Adam Vogel

Online strategy game wip

Adam Vogel — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 22:25:02 +0000

Soarce is working on a online hex-based strategy “board” game. The front end is going to be HTML + JS and should work in IE8+, FF3.5+, Chrome, Safari, and eventually iOS/MobileSafari. Still needs a name… we’ve been tossing around things like “Post-Apocalyptic Tactical Combat” but haven’t really settled on anything solid.

Soarce Technologies Poster

Adam Vogel — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 21:15:46 +0000

Revised identity for Soarce Technologies. Digital, 3900px x 5200px

Soarce mood image 2

Adam Vogel — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 21:22:30 +0000

Another iteration on the dark stormy cloud concept imagery for the Soarce website redesign. I think this one is getting closer to what I want, but I don’t think this exact image will work for the background. I shot it from my iPhone out a plane window, so it’s not the best size/quality. I’m thinking of doing a paint-over in Photoshop so can get it exactly how I want, and maybe even try a multi-layer parallax effect. The red lines are just sort of for reference, I’ll have to see how they will incorporate with the navigation and section headers.

Wednesday wip 2

Adam Vogel — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 04:32:18 +0000

Some decent progress on this one. I’m using a different technique than usual, breaking up each major part of the figure into its own layer. This should help me get some nice clean edges where I want them, since I’ll be able to use the eraser around the edges instead of painting with the background color.

Wednesday wip 1

Adam Vogel — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 05:38:19 +0000

This is the start of a new weekly post series, hopefully every Wednesday, showing the current status of whatever I’m working on. And hey, the post titles will even be alliterative.

A quick sketch for a new poster/print/digital painting. I’ve been thinking of the possibly producing a series with this same general layout & theme.

Also here’s the start of some color/design ideas for the upcoming Soarce website redesign:

Marsh in January

Adam Vogel — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 23:19:20 +0000

Digital, 12 x 18
A partially thawed marsh near the Root River in Franklin, WI.

Winter Landscape wip 2

Adam Vogel — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 07:24:46 +0000

I started to get a little carried away with the details after blowing it up to 12×18 at 300 ppi, but it’s coming along ok. I think I’ll come back to it in a few days, make any corrections I need to, then call it finished.

Winter landscape wip

Adam Vogel — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 07:05:51 +0000

A couple hours in, I think I’ve got the colors fairly accurate so far. I’m going to get into the real tiny details like the background tree branches and cattails next.

Ear-bud Usability

Adam Vogel — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:03:44 +0000

After about 3 years of service, my Apple ear-buds that came with my iPod finally started to go, and I got some cheapo $10 JVC’s to replace them. They’re nothing fantastic as far as sound quality, but after using them for a few days, I noticed a simple little feature that solves a usability problem with headphones, especially Apple’s ear-buds: figuring out which ear-bud goes in the right or left ear.

Apple's headphones

Apple’s standard ear-buds are stylish and minimal in design, and like most of their products, stripped to the bare essentials. A stick with a speaker on the end, and a little bit of rubber to keep it in your ear, that’s about it. Faint little “L” and “R” printed on the “stick” portions are the only indications of left and right. Apple brands itself as the champion of user experience, but in this case their aesthetic choices cause them to lose sight of an easy usability improvement.

JVC Gumy headphones

JVC’s design is fairly similar, but for inexpensive headphones (the cheapest I could find at Best Buy), quite clever in a few important ways. In addition to higher contrast “L” and “R” printed on the sides, the right and left buds are shaped differently, and you can sort of feel the “right” and “wrong” way to put them in once you’re used to it, but by far the most helpful feature is a tiny raised bump that indicates the left bud.

Raised bump indicating Left ear-bud

I often use my headphones at night, or when I’m in bed with the lights out, (or I’m too lazy to look at them) and such a simple design decision makes it vastly easier to use. It removes any fumbling around trying to find the little L’s and R’s, and allows proper use in the dark or by people with low-vision.

It’s always a good feeling when a budget purchase turns out to be a really good product, and hopefully if JVC cares enough to include these subtle features in their design, the internals will hold-up too. Perhaps Apple could learn a thing or two from their low-cost rivals.

Personal Business Cards

Adam Vogel — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:37:25 +0000

Design mockup for personal business cards. I wanted a simple design that would allow me to make multiple versions, depending on whether I want to emphasize graphic design, illustration, 3d, etc. The letter “A” and the whitespace around the letter “V” are each shapes with paper color designated, layered on top the background image (greenish areas). I’ll be able to change the background/colored areas just by relinking them to a different image.