Jack Maize

Portfolio

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New Work: My First eBook

I love projects that turn out to be a learning experience. Before starting this project, I had no prior knowledge about digital publishing. Thanks to the internet, I picked it up fairly quickly. I'm pretty happy with the results in that I designed and coded this eBook in two weeks along with Ali Albiani.

Digital publishing is an interesting area. It is still young and could use some work. What's neat is that ePub, the standard format for digital publishing, is built with HTML and CSS. An ePub file is essentially a miniature website but with a lot of limitations. For instance, an ePub file reads content in a continuous flow. It doesn't know how to read content from left to right, only top to bottom. This is where things like anchors in InDesign come in handy.

It's a tricky area that requires a lot of tweaking and adjusting to get things right but is definitely an area that will progress into the future.

SEE THE FULL PROJECT

DOWNLOAD THE EBOOK

– Jack

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New Work: Redesigning a Mark

Proposed redesign of the Victoria's Secret logotype. This was for my Typography III class in which we were assigned a specific mark to be redesigned. The logo had to consist mainly of type. My solution was to bring personality and style to the preexisting mark. This was my first time creating a script which was really challenging but extremely fun. View the full project

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New Work: Design Seminar Poster

First project for my Typography III class. This would be a sweet seminar!

View this project in my portfolio

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Hello SF!

I just got back from my first trip to San Francisco which turned out to be an unbelieveable experience.

The trip was for two events planned by the AIGA chapter at Cal Poly, which I will be VP for next year. The first event was our annual design studio tours that we do in LA and SF. My friend Lindsey, who is membership officer of the chapter, was able to line up some incredible studios for us to visit. My group and I got to visit Moving Brands, Title Case (Jessica Hische and Erik Marinovich’s side project), Landor and Lux Design. These companies and people within them have been a huge inspiration to me, so it was just unreal meeting them in person. I never thought I’d be sitting next to Jessica Hische talking over cake and donuts, whoa!

It gets better. The next event was AIGA SF’s Portfolio Day which was held at California College of the Arts. This is one of the biggest events AIGA puts on for us students because it is our chance to have our portfolios critiqued by leaders in the graphic design field. I was fortunate enough to talk one–on–one and have my portfolio reviewed by two of my biggest design idols, Rob Duncan of Dowling | Duncan and Tom Crabtree of Manual. I also was able to have a lead designer from Turner Duckworth be one of my reviewers. The feedback I got was both eye opening and motivational and is something that is really going to benefit my portfolio. Brand identity development is an area I really have acquired a passion for, so it was so great talking to leaders in this area. On top of that, Rob Duncan and Tom Crabtree posed a lot of interest when I asked them about speaking at Cal Poly next year and taking tours of their companies!

Thanks to everyone that made this weekend all that it was!

– Jack

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The New VP for AIGA Cal Poly

I've been elected as Vice President for the Cal Poly chapter of AIGA, the Professional Association for Design! AIGA sets the national agenda for the role of design in its economic, social, political, cultural and creative contexts. I will be serving for the 2012–2013 school year with eight other officers.

The goal of AIGA Cal Poly is to connect students to the professional world of design. We do this by going on studio tours, attending portfolio reviews, having design professionals speak at our school and throwing other educational events. Joining the chapter has been one of the best things I've done since coming to Cal Poly.

Congratulations to all the new officers and THANK YOU to everyone who voted for me! We are such a great team and I know we're going to make this year great!

– Jack

[jackmaize-blog]

Technology is Amazing

Last week, I got to use a state–of–the–art cutting machine that was donated to Cal Poly's Graphic Communication department. This $179,000 machine can make die–cuts, perforations and score fold areas, with just a few clicks of a mouse (goodbye X–Acto knife). I used it to remake my Kleenex boxes that I designed back in December. When I made the original boxes, my only option was to use a x–acto knife and a bone folder, which makes it challenging to execute precise cuts and scores. When I was introduced to this new machine at the donation event, it was a breath of fresh air. Thank you to my teacher Colleen Twomey for making this happen!

— Jack

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Work Featured in the Annual Juried Student Exhibition

I'm honored to have three pieces selected for Cal Poly SLO's Annual Juried Student Exhibition. The exhibition is the very best of drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, and graphic design from the Art & Design department. My Macroeconomics poster, gift cards, and 'Taking a Stand' poster were selected for the graphic design area. The jurors were San Francisco based designer Kelly M. Murdoch–Kitt and Los Angeles artist Ana Serrano. The exhibition runs from April 12th through May 12th and is open to the public.

Taking a Stand poster

Macroeconomics poster & gift cards

— Jack

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Coldplay Book

Accordion book containing the lyrics from the Coldplay song "Low". The book uses expressive typography to visually represent the lyrics. Coldplay is one of my favorite bands, so this was a fun project to work on!

View this project in my portfolio

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Taking a Stand

Poster to promote the airing of a History channel documentary on the Civil Rights movement entitled 'Taking a Stand'. Get a closer view here.

– Jack

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California Design Posters

California Design is a current exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art which is the first major study of California midcentury modern design from 1930–1965. I designed these for a typography project at California Polytechnic State University in which we had to demonstrate type hierarchy and reading order, while adhering to the limitations of changing parameters for each poster. I really wanted the posters to have a midcentury look and feel, so I studied type, color and design elements from the era for inspiration. It was really fun working on this project after having been to the exhibition twice.

View this project in my portfolio

1 size and 1 weight; black & white:

2 sizes and 2 weights; black & white:

Any number of sizes and weights; black & white:

Any number of sizes and weights; color:

Incorporation of images, with any number of sizes and weights; color:

– Jack

[jackmaize-blog]

It's All About the Meat, Not the Plate

Last week, I had the opportunity to have my online portfolio critiqued in person by the creative director and associate design director of LEVEL Studios. I got some really positive feedback on the look, content and layout of my site. They really liked the clean aesthetics, how the work is instantly viewable from the home page and the simplicity of having just a couple header links (work and about). It was great to hear that it is a site they would consider when hiring.

I've been using my online portfolio for a little over a year now and have had great success with it. It grabbed the attention of my former boss when I applied for my job at Alorad, Inc. The creative director said that it stood out to him immediately amongst the numerous portfolios he received for the position. You may be thinking that I spent a lot of time and money designing and building my site, but it's actually a free template from Carbonmade. If your someone who doesn't have the time, money or knowledge to build your own online portfolio, this is the solution for you. There are plenty of other free online portfolio sites like Behance and Cargo that offer different options as well.

I wrote this post because I was inspired by what Jon Delman, the associate design director at LEVEL said when talking about using free online portfolios. He said that it's "all about the meat, not the plate". What he's saying here is that the work (the meat) is the most important part of a portfolio, not the plate (the site that contains your work). Nobody cares what the plate looks like from which they're eating their food off of, just as long as it holds the food. Jon also said that it shows that a person is resourceful when using a free template, a quality he looks for when hiring. Don't get me wrong, building your own site is well worth it, especially if you want to be unique and use it to show off your web skills, but if your looking for something easy and simple to use, a free template can be just as effective.

I hope this speaks to those who still need to get themselves an online portfolio. Remember that your work will speak for itself, but also that first impressions are super important. Happy portfolio creating!

– Jack

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Didot is one of my favorite typefaces. This was the first project for my typography class I started this quarter. The synopsis was to analyze a typeface's history and distinguishing characteristics of the individual letters. I then presented two boards demonstrating my findings.

- Jack

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Informative Kleenex Boxes

What is up with all those flowery, fruity, cliche tissue boxes we always see on the store shelves? Isn't pollen emanating flowers the last thing we want to think about when in need of a tissue? Anyways, this was my final project for my Fall quarter graphic design course at California Polytechnic State University. My motive for the design is, what Milton Glaser would say, "to inform and delight". The assignment was to develop three related tissue box designs that promote healthy behavior in order to minimize the spread of germs. I'm a big fan of infographics, so I thought this would be a perfect direction for my concept. The solution informs the consumer through facts in order that they become more aware about the effects of the cold and flu. This will influence them to prevent the spread of germs by using Kleenex Anti-Viral Tissues. Designing for a 3D medium made this project challenging but fun and has left me wanting to dabble more in package design!

View this project in my portfolio

- Jack

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Macroeconomics

This is a project I completed recently for my graphic design class. Some of you may have seen an Instagram photo I posted of the design in it's early drawing phases.

The premise of the project was to express meaning through pattern, texture and typography. I was assigned a scientific area of study (macroeconomics) in which I had to visually describe the term through experimentation with pattern, texture and typography. The final solution combines these three elements into a single composition that conveys the essence of macroeconomics. I think it would work great for a textbook cover.

Typography:

Texture & pattern:

View larger images here

- Jack

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Will Empower Nechita Center Ad

                                        Continuing the brand development for Will Empower, I recently completed an ad for them to show at Lutheran High School of Orange County's "Bye, Bye Birdie" musical, which was held in the state of the art Alexandra Nechita Performing Arts Center.

The 7.5 ft. x 20 ft. ad showed on the theater screen, which showed at all five "Bye, Bye Birdie" shows (3,500 people), wrapping up yesterday. Will Empower got some great exposure over the past two weekends! 

This was a really satisfying project to work on personally because Orange Lutheran is my alma mater. It felt great to get involved with my roots!

See the branding work I've done for WE here

- Jack

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Gift Cards

This is a project I just completed for my graphic design class. The assignment was to choose an animal (in this case a goose) and create eight visual styles of the animal, which then was narrowed down to four that we thought worked best (pictograph, expressionistic, silhouette, and notation). We then had to use the visual style of our animal on four gift cards limited to using the phrases "Treat Yourself", "Happy Birthday", "Congratulations", and "Joy!". It was difficult combining a goose with these themes, but I think I came up with some effective solutions. See a closer view here.

- Jack

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Appropriation Poster

This is a project I just completed for my art theory class. The theme of the assignment was appropriation and recoding. We had to take something from popular culture and recode it in a visual way. I chose to analyze social networks and how they are trying to get as much information out of us as they can. See a closer view here.

- Jack