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New Animated Video: "Looks Great! Illustration | Design"

Three New Website Launches!

I've been cranking out tons of custom websites lately and a few are finally live, up-and-running!

1. Moto Sushi Grill & Bar - www.MyMotoSushi.com

2. Brian Stumpe for City Prosecutor - www.VoteStumpe.com

3. Capitol Coupons Magazine - www.CapitolCoupons.com

I have a few other sites in the works as well, so check back soon!

WEBSITE LAUNCH: Steve Curran

The first of several websites I've been working on is now up and running!  This simple, modern design is geared towards promoting the portfolio and resume of marketing specialist, Steve Curran.

Simple looks easy, but I had to pull out a lot of HTML and Javascript tricks on this one to get the background images looking and working perfectly.  View my source code to see what I did...and let me know what you think developers/designers!

www.SteveCurran.com

Prizes.org Participants Get Scammed

I recently stumbled upon a website called www.prizes.org.  The concept is solid: People post design contests, questions, writing assignments, etc. and award a winner based on the best work.  This is similar to a website that I contribute to frequently called www.designcrowd.com, but it incorporates more than just design.

Well, the other day I made my first submissions to prizes.org to a logo contest for a bag company.  "Gourth Bags" was looking for a fresh new logo to go on their backpacks, briefcases, handbags, etc.  Here are the two logo designs that I submitted to the competition:

As it turns out, the winner was selected and that was that.  Or so I thought.  I started getting emails about the comments submitted to the contest that it was actually a fraud.  What the contest creator did was submit his/her own design as a different user and select it as the winner.  The result being that the owner of Gourth Bags was able to view over 500 logo options and steal a lot of designers' ideas without paying a cent.  They essentially gave themselves the $800 of their own prize money and browsed all of the submissions to steal our ideas.

Prizes.org caught onto this and investigated the issue...but nothing was really resolved.  The contest creator claimed that they were not in fact the same person who had won the competion.  Thus, nothing could be done.

I will probably submit more to prizes.org contests...but I will definitely be watching out for other scams like this.  As a freelance designer, getting your work stolen is one of the worst things that could happen.  We do things like this to make our living.  And when we are molested like this, it really sets us back.

New St. Louis Illustrators Portfolio Website!

It is an honor to be showcased alongside many of the great artists/illustrators in the Midwest on the new www.stl-illustrator.com portfolio website!  

The website features over 20 of the top illustrators working today in the Greater St. Louis area.  View portfolios, read bios, book projects, and find links to all of these artists' great online work...including yours truly.  The website is produced by the Illustration Section of the St. Louis Artists’ Guild.  All artists represented are members of the Guild and offer their professional services for illustration, portraiture, graphic design, and/or mural commissions and assignments.

The Illustration Section of the St. Louis Artists' Guild is approaching its tenth anniversary in June of 2012. This web site is a cooperative project of our group.

The Illustration Section meets on the second Tuesday of each month at 7:00 p.m. at the Artists’ Guild. Our meetings feature guest speakers from the illustration field and related areas. We also plan group shows, community education projects, help with Guild fundraisers, and plan special group activities. Visit our blog to learn more about our meetings, speakers, and activities. Come on out, and see what we're up to!

Learn more about the Guild at www.stlouisartistsguild.org/. You'll find Artists' Guild membership information here, including an online membership form.

Site Design and Build: Jean Probert
Text: Jean Probert ©2004-2012

All artwork displayed is copyrighted by the individual artist who created it.

 

Stacked Music Festival 2012 - Website and Promo Poster Design

www.StackedFestival.com.au launched yesterday along with the promotional poster.  I was approached by the promoters of this Australian music festival in Wollongong to first design a poster based on a "pearly gates" concept.  It was to be in a very modern cartoonish style.  They wanted a couple angels in their likeness and big, old looking gates...very heavenly and all that.

I feel that the result of the poster and website is very successful and my clients seem to be extremely satisfied!  Sponsors and an updated line-up still need to be added to the poster to fill the spaces on the right and left.

 

Check out the live website at: www.StackedFestival.com.au.  

The poster is viewable on their Facebook Page here: http://www.facebook.com/stackedfestival

As well as on this website: http://www.looksgreat.biz/illustrations.html

Step-by-Step at Home Screen Printing, Cheap & Easy!

The majority of people who I've come in contact with have little to no idea what goes into printing t-shirts (or posters) using the screen printing method.  I feel like some people think that it is simply a matter of sticking a blank shirt in a big machine, hitting a couple buttons, and ta-dah!...a t-shirt is made!  For any of you who have some knowledge of the process already, you know that is far from the case.

I taught myself to screen print over a year ago and I now have my process down pat.  Since I do things slightly unconventional (or the "hard way"), I wanted to share my process with anyone who wanted to learn how to start screen printing very cheaply.  Of course, coming to my finalized process was not cheap, as I wasted a lot of blank shirts, ink, equipment, etc. not knowing what the hell I was doing at first.  But now it is start to pay itself off.

So let's start!  I suggest going through each step first, to get the whole idea, and then going back and taking it step-by-step.

1. The first step in screen printing is obviously coming up with a design.  I am doing a shirt for my comic, "Hammer'd" on www.CrapfortheCrapper.com.   Once you have your design, you change everything to black and print it on transparencies.  This takes some prior knowledge of Photoshop or Illustrator, so I won't go into too much detail.  I double up my transparencies in order to assure darkness.  Here I am using four tranparency sheets taped together since the design wouldn't fit on a standard 8.5"x11" sheet.

I use Apollo transparency film in my HP 1410 All-in-one.  If found that this printer, opposed to my much more expensive Brother MFC 5890cn, prints pretty dark transparencies.

The shirt I'm doing is going to be a three color screen print, but I'm just doing one screen and will tape off the sections that are diffferent colors than the one I'm printing.  This will be explained better later on.

 

Holloran Law Website Launches!

Yesterday, Looks Great launched the new Holloran, White, Schwartz, & Gaertner LLP website.  The site reflects the conservative, yet semi-modern look and feel that the law firm wanted, as well as utilizing some of the greatest tools that the web has to offer.

So Go Check it Out at www.HolloranLaw.com

And let me know what you think on Facebook!

 

New Typepad and Wordpress Blog Designs!

Here are a couple blogs that I recently designed.  The first one is about "garage-saling," called "Garage Sale Gal" (that title might change though).  This one was setup on Wordpress using a fantastic template by Ignacio Ricco.  I just did the little illustration of a woman with her kids, carrying a bunch of garage sale "treasures" for the background and banner.

Check out this full blog at http://GarageSaleGal.Wordpress.com/

The second blog is 100% custom designed.  I built this one from scratch on Typepad, a platform that I have become much more comfortable with, in contrast to Wordpress, which I only have a free account and have never really utilized for all its worth.  "Sarah Drags Tim..." is a blog that talks about Midwest living and the great stuff there is to do if you just look for it.  

Check out this full blog at http://SarahDragsTim.com

Seoul Taco STL Website Launch!

Today, Looks Great launched the first of several websites!  

www.SeoulTacoSTL.com is now the online home of the first Korean BBQ Taco Truck in St. Louis!  I did everything you see on the site except for the logo...they had that done somewhere else.  

Seoul Taco is planning to open it's shutters later this month and I am honored to help create an identity for them in the area.  In addition to the website, Looks Great is handling ST's print items such as menus and business cards...check out Facebook for updates on those.

So go check out SeoulTacoSTL.com and let me know what you think of Twitter or Facebook!