Weddings in Houston Magazine Ad

Posted on September 2, 2008

I spent Memorial Weekend on a lake in East Texas hanging out with a bunch of my best friends (pictures to come), among them was Chris Figat, who is the mastermind behind my branding and identity. He has helped me with everything from my logo, to my business cards, price booklets, website, blog, even my bridal show booth. Basically anything design related. When it came time to design my first print ad (a full page, full bleed ad in Weddings in Houston Magazine), I hired him to do the design, and over the weekend we put a lot of work into it and came up with a final piece.

It is amazing how the design process works. He and Kacie and I spent HOURS and HOURS discussing, sketching, writing, and arguing over what form the ad should take. At one point everyone who was there was chipping in with ideas (I have great friends, most of whom are at least semi-creative). We wanted something that would really stand out, and have a “designed” feel to it. This doesn’t mean elaborate and complicated– just that it looks professional. This is what we came up with:

It is amazing how simple it turned out after all that time spent conceptualizing, drafting, and starting all over again. You might say that all that time was wasted, but that is the secret behind great design. All the other ideas we threw out were very important clues along the trail that took us to what we were really looking for. We had a few good concepts that involved some text in the ad, but when we settled on a picture for the ad we found that the image was really able to speak for itself. The only elements we needed to add were my logo and basic contact info, which we did as minimalist as possible, consistent with my branding and style. All-in-all I think the piece is very strong, and will succeed at both portraying the kind of work I do and the style in which I do it. Mad props to Chris!

Sorry for the long post, but I know some of you designer-types would appreciate this. Have a great week!

Don’t Have a Fitt

Posted on January 28, 2007

A friend sent me a link to an interface-design quiz based on Fitt’s Law. More important than quizzing your design abilities, it will educate you on Fitt’s Law and what makes or breaks a good interface design (for an operating system, computer program, etc.).

Trust me. It’s more interesting than it sounds.

A Dialogue on Design, Marketing, and the iPhone

Posted on January 28, 2007

Now this is interesting. A few days ago, Pete Mortenson in the Wired.com Cult of Mac blog, wrote a rebuttal to an article written by a Whorton College professor who was criticizing the iPhone and Apple’s marketing/design strategy. Pete Fader, the college professor, later repsonded with a short and friendly note defending his position. This has opened up a very interesting dialogue. Pete Mortensen’s latest contribution is a great crash-course in design vs. marketing in the technology world, and provides some great insight into the mind of Apple, Inc.

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