christian ross

Colosseo Letterpress Poster

You might remember a year or so ago when I wrote about the fantastic gift I received from a well-known designer named Cameron Moll. At the time, he had created a work of art for his employer and saw the rave reviews it had drawn from the community so he decided to get more printed and create a market with them in the general public.

The entire piece is created by laying/aligning characters from a couple of selected font faces in a way as to create a greater whole. It’s spectacular. Thankfully, he didn’t stop at the first one and after our conversations a month or so ago there are potentially more on the way.

Colosseo Letterpress Poster (http://colosseotype.com/)
In March, Cameron released his second poster – a fantastic rendition of the Roman Colosseum. After our conversations about it, I am amazed not only by the detail and time he puts into them but the research and history he does as well. When he decided the Colosseum would be he next project, he scheduled his anniversary trip with his wife around it. They traveled to Rome last summer for vacation but also knowing that they would be documenting it the best they could. Add to this the fact that he spent time studying ancient Roman typefaces and artists that he wanted to incorporate into the piece and you can tell that Cameron has a passion for these projects.

Lucky for me, my wife sees the same beauty in the work and my passion for them and ordered me one they day they went on sale. She’s good like that.

The fun stuff
Ask Cameron and he’ll tell you he’s floored by the popularity and sales just one month in of Colosseo. To continue the promotion of it and of course the sale, he has created a number of contests that you are more than welcome to enter and possibly win. The first two contests have iPad’s as their grand prize while the third has a special limited addition of the poster (only 15 made) that include a little martian from a game started on Dribbble.

For Contest one, I am already entered by purchasing the poster. Contest two is set up to help drive traffic to the poster site itself and is accomplished by creating a site that ranks well in Google and catches Cameron’s attention enough to award a winner. Contest three is a Dribbble rebound contest to see who can come up with the best rebounded design of one of the characters from the poster.

As much as I’d like to win an iPad or limited addition poster, I haven’t done much in the way of entering any of the contests. I kind of feel like when I was working for a radio station in high school and my friends/family weren’t allowed to win station contests. Cameron has already been far too kind to me as well as provide the medium for me to obtain new client work.

I did, however, spend about 45 minutes yesterday throwing together a small little site purely for entertainment purposes. When Cameron started talking about ranking well in Google/search engines, it reminded me of the issue of spam bots out there that create pages on the fly when you mis-type or spell a search or domain name. We’ve all seen them. They purely exist to gain pageviews and ad revenue from those views.

cameron moll colosseo ipad martian giveaway

So, if you’ve made it this far, feel free to check out my spam log/park page at http://cilosseotype.com and link to it if you’d like to help my rankings.

I have posted a couple of the other entries to the contest on the page for your viewing and if you’re one who has created something for contest #2, shoot me a note and I can add you as well.

The Overhaul: Gunnison Valley Health System

“Case Study” is an oft-used term by many design firms as a part of (or in lieu of) their portfolio of work but I would consider it mostly misused in each situation. A case study, as I understand it, comes from the field of science or research that usually includes experiments, surveys and/or analysis on data gathered from individuals or groups. More often than not, a “case study” seen in the standard web portfolio hasn’t been research, tested or evaluated and just gets labeled as such as a fancy word for portfolio piece.

It doesn’t matter much, other than as I set out to pen a few short thoughts on a recent re-design I offered for a client I struggled with how to label it. It isn’t an actual experimented case study since I didn’t test it against anything other than my own collected knowledge of UI and design preferences, but it is a review of where it currently sits and where I envision it going as we move forward.

My current interest in gaining new knowledge about my craft has been leading me down the path of realizing that part of my job as a creative is to use design to solve problems. While dressing things up is the fun part and the part that gets noticed the most, there are plenty of underlying things that feed into the overall look and functionality of the site.

My job is to make you look better but if in the process of making you look better I make your site unusable for clients and kill your sales, I haven’t done you any favors nor do I have a leg to stand on as an “expert” down the road. Included in the fact that I need to make your site pretty and you happy, I have added responsibility to provide the best experience for your users through things like predictable navigation, color/font consistency and organized content just to name a few. Throw in a couple of Make My Logo Bigger cream requests in there and you can ultimately see that there is a need for more learning in the problem solving category on my end.

Enter, Gunnison Valley Health System. (more…)

The New (Media) Workout Plan

Illustrator Patrick Moberg built a workout plan tailored to his Internet usage. Although I may change one or two of the sites out, I could see this being a benefit.

“In Essence: burn some fat, not yo’ brain”

The New (Media) Workout Plan

6th Day

End of week internet goodness for 09/25/09

The web wasn’t particularly funny this week but it did provide some some well-built infographics – which I can never seem to get enough of.

Click the images to see the full graphics.

First up, ever thought of printing out the Internet? Umm, me either. But if you tried, it’d only take your inkjet printer 3,800 years to knock it out.

(via Cartridge Save) (more…)

A Fashionable Thursday v5

My original intention for AFT this week was to do an all-shoe rundown. That immediately went out the door when possibly the worlds’ best fitting button down shirt came across my desk.

I’ll keep an all-shoe post on the to do list for another week.

Band of Outsiders : button down – sea island

As with most things I wear, I have rules concerning button down shirts. I’m a big fan of button down collars on shirts without a tie. Not so much with one though. Call me crazy but why would a person take the time to dress up a look with a tie and then cinch it off with a couple of buttons on a shirt? Let it breathe.

No need for a tie here, this shirt kills on its own. Slim fit goodness. $325

(via Opening Ceremony) (more…)

A Fashionable Thursday v4

It’s Thursday again. AFTv4 is upon us. As much as I’ve enjoyed it so far, I’ve got to find a better way then waiting until midnight to get them put together. All menswear this week. Ladies, you’ll get your fair share soon enough.

Lost? A look back: AFTv1, AFTv2, & AFTv3

The Gray Two-button

A must-have in the closet of all men, including my own. I need to invest in a pocket square. Prior to that, I need to invest in a suit jacket with an open chest pocket.

(via J. Crew) (more…)

A Fashionable Thursday v3

Back on my game with a condensed version on purpose. Loving the responses I have received so far, from those that have mentioned anything it seems like a portion of you might be digging AFT’s. Feel free to comment, disagree or send me an email if you’ve got something to say.

In anticipation of a slight cool down over the next few days, I went casual and fall-ish. The everyday wear.

Ted Baker Depict Zip Through Jacket

This jacket looks like it might be made out of the same cotton/material that sweatpants are. For $147, I would hope not. I dig the shoulder seam and the industrial zippers. My one fear is that jackets like this have a tendency to bunch up around the middle creating a nice little faux-belly. I don’t need any help.

(via ASOS) (more…)

A Fashionable Thursday v2

It wasn’t that I planned on dropping the ball this early into the adventure, it was really just the fact that I didn’t know it was Thursday.

For this edition of AFT, I am introducing fashion for both women and kids. And there’s more going on behind the scenes that I’m not a liberty to discuss yet. But rest assured, it will be huge. Blow your mind huge. I had some help with the women’s stuff.

If you need to know the rules or missed AFT v1, catch up here.

Brushed cotton two-button blazer

(more…)