DESIGN: The Film Stage

I’ve been writing for The Film Stage since June of 2011 and most of that time (if not all) was under a masthead with the below ticket: So when editor-in-chief Jordan Raup asked about wanting to update the website’s branding while he was also integrating a new overall WordPress theme, I jumped at the chance to help. The instructions were simple: less clunky than the ticket, a striking design, and font/text-based. From there I drew up four options of varying styles. The team then came back with some changes and…

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DESIGN: Pani K’s Pierogi

Pani K’s Pierogi is a homemade pierogi enterprise from Alexis Kothamasu. She’s spent five years perfecting her dough recipe and expanding her selections of unique fillings to include the likes of Indian Samosa and Pumpkin Pie. I was enlisted to create a logo/brand that could help her decision to move from hobby to business. Alexis only really had one request as I began the process: incorporate the feel of Polish folk flower motifs. From there I did a few iterations of merging the colorful floral designs with typography and pierogi…

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DESIGN: Leo Minor Industries

Leo Minor Industries is the brainchild of Charles Gattie. His first product is a modular display system for miniature figures. It’s a pretty cool plinth and base system wherein you can build pyramids of levels that become fully customizable depending on how creative your ambitions prove. The idea for the logo was simple: Charlie asked for a purple heraldic lion on a stainless steel shield. I went through a few different relief sculptures from European architecture as a blueprint and built it from there.

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DESIGN: Impossible Truth

Impossible Truth is a Buffalo, NY-based hip-hop duo consisting of Dan Martin and Mega. They’ve decided to get back in the studio and record a new album for Spring 2016 and came to me to design them a new logo to mark the occasion. It began with Dan asking for city skyline and some reference to “716”. From there I looked at old hip-hop outfit iconography and came up with the above.

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DESIGN: Cultivate Cinema Circle

Born from a partnership with my Buffalo movie critic colleague Jordan M. Smith comes Cultivate Cinema Circle, a local screening series helping to “foster a healthy, fervent film culture in the Buffalo area.” After many discussions about the name and goals, I started to play with the word cultivate until the idea of harvesting radishes and the like from the ground materialized. From that initial thought came the decision to make a film reel into a vegetable plucked from the soil that can be shared with the world. And like…

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DESIGN: xoxobflo

The purchase of my Kelsey letterpress meant an opportunity to create a new brand with which to differentiate my design work from the printing. I’ll admit intentionally starting to brainstorm names that could have a more palatable accessibility with the social media generation we find ourselves in. I tried abbreviations, acronyms, and “internet speak” alternatives until I came up with a way to turn “Hugs & Kisses Buffalo” into effectively brief xoxobflo. Since the press ensures everything printed by me is Buffalo-made (and things that aren’t still by default come…

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DESIGN: City & Regional Magazine Association [spec]

An interesting design project came through the offices of Buffalo Spree Publishing, Inc. this October. As a member of the City & Regional Magazine Association and Media Partners (CRMA), every graphic designer at Buffalo Spree was allowed to submit logo entries to be judged by the association in order for a winner to be selected as their new identity. Sadly I did not make the shortlist. I do, however, really enjoy the three designs I created—each one evolving from the geometrically symmetrical Sforzinda. Imagined by Filarete (Antonio di Pietro Averlino)…

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DESIGN: TZ Granite

Through Buffalo Spree Publishing, Inc., I was asked to design a new corporate identity logo for TZ Granite & Materials LLC in Orchard Park, NY as part of a new ad running in the Fall/Winter 2012 issue of Buffalo Spree Home. Formerly known as Tiede-Zoeller, the company was looking to keep a similar, angular font style but also clean up the length with a concise, attractive “TZ” image that could stand in for the full name. Working off a sans-serif font, I drew the “TZ” in a way that allowed…

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DESIGN: Upper 90 magazine

With the appeal of WNY’s professional soccer club FC Buffalo still rising—as well as the WNY Flash and a number of successful collegiate teams—it was only a matter of time before local entrepreneur and journalist Nick Mendola looked for a new outlet to increase exposure even more. Soccer has always been huge around the world and Buffalo, NY looks to follow suit with or without the rest of the country. From there came the idea for a quarterly magazine spanning youth leagues all the way to the pros and the…

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DESIGN: Bank of Holland [spec]

Through Buffalo Spree Publishing, Inc., I was tasked with designing a new corporate identity logo for the Bank of Holland in Holland, NY. Trying to get them away from the antiquated woodcut icon accompanying their all caps text, we hoped to modernize while still retaining a feel of Europe’s Holland. I was given a slew of brainstormed ideas spanning wooden shoes, windmills, and tulips—the last being what I chose to work from. Rather than create the iconic shape of a tulip in profile that we all know, I wanted to…

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DESIGN: Habibi Sheesha Lounge

A new hookah lounge has opened in Niagara Falls, NY called Habibi Sheesha Lounge. Serving over 70 different flavors of sheesha, the lounge also provides a menu with a variety of beverages—soda, smoothies, shakes, etc—and a mix of American and Middle Eastern snacks/desserts. Asked to create a logo, menu, and business card, the first step was figuring out what to do for iconography. Playing around with different Arabic motifs, the Egyptian flag colors, and the idea of a hookah, my first designs went in the direction of elegant patterns and…

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