Welcome, Leakies!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have the great pleasure of being a member of the LeakyCon 2011 Media and Communications Executive Staff. Since around July of 2009, we have been hard at work planning what will undoubtedly be the greatest Harry Potter fan conference (read: Party) ever thrown. If you have been linked to my site from one of the LeakyCon YouTube videos, I bid you a very warm welcome! LeakyCon is going to be incredible and I can't wait to share the experience with everyone.

In the coming days, I will be posting some of my work for Leaky as well as from the past semester at CCAD along with descriptions of some of the experiences I've had over the past year or so. Check back soon!

IAAPA!

I have the pleasure of spending the week in beautiful, Central Florida while I attend events at the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (thankfully, shortened to IAAPA) Expo. The show is absolutely massive with over twenty-thousand industry professionals in attendance. The crazy thing about the amusement park industry is that "it's a small world after all!" It seems as though everybody knows somebody who knows somebody. This fact makes networking incredibly rewarding and even more interesting.

Beyond the Expo scene, I forced myself to visit The Magic Kingdom and soak up all the magic that the park has to offer. It was strange to walk the park by myself. Every other time I've visited, I've been with either friends or family. I didn't let it get too me, though. I spent nearly the entire day marveling at the expertly established sight lines that Imagineers have set up across the Kingdom. It is amazing to watch the trees perfectly frame the castle as you look east and Splash Mountain as you look west. Of course, I was also completely smitten with the scads of wonderful graphic designs speckled across the park. Each sign is beautifully lettered and blends seamlessly with its themed surroundings. It looks so effortless, although you and I both know that it isn't.

I also took some time to do some things that I have never done, even after all my trips to Walt Disney World. I rode the Peoplemover for the first time. It was a nice, relaxing tour of Tomorrowland was made all the better by the Mickey-shaped ice cream I was enjoying in the process. I journeyed into the Enchanted Tiki Room for the first time ever and, if it really is "under new management," I'd like the old management back, please. I found the show to be oddly disconnected. Iago looked like a weird, ape-bird hybrid and the whole thing ended on a sudden, awkward note. Don't make people excited to get up and dance and then force them to dance right out of the theater.

Despite 95% of Fantasyland being walled off, I enjoyed marveling at the "fairytale" architecture. My Medieval Art History teacher would be proud as I silently recounted the names of each architectural element on Cinderella Castle (gargoyles, trefoils and finials are very prominent). I am excited to roam an even larger Fantasyland when it reopens in 2013.

I have so much more I could say about The Magic Kingdom. I might write a separate post just about my observations (I say might because this site already has enough unkept promises).

Another might: I might be giving the ol' site a much-needed refurbishment sometime soon (and by soon, I mean before the start of the new year). Honestly, between school and LeakyCon, the Jordan Edwards brand has been simmering, alone and afraid, on the back burner for too long.

More soon, I hope.

Things, they be a changin'!

Jordan Edwards Designs is on its way to becoming a real, live website!

I started work last night and I'm really excited by what's happening so far. I'm not going to give a date for the switchover but it will be soon.

Stay tuned!

An Unlikely Response

Below is an excerpt from an essay I am writing for my Sociology class about my core values. I am posting this because I know many of you can relate to my sentiment.

One final factor to which I attribute many of my core values comes from a rather unlikely source. Like the marching band, it is one I was reluctant to accept at first. When they were first released, I dismissed the Harry Potter novels as just another fad, a trend that would soon fade away. I wouldn’t read them; I didn’t even like reading. After seeing the first film, my interest was peaked. I picked up the second book hoping to have it read by the time its film counterpart was released. By that time, I had read all of the published books and was in the process of rereading them. Never before had I been so taken by a series of books that I felt compelled to read them again. The Harry Potter books taught me that, though the odds might seem to be stacked against you, with courage and love and the support of friends, incredible things can happen. That message was beautifully illustrated in May of 2009 when I joined nearly one thousand fellow fans in Boston for LeakyCon, a Harry Potter convention whose sole function, unlike every other convention, was to raise funds for charity. At that conference, I came to know scores of amazing people, many of which have come to be close friends. While we came from all corners of the globe, from every conceivable background, it soon became clear that we shared in a common value, that of love and friendship and the desire to do good.

If I have learned anything in the brief time I have spent exploring this world it is that we are all pieces of a bigger picture, scattered across the globe. Everything we do, every interaction we make, changes the shape of our piece, affecting where and how it will find its fit. I believe that we are all searching for a place to fit our piece of the puzzle and can attest that it is an amazing feeling, whether it is in a marching band, or at a Harry Potter fan convention, when your piece finds its place.

Current Branding Project

The following is an exploration of the target marking for the line of camping equipment that I will be branding as a part of my Graphic Design Concepts class. Comments and criticism are welcome!

A Brief Glimpse

A small campsite sits, nestled in a clearing and crowned in giant cypress trees, at the edge of the picturesque Fort Wilderness Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. A narrow path leads from the small parking bay located some ways away, weaving in and out of the trees and into the distance. The smell of pine and earth mingle in the air and a small brook can be heard, bubbling cheerily beyond the road. The quiet is broken by the sound of a small minivan winding its way along the path to the campsite.

As the van slows to a halt the side door swings wide and two young boys leap from the back seat, dashing toward the clearing in obvious delight. Next to exit the van is the boys’ older sister, her hands filled with a large picnic basket, a folding chair slung over her shoulder. She inhales deeply as she gazes up at the crown of branches swaying high overhead, the dappled light dancing on the ground before her. As her father closes the back door of the van, after unloading the last of their packed supplies, he brushes off his hands and looks around happily. His wife appears at his side, smiling. For a time, they watch as their children scurry around the campsite. They reminisce on the adventures they once had as newlyweds and delight in the fact that they are now sharing this adventure with their family.

As night falls, fireflies dance on the horizon. A column of smoke drifts from the small fire that finally decided to ignite after several, stubborn hours and almost an entire book of matches. The twins, now covered in marshmallow, are in the midst of a dramatic shadow puppet show from inside their tent. Their sister sits with her parents around the glowing fire. She pours them all a mug of hot chocolate as she removes the small pot from the fire. Together they discuss their plans for the morning, passing around a small map, desired destinations circled in black ink. They all look up in delight as a wave of colorful fireworks glisten in the distant, starry sky. Curious of the faint booming, the twins join their sister and parents around the campfire. Together, they enjoy a moment of quite magic.

What I've Been Up To

Hello, faithful readers.

Here's a look at what's been going on in the long and arduous months since my last post.

This semester, my friend Justine and I are taking a package design class. Our first assignment was to design economical and eco-friendly packaging for an inkjet printer cartridge. For me, the worst part about buying new ink cartridges is having to pull out the hedge trimmers to open the package. My design is based off of an idea that, from what I can tell, is already in use in Europe. It is simple to open and uses far fewer materials to package.

Think single portions of breakfast cereal. The top label peels away to reveal the cartridge.

Here is my mood board, the color and black ink designs and a mock up of the package:

I am also taking a Trends in Design course this semester (the name is misleading; it's should be called Trends in Advertising). In the class we discuss the elements of an effective advertisement and advertising campaign. Our first project was to design an advertising campaign for Johnsonville Bratwurst. My teammate Emily and I developed a campaigned based on the idea that "The Future is Brat" with Johnsonville. Our ads revolved around Frank, a fun-loving, fortune-telling football fan (isn't alliteration great?).

Here is an example of print ad, ambient media blade sign and an origami "fortune teller" from the campaign:

Emily and I worked really well together so we decided to stay on for the next project, an ad campaign selling Oreck vacuum cleaners to a younger audience. With a little help from Twitter, we were able to put together a really fun series of ads. We focused on the idea that floors have pretty tough lives, especially messy floors. We decided, if floors could talk, they would have lot to say.

Here is the final series of ads for Oreck as well as two examples of ambient ad placement:

The ambient advertising would consist of plexiglass signs that would be printed with the same style text as the print advertisements. They would be placed in generally messy places; in this case, a mall and a movie theater.

I have also been doing a lot of work for the CCAD Student Programming Board, for which I am the Chair of Communication. This year we rolled out an entirely new system and, of course, with that came a new logo which I was happy to design!

And, of course, with a new logo comes an entirely new brand! I've loved designing a variety of posters for the group and its events.

The project currently devouring my time and attention is for my Graphic Design class and deals with brand standards. We chose a small business to re-brand, developed a series of 30+ logos, whittled them down to one and are in the process of applying the logo and other branding elements to stationery. My small business is The Mean Bean, a coffee shop from my hometown. Of the thirty logos I presented to the class, the one with the most positive feedback was an expressive little mug.

Here are two examples of the brand as applied to letterhead, envelope and business card:

The final design will probably be an amalgamation of these two designs. We also have to develop extension pieces to showcase the brand. I am working on a series of expressive paper and plastic cups, coffee sleeves and travel mugs. I will post the final result as soon as its finished.

I am also working with the great people at The Leaky Cauldron to develop a graphic identity for LeakyCon, a Harry Potter fan conference being held in Orlando, Florida in July of 2011. You can see a sneak peek of what we're working on over at LeakyCon's Twitter. We've got a lot of fantastic things in the works and I can't wait to share them with you.

As always, I would appreciate any feedback you can give about the work posted here.

If you have any questions or are interested in working with me, feel free to email me, jordan@jordanedwardsdesigns.com

Room 3428

Room 3428 is a YouTube Vlog project produced by seven friends who met at a Harry Potter conference and decided to stay in touch. Recently, they challenged viewers to create a logo for their channel. My submission features the scandalous "red panties" that the friends discovered when they first stayed in Room 3428.

As I was making the logo, I noticed its look shifting more and more toward a very graphic, "Fifties" style. This gave me the idea to illustrate each of the vlogmates in that style: