Austin Frantz

ifPeople rebrand - logo type treatment

2010-10-24T21:25:00.004-04:00

You can click on the image to make it larger and zoom in. Which typeface do you like the best? number 8 is the original font I wanted to use, and number 7 is the same font, only edited a little bit to make the letters look more consistant in size.

I really like 1 and 6 as well, but im not sure.

ifPeople rebrand - logo exploration

2010-10-24T21:22:00.002-04:00

I think I'm going with the 2nd row down, 1st column.

2010-09-07T14:59:00.001-04:00

Good ads

2010-08-26T13:47:00.005-04:00

Ad for a guitar shop, cool idea.

Eye catching YMCA ad.

Ad for Senior self-defense classes

"just when you thought it was dead" rechargeable kodak batteries

Heinz ketchup ad, on fire

Bike helmet ad

Bad Ads

2010-08-26T13:38:00.004-04:00

Pretty gruesome, ad for "national family week" with a graveyard background

I liked some of the other snickers ads at first, but these word choices are too bizarre. "feedfence" and "victoreat" I think are a stretch too far.

An ad warning about downed power lines, which somehow has to do with karate?

I hate these characters, the Geico lizard is the only one I can tolerate, this shrek looking thing doesn't make me want to by cold medicine.

I'm not sure about this ad, I think it would just confuse people, its not very effective.

Dunkin donuts ad, way too long, and griping about starbucks.

"shop for them" and "treat yourself", but only to a soft pretzel

Heath check this outtt - condom typeface

2010-01-05T16:03:00.001-05:00

Come Together font by Satoru Nihei

Heath, check this out.

2009-12-08T18:40:00.001-05:00

This totally reminded me of Heath's project with scanned faces, haha.

Day in the Life

2009-11-30T13:46:00.006-05:00

I made an office upstairs, and it's my new favorite place in the house. This is where I do most of my computer work, usually in my boxers.

If it's really cold out, I'll have a cigarette break at the window. After sitting at the computer for hours, it gives me 5 minutes to take a break and THINK. This is usually when ideas/solutions pop into my head. It's also really convenient, I don't even have to leave my office! haha

My printer and scanner live up here on the stairs, behind my desk. This may seem like a weird place to put stuff, but that's because the stairs lead up to nowhere.

Doing more work on my wine bottle labels. I'm pretty good with an exacto knife, thank god. I actually kinda enjoy doing meticulous things like cutting.

This was the lighting I set up to test shoot my wine bottle/box in my kitchen. It worked out pretty good.

Later that day, Heath invited me over to his house, and Melanie and Chris were there.

We talked a lot about our projects, and I got to see Heath's wine bottle which is lookin pretty cool.

They liked my wine bottle for the most part, and gave me some tips/suggestions. I loveee when I get to see my classmates outside of class, It's always a ton of fun. We're being pretty silly in these pictures and posing, but we really did talk a ton about our wine bottles.

wine bottle progress

2009-11-26T11:41:00.005-05:00

You can click on these for a larger image.

I'm doing "A to Z" wine. What do you guys think? Please give me criticism! In the final version, all the black letters will be cut out of the paper. I'm trying to decide between this tan paper and a white paper. Both of them are really cool, and have some grain/flecks of color/fiber variations, I really like the "natural looking" papers.

I'm probably going to add a little black hangtag, I think it needs something extra and I think that'll do the trick.

Any tips/advice? What do you think about the square on the back of the bottle with all the little type?

cigarette typeface and advertisement

2009-11-05T21:31:00.000-05:00

I thought most of you might find this funny..

2009-11-03T19:51:00.000-05:00

A few wine re-design ideas

2009-10-21T15:35:00.006-04:00

Blog Assign. #8 - Checking in with...

2009-10-18T12:44:00.002-04:00

Each week I feel like I must check in with..

1. My Blogs.

I've suscribed to countless blogs on graphic design/art in general, which i check out ALL THE TIME. I know we all look at cool art blogs, but I wanted to inform everyone about RSS/Feed readers,(in case you don't know). If you are still typing out the address to the specific blog you want to view, there is a MUCH EASIER way to view all the blogs you like, all at once. What I use is google's reader, http://www.google.com/reader, and it's free of course, you just have to sign in to your google account. When you open the reader site, there's a button at the top left that says "add subscription". All you have to do is type your favorite blog's web address into that box, and it will add all your favorite blogs to a list on the left. You can also go further by categorizing them, by subject. It also keeps up with blog posts you've read already, and unread posts, so you don't read the same stuff over again.

Here's a good youtube tutorial:

2. My mom - I also check in with my mom EVERY week. I ask her for advice on everthing(except art related stuff) and she always gives me the best advice. Plus she always wants to know what's going on in my life anyway, so it's easy to talk to her.

2009-10-12T17:31:00.001-04:00

2009-10-12T17:19:00.000-04:00

Blog Assign. #7 - Printed inspiration

2009-10-11T18:22:00.000-04:00

I'm sure most all of you know about these magazines, but incase you don't, CMYK is a really cool graphic design magazine, and the other one is Beautiful/Decay magazine, which is just modern art/everything. I like to buy these if i have extra money and just flip through them when I've run out of blogs to read, haha. They always have really cool stuff which always inspires me. The last picture is of Found Magazine. they just compile a big collection of found letters, notes and photos into magazines. I really like the style they use for the covers of each issue as well, and their collage-style layouts.

Blog Assign. #6 - Personal Workspace

2009-10-11T18:14:00.000-04:00

The first two pictures are of my room, and my desk, where i do about half of my work. The other half of the time I'm in my kitchen, because I have a huge kitchen table, and the speakers/stereo in the kitchen is really nice. I get the least distracted when I'm working in the kitchen.

GSU film club flyer

2009-10-08T00:07:00.000-04:00

I kept it simple, but I think it looks more 'legit' this way. You should all come out to Cage Space, this movie is wildddd.

a start

2009-10-05T15:48:00.000-04:00

I plan on having some of these with lipstick marks, some of the ash/tobacco falling out, maybe some lit and smoking, im still experimenting..

Blog Assign. #5 - Block of Type - Little 5 Points

2009-09-27T20:52:00.000-04:00

Since I live right in the middle of it, off Euclid, I decided to take pictures of type in little 5 points. There's so much of it, especially if you consider the graffiti everywhere, and flyers for shows.

No Pants Party

2009-09-20T05:28:00.000-04:00

Some friends and I are throwing a "no pants" party, so I made a flyer. Everyone in my class is invited! haha. This is the third one we've had, the first two were in Cabbagetown, but this one will be at my house in Little 5 -- of course the Cabbagetown girls will be helping me host this one. There will also be a live band, (to be announced). It's gonna be HUGE, so I expect all of you there, lol

PS- the "no pants" part is open for interpretation, be creative!

first H1N1 poster drafts

2009-09-16T17:02:00.001-04:00

Blog Assign. #4 - Inspiration

2009-09-13T16:59:00.000-04:00

While TONS of things inspire me, something I really like looking at is architecture and interior design. It truly is an ART in some cases, and it always amazes me how something something so big can look so amazing while still being functional, and I consider it reallly inspiring to me personally. If i was rich enough, making buildings like this would definitely be one of my hobbies when i was older, haha.

LINK - Level Green Exhibit / J. Mayer H. Architects + Art+Com Berlin - Wolfsburg, Germany

LINK - Ashton Raggatt McDougal (ARM) architects - Melbourne Recital Center, Australia

LINK - Dupli Casa, a private residence by the Neckar river, near the old town of Marbach in South- Western Germany

LINK -Metro Station Drassanes, Barcelona by Eduardo Gutiérrez Munné and Jordi Fernández Río

I wish Marta looked like this! hahaha

Blog Assign. #3 - Design Trends

2009-09-13T13:35:00.000-04:00

I want to present one design trend in particular, that I really like. It's hard to describe, I guess 'vintage-inspired', very thin lines, lots of detail and flourishes, fancy fonts, etc. It's kinda putting a fresh spin on a vintage design. Most of these examples are packaging for bath products or candles or wedding invitations, which makes sense i guess. I love to see something that's obviously imspired by something old, but has a fresh new look.

Other t-shirt ideas

2009-09-02T14:35:00.000-04:00

A couple tee-shirt designs, more to come.

2009-09-01T03:14:00.001-04:00

Remember you can click on these to make them bigger/zoom in.

Just a few variations on a couple themes, tell which ones you like over others, or ANY suggestions! Comments are greatly appreciated!

Finished Self-Portrait/Timeline

2009-09-01T03:12:00.000-04:00

Blog Assign. #2 - Good Design, Bad Design

2009-08-30T06:31:00.000-04:00

Cool New Design:

artist known as "Blu"

Justin LaFontaine

Kristina Collantes

Swampdonkey

Edward McGowan

Silly Bad Design:

Look at the Shadow on this Time cover.

Awkward drop caps.

Funny Fedex/Kinko's sign with Comic Sans. Seems out of place!

Blog Assign. #1 - Some of my Favorite Pieces

2009-08-30T06:21:00.000-04:00

Earth Day Poster!

"Hardware Store" candle packaging

Top Flr logo

Top Flr ads

Top Flr website

Self Portrait DPS drafts

2009-08-20T19:12:00.000-04:00

This is one of my self portrait project ideas. Still playing with it trying to make it look cooler. I feel like im good at basic shapes but i have trouble adding details that add to the design, without going overboard. Because of this I feel like some of my stuff still looks "unfinished".

Anyway, I thought it would be funny to use my FAVORITE blue color. And i decided to do a funny picture of me because most people I know know that I love to talk and make people laugh and I thought it would show my sense of humor. I'm having trouble incorporating the other designs, but I'm sure everyone is. I've tried some other ideas, but this is the only one i felt reallly good about.

Anyone reading this, please leave a comment/email with any critiques or suggestions!

Almost Everything

2009-04-29T19:19:00.000-04:00

My personal logo.

Poster relating to the Iraq War for an imaginary rally.

Book Cover for Lester Beall. For this assignment we had to design a book cover that was "inspired by" a famous graphic designer. I might make an inspiration board to show what I was going for, but I think it looks cool even if you haven't seen his poster series'

Candle Packaging. The goal of this assignment was to pick something out of a hardware store, and redesign the packaging. The hard part was to make it have appealing design, but still give off a "hardware packaging" vibe (and most hardware packaging is NOT that pretty)

Earthday Poster.

The rest of this is Top Flr stuff. At the very end there is a webpage design that I've been working on, tell me what you think.

This is a mockup of a website for Top Flr. Any suggestions?

I really didn't care for the stuff I did in my Typography class with Jeff,
so I might try to steal some of Paige's assignments from her Typography class' blog.
I'll come up with SOMETHING cool either way.

Any comments/suggestions on any of these? PLEASE lol

Matchbooks

2009-04-26T14:14:00.000-04:00

An alternate color scheme I'm thinking about doing.

Final Ads!

2009-04-26T13:31:00.000-04:00

My final ads!

Cool Stuff

2009-04-26T13:29:00.001-04:00

New stuff from Steven Harrington -- http://www.stevenharrington.com/

Google Maps Alphabet

2009-04-26T13:20:00.000-04:00

I thought this was pretty cool, finding an alphabet on Google maps.
This was done by a graphic designer/art director named Rhett Dashwood,
check out his site, it's pretty cool. http://rhettdashwood.com.au/

Earth Day Poster

2009-04-22T06:15:00.000-04:00

My Earth Day poster, a little late. What do you guys think, any suggestions?

GSU juried show

2009-04-09T15:45:00.000-04:00

So on thursday when the submissions were due for the juried GSU art show, i was in the computer lab i was emailing them, and I was sitting next to sarah kim, and she was like, "you know the deadline to email your stuff its at 5 pm, right? And i was like oh crap, because it was 5:30. So I emailed these in at 5:30, hoping they would still take them, but I didn't get an email back! But oh well. Anyway I thought I'd share what i attempted to submit, haha

the first one is a picture of Michael Alig and DJ Keoki from the 80's, that I pulled a "Shepard Fairey" on. The second one is from one of my own photos of my friend Saam. Did these mostly with the pen tool.

2009-04-02T15:39:00.000-04:00

What do you guys think about these? Can you tell what all of the objects are in the second one? Does the sizing look alright, think anything would look better if it was smaller or bigger?

Ad idea

2009-03-26T03:52:00.001-04:00

This is my ad idea, I think I'm gonna use this as a theme. I'll post the updated version in a lil while.

Final letterhead ideas

2009-03-15T12:15:00.000-04:00

So the letterhead had me kind of stuck, I'm not sure why. I'm feeling better though with these, I think they're more playful and play off my logo more. I also wanted to have it cleaner looking like my business card, because I really like my simple business card. I still think I'm going to have my wallpaper pattern on the back, to make it look nice when it's folded up.

stationary

2009-03-12T17:09:00.001-04:00

What do you think about these?
I like the white background letterhead. are these too boring?

Stationary, give me comments!

2009-02-25T16:27:00.001-05:00

This is a first page and a second page, I really like these. I decided to stick the letter inside a little house or arrow, going for that "top floor" imagery.

Another simpler version

Nooooo, I don't think so.

Started with the most obvious, just to get it out of my head.

Lemme know if you have any ideas that could help me.

business cards

2009-02-25T16:22:00.000-05:00

These are just some preliminary ideas for some business cards, still developing these.

ZEVS

2009-02-17T17:54:00.000-05:00

Zevs is a french graffiti artist that I came across awhile back in Interview magazine. He's doing really cool stuff with famous logos, making them all drippy and gruesome looking! His website is also really interesting, and it's based on google's layout, it's definitely worth looking at.

http://www.gzzglz.com

Fail Blog

2009-02-17T17:48:00.000-05:00

These are a few funny type-related images I bulled from Fail Blog. I'm sure many of you have seen it before, but If not, you should really check it out. It's a bunch of hilarious images of really silly things, and whenever something doesn't make sense, they stamp "FAIL" on it.

http://www.failblog.org

Top Flr - Final Logo Colors

2009-02-09T14:53:00.000-05:00

I think I've finally decided to go with the forks logo rather than the chair, just because more people "get it". I also got sick of people(in class) telling me it reminds them of a furniture store. I think both of the logos are clever, but I've decided that with the forks logo I won't have to put the word 'cuisine' or 'restaurant' under it, because it already has that restaurant imagery in it, so I like that. I also like the fact that it includes a lot of imagery without being too much. It's got the abstract staircase, AND forks, which allude to it being a restaurant. While I think the chair is more unexpected and unique it doesn't say restaurant as much. I did like the chair though because it made me feel like Top Flr would be a cozy place to sit down and eat and talk with all of your friends in this lounge type environment(which is exactly what it is). But the "general public" might not get it(I guess). The main point is I like both of them as logos and could go either way, but I've got to choose ONE, right?

My biggest dilemma is the "triangle" that is created by the staircase on the top left, and the idea that it may make the logo feel "uneven". I'm thinking I will stick with the box one (the one I showed at the pre-critique). I re-posted the logo without the box around it(because Stan said he wanted to see it again), with just the forks, and I think I notice it MORE without the box. I think the box around it helps to even it out and unify it.

I tried doing some things to see if it would balance out more, but I really didn't like them! I also realized the "triangle" doesn't really bother me all that much. If you guys read this in time, tell me what you think. Also tell me what color you would choose out of these!

More logo exploring

2009-02-03T15:08:00.000-05:00

First Logos

2009-01-22T17:46:00.000-05:00

Sketches

2009-01-20T17:57:00.000-05:00

The two places I am in between working on are Sweetgrass(a hair salon/spa) and Top Flr(trendy modern restaurant) (see pictures in my previous post!)

These are some VERY basic rough sketches I've been doing just to get my mind working and get thinking about the imagery associated with the names of the places.

More Options

2009-01-15T13:18:00.000-05:00

After hearing about the different restaurants people had found last class, I thought I'd try to think of a few more restaurants that might be fun to re-brand.

The first that came to mind was Chocolate bar in Decatur. I've been here a number of times, and it's basically a bar and restaurant that focuses on chocolate related stuff. They have plenty of chocolate martinis and desert drinks as well as tons of desserts. They also have a cabinet full of all kinds of truffles that are 2.50 a piece, but they're so good when you feel like splurging. I think their design definitely needs an upgrade.

Another restaurant I thought of was Top Flr (top floor) in the midtown-ish area. Its looks really trendy and modern inside, like its trying to appeal to the hipster crowd. The prices aren't super cheap but they're reasonable. Their logo looks like it was made really fast. The spot where the P and the R connect has a serif that sticks out and bugs the hell out of me!

Rebranding options: Sweet Grass

2009-01-13T15:28:00.001-05:00

SweetGrass: A hair salon/spa in Little 5 Points. Although I think the handwritten script is cute, I definitely think it's outdated and could use a major upgrade.

Rebranding options: Last Chance

2009-01-13T15:21:00.000-05:00

Last Chance Thrift Store-- One of my favorite Thrift Stores in Atlanta. Has no 'brand' whatsoever.

Rebranding options: American Deli

2009-01-13T15:16:00.001-05:00

American Deli -- This place is in Decatur. I think the pictures speak for themselves. The 'M' has fallen off of the building.

Rebranding options: Boxing

2009-01-13T15:08:00.000-05:00

Decatur Boxing Club -- This place is located right behind where i work, and is always packed with people, but the building and the signage need serious work.

Least Favorite Logos

2009-01-13T13:44:00.001-05:00

1. Olympics - This is a proposed logo for the 2012 Olympics in London. There's a lot of controversy right now over this logo, and many people are very angry, and with good reason I think. The colors are very bad, and it looks like it's trying to be pop-artsy for no reason. I don't think it says anything about London or the Olympics.

2. Ikea - I think the Ikea logo is really boring and outdated. I don't think it reflects their modern style they're trying to promote. Its also just text inside an oval, which is one of the oldest tricks in the book when it comes to logos.

3. Linux - This is the logo for Linux, a cute little baby penguin. Sometimes I see the penguin with text underneath(which is a little more helpful), but sometimes I see only the penguin. I think some people would have NO IDEA that this penguin would have anything to do with software or computers. I don't think the penguin makes any sense at all, it's like someone just picked a cute baby animal for fun.

4. Nos - This logo has something to do with cars, like a car part or something. Lately, this company has come out with an energy drink that they sell at all the gas stations, and that's when I saw it. This logo takes up the whole front of the energy drink can, and looks really bad next to all the other energy drinks. It doesn't make me think of energy or stamina or power or anything.

5. America Online - This was the old AOL logo. I think it was too complex, and the "online" script just looks weird. The little graphic image above the text should have been taken out or redone. None of it was really a good representation of an internet company in my opinion.

Favorite Logos

2009-01-13T13:14:00.000-05:00

1. Families by Herb Lubalin -- This is a very simple logo with clean, readable text, and he's able to make a little family out of the i, the l, and the i, without making it corny or anything.

2. Dialog - I don't remember where I found this, but I saved it because i thought it was very clever, using little dialog bubbles to form the letter g. It's also readable, scalable, and everyone would understand it.

3. Vaio - I've always liked the Sony Vaio logo. It looks very modern and futuristic, which i think is good for a computer company. I think old people may have trouble reading this logo, but I don't think Vaio is being marketed to them, so I don't think Sony should care.

4. Virgin - I think the Virgin records logo is really simple handwritten script, but it still stays "sexy" and "rock & roll" to me, without trying too hard.

5. Cotton - I think the cotton logo is really timeless and extremely clever in making the text and the image of cotton flow together so smoothly.

Testing

2009-01-08T17:36:00.000-05:00

Testing