Layout Designs: 2013 Save the Date

2013 Save the Date postcard - this is getting handed out at the Masons of California Annual Meeting next week.

Thank you card

A thank you card for a family I visited in Australia, pretty simple put one of my favorites!

Layout Design: CMS Program

Previously posted was the new California Masonic Symposium branding/logo. As the first session of this yeas symposium is getting closer it was time to design the program. Although there are two sessions, June and July, the same program will be handed out at both.

To keep with the branding the color scheme of the program stayed consistent with the logo through the program. This year had a few more speakers which turned the program into a tri-fold rather than half-fold, like previous years.

Layout Design: MHC Invitation

Masonic Homes of Covina are putting on a summer event for residents, family and friends. To get people excited about the event we needed to design an invitation that would be distributed throughout our organization. Clean, simple, modern typographic design was the best solution for the invitation since the target audience was rather broad. 

Layout Design: Woodland Food Closet Brochure

The Woodland Food Closet helps provide meals for families that are unable to afford groceries to feed their family.

Along with designing their website, I was hired to design a tri-fold brochure to be handed out at events and available in the office. To keep with the design style for the organization consistent I applied the same design from the website for their brochure. The donation form is perforated to allow people to easily detach it from the brochure to make their donation.

To learn more visit: www.woodlandfoodcloset.org

Website: Woodland Food Closet

The Woodland Food Closet helps provide meals for families that are unable to afford groceries to feed their family. After years of operation the food closet hired me to design a simple easy to use website that would get their message across to a wider audience. Being able to donate through the website was a key component they wanted available on their site.  Along with knowing what events and services the Woodland Food Closet provides year around to the Yolo County Community.



To learn more visit: www.woodlandfoodcloset.org

Logo/Branding Design: CMS

The Masons of California offer a number of different educational materials, classes and seminars for our members. Each year we put on a Symposium that has a different topic related to Masonry each time. This year, the organization thought it would be a great idea to add some sort of logo/branding to this part of our programing.


Since the Symposium is organized each year it needed to be adjustable, modern and visually appealing to our older members. The simple design I came up with, shown below, is easy to read and gets the messaging across as to what and where the current years Symposium will take place.

Layout Design: M & W Retreat Invitation

Last week I shared the new branding created for the Masons of California's Masters and Wardens Retreats for the upcoming years. There were many pieces of collateral for this project, displayed below is just one of those pieces that were distributed to our members via email.

Logo Design: Masters and Wardens Retreat

Masters and Wardens retreats is an event that the Grand Lodge staff put on to get the members excited about the new programs we are doing for the year and to provide them with information to take back to their lodges.


I wanted it to be simple and something that can be used in the coming years. We wanted it to be a logo that our members would remember as well as recognize it without any other content. The color of scheme can change over the years without having to change the logo just by switching the banner palette.


This logo will be used for online and printed marketing materials....more to come.

Layout Design: LMCP Postcard

Yesterday, I posted the new logo for LMCP for the Masons of Ca. Earlier this month I created a postcard that was handed out to members at a retreat in Northern California. The postcard was to get our members thinking about participating in the program. It acted as a "save the date" sort of promotion since all the program dates and times are still pending.


The design was kept simple and easy to read and understand. It was the first time the new logo was being displayed to our members and it needed to be memorable. By keeping the design clean and simple, it allowed the logo to pop making it grab the reader's attention. There will be more promotional materials for this program that will follow this design style.

Logo Design: LMCP

LMCP is the Lodge Management Certification Program for the Masons of CA. The program has been part of the organization for a few years but has never really been branded with a specific logo or look and feel. When starting the design process I had to keep in mind that the members wouldn't know the program just by LMCP, but I wanted it to be simple.


The final design, seen below, is simple, colorful and easy for older members to read. LMCP is the main headline; because we want our members to start recognizing what it stands for so future rebranding doesn't need to include the entire program title. The branding was launched in the middle of March to promote this year's program.

MCYAF Ads

These MCYAF (Masonic Center for Youth & Families) ads were designed to be for non-members and past or current members. The photographs are stock images and our editorial staff wrote the text. Since these ads are being placed in industry related publications they needed to stay simple and within the MCYAF branding...all while being engaging.


The photographic ads were designed to target non-masons who might need the services the facility provides. The typographic ads were designed to target all Masons within our organization. One of the typographic ads was published in the April/May 2012 issue of the California Freemason Magazine as well as on the freemason.org.

Ad: Rainbow for Girls

Rainbow for Girls is one of the many youth orders connected with the Freemasons. This ad was created to congratulate the girls on their 2012 Grand Assembly.


I wanted this ad to be intriguing and elegant like the young ladies participating in the organization. It is for all the girls associated with Rainbow for Girls, so using photography would only single our certain participants. Typography was a perfect solution for this advertisement. This ad is one of my favorite designs I've created since working with the Masons.


Below are two versions of the ad. The first is my original design and the second is the one being published. Although there were corrections to the first version, it is still my favorite.

Layout Design: C2 101

Yesterday I posted the logo and description of the project this web application was created for. Below is the visual layout design that I designed for this college cooking web application. The layout is simple, clean and focused more on the typography rather than the amount of design that is on the page. Sticking with the simple colors was important in order to complement the logo design.Using a 3-column grid makes it easy for the user to navigate through the site, allowing them to know exactly where and what all the links and pages are about.


Now all I need is to actually build the web application and it will be on its way.

C2 101 | Home Page - Web Application | October 2011

C2 101 | Sign Up Page - Web Application | October 2011

C2 101 | Popular Recipe Page - Web Application | October 2011

C2 101 | Most Recent Page - Web Application | October 2011

C2 101 | Our Favorites Page - Web Application | October 2011

Logo Design: C2 101

During one of my Master's courses we had to create a concept for a web application that either currently existed or was not yet developed. I wanted it to be interesting to college students and people who would actually make good use of its functions. I couldn't think of anything better or useful than a cooking blog where college students could post simple recipes for other students and friends (we all remember what it was like having to cook in college...simple and less dishes was the way to go or delivery).


Continuing to develop the application I decided it would be a great idea to have it be interactive, allowing users to create a personal profile and be integrated with social networking sites.


Before getting to far into the development stage I wanted to create a simple logo for the cooking blog that would attract to my target audience. After many sketches, digital comps, and showing it to some friends I came up with the following design. The color scheme is subtle and not so over powering since my idea was to make the main focus of design be on typography.

Mini-Portfolio Site | Web Design

Although I have a full time job with the Masons of California I started going back to school to receive a Masters degree in Web Design and New Media at the Academy of Art University. I'm in my 3rd semester  with only 3 years more to go.

I was to create a  mini-portfolio site displaying at least 3 pieces of my design work. Having created a portfolio site before a number of times it wasn't very difficult, but this time around I focused on how it worked with different browsers, so far so good. The screenshots here don't fully do the site justice so please feel free to visit my mini-portfolio site to see more work. 

Save the Date | Postcard

After Annual Communication the year takes off with many events and retreats. As a way to keep our members informed with upcoming events we created a Save the Date postcard that was distributed during the conference at the registration desk. No most post cards just have a bunch of text and look ordinary and ugly. For this years I wanted to do something a little unique and keep the text to a minimum.

We didn't want to have our members complain that their event/retreat wasn't at the top. To resolve this issue we structured the postcard to be able to have either one on the top. No matter what way you rotate the card the top portion is always readable....

Save the Date | Postcard | September 2011

Tom Torlakson Event

A few months before Annual Communication our Philanthropy department had an event for a special group of people. We had Mr. Tom Torlaskon our Superintendent come and speak to members of the Grand Lodge and the San Francisco School Alliance. Instead of sending out an email blast we decided to create an online invitation where we could keep track of who was actually attending. Over 120 people were invited and roughly 60 people actually attended.

For the online invitation I didn't want to use some random template that had no relevance to the event. I chose to create the below graphic. Its simple and uses both the School Alliance logo & colors as well as our Philanthropies as well. As the event came closer we used this same template for elevator & lobby signs as well as name tags. The event was just as successful as the event itself.

Tom Torlakson Event | Invitation Graphic | July 2011

GM Project | Raising A Reader

Each year a new Grand Master (GM) is installed into his position within the Masons. Each GM has their own special project that will take place throughout the year. Last year the GM's project was called By Your Side....which raised money to certify a large number on oncology nurses. This year our GM is focusing on Literacy within our Public School system. The Masons of California are partnering with Raising A Reader.

To kick start this years project I designed a bookmark that was handed out after the new GM's installation and presentation of the new project (the partnership logo was designed by my manager Angel). I didn't want to create a normal boring skinny bookmark that everyone wouldn't like so I chose to go with a square bookmark, something you don't see everyday. It turned out pretty well and the GM was happy, thats all that matters.

Grand Master's Project | Raising A Reader | 2011-2012

Grand Master's Project | Raising A Reader | 2011-2012

A Fair to Remember Art Show

Since this years Annual Communication was unique in theme we wanted to keep with the fair theme for the Annual Banquet that took place on Saturday, September 24, 2011. There were carnival games, popcorn, cotton candy and many other fun fair like events. Along with the games we provided our members a chance to view great pieces of artwork. In order to get work to display I created a Call for Entries poster that was sent out to three art schools in the San Francisco Area.

Art Show | Call for Entries Poster | 2011

Each member received three raffle tickets to place into the top three art pieces they enjoyed the most. It was a way to engage our members and have them interact with the event rather than just walking around staring at the pieces. Some artist's attempted to sell their art, although not many were for sale. It was a unique show and the members really enjoyed it...definitely a success!