Jason Bowden

iOS icon execution.

Jay — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 01:38:27 +0000

So, once I finished the mobile icon strategy guide, I went ahead and designed the icons using said strategy. The are a series of sorts, with the unifying characteristics being the color scheme and the perspective. Additionally, 5 areas of expertise by different business units within the company are represented with the “material” that makes up the foundation of the icon. All other branding is being done before the user downloads and installs the app from campaign collateral and from the information on the app store itself. Finally, these are intended to build an association between the modern, forward thinking aspects of the company and the user.

iOS icons for strategy document.

Jay — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 00:49:53 +0000

My team is launching an app in a week or so, and during the finalization of everything I realized that without an icon strategy these thing could get out of hand really quickly in a huge-giant company. So I wrote up an icon strategy guide outlining a few approaches and suggesting the correct course of action. Obviously we’ll need consistency with the corporate brand without all of them looking exactly the same (which is what we have now), so I focused on having a single unifying characteristic and building off of that. The best part was creating some examples using existing app names (full disclosure, the left one is my concept but executed freaking skillfully by the geniuses over at Raizlabs, the company we’ve partnered with to develop apps with us. Check them out, they really know what they’re doing). Anyway, this a sample of a couple of the icons I included in the document.

Can’t you see that’s a robot?!?

Jay — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 20:21:17 +0000

As a kid, I watched “Short Circuit” at least 77 times. I still don’t know how Johnny 5 could put on a cowboy hat and a bandana as a disguise and nobody notice that he’s a futuristic robot with tank treads and a GIANT LASER ON HIS SHOULDER! At any rate, this is not Johnny 5. This is his overly temperamental cousin Number 1. He’s not interested in wearing cowboy hats, catching butterflies, or dancing with Ally Sheedy. He just wants to laser stuff. Rocks, computers, various military equipment, you name it, he’ll fire at it.

Done for the hell of it (truth be told I’ve always wanted to draw this robot) in Illustrator.

The one with the vinyl.

Jay — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 11:00:41 +0000

This is a logo comp for a DC area music consultant. As you can see, the icon is a record with a heart on it. I wanted to incorporate the heart because the client genuinely cares for music and the choirs he works with. And while I’ll be the first to admit that the record is a symbol from days long ago, vinyl has been noted historically for having a warmth and sound quality that is not re-creatable across today’s digital music landscape.

The multi-icon one.

Jay — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:00:35 +0000

This is an icon for an identity I’m working on. If you haven’t guessed, it’s a double-single malt scotch, probably an 18 year. For the overall logo the type solution will remain the same, but there will be a few different interchangeable icons associated with it. They will, of course, all have a similar theme and keep the brand intact no matter which icon is being viewed. Call this a work in progress, more to come!

The UI for the super secret portal.

Jay — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 21:00:30 +0000

This is a very small sampling of an interface I’m building for a content download and sharing portal. This is one of those projects that occur in real life, meaning that a use case had to be developed, wireframe made, multiple rounds of interface design and mock-ups, and basic usability testing done in an extremely condensed timeline. It is successful so far, and will get additional budget allocated to it for refinements in the upcoming months. Projects like this are challenging due to the nature of the limited initial budget, the VIP stakeholders, and the quick deadline, but hell, that’s what makes them fun.

Update:

After meeting with the client some new needs came about, so I refined it and below is the update. It includes a sharing functionality in which the user selects all the assets he or she wants to send to someone, and it generates an email with embed codes to everything, no matter which server it’s served from. Multiple files originating in multiple places available in a single email. Pretty cool. Also updated the buttons and did some miscellaneous cleaning.

The tattoo-looking one.

Jay — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 15:30:39 +0000

This is a logo for a promo company in Alaska. Truth be told, I was merely the technical side of this collaboration, the real artist is my best friend, Joe. The client wanted it tattoo like and illustrative, which is accounted for it’s tattoo-like, illustrative style. Yay!

The flexible, relaxed one.

Jay — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:32:09 +0000

This project was to develop an identity for a local yoga studio. The criteria were simple:

- Don’t make it look like a typical yoga studio
- No compass illustrations (of course)

The solution I proposed was to use the Flamingo to show strength, with the legs crossed in a way to hint at the four directions without being obvious. Also, since this studio is focused on stability and building one’s inner strength, what better icon than that of a bird that stands on one leg for hours at a time?

The one built from the ground up.

Jay — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:24:31 +0000

This project was a multi-phase monster (in a great way). It was a redesign to the template for this product range, which was getting completely redesigned itself. To that end, we had to start with market research and built the entire program from scratch.

Once I sold the initial concepts to the product and sales teams, I was tasked with designing the new layout, choosing the colorways, creating the icon sets, creating a tiered “good, better, best” visual rating system, updating the product image standard, and art directing the photo shoots.

The project was a huge success with the sales team, and the retail outlets like CompUSA raved about the modern, updated look. Every aspect of this launch was built from the ground up, and due to its vastness it has remained one of my all time favorite projects.

The slick, Flash server magnifier.

Jay — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:21:47 +0000

This banner, part of a campaign, was promoting an all-in-one server solution for small to medium businesses. The concept was to show a single rack, but have a magnifying glass area come down to zero in on each solution included within it: power, cooling and management.

My part of this and all online advertising projects was concepting and copywriting, then to execute them in Flash, create a gif backup, and provide to the media team for publication. This particular banner got a reasonable 2% click-through rate in publication. Given the fact that only 8% of users click on ads at all, that’s not too shabby.