Cannes - A - City!

It's that time again. That time when I feel the urge to update my blog on what's been going on in my life lately, design wise.

On June 20th, the Dice team over at Barkley got notified we won a Bronze Lion at this years Cannes Lions Festival. This is such a huge accomplishment for the Dice.com team as well as Barkley too. The project we entered was the Dice "Code Talkers" Outdoor campaign which consisted of billboards, bus posters (both inside and out), and bumper stickers. The concept behind this campaign was to create billboards that tech people understood, geek speak or code talkers. Tech people have their own culture and their own language (well multiple languages), and so we decided to create billboards written in code to speak to those users who can understand them.  Three distinct areas were targeted, Dallas (AT&T), Seattle (Microsoft) and San Francisco (Google).

 

Another recent thing that has happened was the release of a Starbucks tumbler design I created in time for the whole All Star game craze! Basically, Starbucks currently doesn't have any Kansas City pride within their stores. No city mugs, no city tumblers, or even barista bears! Those of you who are avid Starbucks goers are familiar with that of which I am referring to. So, in an attempt to change that, I was asked to design a concept that would run in stores during the All Star game activities. It is said that Kansas City is suppose to be expecting thousands of tourists for this event, and we wanted to take advantage of that. In my attempt to capture Kansas City, I would say there's a little bit of something for everyone. I wanted to illustrate the link between Kansas and Missouri, and also wanted this to be an experience. An I-Spy experience or "Where's Waldo?" kind of experience. I also wanted the design to be seamless between the paper break, so there are many elements that are free flowing around the mug. As for the color palette, I wanted to reflect the warm, inviting, helpful nature of Kansas City that I experienced when I moved here.

I am so thankful for each of these very different experiences. I hope these tumblers do well in sales and that there will be more creative opportunities to come!

I'm Featured!

So I haven't blogged in a while, and I feel like now's a good a time as any to write a new post. I'm still a little late on blogging this information, but oh well. On Sunday, February 26, 2012, I was notified that I was featured on the website Branding Served, and on Monday, February 27, 2012, I was notified that I was featured on a UK website blog called Design Defined. Two days in a row! I was featured twice, one day after another! Man, that blew my mind, and of course made my week a whole lot better. I'll be honest and say I haven't really visited either site, so their existence to me was not known at all. Branding Served basically features great work coming from the Behance Network, and I think that is also how Design Defined found me also, but I'm not posititve.

Even before these two amazing moments happened, I would honestly have to say that I've been extremely motivated as a designer. The whole notion of being out of school, working for Barkley, obtaining emails from people who I don't know who have been referred to me. It's all been pretty great. 2012 is going to be a great year for me, and this is proof. I have not lost my momentum for creating, and I'm so thankful for that, yet there's still not enough hours in the day to do everything I want to do.

That is all for now. Hopefully more to come in the future.

Designville

Welcome to Designville from Lance Flores on Vimeo.

Mo and I worked together to create Designville for the Senior Show Shoooooootout. Our design was based around emphasizing the fact that we as a senior class are very much like a little community. There are no clicks or groups of people, we all sort of get along with each other and help each other out. Thanks to Micah Barta for the name, that was threw around last semester, we decided to actually brand Designville. . . and this is what we came up with. The idea behind our design was to exemplify a friendly, approachable feel, while utilizing visual puns to create a skyline to our "designville". Below are some examples of our iterations.

Application to Barkley

This past Friday (FEB 25th) I decided to apply to Barkley. I've been thinking a lot lately about post graduation plans, and I need to start actively applying. I ended up applying for both the mentorship this summer as well a job, so we'll see what happens. Wish me luck!

This was my submission to Barkley for their "design for a cause assignment" which was extra to the resume and portfolio submission. I decided I liked my unity solution for the poster clash that I decided to use in for the campaign advocating community. COMMUNITY is a campaign of simply that, community. Belong- ing to a community can be somewhat of an easy task, whether it’s geography based or by common interests, but it takes you as an individual to embrace that community and take action. The idea behind this campaign is that it would encourage indi- viduals to be active in their community, both the ones they live in and the ones they are involved with. Through this action, the community can progress together as one.

Poster Clash

On the 24th of February, I submitted two posters to the poster clash competition through AIGA. The theme this year was Unity, and below are two different solutions I came up with to represent unity.
The first solution is a very illustrative amalgamation of forms that intertwine into each other. The word unity is also semi hidden within the composition. Overall, I for sure know I could have filled the space in a more visually pleasing manner, however I was battling the deadline!



The second solution is really simple and relies on the visual representation of the word unity. The "u" represents you as a person uniting with others or in this case, the "n". The supporting text reads "together as one".

RSA Animate: Changing Education Paradigms

This is a sweet video a friend sent me. Not only is the information cool, but there are some cool illustrations throughout. Check it out. You might have to click on it to the youtube page to see the whole thing.

It's 70 Degrees Underneath Kansas City

This past Saturday (Feb 5th) I helped out a film student with one of his shoots. It involved wearing all black (which I do most of the time already), looking semi tired or dead , and going down under to the caves where the temperature was so naturally warmer than up above. I got some free soda, a water, a couple twinkies and even those oatmeal cream pie thingy's. It was a good time. Anyway, just wanted to share some shots of what it looks like down there.

Pro Practice: Bio & Resume

BIO
I am a friend, a brother and an uncle, a likable guy, a coffee enthusiast, somewhat of a hoarder, and with six ethnic backgrounds I am sometimes even called a mutt, but wait just a minute, I am even a graphic designer. I am am the type of person who appreciates the modnar (that's random spelled backwards). After relocating to the Kansas City Art Institute in 2009 from Pikes Peak Community College in Colorado Springs, Colorado, I have emerged into an experienced and enthusiastic designer. I desire to combine my passion for illustration with my passion for design. My interests pertain to branding development, social change and advocacy, hand generated typography, book and magazine design, and even motion work.

RESUME

My life in the long run

My professor at my previous college once told me, "Lance, you're more than just coffee." I have worked for Starbucks for more than four years now, and it's really been tough to let go. This "job" has turned out to be a constant giving machine. It helped me get out of my shell (if you think I'm a quiet person now, you should have seen me before), it gave me coffee a free pound of coffee every week that I never drank, it helped me network to get my first ever internship with a small graphic design firm, it gave me an opportunity to illustrate chalkboards, it gave me furniture for my apartment, and the list just goes on. It's been hard to give up something that has turned out to be so rewarding. For a couple of years now, I have been saying that I wouldn't mind designing somehow within Starbucks, and it's still true. I wouldn't be totally against it. Plus, there are travel opportunities that come with it, and I would love that just as much.

Being a little more realistic I guess, I would like to stay local for a couple of years and work for a design agency, firm, house, boutique. I can see myself working for a couple of different places, though I'm not entirely sure I would be a good fit. I like the idea of working for Hallmark or Barkley, and though VML and Liquid 9 are more interactive/web based, I can see myself gaining a lot of experience and practice from either of those places. I'm not sure. I do know, I am not opposed to moving. The more of this world I can see, the better, and if graphic design is the way I will get to do it, ideal! I'm also liking the idea of doing more advocacy work. The Rosedale project was just the tip of the berg, but it was really great helping a community in need. I will need to research a little more into firms that do advocacy work.

AIGA KC | REACH OUT & READ

I somehow found time to quickly put together a poster to submit to the Reach Out & Read Poster Competition that AIGA KC was running. The concept behind the poster for children to READ, and by doing so, they are attacking illiteracy. The letter forming the word "read" are all from different perspectives and different angles displayed with the tag line "Attack illiteracy from all angles". Below is a close up.

GAP: WHAT ARE YOU DOING???

An article about the random logo switch by GAP and how it's referenced to old school Windows Clipart! This is going to hurt their street CRED!

KC STAR!

Our Kauffman Center Mural Painting has made it into the KC STAR! Check out the article HERE!

I'm sitting in a chair in the backroom of my Starbucks on break. I'm sipping on a delicious Passion Iced Tea Apple Juice (because we were out of lemonade), and I'm rummaging through the KC STAR. I remembered the guy who came to "take notes" about a week and a half ago...and have been checking the paper everyday since (just about). Finally, I stumble upon a page with the Kauffman Center of Performing Arts on the front with CEO Jane Chu. I thought to myself, "This has to be the issue! This has to be the issue with our story!" And well it was. Immediately at that moment, my break was over. Sad, I know. My texting skills throughout the past few years have prepared me for a moment like this to happen. I quickly grab my phone, switch it to T9 and all caps and write "GRAB A STAR...WERE IN TODAY'S ISSUE! PASS THE WORD!" I sent it to the 7 mural kids who were on my most recent list. Then, you guessed it...back to work.

Here are a couple more related articles that came out recently also.

Building Relationships
About Glass Panels
Aretha Franklin
Richard Harriman
Letters

Patterns

Chalkboards

HELLO SUMMER!

Life at the bucks is still in motion. Check out the new chalkboards!

COMMERICAL JOURNAL

Congratulations Kids!
Here is our first photo which is currently the cover of the Commercial Journal. Hopefully we all grab one soon, and if anyone is interested in a digital copy also. Download the PDF of the Commercial Journal issue here at KCB Central. Just go to Library—Commerical Journal—2010—JUNE/JULY to download. Enjoy!

I'm extremely excited to be a part of this project! The experience, the long process this has been, and the people I have met has all been worth it! By the time I graduate, the Kauffman Center of Performing Arts should be open soon after!

THE MATTER FACTORY

Below are some logo ideas I started working on for Andy. Beginning stages completely still. I think I'm going to meet with him on Monday and we're going to talk a little about progress.