Daily Brad, the blog

The bad news is that I’ve been a bit of a slacker on posting to my blog, but the good news is that I have been very busy. (Always good news for me, never good news for clients that want to get on my schedule.) But there are a couple things I’d like to mention today.

New Designers Added
First of all, I’ve added a couple of links to the list of Utah Graphic Designers that are of note:

The Utah Graphic Artists Forum Launched
I received an email from Wade (mentioned above) telling me about the new Utah Graphic Artist Forum that was recently launched. Here’s an exerpt from the email: (I figured I couldn’t say it much better):

Now officially launched, I present a gathering place for local graphic artists. My purpose is to promote and support the development and expression of graphic arts and to facilitating and ecouraging conversations and interaction between graphic artists in Utah, in an environment free of dues or obligations. I hope to provide something of value to members involved in all forms of the graphic arts, including illustrators, photographers, graphic designers, typographers, user interface designers, and web developers.

Both working professionals and students are welcome and encouraged to participate, discussing current events and trends, historical topics, theory, techniques, technology, business, and/or employment.

Features include a forum, mailing lists, an IRC channel for chat, job announcements, RSS feeds, syndicated calendar events, and plans to meet periodically for socials and workshops. Membership is free and open to anyone interested.

Visit, participate in and support this worthy effort of uniting us creative professionals here in Utah. It looks like it already has over 40 members, and will continue to grow.

I check my lists of Utah Graphic Designers, Utah Graphic Design Firms, etc. on a regular basis to make sure that all the folks listed there are active links and still doing great design, and tonight I ran across something cool.

Though I don’t remember what EyeFX had on their page previously, what they have now is a lot of fun on a boring afternoon. The page loads up grey, and your mouse curser becomes a pen tool that allows you to create webs of designs that looks somewhat like a Jackson Pollock painting. Hovering the pen longer makes a thicker stroke, and moving quick keeps it light and thin. You’ll notice that the canvas area fits any size browser whether full screen, half screen or made tiney.

Give it a try at http://www.eyefx.com

In a feature article from connect magazine, there was a story about a new Salt Lake City Utah based promotion agency called MINDWISE. It took me a couple searches to find their website, which currently isn’t built out, though the article says they have officially opened for business and “…already engineered a slew of promotions locally and is in talks with various companies to handle upcoming events, promotions and sponsorships next year.”

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On the front page of Axis41’s website, they define themselves:

“We’re not an ad agency, consultancy, design firm, or web shop. But the best from all of the above. No one word describes us. Although the word refreshing is a popular choice for those who have been through marketing hell.”

Perhaps that’s why their website is organized a little bit different than most ____ shops who do design work are.

Axis41
155 North 400 West, Suite 135
Salt Lake City, UT 84103
T 801.303.6300
F 801.303.6339
E info@axis41.com
W www.axis41.com

OVERVIEW
Axis41 has proved itself as a firm to be reckoned with - its designs seem to be appearing in all the recent publications that I’ve been looking at, and they’re winning a lot of awards. Since they don’t have much on their website to say “about us” other than describing the solutions they provide and their approach to those solutions, the only tidbit I found beyond the above is their press release signature:

About Axis41
Bringing a revolutionary approach to marketing communications, Salt Lake City-based Axis41 comprises a team of communication and program design specialists who strategically use and develop a wide variety of marketing and Web tools to effectively create a measurable voice that radiates from their clients’ organizations. Included among Axis41 clients are: Ciena, ClearOne Communications, FranklinCovey, Symantec, ADP Lightspeed, Novell, VISTA Staffing Solutions, and Intermountain Health Care. Learn more — visit www.axis41.com.

I assume that their name originates from the fact that Salt Lake City lies near the 41st parallel, though technically their location in downtown Salt Lake is about 40.77 degrees north. (I guess a little “rounding” was in order there. I can’t imagine Axis40.77 being as easy to remember.)

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I added another design studio to my list called angryporcupine*design, out of Park City, UT. They just came up on my “radar” when I noticed they were published in Print Magazine recently for their logo design.

I hope to occasionally profile local agencies, here’s an overview of ap*d: (the copy is summarized from their website)

angryporcupine*design
1720 Creekside Lane
Park City, UT 84098
435 655 0645 | studio
435 604 6970 | fax
info@angryporcupine.com
www.angryporcupine.com

OVERVIEW
Since 1994, ap*d has provided award-winning, successful design solutions for a variety of clients. angryporcupine*design was founded by studio principal, Cheryl Roder-Quill. Cheryl chose this unusual yet memorable name because 1) she married a Quill and 2) she wanted a studio name that was as unique as the design solutions she creates for her clients. Thus her tagline: angryporcupine*design – not an ordinary name, not an ordinary studio.

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