[watercolor] BARS of ANN ARBOR

This collection of work will soon be available on Etsy.com as digital prints

[Paper Study] ‘Breaking the Plane’

This study was created from a single sheet of paper without the use of any glue. It follows the spirit of origamic architecture.

Type Tuesday [Origamic Typography / Pop-up Card]

Lately, I’ve been studying origamic architecture. I was initially curious how the two-dimensional forms could break the plane of the paper and occupy space. Below is an origamic typography study created for Type Tuesday!

Happy Thanksgiving! Pop-up Card

Published in Boxed and Labelled 2

Recently, my senior thesis project was published in Gestalten’s latest edition of ‘Boxed and Labelled 2: New Approaches to Packaging Design.’ The  project featured  aims to bring awareness to socially responsible LED packaging. Current packaging does not maximize sustainable materials or construction, while also failing to clearly convey information. My packaging design uses only post-consumer recycled paper, promotes recycling old bulbs, and supplies the consumer with updated information through modern graphic design. If you want to learn more about my project, just visit my portfolio website. More information about the book can be found on Gestalten’s website or Amazon.

Many Ways of Seeing

I’ve been wearing glasses since I was 3. I don’t even remember getting them. When you’re 3, how do you even know you need glasses? My mom said that my day care teachers said I used to move myself really close during story time to see the pictures. That must have been the first clue.  Glasses have become a part of my life and a part of my body in a sense. Without them, I wouldn’t be able to see anything further than a couple inches from my face. I guess you could say my vision is pretty bad, with my corrective prescription being -14 in each eye, I am pretty nearsighted.

I’ve gone through about 11 different pairs of glasses, getting new ones every couple years. Below is a picture of some of the past ones I’ve worn. The others have been donated to other nearsighted kids! Anyway, this week I am going in for PRK surgery or Photorefractive keratectomy. Basically it’s a laser eye surgery procedure similar to LASEK, but doesn’t have the quick recovery time. The doc says my vision will fluctuate between blurry and blind for a week after surgery, so that’s something to look forward to. Compared to PRK, LASEK’s recovery is usually the next day or so. I wasn’t an ideal candiate for LASEK because I literally didn’t have enough eye for them to laser. PRK has been practiced much longer and more eye doctors prefer this surgery because it’s safer. If you’re wondering… yes I am scared, but at the same time, I can’t imagine the feeling of waking up in the morning and not reaching for my glasses right away. Also… does this mean I need to change my logo? I guess it’ll be like the Bacardi logo at this point…

Bryant Yee Design: Movable Business Card

Recently, I decided that I need a new business card since the existing one is a bit outdated. Helvetica light and glossy finish weren’t doing it for me. I began by reanalyzing the contact information I wanted available and realized that the majority of the content is redundant. BryantYeeDesign appears in almost everything of mine and I felt it was silly to keep repeating it. (ie BryantYeeDesign.com, BryantYeeDesign[at]gmail[dot]com, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) Below are some new concepts I’ve been working on, as well as, different paper stocks I ordered from Neenah Paper. Their Environment line is amazing and I had left over scraps from my senior thesis project.

Reubens Around the World: Landing Page

It seems there’s so much to do before this site is up and running. I don’t know whether I should work on everything at once or work on something in particular for a few days, then change. So far I’ve been dabbling with the former. I’ve just been jotting down ideas in my sketchbook to kick them from my head. I want this site to be super simple, compared to the other Reuben reviewing websites out there. Immediately upon landing on any of the other sites, you can tell they haven’t been updated since the 90′s and the design wasn’t their top priority. They lack a clear hierarchy, typography treatment, color, and grid layout. Below is a mockup of the home page so far. This is the first page visitors will see when they visit my website. The concept behind this page is to look like a traditional deli counter. Since Reubens are thought to have been invented around the 1920′s, I wanted to reflect that through some of the imagery, but at the same time, keep the feel of the website modern. I plan on drawing more objects to sit on top of the counter and possibly apply subtle textures. While working on this home page, I also thought about how the other pages would be laid out. Will this counter graphic appear on every page? I think that will be too much of a visual distraction. If the sub pages look drastically different than the home page, will that be too confusing to go back and forth?

Things that are in the works right now:

• Site Directory (coming soon!)
• Color Palette  almost finalized
• Integrating a custom WordPress theme and CSS
• Learning some PHP and MySQL (still way over my head, but that’s why I’m friends with Lynda)
• Programs I’m working with include Photoshop, Illustrator, TextMate, Sequel Pro, and MAMP

Reubens Around the World: Typography Studies

Let me start off by saying that Reubens are by far, my favorite sandwich. If I was stranded on an island and I could only pick one food, it would probably be a Reuben. Why? Ummm, maybe because they are the perfect combination of delicious and awesome! If you’re unfamiliar with what a Reuben is, it’s normally characterized by corned beef, sauerkraut, swiss cheese, and russian dressing melted between 2 toasted slices of rye bread. Sounds great, right? Lately I’ve also been thinking that I need a web design project added to my graphic design portfolio, so I figured I would make one dedicated to Reuben lovers.

Yesterday I purchased the domain name ReubensAroundTheWorld.com from Bluehost. This website will focus on reviewing Reubens around the world. In addition to coding and designing this website myself, I will also be hooking it up to WordPress as my content managing system. I’m doing it this way because I’m planning on having contributing reviewers from all over and they will need to be able to upload their reviews with ease. I know there are sites out there like this already, but mine will be different. How? well that’s something you’re going to have to find out in my next post!

Anyway, below are different typography studies I’ve been working on.

Concepts that are working so far:

• The idea of combining a typeface that dates back to the 1920′s (when the Reuben is thought to have been created) and a more modern typeface
• The extra tracking in the word W O R L D because it conveys the message of being spread out

I’m not sure how I feel about the stacked wordmarks. I initially positioned them this way because that’s how I’ve been picturing it in my mind. Also, the overall shape is square, which may prove useful later on across different mediums. The next step is developing a pictogram and pushing these type studies in to a collateral identity. My next post will probably be a mood board that expresses the color schemes and graphic feel of the website. Web interface will follow! stay tuned

Pop-up Business Card

I know I haven’t posted in while and that’s because I’ve been applying for full-time positions or working on freelance projects. Anyway, I thought I’d share a personal project I did a while ago. I designed and engineered pop-up business cards in hopes of standing out among the other designers. The cards are standard sized (3.5″ x 2″) and were printed, then aligned to a laser cutter so I could easily mass produce them. I hope you enjoy it and if you’re a talent recruiter checking this out, schedule an in-person interview with me to see what other unique leave behinds I might have in store. Once I get a sweet job, I’ll post them all.