I Like This Band is a little web app I whipped together in about an hour using Echonest‘s API. It simply allows you to enter a musician or band’s name and returns a randomized list of similar artists, with links to search for the artist in Google and Google Video and to add the artist to your Pinboard account.

I mainly wrote it for myself as a simplified version of feature-rich tools like Pandora or Last.fm. I didn’t want playlists of music or videos or anything like that; I just wanted a little simple way to explore and discover new music.

I might add more features as time goes by.

In 2003, I co-founded and served as creative director for Mperia, one of the first independent online music stores. My job not only involved strategic marketing, but graphic design, HTML and PHP, Flash coding, and design of marketing collateral.

Initial site layout

Later site redesign

Promotional postcard. That's me in the cowboy hat.

Unused advertising design

Client: Red Thunder

Red Thunder is a mobile advertising company that displays billboards on the sides of large red trucks. This image was created as their default / self-advertising image. You can see it in action on a truck (with additional verbiage):

Factsaboutapalinpresidency.com is a satirical website created by my friend Matt Sorvillo and me. It randomly displays fictional “facts” about a notional Sarah Palin presidential term.

Final Design

Alternate Layout

Client: The Burlesque Hall Of Fame

I’m currently in the middle of redesigning the official site for the Burlesque Hall of Fame in Las Vegas.

So here’s my problem: I’m really good at what I do, but I don’t have a lot of samples of my work. The brutal truth is that I’ve worked on a lot of projects that simply never made it to fruition. I’ve also done a lot of work for quick money where my clients weren’t particularly interested in developing a strong visual identity, to put it mildly. I’ve also (recently) worked on projects that I can’t show you samples of, due to things like nondisclosure agreements. Most of my most professional work, in fact, falls under this category.

This is why my portfolio looks like the product of a fifteen year old who just got his first DeviantArt account, when in fact I’m an extremely competent Web/graphic designer and developer.

And so I’ve decided to resort to the most oldest trick in the book: just making stuff for the sheer hell of it, to showcase my skills.

This is my imagining of what a mid-century travel poster for the planet of Gallifrey — home of Doctor Who — might look like. I think it’s a pretty accurate recreation of the style — strong, geometric shapes, stippled gradients, etc. The font is period as well.

This is the first of a series: I’m going to be creating branding/promotional/identity designs for fictional places, corporations and entities from my favorite fictional works. (Which mostly, but not entirely, tend to be science fiction.)

If you like this work, hire me.

Update: here’s a 1440×900 wallpaper version of the image.

Client: none
Medium: Photoshop
URL: none

Just an experiment with another style of design. The image reminded me of a scene from a certain David Bowie movie, hence the title.

Client: none
Medium: Photoshop
URL: none

This is an experiment in working with currently popular/fresh design styles. The image of the woman is a stock photo.