Category Design

Mahi Patient Video

pcharbonneau Leave a comment

I am fortunate to enjoy a great collaboration with our videography and PR team at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital. I have been encouraged to explore and learn more video animation and now regularly get brought in on our patient videos to provide intros and transitional slates and animated typography in what has become a seamless process with our videographer Juan.

While we strive to maintain a consistent look and feel from a brand standpoint, there has been a push to customize the patient intros so they more reflect the individual patient and their story. It’s a nice challenge and provides a chance to get creative!

Mahi is a firecracker battling – and winning – her struggle with cerebral palsy. She was born prematurely after her parents were involved in a car accident and her ability to maintain balance and walk has been a priority for her team at All Children’s.

For the intro to her patient video, I wanted to introduce a sense of movement to highlight the strides she’s made which are on display in the video above. The line art animation was a new wrinkle in my AfterEffects repertoire and once again I found myself excited and joyful at learning a new technique.

I fell in love with movies and moving images at a young age and I think personally moving past graphic design as a more static thing into this realm is what is really firing my enjoyment of the process. Vibing with our team as we think through the possibilities is just as important.

Gordon’s Live!

pcharbonneau Leave a comment

On February 8, the Power Records Project streamed a live performance of an original Flash Gordon radio serial from 1935. It was the next step in the evolution of an idea that grew out of my two-week adventure with COVID back in March. Something that started out as an individual endeavor has grown into a fun, creative troupe of seven. After kicking around ideas to expand beyond re-creating old book-and-record adventures, we decided to get goofy and do a live performance on Zoom and streamed through FacebookLive.

From a design standpoint it was fun for me to create some teaser and Zoom background graphics, as well as a short teaser video that allowed me more practice and play time with After Effects and Premiere.

With over 325 views as of this post, we’ve exceeded all of our modest expectations.

Record Store Day 2019

pcharbonneau 1 Comment

RSD2019After providing the Record Store Day poster design last year for local landmark Bananas Records, I was fortunate enough to be asked to work on the 2019 version. Sometimes it helps to be in the know with those in the know.

RSD20192I was given a lot of leeway in terms of direction again this year. Since Bananas doesn’t really have a budget for these things, it’s essentially a pro bono gig. I’m big believer that designers should be compensated for their design. I’m also a big believer in the relationships you form with people and being in position to help out in ways that don’t always result monetary transactions. Let’s just say my vinyl copies of Depeche Mode’s Black Celebration and Simple Minds’ Sister Feelings Call have left me properly compensated. I look at it as a chance to flex my creative brain on projects outside of my job at the hospital. I’ve worked hard in recent years to build relationships that afford me the privilege to work on fun side projects like this.

There are a lot of great designs of past RSD posters and since it’s an international event, that allowed for a treasure trove of ideas to inspire what became the finished design. I liked combining the idea of the vinyl record and its grooves with the orbits of our solar system’s planets. It helped that the lineup at the store consisted of eight acts and a food truck (sorry Pluto, at least you were represented).

RSD20194As with any design exploration, a lot of the fun is coming up with various concepts and then leaving it up to the client to decide which they like best because they always choose your favorite. Excuse me while I turn off my sarcasm alarm. I was really happy with my exploration on this one though and although my personal favorite is the minimalist design utilizing the banana silhouette as the arm of the record player, I was still happy with what Bananas chose.

 

 

 

Hang the DJ

pcharbonneau Leave a comment

hang-the-dj-headerHang the DJ. Wait, hang on a second.

One thing I wanted to accomplish when I moved to St. Petersburg from D.C. was to experience a night at a local bar spinning some of the music that has shaped and influenced my life. I had no equipment, no experience and no idea if anyone in St. Pete even listened to the stuff I’d want to play.

hang-the-dj-60s-solo

Friends helped.

Jen and Genevieve, co-workers at local vinyl shop Bananas Records, asked me to be a part of a three-headed-DJ team and we’ve been doing a monthly Flashback Fridays gig at The Independent Bar for a few months now. We spin all vinyl and we keep it simple and fun. It’s less a dance party and more background music and that suits me fine, although random acts of dancing do occur.

It also gave me a chance to throw down some design ideas for the night’s promo posters.

For our 60s night, I took inspiration from the Quadrophenia film poster since I lean towards the British end of the 60s spectrum (plus, I practically own stock in Ben Sherman). I prefer to keep my design simple and clean, so I liked the bits of blue, red and black on the white background. The type is Helvetica Neue.

Some people love Helvetica and some loathe it. Personally, I love it. I still vividly remember it as part of the New York City Subway maps in the 70s, before I even knew what I was looking at.

I don’t know how long the dj gig will last. The way I look at it, I’ve already surpassed my dream of doing it once. The happiness bonus has been getting the opportunity to channel my love of music into the promo posters. I can’t help but smile when I see them out there in the wild.