Articles Tagged with: San Francisco

Painting Process – Richmond Painting

Richmond Painting 2017-03 mod web

Continuing on my path to try and be more abstract, this poor painting went through MANY iterations (not least of which was a completely new reference image after painting on it for about 3-4 sessions). I played with adding cars, removing cars, adding building details, removing details, changed the color palette from a sort of mauvy base to this more cerulean blue base. This is also one of the largest paintings I’ve attempted since college, hitting 3×4 feet. I struggle a lot with the scale. Only in the last 2 sessions did it really click that all I wanted to do was play with colors and layering (versus capturing structural details – my instinctive approach). I feel a little more confident about it, and already have ideas for what I want – no, how I want – to paint next.

Richmond - 1st round

After a few sessions, this was where the painting was. I was not happy with how bright it was and how there was no continuity of palette – just a full on rainbow that barfed on the page. I also was already giving detail I didn’t want.

Richmond - 2nd round

I toned it down and tried to pretend like I didn’t know how to capture the perspective (it was too round and I wanted more angularity). I couldn’t handle it though.

Richmond - nevermind

That’s what I have to say about that painting!

Richmond - 3rd round

Starting fresh. Leaning heavily on my tan/mauve and purple palette. It wasn’t striking a chord though.

Richmond - 4th round Which is how it got so green! This is a sample of when I started adding too much detail (and cars) that I did eventually ditched. Not to say that it wouldn’t be fun to make a realistic painting of San Francisco again some day, but I am really trying to experience this new way of thinking about the process.

December 30, 2015

San Francisco Card Deck

This year, my client gift was a custom deck of playing cards featuring landmarks from San Francisco, a fun personal tribute to the city I love and that so many also love to love.

I am no stranger to designing cards, having created a custom deck of poker cards for a charity poker tournament, as well as two card-based games for Google (Data Center Manager and Launch & Iterate). I love games, and also love designing for them, so deciding on a poker deck as a client gift seemed like the perfect pair.

I started back in the summer, thinking how to organize the face cards. There are a variety of options, such as by neighborhood, or by personalities (techie, hippie, by park, etc. I decided on buildings and landmarks because they had a pretty decent correlation by category for each set of 4 face cards and also had a certain amount of historical and intrinsic value to the people of San Francisco. But, as no option was perfect for capturing every aspect of the city’s culture, heritage and history, some icons didn’t make it, such as Dolores Park, AT&T Park, or the Presidio, to name a few that got cut from the long list.

What I did include were 3 categories of landmarks for each set of face cards.

Kings

SF Card Deck Kings Kings were represented by famous tall buildings or towers: Sutro, TransAmerica, Coit and the Ferry Building clock tower. I think I chose them as Kings purely based on height.

Queens

SF Card Deck Queens Queens were some of the beloved bridges that are either in or connect to San Francisco: Bay Bridge both east and western spans, Golden Gate, and the slightly less famous but delightful bridge in the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park. Perhaps I chose them for queens because they hold some of the real power in the city, as far as connecting us to our neighbors.

Jacks

SF Card Deck Jacks Jacks comprised of other famous tourist attractions including the Painted Ladies in Alamo Square, Alcatraz Island, Lombard Street, and the Palace of Fine Arts, which coincidentally happened to celebrate its 100th birthday this year.

SF Card Deck 2 Of course, the real character of the cards lies in the Joker, whom I aptly chose our dear Emperor Norton to fill the role of. It seemed all too appropriate. (Don’t know who he is? Check out the wikipedia page).

SF Card Deck 3

The final consideration for the cards was the color palette, which is very limited. These colors are the ones I’ve chosen for my personal branding, but it’s not a huge coincidence that the cadmium red (not quite international orange, but certainly in the spirit) and sea green are in play for this San Francisco-based designer.

SF Card Deck 1

Want a deck of your own? Email me, and I can mail you a pack ($20+shipping). While supplies last.

SF Card Deck 4

June 8, 2015

One Year Anniversary of Full-time Freelance

Hard to believe, but it’s already been a year since I decided to dive into the sea of uncertainty that is freelancing. I’m happy to report that it’s been a fantastic ride, and I’ve been having more fun and more adventures than I ever anticipated for the first 12 months of this journey.

Looking back over my progress, I am most pleased to have found a niche in designing infographics. Hindsight is 20/20 and it seems so obvious from where I am now that this is where I was headed, but it really took having the flexibility and initiative to design/take projects around it in the last year that made it possible.

An added bonus for this new phase in my career has been the confidence I feel in my own abilities. I have had to put myself out there in ways I never had to before, and having a few more projects under my belt and a growing client list makes me feel like “I’ve got this.” It certainly still feels like a roller coaster, but I kind of enjoy the ebb and flow.

Most of all, I have had a ton of fun working on a variety of projects. Every one has its challenges and rewards, and I’m learning so much. Here are some highlights from what I’ve been working on in the last year.

San Francisco Infographic

Launch & Iterate Game Design for Google

Beyond the Sea Branding and Packaging Project

Fixated on Fernet Infographic

25 Classic Cocktails Poster

StumbleUpon Honey Infographic

Shadowbrook Restaurant Website and Social Media Graphics

Loving Pup Charity Logo & Website

Here’s to another year of fun projects and learning!

November 28, 2014

San Francisco Infographic – 59 Illustrated Facts

I’m so pleased to have a new piece featured in the Bold Italic today. I worked on this for a few months so am excited it gets to see the light. For those not local to San Francisco, the Bold Italic is a popular local website that is both a treasure trove of resources about things in and around the city, but also full of fun illustrated articles that hit home for a lot of San Franciscans. What better place to showcase a fun infographic about tid-bits of city trivia?

I dug deep into the depths of the internet to find facts that I felt were static, meaning not info about population, demographics, economy, or other such things that change frequently, in order to give this piece a longer shelf life.

It was a lot of fun to discover some of these things too, so hopefully the readers enjoy learning along with me. I mean, what city has two songs dedicated to its honor. The story behind why there is an official song AND a ballad is so good it almost deserves an illustration of its own. Perhaps I’ll save it for another time.

My hope is that the internet has not lied to me in my effort to find factual information. If anyone has anything to contest, I’d be eager to hear your findings.

For example, I almost misrepresented Mission Dolores as the oldest structure, but luckily a good friend of mine came across an article debunking some common held SF misconceptions, saving me from publishing that error. Still felt like I had to include the Mission though as it’s such an iconic and clearly very old piece of SF history.

In the spirit of infographics, I did also try to keep things like scale consistent wherever possible. There are some places where that didn’t work out, and others where I felt it was too important to skip (the magnitude of the earthquakes, for example, since it really adds to the viewers’ understanding of the difference in severity), and I do feel rather guilty about failing to represent the information. Hopefully you don’t hold it against me too much.

I was pretty pleased to learn about the history of Wells Fargo and its relationship to American Express. History fun facts are cool.

Hope you enjoy! Keep an eye out for more. I had so much fun making this, I can’t wait to come up with another.

2023 Update

Almost 9 years later, and even with some of these fun facts being out of date, I was still pleased to have a student of the Spanish language ask if they could translate my poster for their end-of-year project.

She took my full page poster version and translated all of it into Spanish.

Kowal_San-Francisco_Infographic_Poster_es

May 31, 2014

Going Full-time Freelance

It’s official. After nearly 7 years working as an in-house designer, Director of Marketing, and manager of both people and projects, I have decided it’s time to go rogue and have started my own Design & Illustration business. It will be a big change to not have that paycheck hit regularly, to not have coworkers to mingle with day in and day out, and to not have anyone but yourself to blame when it doesn’t go right. It will be difficult, but it will be rewarding.

It’s been a long time coming, in truth. I’ve been doing freelance work since college, always making time for it outside of my usual work hours, and in the last year, have been increasingly more busy with projects and new clients – enough so that the idea to commit to doing that full-time actually seems feasible now. It is not without its fears and concerns, but I am overwhelmed by the support and encouragement I’ve received from friends, family, and professional acquaintances who all believe I will do great.

It is not without sadness that I will leave the job of 7 years behind as I’ve made valuable friendships and learned many great lessons, both on a professional and personal level. I’ve learned what my strengths are, and know I can leverage them when conducting business for myself. I’ve learned what my weaknesses are, so know there are options for avoiding or delegating them so that I can focus on the good stuff. I expect I will make many mistakes still, but hope I will meet them as a challenge to just get better. I am grateful for the experiences I’ve had, the people I’ve worked with, and how it all is leading up to this new direction for me.

So consider this proclamation the beginning of a great new adventure, and come back here to keep checking out the latest projects I’ve been working on, ideas I’ve been having, or the things I’ve been admiring. Oh, and of course, feel free to get the word out to anyone seeking some design or illustration help. I can help with posters, info graphics, brochures, game design, invites & announcements, packaging, apparel, logo & branding, editorial illustration, as well as web and mobile design. And of course, I do still paint, so keep an eye out for some new landscapes or what not – perhaps to fill that nook between your bookshelves and tv stand that needs a little extra color.

October 11, 2011

Around San Francisco

Last Friday I had the privilege of going on a fun bakery crawl sponsored by Scharffen Berger chocolates. I wrote all about it here on my baking blog, but while I was at it, I couldn’t help but enjoy the perfect October afternoon and evening San Fran was having, and took a few pictures of the places we went along the way.

Not sure I’m equipped for some of the night shots I took, but the colors were still pretty fabulous.