Stouffville, Ontario Canada (647) 962-1997 gwstudios@rogers.com M-F 8:30am - 2:30pm & 8:00pm - 11:00pm

Tag: Branding

In regards to my previous post about 3d rendering.

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I might be behind the eight ball here in terms of knowing about how to turn illustrations of uniquely shaped bottles into fully fledged 3d objects using Photoshop, but learning that work flow and then being able to chuck that stuff into Dimension and creating realistic looking mock ups is astounding. So glad I came across this stuff. No longer do I need to slave away drawing every bend of light or using finicky meshes. No no no, now you can draw up your custom bottle in illustrator, render the 3d shape in photoshop, with separate outer glass, inner liquid fill, cap and cork, plus add your various labels and tie that shit up with a fucking bow in Dimension with lighting effects, camera perspective matching to your background. Dear lord, it’s a game changer! I for one am pumped about what this could do for my beverage, and packaged goods clientele. Mind blown. I am tickled pink. Pleased as punch. Until next time.

Also – side note. I wrote a book of short stories available on Kindle, and kindle unlimited for $.99 USD. The Company – A series of interconnected space short stories by Mark Holyome. Available in 11 markets worldwide.

Having some fun messing around with 3d rendering.

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So over the last few years I have doodled some faux beer brands for shits & giggles to keep busy and sane. Well now I am able to render them most realistically and in about 1/10th of the time my old method took me. Which makes me both happy and excited for the future of my graphic design business. Mock ups won’t eat up endless hours of my day anymore. Wah whooh!

Some samples with and without lighting effects and/or surface effects:

It has been more than a month…

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Since I last wrote anything here. Things have been sort of strange. I picked up a new client (which is awesome) and have been pretty busy with design work, even though all of my other clients have had to buckle down and curtail their spending. Plus it has been hot as balls in southern ontario this summer, and we’ve spent many, many hours outside swimming and tending to the farm crops. So much weeding. I am sick to death of weeds. But on the plus side, we’ve made pickles and fresh relish, so Go! Team!

Have a wooden screen door on my work bench, and a few bowls or a vase on the lathe to do before Christmas. Fall is just around the corner, and that brings it’s own wheel barrow full of problems and technical issues we need to solve to stay COVID-19 free. Laundry/showering/disinfecting my school ahed child and teacher wife. We’ve been problem free due to physical distancing, but now that is no longer an option. Lots of lost sleep and stressing as a result.

I hope to be able to write a few more short stories before years end, but I’ll wait until I have something to say, or a new facet to explore in my pre-existing sci-fi universe. Maybe a turn at horror, or all out action, or a real think piece. No idea. Haven’t drawn a single page of my children’s book, but again, not concerned about it at this point.

Perhaps the fall will bring some old clients back into the fold with paid work, or they’ll ramp up in early first quarter of 2021.

Feeling creatively blah…

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Haven’t done much of anything creative for myself in a while. I have been trying to game out some story plots and losing track mid way through. Haven’t painted or sculpted anything in several weeks either. Completed a few paid projects but beyond that haven’t felt compelled to do much of anything really.

I did start my corn hole game build, and picked up my allotment of cedar for a front porch bin for garbage can, green bin and recycling boxes. Damn raccoons get into everything. Still in the early planning stages for that particular house hold item. I made a step stool several weeks ago, which was fun and easy. But haven’t felt like doing anything with all of this pause time.

Mind you our house has two kids at home, whom are exhausting. Keeping two kids five and under occupied, entertained, exercised, and educated is proving to be a monumental task. Plus my wife is working from home, and I had paid work going on daily up until recently. Fatigue is a mother fucker, believe you me.

On the upside I have done a fair bit of reading. I read the third installment of John Scalzi’s The Last Emperox (Great, by the way). Marcus Heitz’s fifth Dwarf book in his series (a very pleasant read), a book about the New Horizons mission to flyby Pluto in 2015 (just incredible!). I have started a book about the Mars rover Curiosity, but I’m only a handful of pages in, so I can’t say much about it one way or another.

On a side note I managed to get my Brad nailer and pin nailer up and running, so I don’t have to use so many wood screws on everything anymore. That was exciting. Cleaned up the garage so that I can actually move around in there. Cleaned out the rain gutters after a huge downpour. Poor timing on my part, but in my defense when I put up our Christmas lights they were fairly clear, so I didn’t think they would be clogged. Good thing we didn’t flood because of it. Got up there and pulled several pounds of decayed leaves out of the downspouts, so checked that off the list.

Would like to paint the downstairs hall, and wash/sand/stain the back deck this summer. That is unless some events come back online with heightened pandemic health protocols in place, and I can get back to producing event audit marketing reports, instore signage and sales catalogs and sell sheets and other branding materials again.

That heatwave was rather unpleasant, but it’s been such a crazy year, the fact the weather is wonky doesn’t surprise me much at this point.

A toddler becoming a three-nager is a very real and frightening thing. She’s lovely, but good lord. Dealing with attitude from a five year old and a nearly three year old, is something else. The struggle is real y’all. Hod love’em, but they test my patience.

The USA is burning. Racism is alive and booming all around the world. That sucks, a lot. Don’t be a cunt to other humans. Work to bring around the change you want to see. Donate, volunteer, or take a moment of self reflection and introspection. Help those less fortunate than yourselves.

It’s chaos, be kind – Michelle Macnamara

Keeping sharp while things are slow…

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They say the secret to success is not waiting for good things to happen to you, but to go out there and make things happen for yourself. In light of this fact, I have taken the last few rather slow weeks, to produce a nice back catalogue of #fictionalbeerbrands to pull out of my back pocket in case I land a short order alcoholic beverage packaging concept job. I started off with ten 12 pack bottle cartons, mostly done with Illustrations rather than go my usual route, which would focus heavily on Photoshopped composites. Not that I have anything against that sort of thing, I love it, but what I am trying to do is show range. You can only show range, by getting out of your comfort zone and trying something new and different. Below I will post all ten, plus two more items, which are 24 bottle cartons, that are recreations of a brand from my past. #Packaging isn’t my primary focus, but it has become a vehicle for concept ideation, which is something I now really, really enjoy. My first love will always be print advertising, and using Photoshop, heavily. I might take these items a step further and complete some 3D renders of them, and make the companion bottle and a line extension into 355mL or 12 Fl. Oz cans.

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Should you like the look of any of these, or wish to pursue some options for your own brewery please feel free to reach out to me at: gwstudios@rogers.com

Ready for 2016

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So here we are a couple of days in and two of my family’s birthdays are done and accounted for. The final projects of 2015 have been all wrapped up, and the Christmas decorations have been packed up and put away carefully for another year. Now, since it is the last day of the Christmas holidays before reality is due to kick back in, we turn our attention to Monday. Seeing as how I am self employed, and I don’t pay to advertise, and work primarily off of people I knew from previous jobs, and the associated connections I made, I feel it is worthwhile to once again let you all know what is available to you from my Graphic Design business GreatWall Studios: Graphic Design.

In my LinkedIn profile, you’ll notice that I have worked most ardently in the Beer (alcoholic) beverage industry. I will now name drop the breweries and companies I have done design work for : Evolution Design works, Molson-Coors, Moosehead Breweries Ltd, The Boston Beer Company, The Twisted Tea Brewing Co, The Bruce Ashley Group, the C & C Group, Heineken, Dos Equis, Creemore Springs, Estrella Damm, Shepherd Neame, Paulaner, Hop City Brewing Co, Mill Street Brewing, Rickard’s and Boris Beer to name the largest portion. For these companies I have created can and box packaging, logos, design and layout of copious sell sheets and ppt templates, apparel, and retail displays. Working with so many different brands, I am well aware of possible restrictions via Brand Standards and Guidelines.

I also have production experience, where having a creative eye can make the transition of your product from one size packaging to another that much smoother, as I am paying attention to not only the legal requirements but to the overall composition of the piece.

I also am available to do concept work for packaging; anything from cellophane bread wrappers,  pet food packets, to beer cans & bottles, and their associated labels, cartons and trays.

I am also able to produce 3D carton renders, and bottle and can renderings.

I am also available to produce Catalogues, (of various lengths), and  Flyers,  Posters/Infographics, Logos, Print Ads, Web Banner Ads (Static & Animated), Fleet Graphics and Vehicle Wraps, Illustrations and Photoshop Composites.

I however don’t do back end web development, and I do very little multi-media (video editing) at this time. I did six or seven “Win a Grand A Day” video spots for Moose Light in late 2014, set to music, with pop up text and that was that.

I work with companies from both the East and West coast, so I am very comfortable working via e-mail, telephone or video conference calls.

gwstudios@rogers.com

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MH Snowboards available through Amazon

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Here’s something neat that I didn’t expect to see. Some of the Western Market snowboards I designed with Don Burns are up for sale on Amazon.com. I guess that’s a good sign if people are willing to pay $200 – $300 bucks for some of my handiwork. Some elements from the design came from Russell Branding & John.St as well.

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PS. I’m also getting ready for the GFN’s show in Guelph Ontario tonight. It’s going to be a blast so come out if you can. Bands go on at 9:30pm inside Van Gogh’s Ear, on Wyndham St (South End).

-M

Doug Stanhope: MUSA Ballcap

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This is so awesome, I am a huge fan of Doug Stanhope (not for everyone) and I just saw him on Charlie Booker (Newswipe) BBC wearing one of a series of hats I designed for the US Market. I am so happy that a comedian I think is super funny, likes a piece of my work enough to wear it on international television. (He is in no way affiliated with Moosehead Breweries Ltd, nor is it implied, explicitly or implicitly). I just think it’s cool that a guy famous enough to have done The ManShow on Comedy Central with Joe Rogan, and is a known comedian likes something I worked on.

Plus I don’t get much of a chance to show off work to family overseas so that was a cool realization.

Cheers!

Mark