Verdant Collective is a dynamic studio of designers, editors, writers, photographers, coders, directors, actors and other creatives that coalesce to take on projects that are too large and complex for any one of them individually. Members also have similar ideas about aesthetics, sustainability and work ethic.

Green Loves Gold is a budding blogging network focused on sustainability, health, professional upward mobility, design, and the intersections of these topics. I wanted to create something simple that would immediately speak to any viewer of a more calm, but bold, existence.

This full-page magazine advertisement was created for sustainable, Los Angeles- and San Deigo-based company, Eco Caters. This is a company that takes great pride in the taste and beauty of the food they create for their clients. That in mind, I decided to use their food as a piece of artwork, displayed like it would be in a gallery, with a minimum of the extraneous information. The typography was kept nice and clean and a bit faded, so as not to compete with the beautiful exclamation-point shaped meal in the center.

I designed this full-page magazine advertisement for eco-friendly shoe company, Charmoné. Taking their current look and feel into account, I was about to apply their color scheme, illustration-style and typographic sensibilities to the ad, along with an evolution of the brand. The idea was to invoke a sense of elegance with dramatic, focused imagery of the product, while at the same time integrating it with the background using freehand illustrations.

I recently had the pleasure of working with an ambitious and talented group of people on an up-and-coming publication that I think is really going to knock everybody out, Coco Eco Magazine (click here to see the whole second issue).

I was asked by Anna Griffin, Coco Eco’s Editor-In-Chief to come on board as the magazine’s Creative Director for the publication’s second issue, which I happily accepted. There was still quite a bit of groundwork to be lain, as far as stylistic consistency, typography and layout was concerned, but the idea of the magazine is fantastic, and the people working on it are top notch, so we were able to pull the whole thing together in less time than you would think.

Designing for fashion publications is quite a bit different than designing for other industries; there are a lot more full-bleed photos, exotic typefaces and crowded pages than you’d see in, say, Print or CMYK.

The best part about working with any startup is that you get to wear many hats and try out new things, and this project was no different. Being able to work with some of Coco Eco’s advertisers was great, as well, as they are uniformly sustainable endeavors in their representative industries.

Way Below Status Quo is an exclusive networking group for young professionals based out of Los Angeles. The WBSQ logo was developed with industriousness in mind, with the gear representing the ambition of WBSQ members and the plants and birds representing the growth and freedom members plan to achieve. The typography is geometric and rational, and the print collateral for the group stays consistent with the overall look and feel.

From time to time I take a break and put together a mix CD, design album art for it, and distribute it to my friends, colleagues and clients. Is it an excuse to discover new music? Is it a promotional tactic? You be the judge.

The owners of In The Loop, a new event coordination company, needed a logo that was fresh, sophisticated and modern. Using a combination of granite-based, powerful colors and a geometric-yet-organic shape, an identity was born. Loving the logo they received, they then asked for a business card.

The owner of Crystal Clear Cleaning was looking for a business card that would catch potential clients’ attention, but without being loud. Aiming for a ‘clean’ feeling, I created a business card with elegant, clean typography that is printed on a transparent, rounded piece of plastic that is sure to turn heads, especially in such a traditionally aesthetically-challenged industry.

Ty Earston, entrepreneur, businessman, recent contender on The Amazing Race, and aspiring model and actor came to me looking for a comp card that would help him stand out in the extremely competitive LA landscape, while still adhering to professional standards.

The Whole 9, a social network for creative people, recently started up a blogging network with an impressive number and variety of people in its stable. I was asked to create the blog headers for each of the different bloggers, using a different look for each one, depending on their topic.

Needless to say, I had a good time, especially with some of the more abstract and wild titles.

The creative social network, The Whole 9, asked me to design several newsletters, including a template that would be used for a weekly blogging network mailer. I kept the colors and typography use consistent, but spiced things up a bit by juxtapositioning text of different sizes and colors, along with concise, informative images.

The tricky part was incorporating interesting elements into the newsletters, while at the same time making them versatile enough to change depending on the event and varying amounts of information. Keeping a certain kind of movement and rhythm going with the text throughout seemed to do the trick, serving as a unifying element from newsletter to newsletter.

Lisa Schultz, head of the social network for creatives, The Whole 9, asked me to create a onesheet for her business that would display the demographics of the community that she’s built, along with advertising costs and a brief description of the network. I kept it simple, slightly evolving the look and feel that the site already possesses and building a small infographic for the demographics.

A client of mine asked me to create a poster for an Obama fundraiser she had put together and I had to say yes. Political beliefs aside, the Obama camp ran a fantastic campaign, had great design sensibility, and was inseparably associated with revolution. A poster-maker’s dream!

This is another option that I presented that has a slightly different feel to it.

nvohk, an eco-friendly clothing company with a unique management structure, asked me to put together a press-release/onesheet that they could send out to announce their first line having been printed and made available. I kept it simple, straight-forward and consistent the brand’s look and feel.

nvohk was an eco-friendly clothing company managed by the people who wear it. ‘Member-owners’ contributed to all decisions made within the company, from what logo would be used to what graphics would go on the shirts to how and where the clothing would be sold.

When I first heard about it, I knew it would be an interesting project. And nvohk’s management wanted a LOT of logos to present to their member-owners for voting, so I had plenty of opportunity to try different styles in an effort to appeal to their audience, the upwardly-mobile 20- and 30-something outdoorsy crowd.

I started out doing some research on biking, swimming, surfing and skating apparel companies and found that handmade is definitely in with that crowd, though it tends to go hand-in-hand with slick, modern typefaces and just enough grunge to keep things from looking corporate.

That in mind, I began to create the numerous logo options that were eventually presented to their member-owners for voting. I aimed to run the gamut: from Sagmeister-esque handmade logotypes to crisp, toned-down and slick Web 2.0-reminiscent icon-based treatments.

Many visual metaphors were incorporated: the mellow shape of the tortoise, the freedom-expressing bird, the idea-diffusing dandelion seed and the modern Adam, complete with fig leaf.

Award-winning independent filmmaker Mischa Hedges came to me wanting a new look and feel for his personal business cards. Living in Los Angeles, a big issue that Mischa has to deal with in his field is the intense competition from the thousands of other filmmakers in the area, so he needed something that would stand out, yet not be so loud or obnoxious that it lacked professionalism.

We settled on a solution that melded a calming, warm orange with black and white with attention-grabbing oversize typography and a silhouetted image that subtly alluded to film making without shouting it.

The cards were printed on recycled paper with soy ink.

In what turned out to be the last issue of Stim Magazine, the publishers had just relocated to Los Angeles and took on a full-time day job which, regrettably, made the continuation of Stim exceedingly difficult.

In issue 6, however, the Look Book got classy. Meghan got illustrated as she told all about how she would want her wedding to be depending on which season it was taking place in.

Photos were taken, typography was applied. It was a crazy time, I can tell you that much. There was also a whole series of illustrations that encouraged readers to Go Up.

Stim Magazine, Issue 5 displayed some of the strangest and most innovative publication layout techniques ever gracing the pages of a zine.

Stim Magazine, Issue 5

Making use of giant word bubbles and pictures taken after giving him a few drinks, set designer Daniel Heinke was interviewed about his creative process and what it’s like to work behind the scenes of a theatrical performance.

New trends were displayed, discussed and distorted in Meghan Spalding’s ever-evolving Look Book segment.

The fourth issue of Stim came out during a major natural disaster which was an ice storm that exploded all the trees in Springfield, Missouri, where the magazine was published. The electricity was out for weeks, most smart people fled to other, nearby towns that weren’t hit so bad, and generally it was quite a depressing place to be for a while.

Fortunately, there were enough new connections made and interesting articles written to justify staying. Miss Hillary Croan’s artwork is displayed, along with an interview conducted completely with answers garnered purely from results that came up when her name was Googled.

Mr. Daniel Zender, renowned poster artist, also had his work shown and picture taken (to much fanfare).

Issue number three of Stim Magazine less us through a period of adjustment; one that led to more freedom down the line and valuable connections down the line.

We were also able to share some of Kyle Lane’s fantastic photography, an evolved Look Book by Meghan Spalding, and an amazing short story by Elise Winn.

With the publication of the second issue of Stim Magazine, things started to get a little more legit, but the spontaneous and creative look and feel of the first issue remained intact.

In this issue we had a fashion section put together by the fabulous Meghan Spalding, a politically-charged piece that checked the facts on allegations made between candidates in a local campaign, and illustrations for a short story done by the incredibly talented Jesse Nivens.

For the first issue of Stim Magazine, a culture zine out of Springfield, Missouri, I was really able to have some fun as advertising was taken care of (and designed by me, so even the ads fit with the look of the publication) and the audience had no expectations, so I had free reign to do whatever I wanted.

For the cover I did some watercolor and Indian ink drawings, along with an inked logo. Inside there was an interview with a philosopher with a unique take on cultural evolution, a short story retelling the tale of Adam and Eve from a different perspective, and a really cool, hand-drawn illustrated guide on how to make your own clutch-purse.

The i GIVE a damn! network, a social network and charity connection tool, brought me in early on to develop the identity and marketing materials for the organization. This included a logo, business cards, stationery and style guide.

Big, bold, san-serif typography was used in developing the logo; partially because of its visual impact, partially because of the clarity a san-serif typeface has online, and partially because the lowercase ‘i’ mirrored the ‘!’ surrounding the name of the organization, which is aesthetically pleasing, but also highlights the international scope of the group’s efforts.

This project entailed making a series of book jackets for a trilogy of short story collections, and each series had to be done in a unique but consistent style.

My first company, 2and2is5 Design, was founded while I was in college. The idea was to create a look that was nearly brandless, represented not by an icon or logo, but by a look, a palette of colors, an aesthetic.

A résumé, a business card and a leave-behind were the contents of my first self-marketing package.