jayroop

the first big project i worked on at albertson design was slow food nation, a gathering for the american slow food movement during the summer of 2009 in san francisco. our hands (or mouses) touched every piece of visual communication that was part of the event, from signage to program guides, advertising, invitations to special events, merchandise – everything.

last year our work was featured in communication arts’ 50th design annual for public service and today i finally found a copy of the magazine in the hdk library. it was great to know we got the award, but it is exciting to see it printed in person over 5,000 miles away from where it all went down.

so, to david, kirk, and max whom i worked with, congrats (again) – let’s keep getting allupinthat.biz.

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if you’d like to see all the work we did, you can do so here.

over the past six months i’ve been hard at work on the biggest web project i’ve taken on to date, and today i’m really excited to announce the redesign and relaunch of the swedish (beyond) sustainable design studio, kvarnen studio.

the site has been rebuilt from the ground-up on expression engine, and is a new take for them on how to present their work. from the very start we have reconsidered the purpose of the site, thought about how to get visitors to focus on understanding kvarnen studio’s unique approach to the design process without boring them with oodles of text, and emphasized getting the ‘site’ out of the way to let the work speak for itself.

i’ll provide a more in-depth look at the process and iterations we went through in the next couple of days, but for now i hope you take the chance to look around and see some of their work.

tack, tack – hej då!

despite the designer fantasy of creating big brand logos, high-end boutique packaging, and fancy books, the reality is that keeping the simple things interesting is what makes us tick day-in, day-out.

prior to leaving albertson design in august, i was doing a lot of work with the bardessono hotel / restaurant / spa in napa valley, california. this little project was a membership card for their coffee club – i had fun coming up with this design that incorporated a date stamp and silver metallic ink to make this otherwise simple card have a touch of human hand.

i had a great meeting with staffan @ kvarnen studio this past week.

we’re currently in the process of developing the information architecture for the new website. we are both learning a lot about what the studio does and what image + information is important for it to project through this site relaunch. what started as a very formal assessment of content has turned into a conversation about the larger goals of the studio and subsequently developing ways to help visitors understand their philosophy + working process.

the big breakthrough this week was the creation of a format for each case study to take. the intention is to show the process, personality, and thinking of the studio through the documentation of an entire project – a look into the relationship between kvarnen studio + their clients.

we also came up with an exciting idea for showcasing the final project, but i’ll leave that for another post – it is friday evening and time to get going!

exciting news!

i’ve recently started work on my first job here in sweden designing + developing a website for göteborg’s kvarnen studio. the studio was co-founded by my friend, staffan and is focused on creating high quality design while incorporating a sustainable design process. they are working with everything from eco-friendly coffins to home-built recycling bins made from ikea furniture parts – quite an interesting range!

i’ll be posting updates as this project progresses – my first time to blog an entire project from beginning to end – which will hopefully yield some worthwhile conclusions and documentation about my process. bare with me though as i’m a newbie in this realm!

the logo above was designed by nicklas heltman.