View this photoset on flickr.

Just before winter break, five designers including myself put up a show in the College of DuPage Wings Gallery (located on the first floor of the SRC) called "Insight." Each of us created a poster that posed a question, and in front of each poster was a podium with a pad of paper and a slot into which anyone could drop their answers. Now that school is back from break, we've taken the answers and created books full of our interpretations of the answers.

The question I asked was "How can I be happy everyday?" This is an important question to me because I always feel driven to discover new things and seek out new experiences in life, and I enjoy discussing somewhat philosophical ideas that have real-world applications in everyday use. I felt that this question would also open up the audience's answers to a wide range of interesting and personal prescriptions that would also reflect their own lifestyle choices.

This was a very important and personal question to me, so I chose to create a self-portrait. This also helped draw in people, as I hoped all of my student friends and coworkers at the school would be ensnared by the familiar sight of my big dorky glasses and beard staring out at them from the gallery. When you get close to the poster, however, the portrait dissolves into a series of colored squares that make up a calendar of 2010. My hope was that this would facilitate some real thinking as people walked up to the podium and considered, what do we do every day that makes us who we are?



As a graphic designer, I spend a lot of time in front of a computer, and my work usually winds up passing through or being created entirely in one piece of software or another by Adobe. This is fine, it's certainly faster than the process used to be before everyone had a glowing icon of an apple in their laps. Recently, though, I've felt that there's a limitation in using this software, and I've seen a lot of homogenization in the design community's collective work. Our teachers demand that we do all of our concept work with paper and pencil, and then we can move to the computer to create the finished version, but I wanted to explore an avenue that had as little to do with the computer as possible.





I like to try new things (which usually means things I'm not very good at), but the answers I received seemed to justify, even encourage this stepping outside my comfort zone. For the answer book, I combined two things I have little to no talent for: origami and calligraphy. I folded sixteen original designs from single sheets of origami paper, wrote the answers on them with a somewhat uncooperative calligraphic fountain pen, and photographed the resulting works against various textures in and around the school. We printed them out, bound them, and voila! "Analog" graphic design.

Thanks to the contributors of answers to our show, you really blew my expectations out of the water and gave me some great words to chew over. I hope the answer book gives you something to think about as well. Thanks also to Grace Blevins, Chris Walker, Jake Albaugh, and Ogi for inviting me to be part of this inspiring show.

If you'd like to see the show in person, it should be up in the Wings Gallery at the College of DuPage's SRC building at least through the rest of January.

Labels: design, illustration

Watch this video on YouTube.

This is a quick 30 second spot for the College of Dupage Library's Digital Commons service. I've worked out a new logo and identity that involves a network of interconnected dots as a graphic element. The dots can also be animated, as seen in the video.

Labels: design, video

Those kooky guys at Hix Bros. music put together an awesome Christmas album, and they're giving the profits to Mutual Ground, which provides services in southern Kane County and Kendall County for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. Plus, it's full of good 'ol rockin' holiday cheer, and the cover is by Tina and me! So order a copy straight from the Hix Bros. or from CD baby, and feel good about donating to a good cause this holiday season.

Labels: bloggy, design, illustration

For this logo design, I envisioned a television channel for makers, crafters, hackers, inventors, and anybody who's ever taken something apart.



It's called "Great Scott!" or GS for short. The logo is a custom typographic treatment of the initials GS. The letters have been woven together to suggest the tangle that these creative tinkerers often make with their materials.



I've drawn storyboards for station identification spots that display the logo in the environment of the subjects it covers.



We will be sending these storyboards to the animation students so they can create the actual spots, but I will be creating my own when I find the time.

Labels: design

Today was the second annual Shred Day at First National Bank of Naperville. I created a series of ads to run in the local papers, and they were apparently extremely effective. At 9am, we had two lines of cars snaking through the bank parking lot, and a line around the block on top of that. We reached the on-site shredding truck's capacity of 10,000 pounds of paper at 11am, leaving us in kind of an awkward situation for the last hour of the event. We worked out a system to transport the remaining material to the shredding facility.

I'm told that we took in about 600 pounds of food and a healthy sum of money in donations to Loaves & Fishes. This makes me especially glad as a designer, because this new aspect of the event was promoted solely through the ads I designed. It feels great to see an effective design facilitate so much goodwill.

It was a crazy day, and despite the problems we ran into, Shred Day '09 was absolutely a success. All that shredded material gets recycled, and the whole thing is a great big hug to the environment. Thanks to everyone who came out to shred and donate, and thanks for those who expressed understanding when we filled up the truck.

Labels: bloggy, design

View these photos on Flickr.

Here is a closer look at my final project for 3D design class. The interesting thing abou this form is how it seems to change depending on the angle you look at it. The video didn't capture that, so I hope these pictures get the idea across.

Previously.

Labels: design

Watch this video on Vimeo or YouTube.

Thursday night was Portfolio Night at the College of DuPage. All the graphic design students submitted their best work to be shown, and the portfolio students competed to be the best of the best. It was incredible to walk around and see everyone's work. Multiple times during the night, I had to hunt down people and berate them for not telling me they were doing such brilliant work. The night was full of surprises, and it was a wonderful way to end the year.

This has been the best year of school I've ever had, and I'd like to thank my teachers and classmates for making everything so fun and exciting. The amount of talent that surrounds me every day is staggering. You have changed school from something I used to dread into something I now love. You've changed my life.

Thanks.

Labels: bloggy, design, illustration, video

Watch this video on Vimeo.

My friend Jake and I finished our final projects in 3D class today. Mine was inspired by sine waves, and looks like some kind of futuristic chapel. Jake's is a series of interlocking octagons that fits perfectly within a cube.

This marks the end of my first year of design school. I'm not going to get all reflective on you yet, there are still some projects I haven't posted, and I plan on doing some video coverage of Portfolio Night tonight. All the hard work is done now, though, and it feels good to have survived the year.

Related.

Labels: design, video

Watch this video on Vimeo or YouTube.

Treasure Hunt is an Egyptian themed board game I created with four other super talented design students at the College of DuPage. Eve, Kevin, Matt, and Blair put so much of their talent to work on this thing, and it not only looks great, it's also really fun to play. Thanks for making this my favorite project of the year, guys.

(Also, thanks to Mr. Blevins for assigning this thing in the first place. It's the weird challenges like this that make design school interesting.)

Labels: design, illustration, video

Watch this video on Vimeo or YouTube

Thanks to everyone who came to the opening of FACE VALUE last night! If you didn't get a chance to swing by, I made this little video to give you an idea. The show will be up for a month in the Wings Gallery, which is located on the first floor of the Student Resource Center at the College of DuPage. The open gallery times are a little goofy, and I'm not really sure what they are, but I will update this post when I find out.

All the glory should go to Kristin Schlottman, Chris Walker, Grace Blevins, Jake Albaugh, Erika Swanson, Heather Shaw, and Dan McDarrah for all their hard work on this show. You guys have incredible talent, and I feel so lucky to have worked with you on this project.

Labels: bloggy, design, video

Some fun retro/geometric/grungy illustrations representing the bookstore, cafeteria, and library at the College of DuPage.

Labels: design, illustration

Face Value is a typography show at the College of DuPage that I have been invited to participate in. This is just a sneak peek at one of the neat things we've been working on. The show opens on April 13th at 7pm in the Wings Gallery in COD, so plan on stopping by and seeing some fun stuff.

Labels: bloggy, design

These were done for Digital Illustration class. The project was to create a series of icons representing different parts of the Student Resource Center at the College of DuPage.

Labels: design, illustration

Here is a version of my Helvetica VS Arial poster that you can use with those blue and yellow 3D glasses from the superbowl. Click here for a bigger version. You can put them on your face and close an eye to see each font, or you can hold the lenses up to your screen. One eye will see Helvetica, and the other will see Arial. Neat, huh?

Labels: design

Some typographic experiments done for school, including a little tribute to everyone's favorite typeface. And I'll throw in this shirt, just for kicks:



I've got a really cool project in the works right now, but I don't wanna give away too much about it yet. Stay tuned.

Labels: design

School's started up again, and though I don't have much to show you, there are several projects underway. Here are some letters the AIGA asked me to paint for them. They will be part of a larger display at COD later.

Labels: design, illustration

My final assignment for advertising class was to create some kind of self-promotional gimmick. My idea was to package a sponge to highlight my incredible learning power. Dorky, I know. Here is the text that appears on the back:

Hello. My name is Dave Jacob Hoffman, and I am like a sponge. When I say that I am like a sponge, I am not referring to any particular physical attributes I possess, no matter how soft or porous they may be, nor am I referring to any square pants that I may own. I speak only of my incredible thirst for knowledge; my desire to soak up all information within my reach. This thirst stems from a great passion for art and design, an uncontrollable compulsion to create beautiful and useful things. For proof of this fact, you need only go to DAVEMAKES.COM

Here's a tip I wish I'd known before this morning: Sponges are packaged wet to keep them fluffy and bendy. If you take one out of its plastic wrapping and measure it for your own packaging, keep in mind that if you let it dry out overnight, the sponge will shrink a significant amount. You will either have to adjust your design, or dampen the sponge and hope it doesn't destroy the paper wrapper you've made before class is over.

Labels: design

My goal with this poster was to use the slick marketing of the Coca-Cola company against soft drinks as a whole by increasing awareness of the health hazards that result from overuse. Type 2 diabetes used to be called "adult diabetes" until recently because children are now being diagnosed with it. Diabetes and obesity have become epidemics in this country, and one of the contributing factors is the overuse of soft drinks. Clever advertising has tricked people into believing that it is acceptable to ingest these sugary drinks every day, if not multiple times a day. People think of them as "refreshments" instead of liquid candy, and they choose to ignore the huge amounts of sugar (or mysterious chemicals, if it is diet cola) they are drinking. I won't go into what all that sugar, caffeine, acid, and carbonation will do to your body here, but the information is out there for you to look up.

I'll get off my soapbox now. Just take care of yourselves.

Labels: design, illustration

I just read this article about Barack Obama's response to an 8-year-old's letter, and I liked this quote so much I threw together this wallpaper.

There is also a 1280x800 version, which is the one I'm using on my macbook.


"Look out for other people, even when it does not directly benefit you; strive to make a difference everywhere you go; and get back up every time you are knocked down."

Labels: design

Here are some chunky little Dave Makes logos I've been playing with recently. I think they're kind of cool in an ugly way.

Labels: design

These icons were done as part of a "photosymplification" project for school. The idea was to create two examples that could easily be part of a series. I chose musical instruments as a theme, envisioning signage or labeling in a music store as the application for these designs.

Labels: design, illustration

This is an assignment for school in which I had to make a self-portrait entirely from type that has been sized, rotated, or flipped, but not stretched or distorted. The foreground is mostly sans-serif fonts, while the background texture is comprised of a jumble of serif fonts.

I have a bit of an advantage on these self-portrait projects since anything with big square glasses and a beard looks like me.

Labels: design, illustration

This is the logo I did for First National Bank of Naperville's Coins 4 Cans event.

Labels: design

These little ghoulies are part of an ad I did promoting SafetyTown's Halloween Trick-or-Treat in Naperville.

Labels: design, illustration

Here's a challenge:

If this was an album cover, what would the name of the band/album be?

Current submissions:

"Even Fish Can Drown" by Lightning-Fast Stardust Superstar - Submitted by Tina

"Flashfreeze" by The Taxidermists - Submitted by Kari

Labels: bloggy, design, illustration