SlyBrand

Over the last 7 months or so, I’ve been combing through my work looking for interesting, and perhaps forgotten, illustration work for the new site. I came across several pieces I’ve done in the past that I haven’t posted online in a format suitable for viewing. This vector drawing of City Hall in Oxford Mississippi, commissioned by a friend for the Oxford Tourism Council, is a good example. More to come soon!

Today is my daughter Lucy’s sixth birthday.

After dinner our family took a “Cinderella” carriage ride through downtown Memphis. We went by the Cotton Exchange building, which, In my opinion, could be the most beautiful building in downtown Memphis. We passed the newly renovated limestone Post Office building, that’s now the the new U of M Law School. We clopped on through Confederate Park and then on to Court Square. More…

After watching the Vancouver Olympics, and having a tight deadline on this project, I was inspired to go back and look at some of vintage Canadian Pacific Railway postcard art.

Shea and I went to Banff, Alberta, Cananda on our honeymoon and collected a bunch of those postcards, and they came in very handy for type and illustration style inspiration.

The structure in the back of this illustration is the dam at Pickwick Lake—where the retreat will be held.

By the way, how great are the design and colors of the Canadian Flag? A designer’s dream.

One day I’m gonna re-typeset this art to say “A Heart for MOM” and get it tattooed across my back.

Thanks to Scott Campbell and his Camel ad illustrations for the style and inspiration.

So, finally, after seven months of excruciating work. Our cleaned-up, loaded up with work, coded-to-web standards (thanks JD) website is live. Please take a look.

Dear God, please let something like this happen.

I worked for archer>malmo for about a year after I graduated college. While I was there, I was exposed to some great people and great design opportunities. One of those opportunities was to help design the new marketing logo for the oldest girl’s school in Memphis, Hutchison.

To me, the most interesting aspect of this project was the rich history behind Hutchison School. One tidbit from that story is that Miss Hutchison’s school on Union Avenue had a beautiful arbor, under which, on pretty days, the girls would sit to do their lessons. I was asked to develop an option for presentation, and the image above to the left is what I produced. The lines of the “H”, for “Hutchison”, becoming the arbor, and the hanging vine becoming an “S”, for “school.”

They ended up going with the image above to the right, designed by Richard Williams, Sr. Art Director at the time. I was bummed out then, but in retrospect, I understand why they picked the option they did. I do, however, still believe in the power of the vine logo to tell and preserve a wonderful story about a Memphis educational institution—even though the design may never see the back window of an SUV.

And one final note. Whatever I lost on the Hutchison project, I was able to redeem on this one.

Here’s the new Fox Design Co. “elevator pitch”:

Our Mission:
To create valuable, and sustainable graphic identity systems
that beautifully and simply tell distinct stories.

So, I’ve been slowly working over my main website over the last 3 months (preview above). It’s been largely an after-hours project that’s felt more like the enjoyment that comes from cleaning house, than work.

Some great things have come out of the discipline of methodically working through this project. First, and possibly most important, I have a new “elevator pitch“. This retooled mission statement has been a filter that’s guided me along the path of production. Exactly what a mission statement should do.

Secondly, by taking it slow, I’ve been able to pay better attention to how the user will approach and use the site. I’ve learned from my user experience friends that this is an art in itself.

I’ve also continued to wrestle with the Fox Design Co. brand. I’ve decided to return to the logo I created back in 2001, with a few minor tweaks. I hope to post an evolution of that mark soon.

A new favicon and secondary graphic have also come out of the process. They’ll be around soon too.

As for the site being finished, I’m hoping in the next two weeks or so you’ll see the fruits of my tortoise-like labor.

“We fail a lot. We just don’t fail by the time the movie comes out.

John would be the first to tell you that every movie we’ve made has been at one point the biggest piece of garbage we’ve ever worked on.”
—Lee Unkrich, Director of Pixar’s “Toy Story 3″

From a fascinating article in Variety about John Lasster’s take on the role of failure in the creative process.