Graphic Design
Alignment and distribution are as important as positive and negative space, the right typefaces, graphic elements, layout, and size, and they both guide the viewer and convey the desired feeling and message.
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A bold, recognizable image defines an entity.
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Know the product, know the market, know your client, and know their customer. Tell the world!
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Form and function of packaging make the first impression on a customer.
Logo
A bold, recognizable image defines an entity.
When designing a logo for a client I’m simply the hand to bring their vision to fruition. Sometimes the client doesn’t have a clear vision, or needs help refining a concept. Every project starts with a design consultation to discuss the brand foundation and creative direction, and a path best fit for the client is chosen. With inclusion throughout the process, the client shares in the creation and decision making of their visual branding. The final design includes complete brand identity and mockups for various scenarios and mediums.
Blue Force Foundation is a charitable organization that benefits the families of fallen officers, servicemen and women. Therefore, the logo I designed depicts an issued patch and a ranking stripe, a badge-like star with a solemn black sash across its hero’s status. The red star stands out and highlights the beneficiaries of the foundation. Its location to the hero’s star represents their position to the hero: “left” and “behind.”
Stogiebird is an online cigar subscription service. Stogiebird’s name is derived from an old slang term for cigars transported in covered wagons made in Conestoga, PA, which locals referred to as “stogie wagons,” and “bird” refers to the company’s deliveries that fly all around the world. The logo was to be bold and simple depicting the bird carrying a cigar, easily transferable to many applications. The colors black and gold represent the city of Pittsburgh’s sports teams.
Vintage Fresh, Stogiebird’s own cigar brand, consists of authentic vintage cigar bands - printed in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s - placed upon fresh cigars made by today’s best manufacturers. The logo incorporates the Stogiebird logo in the negative space between the V and F. It also embraces the design aspects of the time period of the historic cigar bands. The full horizontal logo incorporates aspects of the iconic bridges of Pittsburgh.
Marketing
Know the product, know the market, know your client, and know their customer. Tell the world!
Stogiebird uses multiple social media platforms to advertise, therefore square and portrait aspect ratios are used. Bold eye catching imagery ties together with the story behind the name and branding of the cigars. Clear pricing, discounts, and ratings stand out in the copy.
Stogiebird included stickers in their monthly subscription box as a free bonus item. In an effort to cross-appeal to people’s other brand loyalties, I would sometimes parody another brand with Stogiebird, creating word play with the slogan or logo. Other designs were completely original. I created over 300 different stickers.
Vintage Fresh’s marketing was designed with not just a theme in mind, but to fit into an era. All of the branding, photography and marketing had to feel authentic for the time period.
Packaging
Form and function of packaging make the first impression on a customer.
Stogiebird’s bag was designed for bold brand recognition on the front and content on the reverse. The back side provided the welcome message, purchase thank you, information on use and care of the cigars in the bag, a QR code for the customer’s account page, other customer support information, social media contacts, and a shareable coupon code.
Stogiebird’s original “box” was actually a tube, a durable yet disposable travel humidor that setting Stogiebird apart from the rest of the industry. A monthly subscription box should be a unique opening experience every month, visually appealing for unboxing videos posted on social media platforms.
When redesigning the Stogiebird box, I wanted to keep the essence of the original but add functionality. For that reason the outer sleeve has the same recognizable black-on-black spot UV step-and-repeat logo pattern with a yellow band around the edge showcasing the logo. The inner box featured a newly redesigned logo that included a QR code. The benefit of this new logo is not only the added functionality of a link that takes you to the website, but it centered the bird in the horizontal band. The box also includes two QR codes on the inside of the box, one that will take the customer to a webpage that provides more information on the cigars in that delivery, and another that links to a page where customers can purchase more of the cigars in that specific delivery. The box also includes reminders to share unboxing videos on social media, a reminder to recycle, veteran owned small business logo, and other spot UV and embossed embellishments.
Every box has a custom insert in the bottom that either details the selections of the cigars of the month, showcases the brand of the month, or highlights some of the featured sale items.
Every year I designed eight themed cigar bands for Stogiebird’s Halloween Spooktacular. Pictured at left are the cigars themed after the Vincent Price monologue in Michael Jackson’s Thriller. On the right is the Apothecary Series themed after the ingredients in the witches brew in Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
American Rebel Cigars is a brand owned by professional wrestlers Cody Rhodes and Frankie Kazarian. For their cigar line packaging I chose the theme of vintage wrestling posters. These classic posters provided a wealth of information within their format and highlighted the wrestlers in a recognizable design.
These bands were made for another wrestler and themed after a title belt with a Mexican flag color scheme. The three blends would be named for his entrance music Lie, Cheat, and Steal and have symbolic colors: white for “little white lies,” red for getting “caught red handed,” and green for stealing money or “greenbacks.”
