Jahzel Misner - Designer

Wheee! Finished my entry for Drawing Challenge with 1 hour to spare.

This was a true challenge for me, drawing something and knowing that I can’t use Photoshop colouring to make it pretty. I enjoy coloring, so I tend to rush the drawing phase. This results in my drawing skill improving very slowly. I’m going to make a point of doing character sheets every once in a while. Surprisingly, I had a lot of fun drawing this character. One challenge I didn’t expect was making the character look like the same person from different angles. For the next few challenges I would like to continue focusing on facial expressions. Also I must remember to leave enough time to draw clothing.

Media: Painter. (Simulated pencil and smudge stick)
Topic: Galactic Empress. She is the empress of the galactic empire. She sits in her throne, made from the idols of conquered civilizations. Always at her side guarding her life, stand high assassins of the galactic guard. In her hands she carries the scepter of interstellar truth.

Here I go again. Thought this logo design is for my company Something Green, I find designing for myself just as challenging as designing for someone else. For the first set I am playing with concepts that communicate eco-friendly and weddings.

Logo design for a doctor’s office, Richmond Children Counselling.

The printing company finished with our first set of blankets and sent us the samples. They assured me that no simplification of the artwork would be needed, but there was some miscommunication because they did end up reducing the colours to 10. It doesn’t really matter since I am still very pleased with the results.

Note: The second blanket has doors and windows that needs to be cut out and seamed.

My March entry for Drawing Challenge.  My focus for this month was the pose and to have the 4 arms as natural as possible. I used Goro (Mortal Kombat) as a reference. If I had more time I would have spent more time cleaning up the colouring of the pants and the machine parts. My goal for next month is an expressive face.

Media: Painter & Photoshop

1. Pencil drawing in Painter
2. Blocking out colours in Photoshop
3. Shading and detailing. Many new artists get discouraged at the “awkward stage” and stop. Don’t stop! Keep adding layers of details and shading. Each layer will contribute to getting out of the dreaded  awkward stage.

Topic Description:

TANK Year 2075 Tank is the most popular DJ on Earth. He is a cyborg: half machine, half human. He has 2 arms: 2 biological, 2 machine. He is of African American descent. He has a slim figure and an afro hairstyle. His style of music is techno/hip hop. He is Buddist. He has a slight cocky attitude. He is single, but a big player (has lots of groupies).

I was asked to create a concept diagram of the QCDocs Accounts Payable document flow. Above is a sketch by the client. Truthfully.. I only vaguely understand the sketch. Luckily I’m familiar with the software flow, and anything I am unsure about is clarified by asking the client a specific question.

The first question I ask is, “Who is the audience”? The audience is the Accounts Payable clerks for Lululemon, but he would like this diagram to also be used in the QCDocs website.

Concept diagrams are easy and fun. I have 2 goals for this specific diagram.

1. Readability. I increase readability by directing the information into a single downward flow. By doing this I have also created a clear starting and end point.
2. Language. I work on tweaking the language for clarity and consistency. For example, “Fax from Vendor” arrow to “QCDocs”  is too vague. It leaves questions like: How does the fax get into QCDocs? Where in QCDocs does the fax go? This step is changed into actions, “Vendor sends fax” arrow with “Automatic Upload” arrow to “QCDocs Accounting Inbox” (See diagram). I haven’t change the number of elements (process, arrow, process) but the changes in wording has eliminated ambiguity and still keeps things simple.
3. Visual Appearance. Ordinarily I would also be working on the graphic design and making sure the diagram is consistent with the company’s brand. However, I’ve made several diagrams for QCDocs and just grab the colors and shapes from another Illustrator file.

Note: See full size.

Website mockups for 2nd Syndicate. The client’s vision was to have an interface that is clean with rounded edges. He cites the Clarity Accounting website as reference for a website that he likes.

Logo 2 was heavily favored.

I spend less and less time as I progress through each logo set. This set took me 15 minutes. This is my desired process. At this point I want to be refining, rather than redesigning to the point that what the client originally liked is lost. Set 5 shows logo revisions based on user feedback. My thanks to Aaron Ottho, Boris Mann, Brandon Campbell, Chris Wenger, Devin Misner, Francis Steiner, Jerah Regualos, Mike Knapp, and Scott Jamieson for your input.

We have decided on using #22 and to push ahead to website design. I will most likely tweak the logo to best suit the website look that is selected.