Creative Stewardship

Time lapse recording of a recent lettering installation for Jailbreak Brewing Co.! See the full project here: https://www.behance.net/gallery/18243171/Jailbreak-Brewing-Co-The-Art-of-Escape

Some recent work I'm finally getting around to posting! "Foxhall Catering is boutique catering based out of Washington DC. Family owned and operated, Foxhall Catering has one mission - to bring to your home or event venue the finest culinary experience available anywhere." See more: https://www.behance.net/gallery/15458937/Foxhall-Catering

Thanks for the question! That's always a tricky one to answer because in short I'm not familiar with any systematic way to learn hand lettering (though I'm sure calligraphy would help). I'd say a very important practice to adopt is to keep an eye out for interesting examples of lettering and typography and document them whenever you can. At the start it's going to be a lot of imitation and practice while you get a feel for proper proportions and learn the various anatomies and styles of letters. As you keep studying letterforms you'll develop your own "vocabulary" and repertoire. A great reference is "A Visual History of Typefaces and Graphic Styles". Best of luck and have fun!

New chalk installations for Daniel Richards in their Atlanta showroom! Check out the rest of it on Behance.

Along with a group of students from Portfolio Center, I had the privilege of working with the CDC Foundation in preparation for the CDC Foundation Hero Award. I love a good meticulous project but this one gave me my fill and more. The concept was to depict a fictitious microcosm that would serve to demonstrate the extent of CDC's involvement in our daily lives. The details are what make this project because I wanted to build a world with enough substance to it so that the viewer's mind could wander and create their own story. Attempting to provide enough visual interest for a 60x45" poster nearly killed me, but I think it was worth it in the end :) See the full photo set & process on Behance.

Feels like it's been ages since I've posted, but I've been super busy with work, school, and various side projects so there should be a lot more coming down the pipeline soon. Here's a quick little commissioned project I did for a friend's church involving a logo and pamphlet redesign. Sometimes you have the most fun with projects that you don't have to overthink...no grand, esoteric concept trying to jump the curve, just the simple joys of an artist free to work on his canvas. Lots more to come soon!

4th of July at Lenox

I rented a tilt-shift lens this past weekend in preparation for an upcoming shoot (since I knew there'd be a bit of a learning curve). I couldn't get ahold of the wide angle version since wedding season is in full bloom and it was already rented out, so I went with the less popular older brother (TS-E 90mm). It's a tricky little thing to use, but opens up a ton of creative options as well. For me, it definitely allowed me to relive the feeling of picking up a camera for the first time as I found myself taking pictures of the most mundane things just to see how tilt/shift would affect the shot. One of these days I hope to add one to my regular lineup.

"There are trade-offs in the world of restaurants, and every restaurant owner must decide what is important and what to put their money into. Some opt for fantastic displays of aquarium fish, others collect vintage photographs and still others ignore these distractions to focus solely on the food." Urban Plate is a restaurant that's all about providing high quality, affordable food in a casual, cool, and friendly atmosphere. The idea for this concept was to convey a measure of playfulness to express the fun and casual atmosphere of a restaurant that is otherwise very serious in its mission to provide exceptional and healthy food that is accessible to everyone. Being careful to stay away from the typical "greenwashing" often expected in organic farm-to-table restaurant branding, vibrant pops of color are used throughout the branding system to contrast with an otherwise monochromatic, industrial-chic interior. A secondary set of logos provide a graphic application for uniforms and merchandise, and restaurant staff are distinguished by quips on the back of uniforms. Design & Photography: Chris Yoon Copywriting: Danielle DePiper See the full set of images on Behance

"It is accused of giving children a false impression of the world they live in. But I think no literature that children could read give them less of a false impression. I think what profess to be realistic stories for children are far more likely to deceive them. I never expected the real world to be like the fairy tales. I think that I did expect school to be like the school stories. The fantasies did not deceive me: the school stories did... We long to go through the looking glass, to reach fairy land. We also long to be the immensely popular and successful schoolboy or schoolgirl, or the lucky boy or girl who discovers the spy's plot or rides the horse that none of the cowboys can manage. But the two longings are very different. The second, especially when directed on something so close as school life, is ravenous and deadly serious. Its fulfillment on the level of imagination is in very truth compensatory: we run to it from the disappointments and and humiliations of the real world: it sends us back to the real world undividedly discontented. For it is all flattery to the ego. The pleasure consists in picturing oneself the object of admiration. The other longing, that for fairy land, is very different. In a sense a child does not long for fairy land as a boy longs to be the hero of the first eleven. Does anyone suppose that he really and prosaically longs for all the dangers and discomforts of a fairy tale?—really wants dragons in contemporary England? It is not so. It would be much truer to say that fairy land arouses a longing for he knows not what. It stirs and troubles him (to his life-long enrichment) with the dim sense of something beyond his reach and, far from dulling or emptying the actual world, gives it a new dimension of depth. He does not despise real woods because he has read of enchanted woods: the reading makes all real woods a little enchanted. This is a special kind of longing. The boy reading the school story of the type I have in mind desires success and is unhappy (once the book is over) because he can't get it: the boy reading the fairy tale desires and is happy in the very fact of desiring... And this distinction holds for adult reading too. The dangerous fantasy is always superficially realistic. The real victim of wishful reverie does not batten on the Odyssey, The Tempest, or The Worm Ouroboros: he (or she) prefers stories about millionaires, irresistible beauties, posh hotels, palm beaches and bedroom scenes—things that really might happen, that ought to happen, that would have happened if the reader had had a fair chance. For, as I say, there are two kings of longing. The one is an askesis, a spiritual exercise, and the other is a disease." - C.S. Lewis, "On Three Ways of Writing for Children"

There are few things I enjoy more than a sky full of luscious clouds. I think it's important to marvel at the seemingly "ordinary" things which aren't even all that ordinary if you think about them (why do they have to be as they are in the first place?). When I was asked to design a poster for our upcoming open house, I had absolutely no idea where to begin. Often you need parameters to push back on and if none are given, well then you have to make up some for yourself. I ended up approaching this from the point of view of many incoming and prospective students (including myself once upon a time) who are looking at design school and taking the plunge into something completely new and exciting. There is an innate desire to create and express and I wanted to draw out from the viewer a sense of wonder at the possibilities ahead of them. It's not all smooth sailing once you set out, but there's so much to take in if you stay curious and keep your eyes open.

Our Chimney Charcoal Grilling Pack is featured on Co.DESIGN! What an awesome platform to get the design concept out there.

A little late posting this, but here's our submission for this year's IOPP 48 Hour Re-Pack. All of the products this year were camping themed, and most were products that haven't been majorly repackaged in over a hundred years (our options: Charcoal, Toilet Paper, Matches, S'mores). We went ahead with charcoal and wanted to gear our redesign towards the casual camper: the once-a-year camping type who wants an enjoyable, relaxing experience with minimal hassle. This concept would make for a convenient, waste-free, and environmentally friendly camping experience since no lighter fluid is used and the entire product is consumed. The Chimney is a single use charcoal grilling pack derived from the concept of a traditional charcoal chimney, but without the bulk and extra hassle. Equipped with an internal shaft, the Chimney uses flame retention and convection to ignite the coals rather than relying on lighter fluid, and vents ensure constant airflow to fuel the fire. The Chimney heats the coals up consistently from the core, then when the paper shell burns up, the pyramid shape allows the coals to gradually settle into position and controls the flame once the paper burns. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8mjpJm0GdE Team: Michael DiCristina, Chris Yoon, Peter Smith, Meredith Morten, Blake Sanders, Vivian Rodriguez

I had the opportunity the other day to shoot our seminar speaker, Tess Wicksteed, from Pearlfisher. I had literally less than five minutes (ended up being just 3 shots) to get the shot of Tess as she was on a tight schedule, so I had some fellow students stand-in for me beforehand so I could tweak the lighting. I asked everyone for a surprised face and I thought they made a fun set together so I'm putting them all up :)

Some recently commissioned work for Colbeh, a Persian restaurant opening up in Decatur Square sometime next month. Definitely the biggest chalk surface I've ever worked with. Working with chalk presents some unique problems because of the way it gets patchy and leaves streaks if you go back over it in the opposite direction...super annoying for anyone as OCD as me. But at the same time you're left with a tactile, hand-crafted look that's a breath of fresh air in our predominantly digital age. View the full process on Behance