Catch the Moment: Part 2

I wanted to followup yesterday's post about the creative process with a few more concepts I did for Catch the Moment. Again, none of these were selected, but I like taking a look at the work that was done to see if there is any merit in it.

Throughout most concepts I wanted to retain either an element of "fun" or "film." Catch the Moment provides their services at events, and records the special memories on film, so the intersection of the two is what I wanted to capture. (Hence the old Hollywood logo from the last post.)

The vintage movie theater sign above alluded to classic film, and the bright, fun color scheme below allowed for a little more flexibility.

At the end of the day, the client wanted a more contemporary approach than the vintage stylings I had through my early concepts. This "filmstrip" concept was a contender, but not a finalist.

And there you go: more interesting concepts left on the cutting room floor (pun very much intended.)

Catch the Moment: Logo Design Process

Catch the Moment is an "Event Photo Entertainment" service, specializing in green screen video booths at large corporate events. As a client of NFIDM, I began working on the logo portion of their rebrand. This post, however, is not about the full identity development. On the whole, strategy and concept decisions are more important to brand development than creative execution, but I wanted to show a step-by-step artistic review of my execution process as well. Here are the visual steps I used to create a "Catch the Moment" logo concept, which is pretty indicative of my normal logo design process.

Note: Catch the Moment did not choose this direction for their final logo. You can see the artwork they selected by visiting their website. Zaib Malik designed the final mark; I have referenced him before in this post.

92% (or so) of the time I will begin by sketching with pen on paper. If I'm in a rush, I sometimes don't start on paper, but then I just end up wasting time on the computer for a few hours, and go back to paper anyway, wishing I had just started there. Maybe I should have learned my lesson by know. Anyway, here are some intial sketches.

Initial Sketches

After a few concepts, I settled on an old video camera as the image, and wanted to utilize a vintage Hollywood style.

Defining specific lines and forms is not as important to me in the sketching phase as figuring out how the whole image will work together. Composition, as well as general visual style, is really what I want to figure out while I'm in the sketching phase. This particular logo was really well described in the sketch phase, even more detailed than usual, so the next steps were relatively quick.

Shape out the Area

Note: Notice how in this phase I dropped the "button" that was on the left hand side of the circle. Often I will loose superfluous elements when going from sketch phase to illustration, but in this case I might have just forgotten about it. Oh well.

Do the lineart

Balance Elements / Text

Experiment with Colors

If I have a difficult time picking a color scheme, sometimes I will reduce the illustration to a greyscale version just to see where I want my darkest and lightest values. After I get this to work the way I like, I can easily explore schemes with the appropriate lightness and darkness.

Greyscale Version

Final Colors

All in all I am quite happy with how the final logo turned out. The colors and illustration style work together to create a fun, vintage tone. Although this particular brand would likely only exist online or in digital media, I felt compelled to create a couple simplified permutations of the logo in case of unexpected black and white printing from a desktop printer or similar situation.

Greyscale Variant

Single Color

How to Build a Standing Desk for $50

As many of you know, I began working for The Brandit early last month, which shifted my work environment from jovial camaraderie to near solitude. This transition has not been as dire as it sounds, but one clear disadvantage made itself known quite early in the process: my chair. Here is my old workspace, old chair in the foreground:

Nickelfish provides it's employees with high-quality ergonomic chairs which are adjustable in more ways than one would care to know. This lies in stark contrast to my own $6 yard sale chair, and after less than one full workweek in it my lower back was beginning to pay the price. Not to mention that the chair and desk are both too short.

I have recently heard rumblings from friends and the internets alike about how standing desks are going to save the planet. While this might be a bit overstated, I did notice how much my sedentary, desk-hunching and car-driving lifestyle (totaling nearly 12 hours a day) affected my energy and overall fitness level (the latter gauged loosely by my endurance in intramural sports and weekly jogs). Let's just say it affected it negatively.

I also began to experience a not insignificant level of back pain and soreness since switching work environments, and this appeared to be directly related to my bad working posture due to my desk/chair configuration.

Since I do not possess $500 to spend on a fancy chair, nor am I inclined to invest in a heavy-duty new desk that I will just have to move in a couple months (more on that later), I decided to disregard looks and go for a synthesis of functionality and frugality: build my own standing desk on top of my existing desk.

Step 1: Sketch

I used an ergonomic workspace planner to figure out the appropriate height for my keyboard and monitor and sketched from there. The original plan for the tabletops included some brackets and tabletops from Ikea, but I was doing this on a budget.

The goal was to build the desk for $50 or less, so pre-fab tabletops and fancy brackets were out of the question. My wife and I visited Home Depot to see if they offered a budget solution.

Step 2: Purchase Stuff

We discovered laminated pine boards pre-cut to the exact depths I needed for my new tabletops (who knew?). They were cheap and looked nice.

2x4 framing braces would provide more than enough support for my needs, so we picked up 12 to attach to the top and bottom of the middle shelf and then attach the entire construction to my existing Target desktop.

Home Depot has a rack of cheap 2x4s from which we culled our tabletop supports, and since I don't own any power tools (aside from a borrowed electric drill) paid the 50 cents per cut to have them trim the boards and 2x4s to length.

Possibly because he was in a good mood the guy at the checkout didn't charge me for the salvaged 2X4s or the cuts. Screws and a sanding block rounded out the purchases at a tidy $47.59.

Step 3: Sand

I did not finish these boards with stain or paint, but elected to sand the edges of my tabletops since I would be resting both my hands and computer equipment on it.

Step 4: Assemble

The first step was to remove the existing Target desktop from the frame, which primarily meant unscrewing the expanding bolts that keep cheap pressboard furniture together.

As I began to layout the structural elements and measure for the supports, I realized the Home Depot guys hadn't trimmed my 2x4s exactly the same length. A quick run back to the store remedied the problem.

After assembling the desk elements together we had to affix it to the desktop. Quick Tip: use masking tape on laminate surfaces to make it easier to mark screwholes AND prevent the laminate from splitting when you drill into it.

My wife Olivia, who helped me build it, is here seen tightening the fasteners that will keep the whole thing on the frame. We also nailed the desk backing material back in place onto the desktop.

And there you go: a standing desk for $50.

After two weeks of use I am used to the perpetual standing, but the soles of my feet are noticeably sore after a long day. I will be purchasing a mat soon that I hope will relieve that issue. However, since switching I haven't had a hint of back pain and my running endurance has increased. Coincidence? Possibly, but there is definitely something to not hunching over a desk 10 hours a day...

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