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As mentioned above, these seven catagories represent most of
the visual design work that I've created. Missing is my theatrical
lighting work. I've broken print work into sub-catagories to
show different applications of my creative output.
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EMAX II went in a completely different direction than it's predecessor Emax.
The original hand-drawn logo of the first product is replaced with this
squared off, distintly modern looking one. And the original greyed down tones
are spiced up with a day-glow pink. I went with type as the main
graphic element on this one and used a half-tone screen to stretch out the three
spot color design. (Black, Blue & Pink) As well, I decided to feature the newly
designed (by Russell Leong) "E-mu" logo, making it a prominent part of the design.
Though not as crazily cluttered, the genesis of this piece comes from the
logos-in-every-available-space look of NASCAR racers.
My involvement: Graphic Design, Production & Sound Design
Others: Russell Leong - Logos
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The Proteus/1 is the first in a series of high quality "band-in-a-box" type
products, which include a range of sampled sounds allowing composers to create
whole instrumental arrangements with one box and a computer. I love working with
type, and since one of the major selling points of the product is it's plethora
of sounds, I chose to use the names of those sounds as the main graphic element
on the cover, letting the product speak for itself. This manual, with addenda,
ended up being used for three sound modules in the Proteus line including Proteus/2
Orchestral and Proteus/3 World.
My involvement: Graphic, Production & Sound Design
Others: Russell Leong - Logo
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First in a series of, admittedly tongue-in-cheek, spins on the "Pro" syllabal
of the Proteus line of digital sound modules. The Procussion is in fact
a Proteus with drum and percussion sounds in it's memory. I drew on the excitment
of a Chinese New Year parade with all of the percussive banging, klanging and
pyrotechnics to create a vibrant, enticing cover. When I presented the
comps to the marketing group they picked this one and said, "Hey, that looks like a
Chinese New Year parade!"
My involvement: Graphic Design, Production & Sound Design
Others: Russell Leong - Logo
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he "Pro"-formance (second in tongue-in-cheek series) is a lower priced sound module
featuring a smaller complement of sounds, most notably grand piano and Hammond organ.
This poduct, unlike the Swiss-army-synths that it is spawnned from, is focused and
aimed at the performance (get it, "pro"-formance) of keyboard music, so featuring
lots of little pianos on the cover made sense.
My involvement: Graphic Design, Illustration, Production & Sound Design
Others: Russell Leong - Logo
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Yet another spin on Proteus. This one's a keyboard version, unlike the
rack-mountable versions that preceeded it. The design, based on a strict
grid, closely mimics the industrial design of the actual product. And,
the fade from black to blue indicates a curved surface, which the keyboard
also has.
My involvement: Graphic Design, Production & Sound Design
Others: Russell Leong - Logos
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I wouldn't try to pronounce it, but Bedienungsanleitung is the Germanic word
(or is it a sentence?) for owner's manual. Unlike Japanese versions of our manuals,
which were produced in that country, we created the German ones over here and I
was given this unruly word to fit into the layout of manuals intended for that
market. I changed the color as to avoid confussion when packing them up in
manufacturing. So, remember guys, Green = G = German.
My involvement: Graphic Design, Production & Sound Design
Others: Russell Leong - Logos
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The illustration graces the cover of the first of a series of CD-ROM
library disc jewel cases. The title of the series, "Elements of Sound"
begs for an image of atomic intensity that speaks to absolute nessecity
of the of the disc inside the package. In fact the synthesizers that these
discs are intended for make no inherant sound of their own. They are blank
slates waiting for these pre-sampled sounds to be loaded. There are four
discs in the series and each of them uses of a color scheme variation of
this illustration. See then all in the
Packaging section below.
My involvement: Concept & Illustration
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Everything, especially musical instruments, were better in the old days. At
least that was the idea behind E-mu's Vintage Keys. From guitars to
organs to synthesizers. But still, in musicians minds, nothing epitomizes
the old sound like vacuum tubes. The sound is described as warm or round.
So, this image seems the obvious choice to represent the "vintage" concept.
See this illustration in use in the Packaging
section below.
My involvement: Concept & Illustration //
Others: Russell Leong - E-mu Logo
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I created this series of icons to indicate product catagories on a web
site for The Starving Musician, a local musical instrument retailer. I've
drawn from textures and the vibe of different instrument types to create
images that evoke those instruments. For instance; the tweed fabric texture
of a vintage guitar amp or the wild latin motif to indicate a frenzy of
drumming.
My involvement: Concept & Illustration
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For the original Proteus sound module I used the names
of the various sounds included to create a texture that fades from white as it
reads down the cover. But, unlike that module the Proformance relies pretty much
on a grand piano, so the words-as-texture idea doesn't really work. As this product
was a variation on a theme I wanted to carry the basic concept of the graphic theme
over as well, so I created a little silhouette of a grand piano, copy & paste, change
the screening and voila -
a repeating texture!
My involvement: Concept & Illustration
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Set in a classic and classy serifed face, the Classic Keys logo was designed
primarily to make the most of the products front panel real estate. Hence the
enlarged "C", and nested "Keys", which give the logo a chunkier appearance.
Even with the elegantly slender type face. Not that
there wasn't an abundance of it, but the product manager was keen on getting
Classic Keys seen out in the ocean of me-too products created in it's wake.
My involvement: Logo Design
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Long before MicroSoft trademarked the term 'XP', E-mu added it to
their Emulator III's name to denote a new version. The Marketing crew had
their hearts set on continuing to use the original "EIII Bars" logo. After
playing with several ideas I decided to knock the 'XP' out of a solid
rectangle in order to keep the whole thing nice and square. The "EMULATOR"
logo, which had gone missing in first EIII version, was brought back (set
in Futura Bold rather than Bauhaus) by power of suggestion. That is, I
included "EMULATOR" along with the mark, and though they never asked for
it, the Marketing folks loved it. Bonus! In practical use, the logo and mark
could be split up into different configurations as seen on the
EIIIXP images below.
My involvement: Logo Re-design // Others: Russell Leong - "EIII Bars" Logo
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So, it was decided that the next spin on E-mu's flagship audio sampler would
not be called EIII, that roman numerals were out, and that a keyboard (rather
than rack module) was the way to go. The Emulator 4 Keyboard was born. The
design settled upon uses interlocking characters and a simple drop-shadowed
'E', which is in keeping with the implied rendering of the 'E' of the EIII
logo. The 'E' is clearly visible, but being rendered in negative space, allows
the '4K' (the new, improved version) to pop.
My involvement: Logo Design
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Marketing hadn't come up with a name for our new dance-orieted synthesizer, but
I had already put the nomenclature in place and had picked the color.
I had to put in a placeholder for the logo just to get a sense of proportion, and
"Orbit" made as much sense as anything. The subtitle "The Dance Planet" was really
a placeholder for some sort of checkbox techical jargon. In short time the Marketeers
gave their thumbs up and we went to anodyze! (Sort of like going to press, only for
metal.) See the logo as it appears on Oribt The Dance Planet.
My involvement: Product Naming & Logo Design
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Really, I didn't pick these colors! E-mu's Japanese distributor would, of course,
need a Japanese language manual for their local customers. To accomplish the task
they were sent all of the original source materials for the English version, which
included text, illustrations and cover art. For some unknown reason, maybe because
they liked it better, they asked for my art files for the owner's manual of the
original Proteus Sound Module. They added
a little Kanji, a striking color scheme, and the Japanese MPS manual was born.
Interesting, no?
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Number 1 of a series of CD jewel case insert booklettes for one of E-mu's
CD-ROM libraries of sampled sounds. Since these libraries are the basic
building blocks for the sounds that E-mu's synths make, the atomic or
elemental concept made perfect sense right away. Borrowing heavily from
Hawaiian shirt motifs and adding a flaming, chaotic edge to the illustration
gave this series an immediacy that says, "You Need This Disc!" Also of note,
is the Volume/Size graphic in the upper right corner, which is remenicent of
the symbols from the Periodic Table of Elements.
My involvement: Graphic Design,
Illustration, Production and Sound Design
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"The Developer's Choice" is the highest
quality sound lirary available for Creative Lab's "Sound Blaster"
audio cards. Though this library can be purchased by the general
public, it is aimed squarely at the pro sound designer / composer
with it's high resolution, byte heavy samples of traditional Pop,
Rock and Jazz instruments. And yes, there is a French Horn in the collection.
My involvment included graphic design and illustration,
as well as sound design for the library.
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This SoundFont™ CD-ROM was intended as an entry level
set of sounds for beginning home recording enthusiasts. And since it was intended
for sale through Creative Labs' retail channels such as Fry's and Staples, it was
decided that following the Creative Labs packaging style was the most prudent
choice.
My involvement: Graphic Design, Illustration, Production and Sound Design
Others: SoundFont™ Logo - Creative Labs, Inc.
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I LOVE TYPE!
If it isn't appearant from a lot of my work, I enjoy
the use of type as a graphic element. In some places I'll use it for texture
as was the case for the Proteus
and Procussion owner's manuals. In
this series of three packages I chose to use large numerals to break the black
space up and provide a center of visual interest to lay the informative text over.
Starting out with a well-designed font is a great way to add simple style to a
design without adding a lot of cost and complexity to the project.
My involvement: Graphic Design, Production and Sound Design
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This packaging for an aftermarket collection of synthesizer presets was really
a no-brainer as far as the design goes. The Marketing group were quite happy with
what I had done with the manual cover,
so a judicious spin of that design was all that was needed. Interestingly enough,
between the time I had created the cover and this design, a new E-mu logo had come
into being, and I put it in place of the typeset "E-mu Systems, Inc." as used on
the manual cover.
My involvement: Graphic Design, Production and Sound Design
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E-mu's Vintage Keys Sound Module was created to fill a niche for
antiquated instruments (anything older than five years, really),
which are highly prized and mythologized by many musicians.
This aftermarket disk packaging incorporates the look of the owner's
manual cover with my stylized illustration of vacuum tubes used
to denote that old-tech vibe.
My involvement: Graphic Design, Illustration, Production and Sound Design
Others: Vintage Keys Logo - Nancy Enge / Ajax Design
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Once sold only into the musical instrument retail channel, GoCo's "Cord Control Kit"
can now be found in home organization stores and
online retailers of organizational and child-proofing products. The design is
extremely straight forward with the graphic element being a stylized rendition
of the main component of the product, a plastic tubing inwhich cables are bundled,
routed and thereby controlled.
My involvement: Graphic Design
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E-mu's "Classic Keys" Sound Module like many of their products,
has a straightforward user interface, which gave me a lot of
leeway. In this case, a generous chunk of front panel
real estate is made available for lack of controls, and the Marketing
group wanted that space used to scream for attention in the music store.
Since we would be using an already existing black enclosure (to cut costs)
the logo could, if designed properly, really POP off the front panel.
My involvement: Product Logo and Panel Nomenclature Design //
Others: Russell Leong - E-mu Logo
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At the point that I was brought into the project, the box had a model
number (9090) and, we knew what the buttons would do. That's it! I was
asked to experiment with looks, and our Mechanical Engineer told me about
a company with a new process which involved no paint, but instead dyed
the metal in multiple colors. One problem, still no name. So, in goes a
place holder for the name, and in place of the requisite technical jargon
goes the subtitle "The Dance Planet". Add a slash through the display and
call it finished! The dying process added a cool, modern all-metal look.
Still, some Muons (E-mu employees) wondered if Orbit was the verb or the
noun in the sentence.
My involvement: Product Naming, Logo and Panel Nomenclature Design //
Others: Russell Leong - E-mu Logo
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The EIIIxp mark and logo were designed from the beginning to be grouped
together or split up, as is the case here. A fortunate plan, as the product's
software design very rapidly dictated that it's graphics be changed. The
horizontal blue bars (soft-menu key labels) were at first, supposed to
have menu items listed beneath them just as on the original EIII. But, the
crafty Software Engineers had come up with so many new and useful features
that the lists had became quite unruley and were nixed altogether.
So instantly, a big, stark negative space appears, and must be filled.
My involvement: Product Logo Redesign and Panel Nomenclature Design //
Others: Russell Leong - "EIII Bars" and E-mu Logo
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Here the "EIIIxp" logo & mark are grouped together and rendered
completely in white on black, as any well designed logo should do. Having the
logo rendered so large allows for easy identifcation of the product in a busy
equipment rack, as is the case for many of E-mu's professional users. The
panel nomenclature is the usual labeling of ins and outs, as well as standard
FCC warnings and the like.
My involvement: Product Logo Redesign and Panel Nomenclature Layout //
Others: Russell Leong - "EIII Bars" and E-mu Logo
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Used at music industry tradeshows such as NAMM and The Frankfurt Music Messe
this shot of my classically inspired tradeshow display fixtures
shows three main structures including: the small obelisk listening station
(behind the grey-suited gentleman), large obelisk play station (at the left
edge of the image) and arched stanchion play station (with E-mu Logo in the
background). The small obelisk displays rack-mountable sound modules in a
passive listening mode, while the other two fixtures feature keyboards (E-mu's
of course) allowing music retailers to demo the products for themselves.
My involvement: Concept, Design, Construction Oversight, and Installation
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This "Small Obelisk" is about eight feet tall and provides for 4 different
sound modules to be displayed at once. The two sides visible show three
and six headphone set-ups. All told, 18 people can demo E-mu's products at
a time! All of E-mu's sound modules have built-in music demos based on the
on the specific sounds in each of them, hence no keyboards are necessary.
For installation there is a removable panel behind one of the display
signs allowing access to electrical connections and for headphone hookup.
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At 15' tall, the "Large Obelisk" makes for a memorable landmark on the show floor.
Unlike the small one, this fixture allows for keyboard instruments to be displayed.
Cantalevered shelves hold the keyboards, which include the Emulator III (light grey
one on the right) and an EMAX II. In this case the EMAX II is being used to play the
sound module just below the display sign, and so it is recessed into the fixture
with only it's keys exposed to the prodding fingers of passers-by. Commercially
available clothes hooks are used to hold waiting headphones on all of the display
fixtures.
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All scanned or rendered images including the KA-BANG DESIGN logo ©
2005 KA-BANG DESIGN |
