Local animation for Chicago @ OpenChime.com

Summer 2010 has been a creative and productive time for the H.MacDo Studio and I am proud to announce a brand new animated spot just completed for the launch of OpenChime.com.





Working directly with the client, the 45 second script was written and edited by the fine folks at OpenChime and then designed, illustrated and animated by me in the H.MacDo Studio using hand-drawn elements and frame-by-frame animation in Flash and AfterEffects.


OpenChime.com is a new local business directory for the Chicago area. If you live in Chicago, OpenChime connects you to local services such as wedding photographers, catering, moving services and the like. You simply tell them what you need and when you need it, OpenChime quickly collects provider's information and quotes based on your request and your appointment is just a click away! OpenChime is only available in Chicago at this time, but if it catches on, could be offered in more locations in the near future. Go to the site and let them know you want OpenChime in your city!!

Also, check out the link Chime for Charity, and learn about how OpenChime is also offering a way for local charitable organizations to run fundraisers through the OpenChime network.

Preliminary sketches for OpenChime

OpenChime rough storyboard thumbnails

For the love of WordPress!

I'm probably a little late to the party on this one, but look out blogspot...I just fell in love with WordPress! A few months back Genevieve Gorder of the HGTV series Design Star and Dear Genevieve contacted me about creating a unique travel site for her own design firm GG Studio. Ever the progressive media talent, Genevieve was searching for a way to reach and interact with her audience through other mediums in addition to television. Along came WordPress. From a web design and developer prospective Wordpress gave us every thing we needed. A snap to install, it allows for the flexibility and full control over design and layout with all the ability to build a dynamic site that will let visitors share and interact with Gen in a way that she could not do through television alone. What I enjoy about Wordpress is that you can customize every little thing. You can choose a theme that some one else has already developed or if you're more comfortable with CSS and PHP (as I am) you can build your very own theme from scratch based on the whims of your client. Then, you create your pages and "widget ready" areas allowing dynamic buttons (widgets) and plugins, to further increase functionality to the site. Now my client has a brand new web site that not only looks exactly the way she wants but will never stay static as one pretty page. It is now a vehicle, a fully functional tool that she can use to express herself, hear from her audience and continue to build relationships with on a new level.

This month Genevieve and her awesome assistant designer Jessica are traveling to Norway to explore the roots of her family heritage and gather new design inspiration. To read more go to: www.genevievegorderhome.com

Set me freelance.com logo development continued...

This is the final logo design on the Coming Soon page. We ultimately agreed that the characters should look a little more universal and office friendly. Right now the site is going to be developed for the New York City freelance network, but eventually will be used for other cities as well and we didn't want to pigeon-hole our look to New York alone. Coming soon setmefreelance.com is set to launch in the coming months!

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While designing the initial logo for setmefreelance.com, there was a lot of fun to be had with the supporting creative elements during which the logo went through a couple phases. We all put our heads together to try and develop a group of characters that would best represent the freelance professional and it brought around a good conversation... How should these ruffian creative types look? The first visual that popped into my head was the image of every day young people I used to see on the NY subway system in the early mornings commuting from Brooklyn to Manhattan. The hipsters! Oh what fun I had drawing up this cast of characters and we laughed and laughed. Then they were like, no but seriously... how should they look?

click to enlarge images