If so, take a deep breath and let the lengthy exhale cleanse from your system the anxiety of being a closeted dweeb. Your secret fetish for the four-eyed arts is safe with us.

The truth is, however, you’re not as alone as you may believe. To roughly paraphrase a fictional purveyor of justice “you have the power.”

Still don’t believe? Set your Web browser to the blog  I Have the Power Art and your expectations to “stunned.”

If you were a kid in the 80s, you undoubtedly recognized the blog title as the call-to-action mantra of comic book and cartoon-icon He-Man. Those same kids who were raised on cheesy 80s television are all grown up now and many have become artists — some more so than others.

Gallery 1988 and their Masters of the Universe Tribute Show is a prime example.

The California-based gallery is currently displaying and selling Masters of the Universe-inspired art work; ranging a gamut of mediums and styles. They vary from Warhol-ian-type screen-print portraits and epic oil-on-canvas battle scenes to painted-wood renderings of He-Man getting a haircut. Or his nemesis Skeletor getting a root canal. And when we say all other styles and interpretations in between…we mean it.

What keeps us up at night? The great design of nefarious villains. Good thing we’ve got a flashlight and a good read.

www.ihavethepowerart.blogspot.com

Falcon Worx specializes in comprehensive hassle free managed IT services, computer network services, hardware and software upgrades and repair, data backup and IP surveillance systems for small to medium sized businesses in Savannah and surrounding areas. Any sized business can benefit by Managed IT. Let them  show you how outsourcing your IT to one vendor can cut costs, increase productivity and reduce risk for your business. From server upgrades to virus protection, you can reduce downtime and keep working.  They take take care of your network and you get work done. Unlike most IT support vendors, they take a proactive approach rather than waiting until it’s broken.  It’s like getting a full support tech staff at one flat monthly rate, no surprises, 24/7/365. We even created a custom calculator that can show you just how much you can save, Take a look HERE.

With the Falcon Worx brand, one goal was to make them standout from the rest of the already overabused color palette of blues, greens and greys one might often find in this somewhat misunderstood service industry.  With colors such as red and black along with the bold headlines and attitude of the website, Falcon Worx is not your regular IT company.

www.falconworx.com

]]> http://bighousegraphix.com/blog/2009/06/falconworx-computer-networkin/feed/ 1 http://bighousegraphix.com/blog/2009/06/fatwood_kindlin_firestarter_sticks/ http://bighousegraphix.com/blog/2009/06/fatwood_kindlin_firestarter_sticks/#comments Wed, 17 Jun 2009 01:31:14 +0000 Steve http://bighousegraphix.com/blog/?p=968
With Fatwood Kindlin’ firestarter sticks, you can start fires in no time.  It’s true, these 8″ hand-split firestarter sticks start quickly with just the touch of a match, no mess, no chemicals, no hassle.  So for that special evening  when you would rather get cooking quicker or just want to get that fire going faster, use our Fatwood Kindlin sticks, she will love you for it.  So forget the fuss and get on with the fun, with Longleaf Lighter Company’s Fatwood Kindlin’.

But seriously, we had a real blast working with this client. bighouse was excited when called on to help rebrand this product from top to bottom.  From logo, packaging, content, web presence and social media, we hit the ground running at the opportunity.  This ecommerce site had challenges written all over it, featuring flash, PHP, javascript you name it. Because Kindlin’ is sold on both a wholesale and retail level, the site had to be developed to cater to both end users and reflect two pricing structures.

One of the most important things that the client required was control of their own site, allowing them to make edits and replace or add items, change pricing, etc.  This was accomplished by using Wordpress as our CMS platform and Cartweaver for the shopping cart features. The site even features ecommerce integration with the clients Quickbooks account, allowing automated order processing and hassle free online sales. Sales can be viewed in real time, batched immediately, providing a hands-free, no hassle ecommerce experience.  And of course to get the product out quicker to their customers, shipping integration with the fullfillment operation helped round out the entire site.

So give the site a visit and tell us what you think.

www.kindlin.com

When Ken Stoner of  Effingham County Chamber of Commerce, contacted us about developing a logo for this chamber-sponsored event, we were honored.  We worked out several idea sketches and ended up going with a light bulb illustration, with a red-and-white on black color scheme. The DIN 1451 font family was applied. It is a realist sans-serif typeface that is used as a standard typeface for traffic, administration and business applications making it a perfect fit for the summit logo. On the vertical version, Futura was also used. The logo will be used on print products and advertising for the event.

The Summit is April 4, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the Savannah Tech Effingham Campus. Reservations are limited. Reservations are free for Effingham Chamber members. (Non-members $49). Includes admission to keynote address, class sessions, course materials, trade show and business roundtable discussion groups. Call 912-754-3301. See you there!

The Savannah Philharmonic, formerly the Savannah Choral Society, is a community-based organization performing professional-quality live choral and orchestral music. Having recently restructured and expanded to include The Savannah Philharmonic Chorus and The Savannah Philharmonic Orchestra, the group found itself ready for an update to their identity. We were excited to take on the challenge (we actually designed their past logo, a sample can be seen here) The challenge was to develop three logos that worked together and have a common style, while at the same time be able to stand on their own visually.

Drawn to the concept of free-flowing brush strokes to show the creativity and the energy of the choral group, Zach used watercolor and acrylic paint to create a series of brush strokes representing a lyre and a conductor that were then scanned. Some digital editing was done combining several of the paint strokes in Photoshop. Then the image was imported to Adobe Illustrator with text applied. This finished logo was then incorporated into their new website and print collateral.

Although a few of the other samples may not have come to light for this project, a few below are ones we were proud of.

To round out the package we put together a CSS site, allowing staff to update the and edit their own site.  Let it free. Visit their new site and give us your thoughts. www.savphilchorus.org.

Glaze Beauty Boutique and Day Spa — Rincon’s newest beauty salon and day spa  — came to Bighouse looking for a website. We love new businesses as they offer a blank canvas for us to flex our creative muscles. Glaze is Rincon’s premier Day Spa, also housing both a hair salon and clothing boutique.  Featuring the newest salon products from Redken and Pureology, spa treatments and the latest trends on the rack, their site incorporates a content management system (CMS) to allow the staff to easily update the web site to showcase specials, new products and the stylists’ work.

The approach to Glaze was to have a contemporary, edge using bold colors and images to contrast with a dark background and at the same time clean and approachable. We used organic design elements and soft edges on shapes and navigation to help in that effect. The site design presents a simple, intuitive navigation that breaks the site into the three main parts of Glaze;  the Day Spa, The Salon, and The Closet.

We have already noticed a steady bit of traffic in and out of Glaze — who coincidentally happens to be Bighouse’s next-door neighbor. Welcome to the neighborhood!

www.glazebeauty.com

It seems our very own Zach Kozdron was spotted recently, cavorting as jolly ol’ St. Nick – aka. Santa Claus – at a local favorite watering hole, The Rail Pub. Spreading the holiday cheer (and enjoying some along, the way) with the help of his merry elves. Go Santa.

On a design note, this lovely retro holiday sweatshirt showcasing is delicate line work was worn with pride by local Savannah artist and barman Enoch Vaughn. We think it speaks for itself.  If you find any memorable xmas sweaters out there, send them to us through the contact page or post them here.

That recognizable visual style of the season makes these holiday albums a nice change of pace for us. Bighouse collaborated with Rich Mays at Sonare Recordings on these albums. We worked to keep the feeling of the holidays represented in the design as well as incorporating elements unique to the venue of each concert.

“Sounds of the Season” was created for the Savannah Country Day School choruses in Savannah, GA. The design is meant to be imaginative and magical.

Decatur Presbyterian Church, in Decatur, GA, titled their holiday concert “The Marvel of This Night. We wanted to incorporate the beautiful stained glass window adorning the church into the design and then decided to take an abstract approach to the lights of the season for the background art.

Nele Ewaldsen is the pianist for the Lutheran Church of the Ascension in Savannah, GA. She heads the church’s Christmas concert, Jubilation. This project was on a tight deadline. The church window was used for the design — both as it appears and edited digitally and used as the back ground pattern.

St. Philip’s church in Charleston was in need of packaging for Christmas performance, Song’s of the Angels. St. Philip’s has a number of sculpted angels in the church that were perfect for album art. We worked with the client to get the highest quality photos of the church interior for the design and paired them up with a rich, warm red evocative of the season. Pour the eggnog and press play.

Hidden River is a property development near Hayesville, located in the Southwest corner of North Carolina. The town of Hayesville is located on a knoll overlooking the Hiawassee River and has a view of the Tusquittee Mountains. Lying in the southern Appalachian Mountains, Clay County offers breathtaking scenery.

The developer, Harrison Properties, was in need of an small, informational booklet and powerpoint presentation showcasing the natural beauty of this unspoiled paradise.

The primary push of these pieces was to promote a first showing opportunity for potential buyer, giving them a sneak peak at the 10 home sites on the Hiwassee near the 7,000-acre Lake Chatuge. With views like this, who wants to go back to the city?

We will be updating our site  www.bighousegraphix.com soon. Hoping to have it up by mid March (what can we say, clients seem to be keeping us too busy)

We look forward to a great 2008!