual digital promo elements (save-the-date, evites, rsvps, rsvp confirmation pages), credentials, wraps for the dj booth, several informational and contest posters, menus, a skin for a photobooth, a stage banner, web rsvps, window clings, a step-and-repeat and Express campaign blowups of various dimensions.

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Client: BMF Media Group

My Role(s): Designer

This event was in the same venue as the Fast Company Grill, so BMF had to transform the venue quickly and completely. Most of the dimensions were familiar, but the design was completely different. Alternative Apparel had lots of fun branding collateral to work with. Strings and paper textures (graph, craft, art) all over the place, with unusual font choices. So, it was a lot of fun to play around with what hey supplied. I think the end-product was something within their branding, but a bit unexpected.

For this event, I made digital collateral (save-the-date, evites, rsvp, rsvp confirmation page), large print signage (backdrops, logo, step-and-repeats, contest signs, interior and exterior banners) and small-to-mid-sized print elements (credentials, table tents, menus, etc). We also blew up their campaign imagery to put up around the space.

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Client: BMF Media Group

My Role(s): Designer

Just like all the events I have worked on in the One Night In series, this event was a blast to design for. There is room to be just the right shade of quirky. The design is influenced by some time I spent looking at the work of Saul Bass just prior to brainstorming. I don’t know where it is exactly, but I know it is there. Maybe in the “austin hills” in the background, or in the coloring.

There is a video recap of the event on Youtube you can check out if you feel the urge.

I made elements (banners, step-and-repeats, window decals, backdrops, column covers, etc) for three sponsor areas (Carrera, Twonky, Samsung) as well as quite a few elements for the general event (interior and exterior signage and banners, menus, credentials, step-and-repeat, stickers, etc). There was also the standard digital promo material (evites and promo graphics for perezhilton.com and a web rsvp form).

Another neat item in this design was the photo backdrop for the Carrera area. I took the sunglasses illustration I made for the Carrera Escape at Sundance and made several versions in an array of colors, then spread them all over the wall, so to speak.

This event was a lot of work, but enjoyable work.

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Client: BMF Media Group

My Role(s): Designer

This event, official entitled Fast Company Grill Presented by Lincoln, occurred during the tech week at South by Southwest at the Moonshine Patio Bar and Grill in Austin Texas. It was geared at a technology-savvy crowd.

This was branded heavily using Lincoln’s style sheet and assets. We went through many ideas in the conceptual stages trying to balance all our creative ideas with the style-guide, which was thorough and very well-done. We ended up using three general “looks”; the daytime (beige), nighttime (blue) and Lincoln Lounge (sunburnt orange), and working within those three looks for all the design elements.

There were over 30 elements made for this event, varying in size from stickers to very large banners of all shapes and sizes. There were large environmental designs for the interior and exterior of the venue; smaller elements like credentials, menus, table cloths, sponsor logo decals; directional and informational signage and a couple step-and-repeats. There was also a save-the-date and evites.

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Client: BMF Media Group

My Role(s): Designer

This was a cool project where I got to use some of my sci-fi sensibilities to design the look of the Alienware House, which was hosted during the Winter X-Games in Aspen and sponsored by Alienware, Dell’s new line of gaming machines.

It was typical event fare, though on a pretty large scale, so bar menus and step-and-repeats were on the list. I also created a 60-second video loop, which featured Alienware glyphs orbiting the mountains, colors shifting hue on the horizon and Alienware alien heads appearing in a twinkling mass in the sky. The video looped in the gaming area and added just enough motion to the event branding to make the rest of the elements come alive.

It was fun to mix and mingle their brand elements in a fun, new way.

I also designed web banners of varying dimensions, posters, evites, two contest entry web pages, renderings of the event space, a map with directions, a party pass and a stage backdrop.

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Client: BMF Media Group

My Role(s): Designer

When this event was first presented to me it was to be a launch party, and we wanted to celebrate the content and design of the site. I wanted to reflect the nature of the blog and use boxes, borders, simple typography and otherwise HTML-looking elements. I used the CSS from the blog to get a clue on colors and fonts. The confetti and streamers and jumping image of Perez all reflected the “launch” concept. We were lucky seeing that when the idea shifted to a holiday bash the design still translated well into a holiday theme, so we didn’t need to change anything.

I also created a bar menu, logo decals, pullup banners, media and guest check-in signs, and bar signage.

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Client: BMF Media Group

My Role(s): Designer

BMF and I worked through several concepts for this event (rainbows, monsters, boardwalks, beaches, drag queens, etc), and they eventually came up with a simple design for the front of the postcard/poster which used justified text, in the Blackout font, masking an image of orange glitter. I ended up using that type treatment as the logo of the event and for emphatic text in the different collateral we produced, but I went in a tangential direction for the rest of the elements, deciding to go with a concert-bill sort of look.

I created a back for the postcard, several evites for different sponsors, an online contest form and ads for different sites in varying dimensions, including a full site skin for perezhilton.com. I also edited the original postcard/poster design when needed.

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Client: BMF Media Group

My Role(s): Designer

The design for this event was in line with all the other “One Night in” events I have been involved in, with specific variations akin to the One Night in L.A. event. The whole idea started with a piece of line-art I did representing the slats on a boardwalk. Then I added some perspective and color and used it as the footer area. The event was in collaboration with the Out in AC series, which celebrated the LGBT community, so we went with a rainbow sunset. I spent a bit of time finding Atlantic City images (namely Harrah’s casinos which were a co-sponsor of the event) and then I used a Photoshop/Illustrator technique to give them that photocopied look. I gave the Perez head a slight tan and shifted his hair into the dark brown/black value range, since BMF wanted me to do a sort of Jersey Shore thing (thus the logo, which plays off the Jersey Shore logo).

Elements designed included the stage banner, a step-and-repeat, credential laminates, bar menus, evites for various sponsors, graphics for perezhilton.com, an RSVP web page, panels for the front of the DJ booth, several posters, signs and cards.

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Client: BMF Media Group

My Role(s): Designer

For this event, the client gave me a design with a green paintbrush effect and the Music Lounge logo; which I tweaked, changing the brushstroked to red, duplicated and moved them around and added the other type and logo elements. In addition to what is shown here, I also threw together bar menus, varying pull-up banners, a stage banner and a bar decal. They also had a nighttime event, sponsored by Rock the Vote, that needed an evite, so I used the original green coloration with the oldest symbol of the night, the moon.

For the Behringer Podcast Station sign, I just wanted to create something that had substance in the large amount of vertical space and used the colors of the Behringer logo. Simple enough.

I really liked the original concept for the step-and-repeat. It has the red only on one side, creating movement across the wall it sits on and the logos create a unique woven pattern, almost like a watch band. We ended up going with larger logos in the standard five-logo pattern on top of a relatively symmetric red and black background.

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Client: BMF Media Group

My Role(s): Designer

This was a simple event. I didn’t do much except manipulate files sent by the client. There is something I like about the step-and-repeat. I don’t know if it’s that the elements are more imagery than logotypes, so they create a heavier color blocking effect than usual. The pattern is a simple one, but there is something I like in there.

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Client: BMF Media Group

My Role(s): Designer

To accompany the Video Music Awards, Perez Hilton threw another of his “One Night” events, this time “in Los Angeles”. BMF Media Group, the firm producing the events, asked me again to design the event’s graphics. I jumped on board.

The last few events have all used a similar design, with localized variations based on the hosting city. This event veers a bit wider from those designs. Instead of a silhouetted skyline, we chose to go with stylized architectural images from Hollywood and LA, some real, some fake. I also added a pattern, color stripes and lighting effects which added more depth of detail then the simpler color fields of the other designs.

The step-and-repeat is large, like the one for Perez’s birthday, as 30 feet wide by 7 tall. BMF likes to go big with their signage, increasingly bigger with every year I work with them. Big design elements create environmental effects in the room, which interests me. I decided to use the diamond/pin stripe pattern on a larger scale than it was used in the other elements, creating more texture to the logo field and to the wall in general. Then we added wings with the LA imagery and event logo, creating different posing stations. If you see some of the event images on wireimage or elsewhere, the step and repeat creates a tangible mood.

I also made bar menus, a basic web graphic, evites, rsvp forms, various outdoor signage, DJ booth and bar decals.

I used the sunset from at http://www.flickr.com/photos/84263554@N00/2160218875/sizes/o/in/photostream/ as a background coloration to the diamond pattern. I really liked the images of the Hollywood Hills by Laura Bittner and used those. They can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/wolfsavard/3463560457/, http://www.flickr.com/photos/wolfsavard/3464385548/, http://www.flickr.com/photos/wolfsavard/3463558285/. The “Coffe Bea” building was made up of a coffee cup at http://www.flickr.com/photos/srslyguys/1077817244/ and an image of Brewster’s Coffee & Deli, at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dave_mcmt/3948994791/ . The chinese theatre was composed of about a dozen photos, then stylized and vectorized.

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Client: BMF Media Group

My Role(s): Designer

This is another of the “One Night in” events that I’ve been designing for BMF Media Group and their friend, the Queen of All Media.  You can take a look at my One Night in Toronto post or One Night in London post for any more info about the design scheme in general.

For “Chicago” in the logo, I took a famous sign in Chicago and sort of flipped it around. It was bertical, then vectorized it with a sort of hand-drawn look. In the background, the image of sunset over Chicago is a great image by Kevin Dooley. I vectorized an image of the Chicago skyline looking south from North Ave Beach by Monika Thorpe. The Perez logo and the Perez Presents head were supplied from the client. Jenn from BMF suggested we add a Chigaco Perez’s ballcap, which was a great detail.

I particularly love the step-and-repeat on this one. The skyline and sunset effect look great as a backdrop for the logos. It appears someone else may also think so.

I also made evites, a web rsvp, bar decals, bar menus, door tags, vertical sponsor banners, a stage banner, sponsor banners and a sign for the help desk.

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Client: BMF Media Group

My Role(s): Designer

This was a pretty standard project. The client delivered some logo collateral and the album cover and asked me to create certain elements for the event. They also asked me to make a few original pieces including a replica of a Jersey Shore welcome sign and a header for a tattoo station sign. They wanted the tattoo sign to have an “Ed Hardy” feel to it. After searching the web for creative commons tattoo elements (a few of them coming from the vector artist Ben Johnson), I felt I had a decent collage. The “Jersey Shore” font is called Freebooter Script and the “Tattoos” font is called Tattoo Ink.

I also worked on banners, decals, and other signs.

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Client: BMF Media Group

My Role(s): Designer

This is another of the “One Night” events that I’ve been involved with. Feel free to look at my One Night in Toronto post for any general notes about the two designs.

For this event, I went London-moody and decided to desaturate the elements and go with a grayer color palette. I also added a glow effect to several of the elements. In order to reference London’s literary history, I applied a sort of etching or lithograph effect to the head image and title logo and chose a cool free font called Mido for the type.

The Union Jack image in the background is from a vector of a UK Naval flag and the skyline is composed of vectors of London landmarks. Unfortunately, I no longer can tell you where I found the constable’s helmet.

I also made evites, a web rsvp, AO boards, an all-access pass and a sponsor poster.

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Client: BMF Media Group

My Role(s): Designer

The “One Night” event series has been going on for a while now and I inherited an aesthetic concept, namely the skyline with the Perez Presents head peeking over it.

For my part, I chose to create a rich night sky using a blue gradient and two Creative Commons photos from Flickr, one of the aurora borealis and the other of a starfield. I also wanted to change the hair color back to pink (the file I received had green hair). For the “One Night in Toronto” typography, I chose Benton Condensed for a clean, modern look. I found a simply illustrated silhouette of the Toronto skyline at http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1115557 and a great vector of a flapping  Canadian flag at http://www.vectortemplates.com/vector-countries-canada.php. I just turned the Canadian red into a nice PH pink.

In addition to the examples shown here, I also threw together evites, a web rsvp, bar menus and a sponsor poster.

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Client: BMF Media Group

My Role(s): Designer

I knew that I had to utilize the palms, windmills and mountains since they are such a visual cue to Palm Springs and Coachella, but I wanted to make them less the focal point and more a simple detail. I wanted to use the desert landscape to imply vast distance while using the pillar emanating from the Music Lounge to be even larger, but in a soft way. I also wanted to keep the mountains in between the viewer and the pillar to increase intrigue, though it may not be geographically correct.

I initially imagined this event to be a night event, so my first concepts were created to deliver a mood of the calm delivered at night or dawn in the desert. I included them here just to show you where I was coming from. The event was a daytime event, so I made the sky more of a dusty gradient and brought the mountains out of the shadow. This tempered some of the intensity of the earlier concepts, making it more subtle and  representative of the event itself.

We carried the design through all of the elements; the menus, the staff laminate, the step and repeat, and numerous pieces of event signage. The one piece that I didn’t design was the Diesel cocktail menu. Diesel supplied fonts and images from their recent “Be Stupid” campaign and I just rearranged things a slight bit to make the menu. I did numerous text-color concepts and though I am not sure which one they went with, I included my favorite one here.

I enjoyed designing this project and wished I could have been in the vicinity of Coachella to check it out. I heard there were some good performances.

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Client: BMF Media Group

My Role(s): Designer

I was asked to design a step and repeat, a bar decal and a cocktail menu, all with a circus/carnival/freak show feel. Obviously the Perez pink was important in the color scheme.

BMF wanted a giant photography wall, designed like the side of a large circus tent. They wanted it to feel large and powerful; 10 feet tall by 30 wide with three different stations for stepping, posing and repeating. I like to experiment with step and repeats, paying attention to 3d space and the effect the wall can have on the room and the people in front of the camera. So, it made me happy when Bruce suggested the tent idea. Looking at it now, I would have made the stripes orange and pink like the decal and menu, instead of white and pink.

I think the designs ended up well for our short work-time. If you want to see photos of the step and repeat in action, go check out Wireimage (http://wireimage.com/SearchResults.aspx?igi=424920&s=perez%20hilton&sfld=C&vwmd=e).

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Client: BMF Media Group

My Role(s): Designer

I was glad to get commissioned to do the 2010 Carrera Escape, seeing that I worked with BMF on last year’s Carrera Summer Escape and really enjoyed it. Carrera has a bold sense of style, saturated with attitude.

What excited me most of all was that for this year’s event series I would be responsible for the overriding design concept of all the events, whereas last year I worked inside of a defined style handed down to me for execution. Of course I needed to design something that supported Carrera’s campaign imagery for this season and to bring it to life in an event environment. One thing I immediately noticed was the way that the bright sun and “Shine On” were burned into the images. It was so distinctly summer to me, hot and direct. The destructive effect of the burning creates a secrecy as the eye loses definition of edges and it pulls the eye into the shade, giving a sense of intimacy with the other elements in the shade.

I decided that I would keep the deep oranges and reds of their campaign imagery and use lens flare effects to burn out and hide certain of the design elements. I wanted something to tie into last year’s event and continue a thread, so I kept the cityscape as a background element. The typography is based on their campaign, but expanded a bit.

In addition to designing general elements to be used for all the events in the series (logo, step and repeats, wraps for the DJ booths, banners for railings, etc), I also produced iterations of design elements specific to the event thrown at South by Southwest 2010. As usual with BMF projects, I did not create the actual RSVP website, I stayed with the graphical side. The step and repeat stands out to me, especially in the Wireimage photography from the event, and that’s where it’s supposed to stand out.

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Client: BMF Media Group

My Role(s): Designer

For International Friendship Month (that’s February), BMF Media Group was hired to create an event for Gain and their Better Together campaign. They asked me to design concept renderings before the event and several elements for the party itself.

The event was thrown in Los Angeles at Sweetharts, the shop of Melissa Joan Hart and her mother. The event was also celebrating the friendship of Melissa and Soleil Moon Frye.

The client’s initial brief contained descriptors like Alice in Wonderland, sweet, girly and floral. When examining Gain’s style guide, I noticed how Gain’s colors, fonts and creative elements were perfect puzzle pieces for that tone. If put together in an interesting way, they could incite the imagination. My favorite element was the evite, which makes me feel like there is a Gain-stained Wonderland right behind the invitation waiting for you to discover it. I also experimented with textures like lace, linen and paper.

I also worked on stickers, images, vinyl decals, a banner, and a flower tip sheet for their lecture on floral arranging. I also designed a cocktail menu.

Another highlight to me is the step and repeat. The shapes of the logos and how they react with each other and the negative space feels light. It has a sort of whimsy. Nobody ever notices step and repeats. I love making them anyway.

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Client: BMF Media Group

My Role(s): Designer

This was a quick job I did for BMF. They were throwing a launch party for the Tabooxjump line of shoes. The design is a basic gold/champagne on black look. The font is reminiscent of the font we saw in Where the Wild Things Are promotion, though I didn’t mean it to be. The simple two-logo step-and-repeat was fun to make, figuring out the right amount of negative space.

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Client: BMF Media Group

My Role(s): Designer

This was a simple project for BMF Media Group. All the art elements (jumping illustration, paint splatters, logotype, band logos) were already supplied by the client. My contribution was to compose the elements inside the dimensions needed. We also created a stage banner, laminates, pull-up banners and stickers.

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Client: BMF Media Group

My Role(s): Designer

BMF Media Group throws great events, and this year they tackled the 13th Winter X-Games by turning a house into a VIP escape, sponsored by Fuze.

I designed the one-sheet for the event, the logo for The Fuze Haven and the Cafe and Spa, the invitations, the Web RSVP page, the Step and Repeat, Credentials, Signage, etc.

I was particularly happy with the explosive nature of the pink and blue background elements and the geometrically wiggly nature of the step and repeat.

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Client: Hi Fi Marketing Group

My Role(s): Designer

This event was a fun project to design. A lot of the creative direction was to use 19th century elements that were sort of spooky and disturbing (sickly greens, grungy floral wallpaper, lamps with green glow, spoons, etc).

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Client: BMF Media Group

My Role(s): Designer

BMF Media Group was hired to program an event in celebration of the premiere of the show Spain…on the road Again. They provided me with the show logo and the sponsor logos and let me loose. I loved the color scheme for the logo, obviously very Spanish, so I kept it, or a relative of it.

In addition to invitations, menus and the usual event fare, I also designed description plates for a photo gallery they had set up displaying images from each of the regions they visited while in Spain.

The step and repeat was a particular favorite of mine, since it included the massive logo in the center, surrounded by the rest of the logos. I’ve said this before, but I believe the step and repeat should alter the physical space in a real way, and not just in an annoying way. I think this one accomplished that.

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Client: Hi Fi Marketing Group

My Role(s): Designer

I enjoy the way this bounces around my eye. One of the things I like about Step and Repeat Design is the parallel to set design. It changes the physical space and creates a setting for the photos. It’s impressive when seen in real space.

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Client: Hi Fi Marketing Group

My Role(s): Designer

Hi Fi set up Stereo at Sundance as a location for both daytime and nighttime activities. Day was for a gifting suite/cafe and night was for a nightclub. Both had several sponsors. We chose to go for a line-drawing style in the landscape elements so they would be minimally intrusive on the other content.

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Client: Hi Fi Marketing Group

My Role(s): Designer

One of the proposals I did for Hi Fi was for Heineken Premium Light, which was launching it’s new sleek can design. Hi Fi thought of throwing a Can Film Festival, which a Riviera sort of theme, in New York City. These were a couple step and repeat ideas I designed and which I particularly like. I also designed a couple quick ideas about how to decorate the yacht and pier. Here is one of them.

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Client: Stereo NYC

My Role(s): Designer

Here are a few step and repeats I designed for Stereo. They were sort of free-floating without other projects to place them in. I wanted to show them though, because I like the way they vibrate with the negative space. One has a subtle vibration, the other a much more attention-grabbing one.

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Client: Hi Fi Marketing Group

My Role(s): Designer

New Year’s Eve is always a busy time when designing for events. We ended up changing the yellow of the invite to blue due to a late-coming sponsor change. The blue is visible in the step and repeat. Also shown is an example of a page in a printed recap showing a press item generated from the event. The recap is utilizing a design I created for their General Capabilities Deck.

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Client: Hi Fi Marketing Group

My Role(s): Designer

Since the party was going to occupy separate rooms of the venue and feature distinct interior designs, the client and I wanted the invitation to show a classic duality. The invitation was printed on foam core with foil stamping. There was a long hallway leading to the room with the Absolute 100 launch, so we decided to fill the hallway with a sign with arrow, so they wouldn’t get lost. The sign also functioned as a step and repeat. In general, I designed many elements for this event including bar menus, posters, additional signage, wraps for pillars in the space that replicated bottle labels, and more.

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Client: Stereo NYC

My Role(s): Designer

Stereo traded in their cosmos for mint juleps for a little southern racing.

There’s something I particularly like about this invite. The colors, the broken lines, the textured woman? I don’t know exactly.

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Client: Hi Fi Marketing Group

My Role(s): Designer

The invitation was designed as a four panel folding invitation. Each of the three left panels features another days events and performers. They were modular and could be printed as single days as well. The program guide was also made up of four panels, with the other reverse side having the program for a sister event series. The step and repeat has a liquidity that I really like.

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Client: Stereo NYC

My Role(s): Designer

For the summer, Stereo turned a club in the Hamptons into a summer vacation version of their Manhattan nightclub. They labeled it house Stereo by the Shore.

To make the logo, I took the Stereoboombox and typography, drew in an umbrella, sand, a sky and an old-Hamptons-ish “by the shore”. I then created a standard step and repeat template, with the logos flanking the sides, to use for all the different events, replacing sponsor logos as needed. I made numerous invitations throughout the summer, and this is one of my favorites.

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