Life Verse Design

A friend of mine just opened up a store over at Etsy called Life Verse Design. She's an excellent graphic designer who is using her gifts to create stunning works of art centered around scripture verses from the Bible. Each "life verse" is designed to specifically speak to your heart through words and imagery while constantly reminding you of "God's truth and promises in your life." You can buy framed and unframed versions of numerous verses in various sizes, so you're bound to find a verse that's right for you or someone you know.
. . . GO NOW.

3 who inspire . . .

Inspiration. I get a lot of it from other artists, including the three you see here. But who inspires you? Let me know by commenting below.

SCOTT HANSEN . . .

You'd never know by looking at his work that Scott didn't go to school for design. He's found a distinct style that he loves and champions: stark simplicity mixed with bold thinking. He finds a way to beautifully express an idea through, as he says, "efficiency of form." Whatever form he chooses works for me.
. . . GO NOW.

EDUARD ERLIKH . . .

I first encountered Eduard Erlikh's work in Limited, where his work stood out because each piece looked like an incredible sketch for a top fashion designer. Except his pieces aren't sketches; they're bold, simple pieces of beauty. The organic linework, the bold watercolor painting style, the simplicity of portrayal . . . they all combine to create incredible, if sometimes risky, works of art.
. . . GO NOW.

RAYMOND SWANLAND . . .

Raymond is one of the best illustrators of science-fiction and fantasy I've ever seen. Not one piece is cliche. Each one is epic. Each one tells an in-depth story. Each one will take your breath away.
. . . GO NOW.

ABC3D

This new pop-up book by Marion Bataille looks like an absolutely simple, yet inspiring work of book design. If you haven't seen the video below, check it out now. I know I'll be checking out the real deal when it releases in October.

Make a small difference . . .

Looking for a way to help make a difference in our world? Then participate in the upcoming Earth Hour. This Saturday at 8 p.m., people and businesses across the globe will turn off all unnecessary lights for one hour from 8 to 9 p.m. On 31 March 2007, 2.2 million people and 2100 Sydney businesses turned off their lights for one hour — Earth Hour. So this year, the event is going global with Chicago, Copenhagen, Toronto, Melbourne, Brisbane and Tel Aviv being just a few of the cities that are participating. As of today, the Earth Hour website proclaims that 187,000+ people and 11,000+ businesses have signed up. If you're interested in turning out your lights for an hour this Saturday to help make a difference, check out the Earth Hour website.

For the greater good . . .

Ever wonder how your design skills can help others? Then check out the So-Cal Fire Poster Project. Designers and artists create limited-edition posters, work with a printer to have them printed, and sell them through the So-Cal Fire Poster Project. All posters sold raise funds for victims of the wildfires that devastated Southern California late last year. The proceeds will be given to the Salvation Army for the 2007 California Wildfire fund.

My friends over at Rule29 brought this great project to my attention; you can see their contribution here. I also urge you to check out the other magnificent posters and pick one up before they're gone. You'll be glad you did.

Visual Eye Candy

One of the ways I get inspired is by watching movies—especially the opening title sequences of movies. Title sequences can be an art form (think Saul Bass), and the best directors know they are so much more than a way to tell the audience who worked on the film. They can excite, inspire, and inform. They can even be mini-movies in and of themselves (think Catch Me If You Can).

There has a been a lot of buzz recently about title sequences, including a recent post over at The Screengrab that ranks their Twelve Greatest Opening Credits in Movie History. The little-film-that-could Juno has the world abuzz not just for the movie but for Shadowplay's graphic opening. And with YouTube allowing anyone to post anything, so it's usually not hard to find an opening to just about any movie you're looking for—at least until the legal guys come calling. To check out a nice collection of legally obtained sequences, head on over to Submarine Channel's Forget the Film, Watch the Titles. You can also see stills of a master's at work and learn the background behind them at Titles Designed by Saul Bass.

As for me, two recent titles had my jaw dropping open:

The Kite Runner — beautiful typography that will amaze, inspire, and make you wonder: "How did they do that?" (You'll have to rent this one; the legal guys have already taken it off YouTube.)

The Kingdom— an incredible graphic history of the Middle East that sets the stage for the movie and makes you a bit smarter in the process

Catch 'em while you can . . .

Changing of the blog . . .

I started this blog as an experiment with two goals in mind:

1. Learn what it takes to create a blog.
2. Create a viable, easy-to-update portfolio.

I've since learned that it doesn't take a lot to get a blog up and running. In fact, Blogger makes it so easy to set up that I was ready to blog within 10 minutes of signing up. Of course, it look longer to tweak the layout and create all of the preferences, but when all was said and done, I had a blog of my liking up and running within a few hours. Since then, I've added more posts, learned about the cool PictoBrowser, experimented with html coding, added both Get Clicky and Google Analytical to see who's been visiting, and just had a lot of fun fooling around with the whole thing.

When it comes to the portfolio part, though, I've haven't been quite so happy for two reasons. One, I started with the idea of telling a story about each of my covers, and that's a tricky business for someone in my position. I actively work for a publisher where I have clients both internally and externally that are associated with each of the covers I write about. I would never want to accidentally say something about a product or an author that could be construed the wrong way. So with each post, there is a lot of speculation on my part about what to say, how to say it, and whether to say any of it at all.

The second reason is more practical. Practical in the sense that I want potential freelance clients to easily and quickly sort through my work. Scrolling through lots of explanation about my work isn't ideal for this purpose. Clients want to see the work and see it fast.

So, what does all this mean? I'm doing two things:

1. Creating a slimmed down portfolio site. This new blog is simple: just the work and specs for each job. Easy to update and easy to navigate. Check it out at stage3design-portfolio.

2. Changing the focus of stage3design. This blog will now become dedicated to placing a spotlight on interesting aspects of design. From book design to movie design to technology design, you'll find a bit of everything here. My hope is that it will be an interesting gathering of information that inspires you to take your designs to that infamous next level.

So . . . let the adventure begin!

The Infinite Day

Science-fiction novels are few and far between in the Christian book store. Oh sure, you'll find the Space Trilogy from C.S. Lewis tucked away in a corner and few other titles manage to make brief appearances from time to time, but there are far too few of them for my taste. After all, the power of faith in God is believing in what is unseen . . . in what is yet to come . . . and in the battle between good and evil. All of these are standard elements in a science-fiction novel, and the best ones use them wisely to create a universe or a time that is just as believable as what we know today.

By all accounts, Chris Walley has created such a universe in The Lamb Among the Stars series. He's created a world that we can only dream of: A trillion people living peacefully together across a thousand worlds under the leadership the Assembly. Peace and stability reign, and evil is a thing of the past. But all that comes to an end as evil returns one day to a planet called Farholme. From there, a small band of believers must keep their faith in God while learning to fight against an evil so powerful it seems impossible to win.

The Infinite Day is the final of three books in this astounding series. The cover follows the look of the series while illustrating the Blade of Night, the evil ship created by the evil Lord-Emperor to destroy the remaining resistance to his rule. As the ship passes by a nearby sun, it leaches away the life of the sun itself, thus showing the power of this monstrous, evil ship and illustrating the danger the believers are in.

THE SPECS:
+ PUBLISHER: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
+ RELEASING: June 2008
+ FORMAT: 6" x 9" hardcover
+ PRINTING: 4/C + PMS 877
+ COATING: overall gloss
+ FONTS USED: Stark Bold + ITC Eras Demi