Ethan Sherman Design

Today was a fun day because I finally got to work on the East Gate website. First I uploaded all of the work that I did for Tobin to the drive so that he could access it all once I left. For the most part, I worked on hand coding the East Gate website using a CSS Framework called Skeleton.

PROGRESS:

Today I spent much of the day working on logo development for an app that New North is working on. The app is called Loyal Tap, and it is an application that local businesses can use to send rewards and offers to their clients when they are in the store. Each store receives a wireless beacon that sits in their store. The app on the customer's phone will detect when the phone is close to the beacon (when the customer walks into the store) and will send alerts to the customer's phone with offers and information. When the customer taps their phone on the beacon they will earn rewards and the ability to unlock coupons from the business for purchases.

EARLY LOGO DEVELOPMENT:

MORE LOGO DEVELOPMENT:

I ended up with a few comps for Tobin to review. I printed out a sheet with all of the logos on it so that people could make comments on the logos throughout the week. When I return next friday, Tobin will tell me which one that they liked the most and we will continue working on the branding.

Today I did some revisions to the brochure from last time. I needed to expand the map on one page, and add a different logo to a page that had a picture of stacked boxes. Next, I worked on the thank you card some. Then, I continued work on the east gate website mockup. This time, I needed to pick a color that could be used for the background of the website. We decided to have a hopeful color in the background.

COLOR CHOICES:

Finally, I solidified three comps for the One Hundred Dollar Loyalty Program Book.

THREE COMPS:

Today was a very busy day of really cool projects to work on. First, I worked on making changes to a preexisting brochure. I was given a pdf with written directions as to what to change, and then I made those changes in the indesign file.

CHANGES BEING MADE:

Next, I showed Tobin my site map for the East Gate website. He liked it, so we sent it off to Jen for approval. After we sent the email I began to work on some infographs that Tobin wanted to illustrate concepts from some of his blog posts.

WORKING ON INFOGRAPHS:

After having worked on the info graphs for a while, I started a New North thank you card that would go out to their clients after they finished a project.

THANK YOU CARD:

Today, Tobin was not at New North because he was in Florida at the Expo. While he was away, he sent me a queue ticket to start working on the wordpress website design for East Gate. I started by looking at wordpress videos online to see how to start working on it. First, I created some wireframes for the website to get an idea of how the navigation would work.

WIREFRAMES

I also started a style guide for the website and a few different page layouts to show different options.

STYLE GUIDE:

LAYOUTS:

Then, once I felt happy with the progress on the website, I worked on a table of contents design for the ebooks. Basically, the background color could be changed to match the respective book.

EBOOK TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Today was a production day. The caffeine cards made it back from the printers and required assembly and packaging. I took each card, stapled the bag of expresso beans to the card, and then packed boxes with the cards. In the end, I probably packed anywhere from 570-600 of the cards. I filled four good sized boxes full.

STAPLING AND PACKING THE BOXES

Later today, I worked some more on the "One Hundred Dollar Loyalty Plan" book jacket. The colors weren't working with the New North brand; however, Tobin liked the overall style of what I had created, so I made some additional comps.

THE COMPS

Today I continued work on the caffeine card. I was able to finalize the design for the card and prepare it for the printer. 

CARD FRONT AND BACK

I also started on a book jacket for Tobin's blog post "The One Hundred Dollar Loyalty Program." He wanted something utilizing money or a symbol for money, so I incorporated Benjamin Franklin's face from the one hundred dollar bill into the composition.

BOOK COVER

Today was a shortened day because of a power outage, however I managed to work on this blog to get it caught up. I also restyled it so it would match my new identity. Once Tobin arrived, he told me that Jen had decided on a logo color palette that she wanted to use!

THE WINNING LOGO:

Once we finalized the logo, I had to create the final deliverables for the logo. I made a set of color, black and white logo pdfs, eps files, jpg/pngs and ai files in both cmyk and rgb.

The next thing I did was work on a post card design that was going to be distributed to people at an expo that Tobin was going to attend.

FRONT DESIGN:

The design was inspired by a pack of flavored expresso chocolate snack pieces. Tobin's idea was to take the bag of expresso snacks and staple it to the card. The reader could then take off the bag and read facts and information on caffeine. I started the back of the card as well, however it is only just the text that will go on the pack.

Today was a full day with a great deal of progress on the projects! I was able to get feedback from Jen on the logo comps. She ended up picking the 1st choice on the pdf I sent her. Next, I needed to hone in on a color palette that she liked. She told me that she wanted more of a neutral, sophisticated color palette, so I kept that in mind for the logo color comps. After a few different iterations, the image below is the set that she liked the most. She picked 1,2 and 3 as possibilities for her logo.

The next project I worked on was a simple black and white ad for New North that would be featured in an ADDY's event program booklet.

THE AD:

During lunch, I sat in on another staff meeting. The meeting progressed similarly to the one that I sat in on before. We talked about their open projects and a little about the development of the East Gate Outreach project I was working on.

The final project I worked on was starting the ebook cover art for the epub books. Basically Tobin wants to take some of the information about each of the services that New North offers and put them in books as a series. I created the first set of book covers. I drew inspiration from New North's website. There already was a color palette for each of the services offered, so I stuck to them for the covers.

COVER PROGRESS:

FINALS:

Today was a really exciting day because it was full of cool new things that I was able to experience. The first thing I did today was sit in on a staff meeting. I learned about the most recent projects that New North was working on and the ones that were coming up. Also they discussed css and html improvements that they would be adopting that would make their work a little easier. The last part of the meeting discussed customer experiences and surreys that their customers filled out at the end of the projects. Overall I found that the customers were very happy with what New North was creating for them.

The next thing I did today was start a logo branding and website project that Tobin was having me do for his wife Jen. Jen was starting a nonprofit called the East Gate Mission Outreach which is a program that helps people in need who have gone through a care system but still need help afterwards. Jen and I met during lunch to discuss the beginnings of the project and what she expected for the logo and website. After the meeting, I began to come up with logo comps:

Beginning Stages of logo:

Final list of logo comps sent to Jen:

Starting out the day, I created business cards for employees of New North. Tobin had a template for how he wanted them to look. There were three business cards that he wanted, two for employees, and one as a general business card for New North.

Business Card:

Today I also helped update New North's LinkedIn page. It reminds me that I should set up my own page in the near future! I had never used the website before, so I got to learn how it worked, which was cool. Recently, New North had updated their products and services, so the page needed to be updated with new information and descriptions. There was a lot of content to update, so this is what I spent a large chunk of the day doing. I enjoyed it!

Updating the content:

The next thing I did was create a "contact sheet" for New Norths stock imagery and illustration collection. A contact sheet is a printout that grids off a list of the name of an image or illustration and its thumbnail. 

A page from the photo contact sheet:

The first day, I was introduced to the team that works with Tobin, the overseer of my internship. Everyone seemed very nice. I was also introduced to New North's project management system called Queue. My work that I do every day will be displayed on the queue system and I can log in to register how long tasks took to complete. The following picture is of the Queue page:

After I learned about Queue, Tobin had be look through the employee manual that they had, as I was going to take it and redesign it in InDesign. I enjoyed looking through the manual because I was able to get a better picture for what New North did as a whole. For the rest of the day I worked on laying out the 36 page manual in InDesign. The picture below is of a page from the manual:

Cover Art

Spread:

During our visits to JCCM, we were able to see the extent of the services offered to those in need and learn about all of the wonderful connections that JCCM has with other organizations in the community. As a group, we had the opportunity to sort through donated winter clothing and listen to an interview with one of JCCM's customers.

Today I first went with Janet to a staff meeting at a local restaurant, just like the meeting a while back. After we got back from the meeting I learned that one of my projects, the membership card had printed! I got to keep a few of them for my portfolio! I think they turned out great.

Membership cards:

I worked on two ads, one for print and one for the web, both based on an ad I had worked on not too long ago.

Ads:

Today was my last day, and I am very sad to say so. I have had so much fun learning from Janet and working with her on the many projects for the Y. It feels like my time at the Y went by so quickly. I wish I could have more time there! I can definitely say that the people at the Y were very very nice! As a parting gift I was given a cool Y t-shirt and a water bottle. Janet as well as some of the people I worked with were really thoughtful and got together to write me a really nice card with a gift card. I really appreciated the warm farewell that they gave me.

Today I worked on a web ad, a flier for FISC's open house (Frederick Indoor Sports Center), and attended some meetings. The meetings were basically just to convey how each of the programs were doing and what was going on with the kids camps that have been going on the past few weeks. There will be a staff meeting when I come in on my last day July 23. I can't express how excited this internship made me! I have loved every second of it, and I am sad that it is coming to a close.

Web ad:

Flier: