Here are some recent photos from events at the EMC Insurance Corporate Office in Des Moines, Iowa.
Astrophotography Landscape from my Backyard
I started testing out my camera (Sony a6300) with some astrophotography from my deck.
2015 Iowa State Fair
2015 Iowa State Fair Photography Awards
I entered three photos in the Iowa State Fair photography competition and two got awards and will be on display on the 3rd floor of the Patty & Jim Cownie Cultural Center. Last year I entered three photos and got two displayed and one Honorable Mention. So I think will probably enter 4 photos for sure next year to guarantee my 1st place ribbon.
Secured Futures of Iowa logo design
A past client came to me with a logo design job for a new project he is doing legal work for.
Secured Futures is an endeavor created by Bill Berg, a financial planner. He has a special needs child and he is now specializing in special needs financial planning.
I started with the concept and tried to work in a family as well as the Iowa flag in the icon.
I refined the curves of the illustration and dropped the Iowa flag theme to make it friendlier to match the website design.
The client loved it. I will update this post with the site design and a link once it goes live.
Update: Their developer finished the website. Check it out at securedfuturesia.com
A little hike...
The view from my hammock
Flag Design
I just listened to an episode of 99 PERCENT INVISIBLE about flag design and I wanted to take a stab at it. I took a few minutes and made this flag for my city, Altoona, Iowa.
North American Vexillological Association principles of flag design
1. Keep it simple
2. Use meaningful symbolism
3. Use two to three basic colors
4. No lettering or seals of any kind.
5. Be distinctive
I tried to follow these principles however I don't have time to research so I am not sure how distinctive it is. Blue and green have already been used in Altoona's branding, but I chose some more exciting hues. The blue in mine somewhat represents the river to the west of us that runs through Des Moines. The green can also represent the farmland in the area. The middle triangle can be a capital A for Altoona and an arrow pointing positively to the future.
Riley Briggs and his wife, Alyssa, took their 1-year-old son, Ryker, for a walk at Thomas Mitchell Park on Saturday during Thomas Mitchell Days in Mitchellville.
We're in the Altoona Herald!
Last Day at the Iowa State Fair
On Display at the Iowa State Fair
Me with "Damages", my honorable mention
Ryker pointing at his butt in "Cowboy Baby"
801 Grand
Walnut Street
Iowa Capitol Flag
This is my new Iowa flag creation that I made with one of my Iowa capitol photos. I think it would be great as a 3 piece canvas print.
Inspired by this project
Gold Capitol
Enabling Garden
These are some highlights from another photo walk to the garden down the street from me in Altoona.
Capitol Hill
515 ENLIGHTENED
In early March I began playing Ingress. It is an augmented reality game on Android devices that uses your gps location. I have been getting a little obsessed and got involved with the google+ community for my team in the game. I created the logo below for the group and they really liked it. The eye symbol on the right is the logo for the Enlightened team created by NianticLabs@Google.
SpotVendr
Last weekend I helped create a startup called SpotVendr at Startup Weekend Ames. It was a great competition and we ended up getting 3rd place. I only slept 10 hours all weekend. I also made some new friends on my team. You can see us below. I created the logo and animation that our team used in our presentation. Now that the weekend is over our team has continued on with the project. Please check out the website and sign up to be notified when our product is ready.