By Type
Official MGM Website
The MGM website was a true labor of love. After several years of honing our skill and feature sets on other MGM sites like Stargate, American Gladiators and MGM HD, it was finally time for the MGM dev team to dive into a complete overhaul of both the back-end and front-end of the legendary studio’s official website.
The main problem to be solved here was how to keep users on the site for as long as possible in order to connect with the deep library titles of MGM’s over 4100 movies. Thanks to our friends at Hulu, and the amazing dev team at MGM, we were able to come up with an incredibly compelling site with an infinite amount of info and media for visitors to soak in and enjoy.
A dedicated “Watch Now” section allows users to watch close to 200 titles instantly, right on the site. This was accomplished with an integrated Hulu player and AJAX to allow users to browse, click and watch without having to reload the page.
The “Movies” section features infinite scrolling that continuously loads more movies once the bottom of the page is reached. This allows the user to view all the movies on the site and click through to their title pages.
Title pages allow users to view stills, clips, synopsis, cast & crew lists and awards for each title. Buying and viewing options are also available whether it’s on DVD, Blu-Ray, digital download or free-on-demand, such as Hulu or YouTube (both which play directly on the title page). Users can also share the title on their Facebook profile.
With all this in mind, I invite you to go get lost in the movies. Go have fun at the new MGM.com!
Lost Marauders Gig Fliers
Any creative restraints that I find being put on me at work are usually made up for whenever my band has a gig. This always comes in the form of playing the actual music, but also in the form of gig fliers. I have absolute creative freedom with these mini works of art and it’s something I am completely passionate about.
Here are some of my favorites for local LA shows and beyond. Enjoy!
Print ad for Stargate Website
Print design has never had a very strong presence at my current day job. I usually only get to work on it at home for a freelance client or for friends.
Needless to say, I was like a pig in shit when I was asked to create a print ad to promote the Stargate Website.
The ad needed to communicate to all fans of all three Stargate series — SG-1, Atlantis and the new Stargate Universe. It also needed to hard sell all of the great features the site has to offer fans on all levels, however deep or not-so-deep their fanaticism may be.
MGM iPhone Soundboard Apps
This project landed in my lap by accident. Well, that’s not 100% true. I made it land there…
When asked to create the landing page for our new iPhone apps, we were given screenshots of the apps that were in development at the time. Being the design snob that I am, I was taken aback by their seemingly arbitrary and non-standard construction. Not to mention its overall sloppiness (hard to read colored text, stretched or squashed button labels, poorly resized and uncorrected imagery, etc.).
I just needed to make a stink about it, but instead of just complaining about the design, I ended up taking on the job myself over the weekends and evenings that followed.
The options and soundboard screen’s orientation were turned to portrait view for better one-handed usability and to avoid the iPhone’s speaker from being covered by the user’s hand during playback of the sound. Overall design was completely re-thoughtout for a more standard experience. The images for the slideshows were retouched for best possible color representation, taking into consideration the age of the assets.
Once the app was redesigned it was a matter of creating assets for the 5 features that were getting companion apps: Rocky, Fargo, Robocop, Silence of the Lambs and Army of Darkness. Included in those assets were the icons that appear in the app. Those I took creative license, creating Ash’s chainsaw from Army, Hannibal’s mask from Lambs, Rocky’s hero pose, Robocop’s mechanical head, and of course, the woodchipper from Fargo:
The apps went on to be downloaded more than 100,000 within a relatively short period of time, and are still going strong. So far, the most popular app has been the Army of Darkness, based on the last of the Evil Dead trilogy films. It’s such a classic flick with some great quotes.
Check out the apps in iTunes: Army, Rocky, Lambs, Fargo, Robocop
Below are before and after shots of the original app design, the icons, and samples of the finished app.
Diskeeper 2010 Marketing Image
For the Diskeeper 2010 packaging, Diskeeper Corporation wanted to go with something simpler that what they have done in the past. I couldn’t have agreed with them more. Although previous images had communicated very well, they were starting to get a bit too complex. The challenge was how to simplify but also still convey what needed to communicated… a clean and fast hard drive.
Starting from the ground up (rather than using assets I had created in the past), I remodeled the Disk image in Cinema 4D and added my finishing touches in Photoshop.
The result was a very sleek and clean disk, that I think looks beautiful. Thankfully the client (and their public) agreed :)
Karla Kelly CD Design
Karla Kelly was referred to me by fellow drummer Tom Mendola, a friend from my days at Diskeeper.
Karla has what one would call, the voice of an angel. I was happy to oblige when asked to design her album art.
Using existing photography I was able to whip up a design that fit perfectly with her musical style. Design included Ecowallet, 9-page insert and the CD itself.
Maybe I can hook her up with a website in the near future. We’ll see :)
MGM Logo
The MGM logo is one of the most recognized brands in the world and is synonymous with Hollywood.
With the release of the films Valkyrie and Quantum of Solace, the new motion version of the MGM logo was issued for use before feature films. Although not much different from its predecessor, the new logo was considerably cleaned up, using original elements from decades ago.
The same original elements were used here in the revision to the static logo. Using ultra-high resolution scans of the film ribbon and Leo, I ended up with a massive working file measuring 20,000 pixels wide and weighing in at over 3GB in size once all of my retouching was done. Pretty friggin’ big for a guy who’s used to working with web graphics.
Special attention was payed to the texture of Leo’s hair which in the original painting, did not exist. Purists may call me crazy for adding it in, but they were subtle enough and added much more texture and depth that I decided it was for the better. I also needed a good alpha channel for blending purposes. This meant hand painting in all of the hair at the edges of Leo’s mane. Fun!
Overall color was graded to a more natural golden tone, away from the yellow and orange of the preceding logo.
The end result is one of subtle but much needed enhancements.
Flying Drew
My Nephew Andrew taking flight thanks to his dad Mike
The Road Unknown
CD Packaging for my band Lost Marauders. This was our first 4-song demo release. The concept behind the packaging was simplicity with a shout out to the classic high-energy album art from Sub-Pop in the late 80′s and early 90′s. Add an outlaw western flair and there you have it.
The final packaging was die-cut by hand out of recycled grocery bags. The front and back covers were printed on label paper and held the whole thing together.
You can find out more about the band at: www.lostmarauders.com
You can purchase the demo from iTunes: www.lostmarauders.com/itunes
Robocop spec 1-sheet
In 2010 MGM is set to release the remake of Robocop. For fun I created this spec teaser one-sheet using Cinema 4D for the 3D logo and Photoshop for the rest of the typesetting and finishing.
I should probably do a few hundred more since that’s usually how many comps a studio would get for a movie poster before deciding on a final version. I sure wish I had that kind of time.
Until then…
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- Robocop 2010 spec one-sheet title treatment 3D construction
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- Robocop 2010 spec one-sheet title treatment
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- Robocop 2010 spec one-sheet title treatment detail
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- Robocop 2010 spec one-sheet
Official Stargate Website
The Stargate site was the first project I worked on when I was hired at MGM. But that was the version before this one.
For the revision of the site the project was outsourced to a vendor who, fortunately for us, was unable to complete the task. This gave the MGM web team a great chance to do some spectacular work. Since design direction was already set, the task of thinking out the rest of the UI and UX was left up to me and the team.
In addition there was a new series that was going to start airing. This meant that the site was going to play an important role in supporting the series.
Besides design, I was also responsible for user experience design and functionality, media player functionality and video content graphics and style. Among about a million other things.
Enough of my yappin’. Boogie on over to the site and have fun:
OFFICIAL STARGATE WEBSITE
Diskeeper Logo
Executive Software changed its name to Diskeeper Corporation in an effort to focus on its 95% market share of the automatic disk defragmenter market. While still on staff there, I was asked to design the new company logo that was to communicate “Fast, automatic, disk defragmentation”. Needless to say, it was very tricky to get that across in a logo. Using marketing survey data, I came up with the new logo that incorporates a clock (to represent “scheduling/automatic”) and broken concentric circles becoming whole again (to represent disk defragmentation). To communicate speed, I put the whole thing on a slant to give it a sense of motion. The new logo was then incorporated throughout the company’s communications. I also created an extensive style guide to maintain consistent branding of the new corporate identity.
I have the pleasure of seeing my work in big lit-up letters on the side of the building every time I drive up the 5 freeway in Burbank.
The MannersCast art
The MannersCast is a great podcast that takes a fun look at everyday manners. The hosts are a great bunch of guys and I have become very close with their fearless leader Trent Armstrong.
After just one listen, I immediately wanted to help in their mission by doing their iTunes & website art for them. In case you’re wondering their mission, is to take over the world… MWAHAHAHAHA.
For the artwork, the first thing that came to mind was the classic inner-struggle between your good and evil sides. Here’s the end result that ended up on iTunes…
Subscribe to The MannersCast in iTunes • Visit The MannersCast Site
Diskeeper Postcards
Diskeeper Corporation had to promote to companies that had the Diskeeper product installed on only half of their computer network. Besides being the model for this campaign (yes, my mom has these on her fridge), I also handled concept, design, layout, typesetting, photography/lighting set up, and image retouching/manipulation. I also created a parachute in 3D for use in the last card.
Included below is each postcard followed by the progression of the Photoshop work I did for each card.
2009 Oscar 1-sheet parodies
Every year around Oscar season my friends Jamie and Joe prepare for their annual Academy Awards party. I love to help out by designing the invitations for them. For the 2009 Oscars we decided to recreate the 1-sheets for the five films nominated for Best Picture to serve as te cover of the invitations.
This entailed a photo shoot and several hours in Photoshop, erasing parts of the original imagery, color correction of the new photography, compositing and finally typesetting and finishing.
The results were so good that they even decided to get full-sized prints made as decorations at the party.
NOTE: A little background is needed for a couple of these to make sense…
Slumdog: They live in Brentwood.
The Reader: Jamie is a Psychologist.
Full-resolution versions located here.
Impact Vat
OK, this was one of the coolest things I’ve ever worked on, and not just graphically.
This concept for Impact Video on Demand (an MGM service for cable and satellite providers), was truly unique in that it used some tricky javascript to filter movie titles. Users would drag ‘Action Elements’ from a periodic table into this vat of acid and the site would deliver movie titles tagged to that element. The more elements you dragged in, the narrower your search results ended up being. Unfortunately the feature never went live for a few reasons.
Luckily however, I get to share the artwork I did for it with you :) This graphic, like most web graphics, had a final size of about 200 pixels wide. Being detail obsessed, I made sure to create it at about 10 times that size.
It started with a hand drawn sketch that I then recreated in Illustrator adding some basic shading. Once I was happy with that I brought it into Photoshop and added all the texture and details.
The end result was a completely over the top vat of orange acid (to match the Impact brand.
Impact’s website: http://www.impactvod.com/
Chili Peppers at The Troubadour
I was lucky enough to attend a secret Red Hot Chili Peppers show at the Troubadour in Hollywood in May of 2006. I snapped a bunch of shots that night but since there wasn’t a single image that conveyed the energy of the band as a whole, I ended up taking the best parts of multiple images and compositing them together. Being their first gig at the legendary club, I wanted to make sure that I included the neon sign and the crowd to show how small a venue this multi-platinum selling band was playing in.
Each image title points out the parts I used to create the final composite image:
Gayhead Lighthouse
The lighthouse at Gayhead
Undelete Marketing Image
Diskeeper Corporation commissioned me to design the Undelete 2009 product marketing image for their data recovery and protection software.
The image needed to communicate safe data on servers. Diskeeper does a ton or market research to figure out what represents ‘safe’ to it’s potential customers. The answer? A shield and life preserver.
A little unorthodox but once tested, it was a huge success with its public.
All elements were modeled and rendered in Cinema 4D, then composited and finished in Photoshop.
More on Undelete: http://www.undelete.com
Sweaty Sam
Sam after a long run
Impact Ax
This was a fun little piece I did as part of a background image for the Impact site for MGM.
The ax started out as a flat 2D illustration in Illustrator. I then angled it, added some perspective and extrusion, then did some basic shading in Illustrator before bringing it into Photoshop for final texturing and finishing.
I wish I had done this one at a large size, but alas I didn’t :(
See it in action (refresh til you see axes): http://www.impactvod.com/
Nephew Nate
My Nephew Nathan striking a pose
Freelance Print Work
Here are additional samples of freelance work that I have done. My responsibilities for all three were concept, design, layout and typesetting. Additionally, I provided photo retouching for the DrumFun and Lost City Arts ads and illustrations for the powerPlant postcard.
This is some of my older work but I’m still proud of it.
Photo Restorations
Here are some restorations done for TLC Photo Studio in Yonkers, NY. The most challenging parts were when I needed to create parts of the picture that were very badly damaged or even completely missing.
