Defining the essentials
Every holiday season, Ypartnership engineers an interactive ‘holiday card’. This year, they wanted to make something that gave people the ability to contribute and celebrate different cultures and backgrounds through the tradition of food preparation.

We began by outlining a wire-frame of the website, which defined basic functionality and an early navigation.

Developing the look
We wanted the aesthetics to be warm and friendly with an simple interface. Below are a couple pages from my sketchbook in which I work out some kinks with the navigation and experiment with logo ideas.

Creating the logo
After settling on a twisting banner for the logo type background, I looked to Requiem Ornaments for inspiration. Vista Sans OT had the right proportions and the personality I was looking for, so I decided to use it for the logo type and the main navigation of the website.

After this I added vertical decorations to balance the horizontal logo type and to offset the linear banner. The credits and subhead were also incorporated at this stage. The color palette of the logo and website needed to be familiar yet festive. I chose a cool stone-blue for the majority of the palette with a deeper blue as an alternative (roll-over, selected items, etc…) and a rich orange as a highlight color.

The finished product
I won’t get into the finer points of the web design process :) but all-in-all the site took about 3 weeks to get up and running. And that includes us shooting an intro video for the landing page (written by Danielle Lillig and directed by Mark Sunderland) and the Ypartnership Interactive team handling the back-end. So I’d recommend giving it a look for yourself. If you have some cool or unique recipes (yes, drinks included), please share the love!

Seasoned Greetings | Recipe Collection
Ypartnership | Worldwide Marketing and PR

Early this year, I discovered a really cool initiative to re-purpose an out-of-use freight railway and turn it into a beautiful, raised walkway. You can see images and videos of this project in it’s concept stage in my original post.

I got an opportunity to experience the High Line first-hand a month ago and was far from disappointedd. Though the website, blog and image gallery do paint an impressive picture and give insight into the history of this initiative, I gotta say, nothing could have prepared me for this experience. Well let’s take a walk shall we?

Here we are approaching the Gansevoort St. Entrance, the southern most point of the High Line; diners and small cafes rest comfortably next to elevator and staircase entrances.

Only a third of the High Line was completed on this visit.

Just… wow… I love how they incorporated the original rails into the walkways and garden.

The walkways tapered into the garden areas while the benches seamlessly push upward in the same fashion.

Looks like ITC Lubalin Graph Std Rockwell (thanks Greg) is the typeface of choice for the High Line. I love how the name of the street you’re above is engraved in the hand rail (top picture).

Unfortunately, all the deck chairs were taken, looks pretty cozy though. Some are attached to train wheels which can be rolled along the exposed tracks??
Probably not, but a fun idea.

A little ways in, you can rest in this cut-out seating area. Looks like a nice place to spend some quality time with a book.
Oh, there was a magician there that day too…

The first section ends with a nice little garden area and a view of the sunset over the Hudson. I can’t wait to go back for the second section!
Overall, it was a delightful experience. A leisurely stroll above the city is a nice break from the bustle below. If your in Manhattan anytime soon, I highly recommend checking it out.

]]> http://asmith3.com/blog/2009/visiting-new-yorks-high-line/feed/ 4 http://asmith3.com/blog/2009/island-hop-logo-design-process/ http://asmith3.com/blog/2009/island-hop-logo-design-process/#comments Fri, 12 Jun 2009 20:18:28 +0000 Avery Smith http://asmith3.com/blog/?p=178

Island Hopper will be a an event presented by Special Olympics Florida as an incentive for showing your support for this great organization. The plan is to fly the winner of this prize to beautiful beach destinations from Hawaii to South America.

This is my first time really showcasing my process, so be gentle ;) but I felt it was an excellent opportunity to take you from sketchpad to vector!

I’ve always admired the aesthetic and tactile value of scratchboard illustrations and I knew this would be an excellent opportunity to experiment with that quality when creating the mark for Island Hopper. Given the tropical destinations the program offers and the very name itself my mind instantly went to seaplanes as an icon.

First, I decided to sketch out a couple of solutions for representing the water as the plane splash lands to the island paradise. I wanted to capture the feeling of excitement as you begin a new adventure. That being said, the icon became very dynamic.

Finally, I drew out the scene in full, this sketch would be used as a template to illustrate in-computer. I framed what I felt was the most ideal and efficient crop of the plane and water and made some guidelines to help keep the perspective consistent.

I chose Knockout created by Hoefler & Frere Jones for the logo type because of the versatility of its individually designed weights and widths. Experimenting with the lock-up yielded this horizontal version which has appealing proportions and switches the hierarchy so the type visually dominants the mark. Not sure but I think I prefer it this way, what do you think? :)

Well I think that about wraps it up. Hope I gave you a little insight into my logo process. I’ll try to do these more often, Mark Sunderland suggests a behind-the-scenes look at the conception, research and execution of the Wixárika Calendar made possible by partners in design Maria Rogal and Cassie McDaniel. How about it?

noun Fights caused directly or indirectly from common problems with Christmas lights.

And that’s just my first word! Check out Addictionary and see what you can come with or vote, comment or add to other submissions. Thank you exljbris for the excellent display face,  museo (which by is what I used to set my logotype).

I haven’t visited House Industries in a good while and was pleasantly surprised when I came across this beauty. This typeface is bold, proud yet not conceited – a face that wears expensive vintage boots and form-fitting leisure jackets but still invites you to catch up over a cup of cappuccino.

view neutraface in action

read neutraface history