Hello Gas Bloggers! I decided to write about typeface for this entry because I was inspired by a particular book here in our office called, Hand Job: A Catalog of Type, by Michael Perry. Hands down, it is one of the most inspiring books here. If you aren’t sold by his witty descriptions of god-like impressions of doodling type, then the sketches themselves will hook you in.
I want you—yes, YOU—the guy who stumbled upon this site, the girl who was doing research on this team, or the bored dude over there who wanted to see if anyone actually updated this blog, yes—I see you. I want all of you to grab a blank sheet of paper, and just start doodling out your name in any font, design, or form that you see fit. Try and create your own typeface.
What I’d like to get out of Perry’s collection is to think about what style actually compliments my overall design rather than what looks okay or is adequate. Sure, there is a substantial amount of amiable typefaces that are available online (most even free), but what about the satisfaction one gets from completing a design with one’s own typeface? It must be amazing.
So that’s my goal for future projects: to sit and design my own complementing typefaces. Won’t you share yours?
-Tarek
And so here we are: graduation. As a staff writer/editor, I probably should have spent more time posting on this thing, but what can I say? I was otherwise preoccupied.
But I sit here now, thinking about my time inside these four walls. All the discussions, the projects, the highs and the lows. That time Jeff made us spend half a meeting (about 30 minutes) brainstorming taglines for the Rec Center project.
I made my mark here inside Gas Creative Group, and in 4 days I’ll be leaving Cal Poly Pomona, and Gas, for the last time as an undergrad.
So what does it mean to be a Gas Alumna? I came into Gas fresh-faced, eager to learn, and nervous about what lay ahead of me. Now I am more experienced, equipped with some great friends, and still nervous about what lies ahead of me. Some things don’t change.
The people are what make Gas Creative Group what it is. We produce great work because there are awesome individuals working to create it, and that is the legacy of this little mini-marketing agency inside the BSC. I have no warnings for those who come here, just some simple words of advice: keep your mind open. Explore all the options and think about the possibilities.
You’ll do fine.
Leny Evangelista won the Sole Search Design Contest put on by AIGA Los Angeles and TOMS Shoes. This is a great thing for anyone to win, but we are extra thrilled because Leny paid her dues here as a graphic designer at Gas Creative Group, and she is an alumna of Cal Poly Pomona.
Her shoe design will be replicated and sold by TOMS shoes in the near future, so you can own one of her beautifully-adorned kicks sometime soon. The cherry on top? TOMS shoes donates a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair of shoes they sell. Booyah.
Congrats again to Leny, for making Gas (and feet) look good.
See for your self: http://aigalosangeles.org/features/2008/05/toms-shoe-designs.php
I’ve been working for Gas Creative Group for almost a year now as the Web Developer and let me tell you how embarrassing it has been not having a website of our own being the person responsible for building the site. We are a Student Powered™ organization which means we spend the time we have focused on our clients needs so we have always been put our own marketing on the back burner. But finally we are getting it done. Some point in the near future (though if you’re reading this it most likely have already been launched by now), and it I’m proud of the outcome.
The process has taught me a lot though about how hard it can be from the client side of the project to express your vision for your own message. As a marketing firm we of course want to put our best foot forward, but knowing that our website will be the first impression that potential clients will see it really can be nerve racking. As a team we have put a lot of collective thought and creativity into this project and we are finally so close to reaching of actually having are own website.
Its been a long process that has seen 5 completely new designs, countless hours of meetings and conversations about the smallest of details. We take for granted when working with our clients we get to allow them to make the ultimate choice on details which can be an extremely difficult part of any project. Though we are making decisions throughout all the projects we work on we make them so much more certainly and trust our experience to guide us then when working on are own identity. I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that not only do we want to do our brand justice but the fact that the work done with it is also part of our body of work. Even given that combination of factors I am proud of the outcome and hope people able to get a better impression of what Gas Creative is.
Don’t mind me as I welcome everyone, including myself, to Gas Creative Group’s first blog and one of the first entries here that isn’t mostly dummy text about our Cal Poly Pomona Recreation Center campaign.
Now that we are past that, let’s talk about the Rec Center campaign! By far one of the most extensive campaigns we have produced, we are very happy with what we have done and what we have learned from the campaign so far. We now have experience designing with sustainability in mind, and have made the switch to using FSC Certified Mixed Sources paper for most of our printing.
That’s right, a growing river of green flows underneath all of this orange and gray. More exciting things (than this) will be coming on this blog so stay tuned.
The Refinery