Our New Business Card Design

Posted on August 23, 2012 by cpadmin

Dog Dive Creative Business Cards

HUZZAH! Greetings, readers! We’re back with another one of these blog post things!

As designers, we like to change up our business card every once in a while. There seemed no better time than when Jill Smallman started as our new Account Director (Don’t know Jill? Add her on Twitter). As the business has grown, it has gained a renewed focus. We knew we wanted to create a card that was simple and direct. We also felt strongly that the card needed to demand (or at least facilitate) some human interaction. Sometimes for designers and marketing/advertising types it’s a great idea to just show clients what is possible.

Modern letterpress printing has a tactility and charm that is just different from other printing techniques. Sure, if we wanted to make a statement with our cards, we could have done a beautiful card printed with metallic inks or spot UV coatings. We love all that stuff too. But, for today, the simple understated elegance of letterpress coupled with the extreme impact it offers was right on the money.

Letterpress Business Card Design

Enter Vertallee Letterpress. A local Austin letterpress shop, Vertallee partnered with us to create a simple but striking card. The design was left intentionally minimalist to allow the tactile and textural quality of the card to do the majority of the talking. When considered a vital part of the design process, materials alone can have a serious impact.

Vertallee pressed our designs onto Savoy cotton paper. Savoy is a cotton paper designed specifically for letterpress by the folks over at Reich Paper. We weren’t familiar with Reich, but we sure were glad Vertalee was! The paper’s inherent softness allowed our design to be pressed deeply and distinctly into the paper’s surface. Cool schtuff!

business card design

Do your business communications need help? Maybe you’re thinking about a re-brand? If you like our work and would like to do some work together, hit us up! Or, view more work.

Posted in Austin, branding, current projects, graphic design, self promotion, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

The Impossibles: Designing for Your Favorite Band

Posted on June 4, 2012 by cpadmin

The idea of creating artwork for rock bands is what initially drew me into the design business. As a teenager in Indiana, I devoured every nuance of my favorite bands’ CD booklets. I read and reread every printed word and dreamed that the part saying, “Artwork by so-and-so” touted my name instead.

the impossibles from Austin Texas

This is The Impossibles. Their albums were at the top of my CD stack back then and have been in constant rotation on my playlists since. They sang about relationships and heartbreak like most rock bands (and did so poetically), but they also had an earnest openness about being everyday nerdy dudes, too. It just resonated with my friends and I. These were guys like us (They liked Star Wars! And comic books!), but when they had something to say, they picked up their instruments and the sound they put forth had a ferocity and infectiousness that we could not shake. They were playing and saying what we wanted to play and say. For me, it was the discovery that independent music could be so, so good. I made my mind up right then that I was going to be a part of it and spent the better part of the next decade writing power pop songs and spending a lot of time in a sweaty van with four to six other people.

The Impossibles Return Shirt

My retired Impossibles t-shirt from back in the day.

Like all of my bands and every band that came before them, The Impossibles broke up. I was sad to see them go and it was clear from the outcry online that I wasn’t alone. But, bands breaking up is part of the natural order of things.

Today, ten years later, I still make music. My band in college did decently well for ourselves. In 2003, we even ended up getting one of our heroes to produce our first full length album — Rory from The Impossibles!

Now it’s 2012 and I live in Austin, Texas. Rory and I had kept in touch over the years and reconnected when I moved to his home city. I guess it goes without saying that I was thrilled when I was asked to design the poster and merchandise for The Impossibles reunion shows. Not only were The Impossibles back together, but *I* get to design the show poster, stickers and t-shirts? Life has a funny way of being awesome sometimes…

Here are a few photos of some of the work we did. Our design execution was to be “old school,” with most of the work evoking the days of black and white photocopied punk rock fliers and classic Impossibles designs…

The Impossibles Reunion Poster

The Impossibles Stickers

You can buy this stuff (including the poster and some shirts not shown) over at theimpossiblesreturn.com.

The reunion show ended up selling out. The band added a second show for the following night and that one promptly sold out, too. I guess I’m not the only one who has been waiting a long time for this. So, THANK YOU, Impossibles. Thank you for the reunion, for the memories, and for allowing me a small part in all this…

 

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Do or do not. There is no try.

Posted on March 12, 2012 by cpadmin

So here we are!

It’s been a long time coming but the new dogdivecreative.com is finally here! A common lament amongst most agencies and designers is that they have a hard time finding the hours to work on their own promotions. This new site has been no exception. I’m glad it has finally arrived.

Along with this new website comes an all new and substantially more aggressive effort on my part to update this blog. I will be updating about projects we’re working on as well as anything else I find interesting enough to post about. As someone who really enjoys writing, I think I’m finally prepared to stop finding excuses to not do it.

Do or do not. There is no try.

Welcome to the new site. I do so hope you enjoy your stay.

Dan

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Is your design work a suitable ambassador of our time?

Posted on June 11, 2010 by cpadmin

On a certain day during some month of some year in the 1950’s, an ad guy went to work. Let’s call him Phil. It was a day like any other for Phil, and on this day he was to design a poster for a client. No doubt he put the same love and attention into this poster as he had the 30 before it, but what he didn’t realize is that this particular poster had a slightly more remarkable future in store for it. It would soon be sealed into a dusty room in the London Underground and would be completely forgotten. This is a better fate than I imagine for most of my work.

As designers, we recognize our art is not destined for galleries. We know what we do has worth, but we wouldn’t be surprised at all to see our most beautiful and effective piece of work casually abandoned and/or stomped to illegibility on a sidewalk somewhere. Eventually, all our work ends up a rotting pile of pulp in a landfill somewhere, or is erased out of existence entirely (in this age of digital design). This is just how things work. Right?

While renovating the Notting Hill gate tube station, workers came across several incredible mid-century posters, still hanging on the walls. Apparently, the posters had been sealed away for years as a result of the lift closing and being replaced by escalators. What we’re left with are some beautiful, albeit grimy, mid to late 1950′s posters! Mike Ashworth, the Design and Heritage Manager for London Underground has more images on his Flickr account.

London Underground 1950's posters discovered

So, Phil’s poster’s life wasn’t quite over yet! It was found accidentally some 60 years later! And despite the fact that there’s no talk (anywhere I’ve read) of moving these posters to a museum, they have once again left a footprint on our culture. They emerged from the dark to inspire! Phil’s poster that he thought might have a shelf life of a couple months got a second shot to affect and inspire!

If we ever hope to be effective designers, our work should stand the test of time. These posters are clearly from a very recognizable period of graphic design history, but that doesn’t make them any less beautiful or important. They are now ambassadors of a time period – proof that amazing things were happening and that maybe things weren’t so different then, after all. They are relics. Artifacts.

Are you proud of the work you’re putting out today? Would you be ashamed to have that last project you completed plastered all over the Snooglenet (what I imagine The Internet will be called in the year 2070)? Is it a suitable future artifact of what our culture is capable of? If not, maybe it’s time to rethink some of your philosophies. We all make design to make money, and that’s okay. The question to ask yourself is whether the work you’re creating is perpetuating good design practices and, at the end of the day, our industry’s reputation and success. The work you do day in and day out effects the rest of us in very real ways. This isn’t a responsibility to take lightly.

So, do me a solid, okay? Be a strong ambassador of OUR time period in design. Go out there and do incredible things.

Posted in 1950's, graphic design, illustration, internets, retro design | 1 Comment

When did Social Media become Socially Acceptable?

Posted on April 5, 2010 by cpadmin

social media bird

Social media. It started out as a buzzword. Now it seems as though it has permeated every facet of our culture. Anyone with an internet connection has a voice through blogs, message boards and sites like Twitter and Facebook. Even celebrities have gotten onboard, with almost all of them creating Twitter accounts in the past year, each amassing thousands or even millions of followers. When I last visited my grandparents in Indiana, my grandfather asked me if I was on Facebook yet.

My question is: WHEN DID SOCIAL MEDIA BECOME SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE? I’ve been using the internet socially for as long as it has been available to me (the early to mid 90’s). My parents, had they known, would have been as horrified as most Americans to know that their teen was going into chat rooms, using instant messaging programs and a “regular” at several online message board communities. They constantly warned me against giving out any of my information over the internet – even my first name.

They were scared shitless. And why shouldn’t they have been? All the mainstream media had to say about any of these sorts of online activities was negative. So-And-So talked to a guy online and the next thing you know, SHE’S DEAD. What’s-His-Name ruined his life and ended up in jail because of friends he’d met online who taught him how to build a pipe bomb.

Being social online was not only seen as incredibly dangerous, it was also an activity for the socially inept. Why was I sending my buddies an instant message rather than picking up the phone and calling them?

social media bird

Most of these fears seem to have gone the way of the buffalo. Today’s internet users are a social bunch, unconcerned with the highly personal information they’re putting out there for anyone who cares enough to look. Twitter and Facebook users keep their followers up-to-date on a moment-by-moment basis with exactly where they are, who they’re with and what they’re doing. Add-on Twitter applications like Foursquare actually pinpoint user’s exact locations, giving thieves enough information to effectively rob your ass blind before you have time to get home.

What changed in the public’s perceptions of these technologies? Perhaps the success and security of e-commerce sites like Amazon has helped to put people’s minds at ease. Perhaps everyone has wised up and finally understands the enormous potential of online communication. Perhaps our news outlets have found way scarier shit to freak us out with on a nightly basis. Perhaps blonde bowl-cut tweens like Justin Bieber putting up some videos on YouTube and landing multi-million dollar record contracts has helped.

Whatever the cause, and for better or worse, the public’s perception of social media has changed. It’s now viewed as an entrepreneurial gold mine and any business not utilizing a regimented social media effort is seen as backwards and incapable of seeing “the big picture.” So called social media “experts” are springing up everywhere, with the only real requirement being that they know how to create and edit a social media account. Businesses are opting not to design a website, citing their social media accounts as “good enough.”

Social media on a mainstream level seems to be here to stay. It is an essential no-brainer element of any larger marketing effort. However, it should be viewed as just that: one element of an overall larger and comprehensive marketing strategy. Treating social media as anything more than a supplemental, albeit beneficial, part of your marketing is like delivering a partial message – an incomplete thought.

Incomplete thoughts…are…confusing to…your……..

Posted in facebook, internets, marketing, social media, twitter | Leave a comment

Dog Dive Creative Has Moved.

Posted on February 19, 2010 by cpadmin

Austin, Texas. That’s where I live now. Making the move was a decision I made some six or seven years ago while still in college. After college graduation, I moved back to Chicagoland. At the time, my biggest concentration was music. Economically and geographically, my hometown would be a great place to call home base and be in a band…or so I thought. I actually found myself an unhappy musician turning into an ecstatic graphic designer – but one who wanted to move.

Austin is great place to live. It’s a great place to own a business. And, from what I hear, it’s a great place to be in a band. As a person who likes to own a business, play in bands, and, above all, LIVE, it seems like a good fit. I’ve been working some pretty long days. But, I’ve also found the time to meet tons of new and amazing people, get back into songwriting, and I’ve spent some lovely days outside…in Winter.

…in WINTER?

Nothing is better than being able to spend time outside. And doing so in February wearing less than a puffy coat, snowpants and a jewelry thief mask is almost unheard of in the Midwest. It hasn’t been all wonderful, though. The weather has actually been very Chicago-esque on a more than comforting amount of occasions. From what I hear, though, it has been unseasonably cold this year. I will hope for better luck next year.

I’ve met a bunch of really cool and talented design types through AIGA Austin. It’s pretty amazing to live in a place that can foster as much creativity as Austin does. It seems to be bursting at the seams and I’m super stoked to be a part of it.

Posted in Austin, personal | 2 Comments

Patton Trash Comics

Posted on September 28, 2009 by cpadmin

I stumbled upon a little gem from my past the other day – a stack of the comic books I used to make in high school. PATTON TRASH COMICS. I guess you could say that these little photocopied cut-and-paste ‘zines represent some of my earliest attempts at graphic design. The graphic design industry had certainly moved to the computer by the time my first issue was released in 1998. I used what I had at my disposal, which ended up being some pencils, fine tip Sharpies, scissors, computer paper and any sort of “found” media I deemed interesting enough to make the cut. Larger blocks of copy were set in Microsoft Paint, printed out and pasted into the layout. I had used Photoshop and Illustrator to a very limited extent at this point through my high school’s art program. I probably would have used them on Patton Trash if I’d had them at home.

Here is what a 16 year old Dan Patton had to say in the introduction paragraph to Patton Trash’s debut issue:

“Patton Trash is a comic book done ‘zine style.’ When I say ‘zine style,’ I’m referring to the fact that it is a cheap as possible Xeroxed collection of a person’s ideas usually sold at a punk show.”

The comics were really my first delve into the fundamentals of layout and communication design in general. Concerns like composition and color theory had been with me as long as I’d been trying to create visual art (since before I can remember). Layout is a different beast all together, though. I’d never heard the terms “hierarchy” as applied to design theory. I thought of the “creative process” as something that must be a magical and personal journey, and that an “identity” probably had something to do with the social circle you ran in. The technical skills shown in these comics speak to this lack of understanding (is that…no…COMIC SANS?). Looking back, though, I can’t help but feel a sense of nostalgia and a bit of the excitement I felt upon each issue’s release. It was comparable to the flutter I feel in my stomach upon the launching of a new brand for a client today!

Lately I’ve been thinking more and more about how great it would be to do a pilot for an adult-oriented animated series (a la Adult Swim). Animation has always been a huge interest of mine. I always thought I might end up working on cartoons for a living. As things worked out, I ended up falling in love with design in college. I’ve never looked back, and as an employed American who still loves his job in today’s economic climate, I can’t regret this decision in the least. Still, I haven’t ruled out the possibility of doing an animated series someday.

Let’s hope that I can come up with a slightly better name than “Patton Trash.”

Posted in branding, graphic design, illustration, music, personal | Leave a comment

Toronto and the Design Debacle.

Posted on September 13, 2009 by cpadmin

My girlfriend and I visited Toronto over Labor Day Weekend. Whenever I tell people this, most react in the following way: “Toronto? What was going on in Toronto?”

To be clear, nothing was going on in Toronto. Or, we THOUGHT nothing was going on in Toronto. As it turned out, there was the annual Toronto Air Show, the Ex (which is a giant annual carnival), a really cool art show we stumbled upon, Brazil Days Festival, and a bustling China Town (not to mention all the other every day coolness). We were looking for a relatively close city that would be an interesting place to visit. I don’t think we could have gone anywhere in the States more interesting! Toronto, Ontario is a friendly, accessible, diverse and amazing city!

As a graphic designer, Toronto seems like a place that truly values its design. In general, if you’re an established company or storefront, you’ve got a great brand that was clearly created by an advertising professional. In the Midwestern United States, often times the attitude seems to be very much in the line of thinking, “Hey, if I can be successful without the expense of design (beyond the business cards I had my printer whip up for me), I’ll do it.” We’ve got well-respected (and amazing!) companies who have been in business for 50 plus years that have never even considered creating a professional, strong and unified image for themselves. The argument could be made that in some cases design just isn’t that important. Though, I have to wonder how much more successful said businesses could have become if they’d only invested that little bit extra to give their great reputations and superior products an aesthetic edge in the marketplace as well.

At Herman Miller, Vice President of Advanced Development, Don Goeman says, “Since the 60’s our company has respected design and has consistently elevated its importance through product solutions, brand identity, architecture, advocacy and our own culture… Our success in the marketplace is dependent on differentiation, and we attribute a good share of this to design, failures too are attributed to design!” [source: AIGA: Prove it: Why Design Sells]

I’d like to point to that quote, jump up and down and scream, “See!? Looky! These big guys get it!” However, I hear just as many frustrating and revealing stories from the front lines of the biggest agencies in the world. Part of a graphic designer’s job must be to communicate the importance of not only graphic design in general, but also of the value and reasoning for individual design decisions. It seems to me that if you’ve got a client that came to you to have some graphic design created, and they don’t have a chip on their shoulder about having been “burnt” in the past by another agency, you should consider counting your blessings and get to work!

At the end of the day, graphic designers are going to perpetually find themselves beating their heads against the wall repeating the words, “What I do has value. What I do has worth.” This is because we will continually run into people who view what we do as mere “styling” and a “fun” occupation (Never trust or pay a man who enjoys his job)! Veer has attempted to combat some of that mentality with amazing shirts that read, “I draw pictures all day.” I’m not going to lie. I’ve wanted one of those shirts for as long as I’ve seen them around. I’m not sure I’d ever wear it in front of a client, though. Maybe it would feel safer in Toronto…

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