I always love designs before they go to the higher ups.   Usually it means designs are cleaner more cutting edge and more marketing focused.   At this point designers have free reign over what it should look like and what it should sell.  The design process is slightly ignorant to the legal issues or information that needs to be supplemented that drags it more back toward center.   The greatest dream for designers right at this point is to “WOW”.  If the designer can make a statement the design will be a benchmark that will win confidence that the marketing is heading in the right direction.  If the designer and design win this crucial battle the client is  more comfortable to leave you with the freedoms you have started with and the gravity of “center” will not affect the project.   I proudly present the early designs for IBIS.

Below are some comps from the website and flash application that explains the IBIS – Integrated Building Information Services.  In general it is a complicated sell that when I was brought on  took 2 guys, 3 PowerPoint presentations, and a few hours to explain to me.  We have bottle the concept into this.  “It is a way to know about a  faculty which includes building, people and assets from conception to renovation.”  The flash application  combines of data visualizations with default GUI presentations of technologies explains how IBIS can help simplify the complexity of 1000+ occupancy buildings.

A project that I had a great time with was for the Discovery Channel’s pitch to X-box to place ads in the Gears of War game.   It was a great a project to use both details from the game and the very stylized campaigns from Future Weapons.  The fun of this project is I discovered you could place animated PNGs and GIFs into the slides. Also with combination of Flash and non-linear navigation for the presentation made it a challenge for the information architecture.

A continuation of a previous post “Print Design” I wanted to dive deeper into the project. The leave behind was modeled after the old style travel booklet that you would recieve when you flew. It was stapled on the short edge with a cover that had a die cut.

Bahama Breeze – Covers

Bahama Breeze – Envelopes

Bahama Breeze – Inside Pages

If I had traveled back in time and told my past self “learn Microsoft PowerPoint it will make you money” I would have never believed myself. But the truth is I have worked for some really great companies doing just that. I have continually worked for the Discovery Channel, National Geo, Randstad, Profiles, and others just because I can make a PowerPoint presentation sit up and bark. I have designed over 30 different PowerPoint templates that can feel like they were built my the most advanced interactive software.

Most designers I know would snear when I mention I design for PowerPoint. It is hard because in comparison to Adobe products working with PowerPoint is like using crayons. But with cleaver use of PNG’s, Gifs, and knowing how to hack the system to embed flash you can make some really great animation effects, backgrounds, and in the end have slides that feel like nothing anyone has ever seen.

One of my favorite PowerPoint Template was for Discovery Channel’s Turbo Broadband Pitch because the client told me to make a template that had the feeling of Spike Channel and Wired Magazine

Turbo Broadband – Discovery Channel

Discovery wanted to have a template that spoke to their new product line that would compete with the Speed Channel and Spike Channel

The presentation was to be used for a business meeting where it was going to be left behind. The Appendix was going to cover more in depth analytic and case studies so Discover Channel wanted it to have a different feel.

This slide had a dynamic build with sliding masks and advanced animation

Many Points in my life I have designed for different mediums.  Considering my age I have straddled the Print Age, and now the Web Age.   So much of what I have learned has built upon the foundation that I learned in print.   I have two grand lessons one is from Howard Pyle who taught that “in any painting you should be able to render it in black&white and still have it readable.”  And the other is from my father who made signs for 40 years and he taught “make it readable if you fail at that then you failed at everything.”

Here is where I will showcase some of my favorite print designs. I have created 100’s of campaigns and other pieces of materials of the years from business cards, stationary, and brochures.

The first project I am show casing here at my website watier.org is for the company Ogilvy PR. I contracted for Ogilvy PR for a couple of months and during that time I worked on clients like Johnson & Johnson, Macy’s, and here is one piece that I actual got to design from the ground up which was for Darden Restaurants who own Bahama Breeze.

Bahama Breeze – Pitch Project