finished portfolio!

...for now. Expect some web loads on my Coroflot next week.

Has been inspired

So a new graphic ID image. It looks way more fresh. Still quite minimal. Bolder colors. I'm thinking about using hexagons instead of lines because of the molecular structure but I'm afraid it's too 2001 if I do.

Inspire me

Tonight I attended a short presentation by Harmon Liemburg, a graphic designer/print maker, about some of his work and process. I must say, how inspirational. I've been growing bored with my last design for Gas Cap. It's too stale, too rigid. I want to create a gas station that appears fun and approachable. Not chintzy and loud, but something to get away from the rigid corporate look most other fuel companies have.

Liemburg told us about his fascination with some of the Japanese kawaii culture. It's bold and colorful and unashamedly fun. Yes please! He also draws from existing signage. Roadside signs are bold to grap attention out of necessity. Who puts a bear dookie in a poster? I love modernist white boxes but this time I want to get away from there. So I'm on to Gas Cap No2 (just as soon as my portfolio gets wrapped up end of the week).

Personal identity progress

I've finally came to a final look. As you can tell by the new(ish) look of this blog, I'm sticking with a medium blue and a darker tint. #23A4DC and #1D7FA8 for you hex fans out there. My font is DIN 1451 in engschrift. I've posted my business card and portfolio site mock-up. So far www.joevichich.com is a single "about me" page. Those square are to be rollover links to each project.

Logo

To avoid any corporate hubub, I'm creating my own brand. And here it is.

It was "The Gas Cap" for a moment. You know, with a little "the" in a friendly cursive script tacked on the top left. What do you think?

I played with designing my own font but I don't have the time to do a big type study. I ended with Eurostile bold extended. My sketches were based on a rounded rectangle and this one works well. It's also a popular type to use in the automotive industry. If you have an older GM car, look at the numbers on your speedometer. There's not much a break through here I admit but I think it has a balance of contemporary and retro style.

Welcome back Joe

I'm back in school after my time at Visteon. This semester is my last. I will have finally graduated after almost six years of college. This last studio class of mine is open for the students to decide. During my time at Visteon, I filtered through many design discipline and found some I really enjoy: user interface, user experience, systems design. So my senior thesis is to redesign the common gas station.

Look at this! It's terrible.

I'm excited to try it out. There's a lot of potential. We have product design on the pump, interface on the payment and fuel choices, architecture for the outside, graphic design for the branding and signage. Quite a long menu. I've settled to tackle three parts of the gas station: the pump, branding and building.

I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Working stiff

I'm such an adult now. I like this internship but I don't like the "9:00 to 5:00" lifestyle. Where are my slipper and today's newspaper? I need to go pay some bills.

...old