Some Print Design, YO!

Wow, so these are already 2 to 3 years old. I was making a conscious effort to only post my freelance and personal projects here, but since I have no immediate plans of updating my portfolio website at this time, I might as well dust these bad boys off and share them.
These are some of the posters, ads, and graphic novel cover layouts I was lucky enough to create, under the incredible supervision of Mr.  Zachary Pennington, Designer and Art Director extraordinaire. The company was small, and the creative division before I arrived consisted only of Zach. We became a department of two and he led the creative direction of everything from print to web to merchandise,  so needless to say I was lucky to get my hands on all type of projects I normally wouldn't have had the opportunity to.  Zach was incredibly talented, knowledgeable, patient, and probably the hands-down best design director I've ever had the pleasure of working with. I learned a heck of a lot. Thank you Zach!

Ads for:  “Dylan Dog” 2007 & 2008, “The Adventures of Tymm: Alien Circus,”  DrunkDuck.com, 2007 & 2008, “Atlantis Rising"
Poster for “Gravity” 2007 (Title Design by Zachary Pennington)
Cover and Back Cover design for “I Was Kidnapped by Lesbian Pirates From Outer Space” Graphic Novel, 2008
Cover and Back Cover design for “The Weapon” Graphic Novel 2008, and cover coloring

Old Branding

This is a logo and branding imagery I did a ways back for a project that never went anywhere. The 2 images above are a tiny morsel that represent months of work - logo thumbnails, sketches, designs taken to near final, direction changing to other new designs taken to near final, and rinse and repeat until I came to this. I was going for a galactic theme with a modernized retro feel (does that make sense?). It might not seem like much but this particular project entailed not only creating the logo, but the style guide, site design mock-ups, advertising pitches, and mascot designs and animations. My role was essentially a one-woman advertising firm, which was fun to have creative 'control,' I knew what I was getting myself into, but when a project fails to move it's always disheartening after putting so much work into it.
Maybe if I get around to it, I'll show the many evolutions the logo went through (I know I love seeing other people's process).
This project re-taught me some valuable lessons that every designer and artist will encounter at least once in their career.
1 - Know when you've done your duty, and when you start spinning your wheels, stop.
2 - Know when to put your foot down, and stick to your gut.
3 - Communicate that development doesn't just magically happen, it does take time, and show and explain your process to the client.
4 - Last but not least - "Show me the money!!" You need to be paid for your work, for your efforts. Otherwise, you end up with months worth of work to show for something that never took off, you never got paid for, but have a nice little blog post that reflects the always hysterical  "hey, you get a great portfolio piece out of it."

This little robot dude was to be the company's mascot. He's mocked up from photos I found online, but my plan was to find the actual (similar) electronic pieces that comprise him, take photos of them from different angles, and animate him. It would have been a lot of work, but I know the outcome would've been worth it.

Here is the simplified stylized version.

The one good thing about this project not taking off, is that I at least get to keep the rights to my designs. So maybe one day if I ever feel like it, I'll use him in a story or for something else? Eh, we'll see....