Posts Tagged ‘freelance’
Thursday, September 2nd, 2010
I recently put together graphics for two different series of teachings coming up at Grace Gathering. The first one is a two-part series called Hospitality: How to Welcome Others and will begin on Sunday, September 26th. I thought the image of a golden door worked well to represent the rich blessings of hospitality. “…remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.” -Acts 20:35
A second teaching series will begin on October 1oth and is called Come and Follow Me: Engaging Jesus Through Luke’s Gospel.
Tags: Christianity, freelance, graphic design, illustration, sermon series graphics, typography, vector art
Posted in graphic design | No Comments »
Friday, July 2nd, 2010
I just found out that the Step into the Jordan logo design has been selected for inclusion in the new LogoLounge Master Library edition called Shapes and Symbols.
The Master Library series contains logo design work from creatives around the world and is based on the following categories:
• Initials & Crests
• Typography
• People
• Animals, Birds and Mythology
• Shapes and Symbols
• Nature and Food
• Arts and Culture (including transportation, sports and architecture)
The Maranatha Brand logo I created was published in the Initials & Crests edition earlier this year. The Step into the Jordan design will appear in the Shapes and Symbols book that will be published in the next year.
The Step into the Jordan logo is based on the biblical account of Joshua leading the Israelites across the Jordan river and into the promised land after God miraculously stopped the water from flowing.
Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing.
Joshua 3:15-16
The equilateral triangle symbol in the center of the water not only visually divides the water, but is also historically symbolic for God. In Christian symbolism it specifically stands for the Holy Trinity.
The goal of the Step into the Jordan program is to provide Christian based recovery resources through a wide variety of online curriculum. Above is a web design layout that was presented to the client showing the logo being used in context.
Tags: Christianity, freelance, graphic design, logo, logo lounge
Posted in graphic design | No Comments »
Monday, June 21st, 2010
“Most people in the world are on some type of spiritual journey.” Seeking God: An Investigative Journey is a 6 session study designed to help people evaluate and discover where they are at on their spiritual journey. This study has been a central tool used by Grace Gathering for many years and has undergone quite a few revisions. The latest revision is a 6″ x 9″, 100 page book format. I really enjoyed working on this project and creating the overall design and layout for the study.
Above are some of the series of icons and illustrations I created to help the reader navigate through the study.
If you would like more information about this study, or would like to purchase a copy, please contact the Grace Gathering church office directly.
Tags: book cover, Christianity, freelance, graphic design, sermon series graphics
Posted in graphic design | 2 Comments »
Friday, June 11th, 2010
The Fleetwood RV National Dealer Meeting will be held at the Grand Wayne Convention Center in Fort Wayne this year. Above is the logo I designed for the event.
Tags: freelance, graphic design, logo
Posted in graphic design | No Comments »
Friday, May 14th, 2010
I recently re-designed a logo for a local consulting firm called Systemental. They specialize in helping companies run smoother from the inside out by using Hoshin Kanri to drive business improvement. Their Hoshin Kanri strategy consists of three different phases broken up into three pieces each. The icon above represents the phases with three different colors, each in three pieces. The design will be used as a visual aide in presentations, webinars, blog posts, and print materials.
Tags: branding, freelance, graphic design, logo
Posted in graphic design | No Comments »
Friday, April 30th, 2010
Chess Pie Media is in the software development business. The design criteria for this project was simple, clean, stylized and fun. Now, I’m an Indiana boy and I have to admit that until this project came about, I’d never heard of this thing called chess pie. So, after some explaining from the client and a bit of online research, I learned that chess pie is similar to pecan pie, but without the pecans. Very rich, very sweet and goes great with coffee. As for how the name chess pie actually came about there are lots of opinions swirling around, but nothing definitive. Chess Pie Media has been known to develop games, so it made sense to use both pie and chess game imagery. The logo above is the fruit of that union.
Tags: freelance, graphic design, icon, logo
Posted in graphic design | No Comments »
Monday, February 22nd, 2010
I recently designed a logo and T-shirt for a 5k Charity Run/Walk called Race 2 Grace. All proceeds from the event will benefit Forgotten Children International. When I start a project, I begin with rough brainstorming sketches (seen below). The goal is not to make pretty sketches, but to conceptualize as many ideas as I can. I typically fill up several pages in my 11″ x 14″ sketch pad before I transition to the computer to develop what I consider to be the strongest concept(s).
Once I’ve developed the strongest idea, I always finalize it in Black and White first. I don’t begin thinking about color until the logo is able to stand alone in Black and White.
For color, I chose yellow because it helped define the roads in the design. The blue complimented the yellow and also provided enough contrast for the black text to pop off of it. 
Finally, for every design that I create, I also put together a Style Guide indicating color specifications for print and web. I include PANTONE color specifications for Coated Process, Coated Solid, Uncoated Process, and Uncoated Solid. I also include RGB and Hexadecimal colors for web.
Tags: freelance, graphic design, logo, t-shirt
Posted in graphic design | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010
I recently finished an identity design project for a church stewardship campaign called Release: Setting the Church Free. The image above shows a few of the logo revisions that occurred along the way. The final logo is on the bottom, right. The dove is symbolic of the Holy Spirit/Church being “released” into the nations.
The Letterhead and envelopes were printed first. The abstract watercolor background behind the logo is symbolic of the earth’s geography, but not intended to be exact. The idea was to present a global, rather than local release of the church. The sheet was flooded with ink, leaving only white paper for the dove showing through, which created a nice effect. They were printed 4 Color Process on 80 lb. Finch Fine Text, Bright White.
A 17 1/4″ wide x 22 1/2″ tall (unfolded) Brochure/Poster was also created for the campaign. It was folded like a newspaper page and placed in 9″ wide x 12″ tall, 6 mil plastic recloseable bags. This solution not only looked good, allowing the photos to be seen through the bag, but also fit well with the Release theme and saved quite a bit of money by not printing a traditional pocket folder to hold all of the additional campaign literature, DVD, etc…
Here’s the unfolded outside/poster.
And the unfolded inside/brochure.
Tags: brochure, Christianity, freelance, graphic design, logo, poster, sermon series graphics, stationery suite
Posted in graphic design | 2 Comments »
Thursday, December 24th, 2009
Above are some of my original brainstorming sketches for a group of eye care professionals needing a new logo. The client wanted something clean, simple, and professional.
These are four concepts I presented. I was pretty excited about the potential for these designs, but the client thought they were a bit too “artsy”. I could understand where they were coming from with that, so we moved in a more conservative direction.
I ended up using the type treatment from design A and replaced the eyeball icon with the initials of the name of the business. Above is the final logo and color specifications.
Here is the final letterhead design. I learned a while back that whenever you present a letterhead design to a client, you should always put some text on the letterhead. It not only shows the proper margin sizes, but also makes for a much better prestentation.
Tags: freelance, graphic design, letterhead, logo, stationery suite
Posted in graphic design | No Comments »
Monday, December 14th, 2009
I was asked to create an identity/web design for a Leadership Weekend event coming up in January 2010. The theme for the weekend is moving communities toward mission, so I decided to focus on the visual aspects of light and movement to create the design. I contacted a friend of mine who is an amazing photographer and requested a photo that would capture what I was looking for. He supplied the fantastic photo above.
Here is what the photo looked like after a bit of cropping and transforming. The goal was to communicate light and movement in an abstract sort of way.
And this is a screenshot of the final homepage from leadershipweekend.org. I provided the final design elements to the church that is holding the event and one of their staff members put the actual site together.
Tags: branding, Christianity, freelance, graphic design, sermon series graphics, web design
Posted in graphic design | 1 Comment »
Friday, October 23rd, 2009
Visual identity design for full-service auto detailing business. Logo, business card, and t-shirt designs were developed.
Tags: business card, freelance, graphic design, logo, t-shirt
Posted in graphic design | No Comments »
Thursday, July 16th, 2009
Systemental is a business performance consultancy group based out of Fort Wayne, Indiana. I’ve been working with them on redesigning some of their core marketing materials, including their logo. The redesigned logo is more in line with the professional image the company would like to communicate to their clients. The swoosh, Inc., and raster effects, i.e. bevel-emboss and drop shadow were all removed. The heavy Bauhaus Bold font was replaced with another sans-serif font that is lighter, leaner, and cleaner. The ball icon was cleaned up, enlarged, and given more prominence in the layout since it is used to help communicate the two halves of the services Systemental provides: Technical Systems (System) + Philosophical Strategies (Mental) = Systemental. The new logo design can be viewed in context on the Systemental website.
Tags: freelance, graphic design, logo
Posted in graphic design | No Comments »
Hello, my name is Brad Thomas and I'm a graphic designer specializing in logo and identity design. This blog is where I share the process that goes on behind some of the projects I work on, as well as other design-related insights. Comments, questions, and project inquiries are all welcome. Thanks for stopping by.