Goe + Toman Wedding Invites

Posted on September 22, 2018September 22, 2018 Posted in DesignTagged art deco, Colorado, Design, detroit, Featured, fisher building, graphic design, michigan, pure detroit, wildghostLeave a comment

Of all the projects I’ve worked on, this might be my favorite and most personally satisfying. Earlier this month my brother and his amazing wife Lindsay got married in Detroit. They asked me to create their wedding invitations and RSVP cards.

In preparation for this project I took inspiration from the Fisher Building, an architectural gem in New Center, Detroit. Built in 1928, the Fisher Building is known for its exquisite design, ornamentation, and art deco details. The building itself is truly a work of art and touring the interior arcade was hugely influential in the design of these invitations.

Mike and Lindsay wanted a classic and elegant design that would match the formal designs of their wedding. Gold was an obvious color choice, as was the dark blue tone found in the interior of the Fisher Building.

With a style and color scheme selected, I worked on developing custom art that would carry meaning for the couple. In the planning stage I discovered that the columbine flower grows both in Michigan and Colorado, Mike and Lindsay’s home states. This gave me the idea to create glyphs for Mike and Lindsay, with the central columbine flower glyph as the element uniting the couple.

Mike’s glyph represents the iconic Rocky Mountains of Colorado and Lindsay’s glyph are select buildings from Detroit’s skyline, including the Fisher Building (far left).

Read as a triptych, the glyphs tell the story of Mike and Lindsay in a simple and elegant way. I’m extremely happy with the overall design. It’s the kind of artwork I love to develop: meaningful design that will last a lifetime.

Downtown Music Fest Poster

Posted on September 18, 2018September 18, 2018 Posted in DesignTagged Design, downtown music festival, epic rides, Featured, Grand Junction, graphic design, motet, the motet, westslopebestslope, wildghostLeave a comment

Earlier this year I teamed up with Andrew Watson, a good friend and artist, to create limited run screen print posters for the Epic Rides Downtown Music Fest. These prints are 18 x 24 inches and a total of 50 were made.

Andrew created the boarded and laid out the band text, and I created the bike collage and finished the overall layout. Collaborating with other artists is one of my favorite things to do as a designer. Hopefully this is the first of many collaboration projects.

Comic Con

Posted on September 2, 2018September 11, 2018 Posted in DesignTagged Colorado, comic con, comic convention, comiccon, Design, Featured, Grand Junction, graphic design, library, Mesa County Libraries, nostalgia, wildghostLeave a comment

From the success of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe to the rise of comic conventions all across the world, nerd culture is taking over. I for one, could not be happier about it.

Mesa County Libraries Comic Con is an annual event that keeps growing year to year. Now in its fourth year, Comic Con is one of the largest events in Mesa County. I’ve been lucky to work on the organizational team from the start, aka Team Awesome, and get the chance each year to design the main poster art.

Like most children of the 80s and 90s, I grew up watching X-Men cartoons, X-Files, and playing video games. Those memories, plus the rise of throwback shows like “Ready Player One” and “Stranger Things,” inspired the design of this poster.

The arcade cabinets are heavily influenced by my time pumping quarters into games at Aladdin’s Castle in the Mesa Mall. Note the carpet detail, a design only found in arcades and perhaps bowling alleys.

Other throwback influences include Marty McFly’s jacket from “Back to the Future 2,” the lens flairs from “Poltergeist,” and one of my favorite video games “Street Fighter II.”

Special edition prints of the poster will be for sale at this year’s Comic Con. If you’d like to get your hands on one, message me and we can work something out.

Read with the Rockies

Posted on August 1, 2018August 10, 2018 Posted in DesignTagged baseball, Colorado, colorado rockies, Design, Featured, gj rockies, Grand Junction, graphic design, library, Mesa County Libraries, read, wildghostLeave a comment

Summer time means different things for different people. For some, it means hitting the road on a family vacation. For others, it’s a chance to catch a baseball game and route for your favorite team. At libraries across the country, summer means summer reading programs.

Libraries have traditionally hosted summer reading programs to prevent summer set-back. When kids are out of school they typically don’t read as much and therefore, lose valuable literacy skills.

To keep kids engaged with summer reading in Mesa County, the library partnered with the Colorado Rockies Grand Junction rookie club, the GJ Rockies, to create custom “Read” posters.

Featuring Corky the Coyote and future Colorado Rockies stars, the posters are free giveaways at a library sponsored minor league night game. This community collaboration is a fun way to promote reading, libraries, and the MLB. Some would even call it a home run.

Well Read Wine

Posted on July 31, 2018August 10, 2018 Posted in DesignTagged Colorado, Design, Featured, Grand Junction, Grande River Vineyards, graphic design, library, Mesa County Libraries, wildghost, Wine, Wine label1 Comment

When the Mesa County Libraries Foundation partnered with Grande River Vineyards in Palisade, Colorado to create a private label wine, it was obviously destined to be called “Well Read;” a pun so perfect there we no other choices.

“Well Read” is a, you guessed it, red wine from the award-winning winery in Western Colorado. Working on the labeling for this speciality blend was a fun and challenging project as the Foundation requested a label that was equally sophisticated and accessible to donors and wine enthusiasts.

Bottles of “Well Read” are used to fundraise for the library foundation and the artwork needed to appeal to donors without coming across as pretentious. Western Colorado is a more laid-back community with streaks of cosmopolitan flair.

The art is a simple, three-tone color scheme featuring a modern book shelf, calling back to both the library’s core purpose of reading and the geological “Bookcliffs” surrounding Mesa County.

The fun touches are my favorite, particularly the “Well Read” pronunciation guide and the wine’s description.

“Nurtured in the sunshine of knowledge, “Well Read’ embodies the bold flavors of learning, discovery, creativity, and connection, with exciting hints of innovation and a smooth finish of foresight. It pairs well with rich imagination and boundless curiosity, seasoned with adventure.”

Colorado River Cleanup

Posted on July 22, 2018August 1, 2018 Posted in DesignTagged Colorado, Colorado River, Design, Grand Junction, wildghostLeave a comment

The Colorado River is the life blood of the west. Weaving through seven western states and supplying water to nearly all major metropolitan cities between Denver and Los Angeles, the Colorado River is a vital economic and recreational asset to the west.

The Colorado River Cleanup is a nonprofit organization based in Grand Junction, CO dedicated to cleaning the river and its banks. Floating sections of the river, the CRC pulls everything from bottles and cans, to car bumpers and tires from the water. For the 2018 cleanup the group commissioned a piece of art for their crew t-shirts.

The CRC requested an art collage using garbage pulled from the river and features of western landscapes. The design shape is based on the iconic and endangered Colorado Humpback Chub. The body of the fish is based on an empty bottle and the fins are built out of various items of trash. The white line crossing the design traces the path of the river as it moves through the west.

For the color scheme, orange tones were selected as a tribute to the arid high altitude deserts found in western Colorado, Utah, and Arizona. The blue stroke unifies the entire design and calls back to clean river water.

Wild Ghost

Category: Design