PARTY invitation design

When I do a party, I like to go all out, and part of the preparations means a compelling invitation. Here are three invites from recent parties: top one is Pamela's "throwback to the 80s" invite using a photo taken at Studio 54; my Glamour party invite, in which I obviously added my face to a photo of Jean Harlow, and Carol's party, which was almost cancelled due to the volcanic eruption in Iceland.

Website Design: Maya Knitwear

Knitwear Designer's Website. Maya Neighbour designs sensuous, feminine cashmere knitwear found in boutiques and upscale department stores. When the time came for her to do a website, she hired me to project the image she wanted to depict. Maya is the type of person who really pays attention to detail, so we decided that showing the elements of her collections would highlight her fastidiousness—so added the elements of the metal tag, zippers, and other touches that embellished her designs. We themed the mathematics of flora and tied it in with her knit patterns. Each season had its collection shot on mannequins, so as not to detract from the sweaters themselves, and, of course, to save money. The top photo shows the final page as it appeared on the site. As you clicked on the menu below, the section would jump up. The series of 4 photos shows my original presentation from the top: the site opened with a close-up of a knit pattern and sweater of the season, the about page, the season's collection with archived previous collections, and the contact page. Click on the images to enlarge.

Brochure design: AT&T

at+t: the early days of digital information. Back in the 90s I worked at a design studio developing corporate business-to-business brochures, magazines and promotional items for AT+T. These were the early days of personal computers and the new technological services AT&T was offering to its biggest phone customers. The challenge as a graphic designer was coming up with yet another way to show how digital information gets projected through their system of phone lines. We must have come up with at least 100 ways to do this, often late at night, burning the midnight oil! The best part, though, was that we had huge budgets to order special illustrations, over the top printing techniques, such as die-cut pockets and special inks, and the opportunity to design fun, folded packages (to hold floppy disks!) and giveaways. Click on the images to enlarge.

Bottled Water Ad Campaign

This series of ads was presented as part of an ad campaign to showcase a bottled water whose alkaline PH level was naturally higher than other waters. Since high alkalinity is associated with weight loss, I wanted to show women who were slim and fitness-oriented in a water environment. I managed to find these excellent stock photos, and added the graphic of dots going from yellow to dark blue. The graphic alluded to the company's test strip you could use to determine your body's alkalinity, depending on what color it matched on the scale. Unfortunately, these ads never ran, but remain a favorite of mine! Click on images to enlarge.

Branding: Mid-Century Modern Store

Frazier Ferrara had the most fabulous collection of mid-century modern furniture. When he opened a store in St. Petersburg, FL he needed a postcard to do some promotion. Raised Modern, refers to his childhood, where he grew up in a custom designed home by his aerospace engineer father and architect Peter S. Hoff. He had a photo of the house, which was turned into a duotone, and I photographed one of the chairs in the store to create this piece. The slogan: "Architectural, Sculptural, Contoversial" makes perfect sense when you meet the owner, who has strong opinions on design, and everything else!

Below, see some of the earlier design ideas, plus the extra wide business card.