Amazing feet.

I've spent the last couple of weeks with a really big shoe. A big tennis shoe, to be precise. It's part of Team Dreams 2008, sponsored by the Allen County/Fort Wayne Convention and Visitors Bureau, local sports facilities and some very generous sponsors. Team Dreams 2008 features 20 amateur sports tournaments taking place this year in our community. By sponsoring a shoe, area businesses help to welcome tournament visitors and to bring attention to the importance of sports tourism to our community. Right now the shoes are residing in Headwaters Park on the east side of Clinton St. They will be part of the Fort Wayne Newspapers Three Rivers Festival Parade, and then will be brought back to Headwaters, where they will remain for the duration of the festival.

I was contracted by the CVB to design and paint the shoe sponsored by General Petroleum, Inc., a wholesale lubricant distributor located here in Fort Wayne. The shoes are constructed of plaster and are eventually bolted to a wood base. They're pretty light and easy to move around, thank goodness.

After visiting GPI's web site, I thought it might be fun to use a racing theme. I needed to incorporate several logos, so it seemed fitting. What you can't see in the photo is the Mobil 1 logo on the toe of the shoe, and "General Petroleum" — a cartoon character painted on the back. After presenting the initial design, I had to make a small revise, and then I was ready to begin painting. The shoe was delivered with a design already painted on it, so I had to prime it before I could even put on the first coat of paint. The checks and Pegasus where projected on to the sides, sketched on and then painted with exterior enamel paints. I also included a design on the sole of the shoe and on the base (in reverse) to make it appear as though it had stepped in oil. The folks at GPI loved it.

It's been fun to watch the reactions of visitors to Headwaters. They often stop and point out details, and pose for photos with the shoes. It's been a long time since I've done a project like this one, and it felt good to do something that will benefit Fort Wayne. You might say that we're a city with a whole lot of sole.

Secret identity.

One of the many differences between fine art and graphic design is that you don't get to sign your work. Unless you're Paul Rand, no one knows or cares that you're the brain behind some familiar graphic identity piece, TV spot, etc. Such is the case with this logo. It was designed back in 1998 or so, and was originally intended to represent the birth center at St. Joseph Hospital, one of the medical centers in the Lutheran Health Network. It was most recently used as the graphic identity of the Birthplace at Dupont Hospital — another hospital in the Lutheran Health Network.

It's all good.

It's been my good fortune to be able to do quite a bit of work for non-profit organizations. They have their challenges, that's for sure. They usually have small budgets and desire pieces that look nice — but not "too nice." Understandably, these folks don't want it to appear as though they aren't being good stewards of their resources. I find it especially rewarding to be able to know that my efforts are helping these agencies do so many good things. I consider it a strength of mine to be able create effective designs that promote their efforts — in the most cost-efficient way possible.

One of my favorite clients is Goodwill Southern California. Every year they host an event called "Hope, Jobs & Futures" to celebrate the successes of participants in their programs. I just finished this year's invitations, RSVP cards, programs and posters. I not only handled the design, but also the fulfillment — printing, shipping and the mailing of the invitations. Contrary to popular belief, living in the heartland has its benefits. One of them is cost-of-living. It can be less expensive to produce items here in Indiana than to have them produced in other parts of the country. Thanks to high-speed internet and large bandwidth, it's entirely possible to do work for a client clear across the country, or the world for that matter. 

In these lean times, promotion is often the first thing to be cut from a budget. In reality, it should be the last. It's more important than ever to be in front of potential clients. The challenge is in doing it in the most productive way possible. I think most companies could take a lesson from the non-profit world.

Fun times.

One of the benefits of working for an agency is that sometimes you get to work on really fun stuff. From 1995-2001 I was the Senior Art Director at Bonsib Inc., a full-service advertising, marketing and PR firm in Fort Wayne. Bonsib was around for over 75 years. Sadly it's gone now, but there was some excellent work that came out of that agency, and many talented people still working in this industry got their feet wet there. Back in the day (boy, that makes me sound old, doesn't it?) Rinker Boats was one of our clients. Rinker was a boat manufacturer located in Syracuse, IN. Every year we'd go up to Dewart Lake (a tiny lake) and shoot boats. What a great gig, right? Yes, it was. The only bad part is that we always ended up shooting in October. Not boating season, exactly. I'd bundle up in a hoodie and a jacket while our talent tried to look like they were out for a refreshing boat ride on the lake. Once we got the transparencies (pre-digital dark age photography) back I'd have to go into Photoshop and clone out the goose-bumps.

The catalog featured here is from 1999. We were supposed to have gone up to South Haven, Michigan for the cover shoot. At the last minute those plans were scrapped and we ended up shooting on Dewart. We, the shooter Tom King (www.tomkingphotography.com) and I, got up at the crack of dawn for this beauty shot. I had to go into Photoshop and rid the windshields and fronts of the boats of morning dew. The cover has a nice, rich UV coating and a dull spot varnish. If you squint, you can imagine these boats are on a much bigger lake, can't you?

It's all in the game.

Fort Wayne, like many mid-sized cities, experienced urban sprawl in the '60s and '70s. After malls were built outside of downtown, retailers left the area, leaving it underutilized. Community leaders were looking for revitalization ideas. The suggestions that were coming forth intrigued the staff of Fort Wayne Monthly. Editor Connie Haas-Zuber, Associate Editor Bonnie Blackburn and I came up with a special pull-out section for our June 2006 issue. Called "Future Fort? The Downtown Game," this tongue-in-cheek insert was glued into the center of the magazine, to a page of cut-out cash featuring faces of local decision-makers. Illustrations were done by the wonderfully talented illustrator, Sam Minick. (samminick.com). Commemorative game boards were provided to those involved in the projects and selected advertisers. Eventually, a multi-use baseball stadium (one of the ideas featured in the game) was selected and is currently under construction.

Bock and Forth.

You only turn 50 once, right? That's what Kathy Bock was thinking when she rented the Cinema Center, a local independent movie theater, as the site of her 50th birthday party. Kathy has had a love of movies all of her life, so the Cinema Center was the perfect venue for this special celebration. Kathy is a copywriter here in town, and everyone (and I mean everyone) knows her. Because she's so beloved, I knew her invitation needed to reflect her personality — her indecisiveness, and that fun-loving jokester side of her as well. I came to her with this comic book style invitation. She wrote the copy for it. There was a great deal of negotiation (as there always is between creatives) and together we ended up with this Addy® award winning piece.

A golden opportunity.

Last year I was approached by Karen Goldner, a friend who was planning a run for City Council. She was hoping to unseat the current councilman in our 2nd district — a 36 year veteran. Although Karen was considered a viable candidate, many doubted that she would be successful against such a formidable incumbent. With Karen's valuable input, I created a color palette and identity package for her. Postcards, stickers, yard signs, T-shirts and web site (citizensforgoldner.com) are just a few of the many pieces that were produced to aid Karen in her campaign. In November of 2007, she won that coveted seat.

Cover girl.

Fort Wayne Monthly is the city magazine of Fort Wayne, Indiana. And, from its premiere issue in September 2003 until the June 2006 issue, I was the Senior Art Director. I helped to conceive it (it was almost as painful as childbirth) and poured blood, sweat and tears into it for those many months. This cover is from the May/June 2004 issue, also known as "Lakes." When the weekend comes, people in Northeastern Indiana often say, "we're going up to the lake." The funny thing is, they're all referring to different ones (as there are well over 100 of them). Many families have gone to the same lake for generations. This cover was designed to appeal to those lakes people — of which there are many. Whether you were once a kid at the lake, or you take your own children to one, you can relate to the joy on this young boy's face as he experiences what it means to be a part of our special lakes community.