This is a letter of recommendation from Matt Rand describing Eric Ortner's qualifications as an Art Director

I received the following recommendation from my former employer. It’s pretty glowing so I decided to share it with the World Wide Web.

“April 18, 2013

To Whom It May Concern,

I have worked closely with Eric Ortner for the 7 years he was employed as Art Director at my company, Rand Realty. Mr. Ortner excelled in this role and completed hundreds of design projects for our company, on-time and on budget.

Eric is well versed in both print and online design and is exceptional at creating well-conceived design themes around loosely defined specifications. The quality of Eric’s work, organization and attention to detail are excellent. He has been a great steward of our brand and maintained consistency to our brand standards across many platforms.

I volunteered to write this recommendation for Eric because I am very grateful for his contributions to our company and am very confident that he has the intelligence, work ethic and design skills to add value wherever he works. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about Eric.

Sincerely,

Matt Rand
Managing Partner

Ridgetop Estates Real Estate Billboard located on Route 17 near Chester, NY

BIGGER IS BETTER! That generally rings true in marketing, of all the large scale pieces of collateral available to marketers perhaps the biggest is a billboard. Therefore, it’s always great to have the opportunity to work on such a project.

The Ridgetop Estates billboard sited along Route 17 in Chester, New York was created in the summer of 2010. The production of this billboard was comprised of numerous components. First there needed to be a professional photo taken of the model home. Therefore, a favorite photographer was sent to the site. Prior to the actual shoot the location was scouted relentlessly to determine what the best time of day was to capture the perfect light. Unsurprisingly it turned out to be about an hour before sunset. The photographer utilized a medium format camera to ensure there would be proper resolution for the final grand format print. The chosen chrome was sent out to be drum scanned for a digital file.Once the digital file was returned, it was retouched a bit. The grass, driveway and sky were altered to better fit the final composition layout.

The layout in this case required some serious political maneuvering on the part of the art director. You see, the developer wanted to list many of the home’s features along with their logo and phone number in addition to the real estate brokerage’s. It took quite a bit of convincing when working with all of the parties involved that listing the home’s features would be too much information for a billboard. The typical convention of billboard design mandates that the audience only has approximately 5-10 seconds to read all of the information before they have driven past.

After much gnashing of teeth, the internal and external clients were convinced to limit the design to one phone number and eliminate the home’s features and only list the price and location. In a perfect world the phone number would have been large across the grass below the home, but having convinced everyone to limit the contact information to one line some compromise was required. Compromise was also required to allow both the broker and developer’s logos on the billboard.

Upon approval of the final design the files were sent off to the billboard owner’s preferred vendor for grand format print production and installation.

The Meridian Signage for a condominium real estate new development located in Suffern, NY.

Suffern, New York is a really wonderful place to live and work. Its main thoroughfare Lafayette Avenue is reminiscent of the scenery in a Norman Rockwell illustration. The Village of Suffern is known for the historic and beautifully restored Lafayette movie theater which is complete with its own working Wurlitzer organ used during the screening of vintage silent films. For this Graphic Designer, though, the town’s main marquee is the sign near the condominium building known as The Meridian.

This sign was a fun project to work on because the campaign was built from the ground up. Meaning, the development’s logo and entire marketing campaign needed to be designed from scratch. The name “Meridian” conjured nautical imagery based on its association with navigation. Therefore the logo design incorporated a compass rose as the mark. You can see this and other logo design samples in the corresponding portfolio section of this website, by clicking here.

The sign’s design is fairly simple. The primary element is the logo set over a burgundy background, which was the main color in the Meridian’s graphic design system.  Meanwhile the, only supporting color utilized is the Meridian’s cream color. This allows the contact information and Better Homes and Gardens Rand Realty logo to stand out clearly in black. The only other design elements in the sign are a few of the condominium’s features and the address.

Because the Meridian sign was intended for only temporary use as a marketing piece, little thought was put into its shape or the materials it was produced with. Instead, size was the sign’s key importance. The sign was created using a four color grand format UV print mounted to a 10 foot by 5 foot sheet of Alumalite and installed on two painted 4×4 posts.

For those unfamiliar with materials Alumalite is a composite substrate consisting of an interior corrugated plastic core sandwiched between two sheets of aluminum. This material is ideal for promoting real estate new development projects because of its durability, lightweight and relative low cost. Its lifespan is not as long as other materials, but for use in real estate marketing it lasts for the duration of most marketing campaigns. The largest size sheet of Alumalite available is 10 foot by 5 foot. Although this size would be too small for readability on the side of an interstate, in a small town like Suffern, it really is quite large.

For Graphic Designers and Art Directors, one of the most validating things in life is to walk past one’s own work. Living in Suffern, this Art Director has the opportunity to walk past a labor of love on a regular basis. It’s rough being a practitioner of the disposable arts, though. As the Meridian Development has almost completely sold out (a good sign for a successful campaign) this sign will be dismantled sooner than I like to think.

Distinctive Collection Luxury Real Estate Branding ad for Better Homes and Gardens Rand Realty.

Working for a real estate company in the Northern Suburbs of New York City certainly gives you the opportunity to market a great deal of luxury homes. A big part of that, though, is convincing the area residents that you understand their needs. Here lies the importance of a luxury branding campaign. Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate currently uses the Distinctive Collection brand to accomplish this.

The above ad was designed with the sole purpose of increasing brand awareness of the new Distinctive Collection Brand. The luxury market and need for an unimpeded prominent logo resulted in a rather simplistic ad design.

The copy for this ad concept was written by the Art Director. Since Distinctive Collection is a relatively new brand I felt that it was only logical and important to include the word “New” in the text. But, how is that accomplished? After some image research for luxury interiors I decided that I really liked staircases for a luxury real estate brand. With that direction and after a bit more brainstorming I came up with “Reaching New Heights in Luxury Real Estate.” A slogan that I felt was simple, to the point and not too kitsch.

It was decided that the first staircase I used for this project just wasn’t luxurious enough. So it was back to iStock Photo for another image search when I found the photo that was ultimately used. It’s perfect for luxury, wrought iron railings with a curved staircase concealing and baby grand piano. I can’t think of a room too much more luxurious than that!