Chimera Designs » Portfolio

Envision Schools “Untold Voices” Exhibition (2010)

ximera — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 21:29:47 +0000

This design was inspired by Trevor Gardner’s Untold Voices Exhibition. Students identified someone in their community that has an untold story that runs contrary to mainstream perceptions or stereotypes of Oakland and their communities. They conducted interviews and are producing photo essays about their subjects. I created this design using images by Thomas Hawk, Humayyun Peerzada, and myself, Ted Curran.

Leah & Ted’s Wedding Programs (2010)

ximera — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 13:40:46 +0000

Even for my own wedding, I had to do the graphic design! Our wedding had echoes of the 1930′s all throughout, and I wanted to reflect that in the visual style of the wedding programs. Nice, tasteful fonts and classic accents gave the event an extra touch of class.

Envision Schools “Truth be Told” Exhibition (2010)

ximera — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 12:59:57 +0000

Envision Schools’ teacher Trevor Gardner consistently confronts rich, provocative issues in his high school humanities class. Ever since we taught together, I have been inspired by his subject matter and volunteered to design the flyers for his exhibition.

The Truth Be Told Exhibition was about totalitarian power– in Russia, China, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, and in the modern world. Once I heard the idea, visions of this project started dancing in my head and the following postcards emerged.

Gretchen Garnett and Dancers. (2009)

ximera — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 20:15:00 +0000

Gretchen Garnett and Dancers. (2009).
This site was designed for Gretchen Garnett and Dancers, an up-and-coming modern dance company in San Francisco. I wanted to convey the excitement and sensuality they bring to their movement, while remembering that this website heralds a grand new talent into the San Francisco dance scene. I photoshopped Leah Katz in a grand pose against flowing red satin textures, as if the website were a giant banner announcing the debut of a major new talent. I worked with Gretchen to integrate her favorite Web 2.0 technologies into the site, so she can update her Twitter, Picasa, and WordPress sites and her changes will appear right in the site.

City Arts & Technology High School (2007)

ximera — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 20:14:02 +0000

City Arts and Technology High School (2007). This website was designed as a central meeting place for the school community to exchange information related to the day-to-day activities of the school. I integrated several external web services to make it easy for staff to update the website without any web tinkering. It features tributary blog feeds, the school Google Calendar, Flickr photo album, and a Google Docs form. The visual design attempts to communicate the school’s unique balance of formality and academic rigor with openness and community. The color palate subtly expands on Envision Schools’ organizational color scheme and gives an eye-popping effect of modernity and excitement. The logo (top right) was created to visually show the relationship between San Francisco and the wider world that students will soon enter. This website quickly became a model across the organization for their schools’ web strategy.

ChefJose.com (2007)

ximera — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 20:12:21 +0000

ChefJose.com. (2007). Chef Jose Urbano’s food speaks for itself– full of fresh ingredients, unique flavors, and gorgeous presentation. The design puts all the beautiful food forwards so we are already hungry for Jose’s food before we learn about his catering services. I used a javascript photo gallery on the front page so we can see him, his food, and the fun events he organizes. He continues to get raves for this web design, and it adds to the professional flair that his catering business cultivates, plate by plate.

Harmonium Lessons.com (2009)

ximera — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 19:57:58 +0000

HarmoniumLessons.com (2009). This was a full page flyer created to promote Daniel Tucker’s Kirtan music lessons business, especially within the yoga community of Berkeley and San Francisco. Daniel wanted an eye-catching design that captured the spiritual dimension of Kirtan music, as well as the passion and expertise that he brings to the practice. We collaborated closely on this piece, with Daniel and I continuously pushing each other’s thinking forward on this design. The result is a flyer that shines through the cluttered bulletin boards in Berkeley’s yoga studios.