Rob's Posterous

Graphic Design student attending at Indiana-University, Purdue-University Fort Wayne.

Cruiser Poster

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Bouncing around background ideas for my cruiser wagon poster. This is my first direction at it. Looking for comments to improve or new background scheme? Don't mind the red border, I took a screen shot and cropped it.

Spring 2011 BFA Exhibition Poster

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It's poster time already, can't believe how time is flying by! This is a teaser of my senior exhibition at the allen county downtown public library. I stuck to the same graphical elements that are featured on my business card; paper texture, bold diagonal black stripe, etc. Radial shadow gradient to offset the logo and theme of my senior exhibition. I have received suggestions on the text in my logo to change, very minimal, however I overlapped the letters in toys to give it more personality and originality to the typeface. I'll post up another photo down below in the Misfit Toy Logo post. Also, I decided to roll with the QR-Code and stick that on my poster if viewers would like to check out my Posterous blog on progression of my senior exhibition. Scan it with your cell phone scanner and it points directly to my Posterous! All for now!

Coffin Cruiser Update

No picture posts today, however, I am starting on the build for the Coffin Cruiser. It's going to be an interesting process since I've only built a birdhouse out of wood before. :) I picked out some nice half inch Birch Wood. I plan to build the coffin from that and reuse the frame and wheels. My uncle is skilled with metal work so he will be helping me weld up some exhaust pipes, spikes, and such. Should be a fun time... I'll post up some photos further into the process.

Business Card

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My Misfit Toy business card. This is my first original design. The back just contains the Misfit Toy logo. I dodged behind the logo to make it "pop," a little more. I took off the lego head for the front of the business card and offset it. It offers the same appearance and carries the black stripe from the logo to run across the card with my name and information underneath. Input?

Logo... Pogo... Shhmogo... err somethin'

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The logo development thus far. I've made about 6 logos, however all similar, just text moved and messed with very subtley. The story behind the logo, hopefully you can tell, the head is shaped after a Lego man's head. I thought it would be a good idea to run with since I am doing toys, essentially. I landed on a simple san serif font that is readable. The text is under some heavy kerning, as some letters are touching to give a better flowing read. I also wanted the logo to be very anchored, which is why the black box is grounding out the logo by visually connecting the Lego head to the text, while keeping a good strong balance. :)

 

Myriad Pro - Condensed

Myriad Pro - Condensed Bold

Original Red Flyer Wagon Achieved!

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I ordered this puppy a few weeks back. It finally arrived last Monday. Pretty stoked to see it here in it's shineyness, before I tear it apart into something it's not intended for. My uncle and I are going to attempt to build this into my Coffin Cruiser to display as a model. It's reatively big, about 3 feet long. I'm hoping not to run into any problems there. I'm building a stand to hold the Cruiser off the ground to just about waist level. Did you guys know these Red Flyer Wagons are being sold now for $100!? I couldn't find any locally for cheap, so eBay I went. I found one for $65 plus $20 shipping, best deal I could find. Isn't that nuts?

In Class Layout Sketches

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So... In class we had to make 3 more sketches of our senior show exhibit. While doing these sketches it made me realize I'm missing a small podium to hold my business cards. Whoops! It is shown in these sketches, but on my actual layout I made in Illustrator, it does not have it. Also, made me question where I want to place my Coffin Cruiser wagon too. What do you guys think? Keep in mind, that last sketch, all 5 illustrations are side by side which would make them really small (11x17") since we only have 6 feet to work with. My choice is probably sketch 1 at the top on Sketch Paper #1.

I added another page of sketches. Oliver asked if maybe it would look good hanging up against the wall. It would actually save me from making a podium to hold the Coffin Cruiser. The only problem with this is I'm running out of space width wise. We only get 6' which is 72". With it hanging down the side, I already have to narrow my Illustrations/Framing from 18X24 to 16X20... Even with that said, I'm still over the 72" by about 3". Is it okay if I'm over the 6' mark by 3" or so?! I don't want to hurt anyone's space around me, but it would be truely awesome if this worked out.

Senior Project Update

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Here are just a few illustrations of what I've been up to lately. They are mainly done for the most part, still tweaking with a background for them. However, I'm getting the illustrations out of the way first. I'm working on 3 more illustrations currently. What does everyone think of these two so far? Anything to look at and tweak that I'm not seeing? Oh, I need to add, the texture on the Coffin Cruiser looks very distorted when saved smaller and in any format other than .pdf or .ai.

Thesis Statement

Dating back to childhood, there were many toys we have played and grown up with. These particular toys have affected children, as well as American society. My goal is to change the impact that these toys had on children and to be viewed differently. Misfit Toys are motivated to develop childhood toys in a much different perspective that communicates creative innovation and laughter.