A logo that we did for BGT Consulting

This is a logo that we built for the Rose Mofford Activity Center.

A logo for the Signal Peak Community foundation which essentially works to build communities and secure funding in order to make the project happen.

Tonight, I am going to be going to Creative Connect in Scottsdale.

Creative Connect is basically just a gathering of local creatives getting together to network. I used to go quite regularly when I was living in Mesa. It is significantly more difficult to take the drive after work on a Tuesday now that I live so much further away, but I am finding that there is good value in networking.

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We have been getting some interest in Endlessknot recently and we decided that it has been a bit too much time with the same thing up. We are in a planning phase currently and we have a bunch of new and upcoming ideas for the site. It is going to be something very different and new so are are pretty psyched about it.

We thought it would be cool to explain some of the features of endlessknot in a creative way without locking ideas into a known paradigm. We made some cartoons and threw a few little stories into them to illustrate how the site might be used when it is built. We are hoping that the site will be ready for beta testing in January if we can get some of the funding for development soon.

Check it out at www.endlessknot.net

So we do a bit of our own photography here at Box-seven. We don’t claim to be ‘photographers’ per se, but I certainly enjoy taking pictures. There are a lot of similarities to design. I notice that I think of things in the same way as when I do page layout. I am looking for composition, placement in the lens, colors, and contrast, all in a very short period of time.

Well, we have a pretty decent setup here. We are shooting on a Nikon D100 with a couple of different lenses. We have a nice 18-35mm lens which is loads of fun for minor wide angle effects and a general good shot. I also shoot with a 35-70mm lens which does great zoom and close up shots. It does some really good micro zoom shots. Check out my flickr account to see some of them.

The problem I have been having with this great camera is that I only have had a 256mb card. (Yeah I know talk about a bottleneck). I just haven’t been out to get a decent sized card. Well that all changed this weekend as we had a set photo shoot for a family reunion with a local photographer. I went out and picked up a 4 gb compact flash card and now everything has changed. I am pulling 400+ shots in Raw with this card and its GREAT. The photo shoot fell through, but we have the card and now the equipment can finally be used to its fullest potential.

I really like taking pictures.  Its like doing really fast design.  A whole lot of really fast designs.

I am thinking about getting a wacom tablet. I don’t know if I actually need one. Does anyone use them? I prefer to sketch stuff on paper, and while I am quite proficient with the pen tool it seems like a tablet might make the transfer a bit easier and more efficient. Let me know your thoughts on this. Do you swear by them? Are they a waste of money?

Vida e Caffé is a coffee shop located in the small town of Globe, Arizona. The name means ‘Life and Coffee,’ and in a small town with little to do outside of a bar, Vida felt that ‘life’ was fundamental to their image. Box-seven Media has helped with Vida since its inception, assisting in bringing it through the idea phase into the successful reality it is today.

Logo

The first thing we did with Vida was to create a logo around the name. We went with simple icons using a leaf and a cup and a sans serif typeface to create a pretty solid identity. These icons continue to cross over into the décor of the coffee shop. With an abundance of plants and a strong emphasis on glasswear the cup and the leaf become very representative of Vida.

Business Cards

The second step in our work with Vida was to create business and punch cards. We used the logo on the back without the text to continue to try to create brand recognition. We also went with a strong terracotta color, which matched the painted tiles on the floors.

Print Ad

When Vida e Caffé told us that they were going to be placing an ad in all of the local hotels, we wanted to make sure what people saw really caught their eye. Rather than choosing to place an abundance of information on the page we felt that the ad would be most effective with a simple image that portrayed life. We took out the camera and started shooting and ended up choosing a picture of the guitar that sits in the corner next to a microphone. Vida provides monthly open mic nights and will open the stage to anyone who is interested in playing at any time. So with the simple but effective imagery, a small map, and a slogan we created a very effective print ad. The company producing the publication ended up placing it on the end page in full gloss because they felt that it stood out so much from the other ads in the booklet.