Charpie

We’re currently in the process of giving Thermal Energy Products Inc. a little facelift! I’m super excited about the project. It’s been a long time coming!

TEP Inc. specializes in reusable, removable insulation blankets. These fancy blankets wrap around valves, pipes, and other big hot or cold things you’d find in large factories. The blankets will help keep the equipment at acceptable temperatures to help the facilities maintain efficiency and reduce the amount of energy needed perform. That’s my take on it anyway!

The original logo was created by the company’s owner, Mark Walstead, using a some sort of plotter and CAD software. The company has grown quite a bit since 1985, so TEP came to Charpie for a makeover. I didn’t want to stray too far from the original design, so I maintained the ovalish shape. However, I incorporated red and blue, dare I say ‘swooshes,’ to symbolize the ‘thermal’ aspect of TEP’s products. An inner gray oval represents the client’s pipe, valve, etc. to which TEP’s thermal blankets are applied.

We’ve got a website redesign in the works, so stay tuned!

I’ve been working hard with the Dandy Dwarves on our recent project SCADshorts. In celebration of Valentines’ Day we’ve come up with this fun little number, Love Hurts.

It’s also inspired this Match.com spot.

New Dandy Dwarves project!

In this short video introduction to the 2007 SCAD Fashion Show with Marc Jacobs, the perfectly awful little town of Plasticville finds itself facing a storm of prodigious proportions.

Way back when I was a freshman in college at the Savannah College of Art and Design I hooked up with three like minded achievement addicts: Josh Lind, Britt Spencer, and Kevin Phillips. We all got a long great and each saw a skillset in the others that offered a unique blend when we combined our effort toward a project. We knew we wanted to some day work with each other professionally, so as an excersize we formed a group called Dandy Dwarves.

Within this group we made up fictitious clients and produced work for them as if they had come to hire us in the real world. The work ranged from a simple logo to websites to television production. From this we gathered great experiences in understanding how each of us worked and what roles we naturally fell into. The Dandy Dwarves did eventually become a business and now operates out of San Rafael, CA and is lead by Josh Lind. Although Lind is the last remaining ‘original’ member, we all still work closely on projects together.

History aside, I recently created this minor facelift of our old emblem, the lollipop, to tide the Dandy Dwarves image over until the complete overhaul already in the plans. I did it mostly for fun, but also wanted to see how far I could push the idea.

Today launched SCADshorts, a project developed by fellow production group Dandy Dwarves and the Savannah College of Art and Design. Dandy Dwarves asked me to take on the site’s design and I did so enthusiastically being a big fan of the group’s work. The project takes a unique approach to the new ‘YouTube’ generation. As a viewer, you get the opportunity to take part in the short film fun. Watch the monthly released shorts and try to come up with the most creative title! That’s right. If the SCADshorts team chooses your title as the short’s official title, you not only get the prestige but a shiny new iPod touch. So head over and start submitting titles!

Special thanks to Britt Spencer for the awesome SCADshorts lettering!