Travis Gobeil - Graphic Designer | 613-614-6497

Detective Comics Comics’ New Logo

Travis — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 02:37:18 +0000

It has always bothered me that “DC Comics”…since the “C” stands for “Comics”. Their swoosh-tastic re-design in 2005 was kind of a sore point for designers everywhere, as it took a well-known logo and gave it a cliché style. Today they “unleashed” a new logo that gets rid of the stars that have been part of the logo since the 70′s.

I think the concept is sort of a “folded page” in the 3D style that’s been popular for a couple years now. It’s actually more of what I’d call a “playful mark” – it takes on various colour/design combinations that mimic their comic characters. It can be either a Green Lantern-ized version, or an Iron Man-ized, and I can’t tell which one is the Batman one.

The way they use the C as a counter-space to put images is really nice. The “D page” opens up to reveal a “C window” through which you can view awesomeness. It’s nice.

While the logo itself is kind of bland, this is the first attempt DC has made to create a logo that actually “felt” like a comic book. Using colour to convey individual characters is a really nice touch, and I kind of want to see a whole book of just the characterized logo.

Good signs for 2012?

Travis — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 20:23:28 +0000

Last year was a great year both professionally and personally. My first full year as a self-employed Man of Action! Okay. Man of Design? I was surprisingly busy! I suppose this is a good problem to have. I saw my business grow from a few small clients into several medium and even a couple large sized clients! When I was able to come up from the basement I saw growth of a little tiny baby into a walking, babbling toddler!

Now on to 2012. As I have been working in the Design field for over a decade (has it been that long since I graduated? no wonder I am starting to see grey in my beard…), I have access to a whole host of suppliers for things like printing, promotional products, and even developers. I have several “levels” of each. I have a small printer that only does one type of cards (the super-awesome 16pt with the Matte Varnish and SpotUV Gloss *aaaauuuuuggghhhh*), right up to a large format printer who will literally put your logo or messaging anywhere, on anything.

Then there’s my “Vinyl Guy*” I was all happy to have a guy who would do on-demand signage for my clients. He was super nice, too! Didn’t take my money, told me to pay him back with gratis web work. Work for trade? Hells yes, buddy! But then, all of a sudden, too busy to return my calls! I was all cut up about it. I owe him!

Since 2012 is all about new beginnings (unless you are Mayan) and so I have decided to take matters into my own hands! I had one years ago as an in-house designer. I made signs, car decals and a whole bunch of types of signage. It was kind of fun! So I figured why not just go for it. Yes, I have eBay’d myself a vinyl cutter. A nice big one, too! Now I can do all sorts of different things, from little logos to huge signs! This is going to add a whole new element of fun to client relationships!

It’s my goal to be able to provide a well-rounded list of products and services to clients, so they can get a full-service approach from just one source and not have to pay a whole Agency! Branding, Web Design, Print Design, Promotional Products…and now Vinyl! Let’s all have a fun and well-designed 2012!

“It even has a watermark”

Travis — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 02:55:52 +0000

So in order of what I want to do it pretty much goes like this:

Sleep
Eat
Play with Son
Love Wife
Shoot Zombies (digital ones…)
Client Work
Prep Classes
Take Care of Son (dirty diapers, hold while screaming, etc)
Clean House
—-
Watch that scene from American Psycho again
Work on self promo projects
Update my own website
Clean the Garage

Everything below that line? Yeah I have no energy for those things. Looking at this list, I could also add “make more charts” near the top of the list, but it’s an obvious casualty of this thing we call “Living with a One-Year Old”.

I have added several new portfolio items, and I will be updating more projects with new items this week! I am always amazed to see how good business cards can look when printed on 16pt card with both matte AND gloss varnishes.

I have also been happily busy doing many wonderful web works for a diverse set of clients! One international domain name exchange, another nutrition bar made right here in Ottawa. I’m also looking forward to a few upcoming projects that I hope to announce shortly! Perhaps I’ll even update this site once in a while when these wonderful things happen!

Goals for the next month include more networking! As it gets darker days I like to spend some evenings socializing with like-minded individuals! The problem with Freelancers all meeting in one places is obvious, and yes, we can fight like ninja masters once we get our hands on a Pica Ruler!

And they said it would never happen

Travis — Mon, 23 May 2011 01:25:51 +0000

I have been trying to get a more comprehensive web portfolio online for at least the past six months. The prospect of conceptualizing, designing, writing and coding an entire site isn’t all that daunting for me, except when it’s my site in my spare time.

Of course this “spare time” never seems to materialize, and when it does the last thing I want to do is more web design!

I found myself with a very small window of opportunity (well, one evening, actually) so I decided to just giv’er and see how far I could get. Rather than starting from absolute scratch, I went out and bought “Cinch”, a premium theme from Theme Forest. By doing this I easily cut 20 hours of design, coding and development. It brought me from absolute zero to almost 80% complete with a few clicks of the mouse.

Of course I didn’t want to just use the stock theme as is; there was much customizing to be done. I loosely applied my “branding” (read: I don’t want to print new business cards) and a couple small spacing changes (I thought the theme had way too much vertical spacing) and *POOF!*, website.

So far I’ve updated most of the look and feel, created a few portfolio pieces to link to, and written this here blog post. Not bad for a few hours work, eh? If I hadn’t gone the premium theme route I’d still be playing around in Photoshop Layer Hell. Small investment, massive improvement.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a lot of writing to do!