M. Finley Designs» Portfolio

Freehand Futurist

Morgan — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:05:45 +0000

Drawing is the most essential tool in my design process, as I often use pencil and pen sketches in conjunction with design software. I’m a designer that draws… alot, so I wanted to create a website about freehand drawing in the design process. I also love vector illustrations and design resources, so I turned my sketch ideas into digital illustrations. Many of the files are free to download. Freehand Futurist is about bringing tradition (hand drawing) into the modern design process, and with time I hope the site will show people the value of freehand drawing.

Ampersand Project Finish

Morgan — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:01:56 +0000

This was my senior project. It consisted of 24 ampersand designs which I printed in two layers on 5×7 Mr. French paper. Each is printed with transparent ink in two layers, giving the illusion of more than two shades of the color. After completing the prints, I printed a cover wrap using the three colors, and named the collection, “Another & Another & Another &.” This was the largest edition I’ve ever printed, coming in at 30 public copies and 6 artist proofs. I’m selling them for $40 apiece, if you would like to purchase a copy please contact me.

Offroad Marketer

Morgan — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:31:57 +0000

Offroad Marketer is a blog for small and medium business marketing theory and practice. For this site I designed the header, footer, image links and customized the layout and colors. I created the header illustration and the social media icons (including the Creative Commons link) in Adobe Illustrator. This was my second Thesis Theme mod, this time using the full width framework. Thesis is a premium Wordpress theme from DIYthemes.com that comes loaded with features.

TATE Website

Morgan — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:10:03 +0000

The Tulsa Awards for Theatre Excellence, TATE for short, is a not-for-profit organization recognizing outstanding theatre in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I built this website using Wordpress, and the custom theme is adapted from a design by Ruby Whitney.

“Caught In Play” Website Design

Morgan — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:38:42 +0000

This past May and June I was designing and building the website for Peter Stromberg’s new book, Caught In Play: How Entertainment Works on You . The book was designed by Stanford University Press, and served as the launching point for the design of the website, and I designed the site to be consistent with the book and it’s visual presentation.

Beyond visual design, it was important that I give Peter a flexible solution— a website that can grow and change as he develops content. Wordpress was the immediate choice, as it gives Peter complete control over his content, and the power to engage with his audience through blogging and commenting. It was also very quick to design and implement using the Thesis Theme from DIY Themes.

Along with caughtinplay.com, Peter currently writes the blog “Sex, Drugs and Boredom” for Psychology Today.

Mannequin

Morgan — Wed, 27 May 2009 19:43:40 +0000

This is a screen print I made this past semester, my second screen print to be exact. The image is based off Gary Numan’s first album cover, Replicas. With this print I was experimenting with using screen-filler for color reduction, the white and green layers, with a black layer on top. The design is simple and serves this kind of technique well, and I feel that is what makes the image work. I’m most proud of the colors I used and the graphic style I gave the original image.

ChoicePay Web Internship

Morgan — Tue, 26 May 2009 21:05:32 +0000

From May of 2008 to January of 2009, I was a web and marketing intern at ChoicePay Inc., an electronic payment service. I was brought on to aid both the marketing department and their web developers. The marketing side of this job required me to work with existing design resources and to create new resources such as email templates and marketing materials. The web development side of this internship required extensive use of HTML and CSS to clean up both the code and design of ChoicePay’s existing web pages and payment systems. The developers and programers on staff taught me a lot about web development procedures and practices, from development to implementation, and even some handy tools and techniques.

While I was at ChoicePay Inc. I also redesigned their website, www.choicepay.com, using strict HTML and CSS. Unfortunately, ChoicePay Inc. was bought by Tier Technologies before my site design could be implemented. Still, my time there was highly valuable for the skills and experience I gained.

NEPI Logo and Identity

Morgan — Tue, 26 May 2009 19:14:23 +0000

The National Energy Policy Institute (NEPI) came to Third Floor looking for a logo and identity design that communicated their mission and goals. In designing this logo I wanted to make clear what NEPI is all about— energy. Furthermore, I wanted this logo to look to the future, so I wanted to show clean energy sources. First I created the energy icons for gas, water, wind and solar energy; which can be used in collateral designs. Next I designed the acronym, NEPI, to be earthy and bold. Last, I combined the elements. I also took the acronym without the symbols and created a repeating pattern, which I used in my letterhead design. Unfortunately, this logo was not chosen, but I am still very happy with my use of color and shape.

Gussman 41

Morgan — Tue, 26 May 2009 17:24:04 +0000

Every year the University of Tulsa art department hosts the Gussman student juried art show. This year was the 41st annual Gussman, and as usual, the post card and t-shirt design was left to Third Floor Designs. The concept and design for this was completely open; the only requirements were that we submit a post card design that could be adapted into a two-color screenprint.

Although I was only required to pitch one concept, I pitched two. Both of my concepts are similar in their arrangement and colors, but different in their typography and style. I started this in my sketchbook with hand-drawn type, and adapted that into my first concept. Although I loved this design, I felt the typography deserved further exploration, so I redesigned my concept using modern type and a textured overlay. Everybody in Third Floor liked my second concept the best, although I am still most proud of my first design.

Summerstage 2009

Morgan — Tue, 26 May 2009 07:29:15 +0000

Every year Tulsa Performing Arts Center asks TU and Third Floor to create a visual concept for their annual Summer Stage concert series. The other Third Floor students and myself were asked to pitch a poster that could be used in multiple formats— from the actual poster to hotel room keys. I worked on two initial conepts for this project, but they did not work as well as I would have liked, so I made this design my third poster concept. The poster is based off an outdoor theatre in Greece, and is entirely vector and scalable for easy formating. Unfortunately, the board did not choose my poster, although the director said it was a favorite.