Clearwater was blessed with some of the most gorgeous late spring weather the Hudson Valley has seen in years. The crystal clear day with unobstructed 15 mile views up and down the Hudson River resulted in an amazing sunset. This created a stunning backdrop for the band as they performed an eclectic blend of world fusion on Clearwater’s Hudson Stage.

Since I was mostly attending the concert as a spectator I brought a bare bones camera rig with me. I only came prepared with a Nikon D90 and a Nikor 18-105 3.5 lens as well as a 28-300 mm Sigma Lens. Fortunately the evening sky was perfectly lit and didn’t need much assistance from me in creating a dynamic concert image. I particularly like the way the audience’s hair glistens in the rays of summer sunlight. It creates a great example of graphic closure for the silouhetted foreground.

The series of photos taken could be suitable for advertising campaigns in the following concepts and industries:

• Summer
• Concert Promotions (Tickets, Posters, Flyers)
• Entertainment Industry
• Album Covers
• Alcoholic Beverages
• Youthful Lifestyle

Click here to view, or purchase more examples from this series of photographs.

Mountain Lake Estates signage for a real estate new development on County Rd. 21 in Wallkill, New York

It is always so exciting when you unexpectedly run into one of your old designs on the street. While driving some back roads through Orange County, New York  to go to the Shawangunks this morning for a hike, I stumbled upon a project I worked on in the fall of 2010. It was some signage for the real estate new development, Mountain Lake Estates, near Newburgh, NY.

I remember being disappointed with the outcome of the project because there were many changes made that I didn’t really think were improvements to my initial design comps. However, I was surprised to see that the actual sign came out a lot better than I expected it to. It actually really stood out on the road.

The stone wall graphic on this signage was  drawn by hand, scanned in on a flatbed scanner, and then Autotraced in Adobe Illustrator. The Mountain Lake Estate’s sign layout as a whole was also created in Adobe Illustrator.  The sign was created as a  6 foot by 4 foot grand format print mounted to allumalite and installed on 4×4 posts. I kind of wish the installer had cut the posts down a little bit. I guess I’ll have to call them about that on Monday.

Looking back on the past fourteen years of professional experience, I’ve found that I barely remember the majority of projects that I’ve worked on. My hope is that this blog platform will aid me in inspiration for future projects, and help to keep me from slipping into similar pitfalls of past projects.

I believe that as the field of graphic design continues to evolve it will be interesting to watch design trends and techniques emerge through this weekly catalog of work. My goal is to only include my own creations or possibly the work of my subordinates. However, I may also include designs that I deem to be especially revolutionary regardless of their creator.

The type of design work that I expect to publish in this site will be primarily graphic in nature and I anticipate that it will include:

• Logos
• Layouts
• Illustrations
• Photographs
• Websites
• Flash Banners
• Motion Graphics
• Video
• Discussion on Branding and Brand Strategy

My plan is to include some textual explanation along with the specific examples in order to examine the overall marketing strategy of the piece. In some cases where there is an interesting design process I may also include the proofs that lead up to the final approved design.

In short, I’m really looking forward to discovering where this blog forum on the world wide web takes me.  Thanks for your interest in my work!

So without further ado, let me introduce the First Design of the Times.