Charpie

Food for Market, a food styling, advertising, branding and strategy business owned and operated by Shannon Charpentier, now has an online presence! Yay for food! We’ve initially created a simple, one-page site showcasing capabilities and offering the necessities for the new business to get off the ground. The new site will give them a pretty face on the internets and world wide webs while we work on building out a more content rich version. Delicioso!

Follow Food for Market on Twitter. | Become a fan on Facebook.

From our eyes in the skies to our pixels on our screens, UAV drones have dramatically changed the Military’s methods of gaining intelligence. What that has to do with the pixel half of this analogy, we don’t know. But… when was the last time you saw an icon designed for the Navy look this pretty?

Big props to our homey, Sherwin Schwartzrock, for the original sketches. He’s good.

How do you create a simple icon to represent a generic physical sensor depicting one in a multitude of shapes and sizes? Easy. Draw a box, put some fancy tape around it, and stick an old-school radio antenna on top! Voilà!

This icon will be used in a web app and represent devices all over the world relaying everything from sound, vibration and location to you name it. 

Heyoh!

Check out our shnazzy new identity piece for Fargo-based firm, Stahl Architects and Builders. The idea behind the design was to create something far different from your typical architecture firm logo sporting either some sort of trendy san-serif font or alas… a Roman or Greek column. Sorry Futura, Century Gothic and Roman Empire, but you’re not needed this time.

We think the logo twists a nice modern feel with an old school carpentry/handyman/craftsman-like warm feeling establishing a sense of long-standing reputation without dropping “Est. 1889” below the name. It also offers a unique and great direction for future collateral that will separate them from competition for sure.

But… the client didn’t like it. Or rather, they did, but it wasn’t the direction they wanted to take. Shucks! It happens though. This is the design business.

So, this will be the only place you see this logo. We wanted to give it one last shiny little moment before filing away. Goodbye my looooove!

Ok, we’re over it. Next!

Just in case you have a handful of gears, er… sprockets, you might want to keep them in the new 2010 limited edition designer sprocket folder.

Cosmo G. Spacely may not approve, but hopefully it would pass inspection from George Jetson.

We’ve just launched a little site for Iowa based Energae, LP!

Energae is a consultative/project management partnership offering expertise for today’s growing renewable energy needs. Basically, they find new ways to make energy. Cool beans!

They’ve told us about some top secret energy formulas, but we can’t tell you what they are yet. You’ll just have to stay tuned, and it’s not because we’d probably get into a lot of trouble for telling you, but more so that it makes us feel special.

Follow them on Twitter or Facebook!

Office space available for lease.

Little red car icon. Probably has the best turning radius of any icon we’ve produced to date.

Today we built a factory with our bare hands. Ok, that’s a lie. There was a Mac Pro involved.

If we were to produce an icon for an underground gas tank, this is what it would look like! Please note, not actual size. Next time you’re fillin’ up your rig at the gas station, one of these big old green doohickies will be nestled below the concrete you’re standing on.

Again, special thanks to fellow illustrator Sherwin Schwartzrock for the sketches!

As promised, the Panic Transmit inspired cargo truck icon. This will be just one of a series of over 60 icons to be created for an undisclosed web application. We’re working on these with the help of fellow illustrator Sherwin Schwartzrock. Can’t wait to show ya more!

Hello, world. We’re still cranking out design work nonstop, so it’s about time we start getting the blog up to date! Charpie has been contracted to develop a series of icons for a yet to be disclosed web application. We can’t say what it is, but we do have permission to showcase design work as we move forward. So, from here on out we’ll be frequently posting our latest little delicious design morsels for you to enjoy.

To help us speed up the process we’re working with a good friend and extremely talented illustrator, Sherwin Schwartzrock. Sherwin is a Minneapolis-based illustrator with a great style and eye for design that says a lot in a small amount of space. Thanks, Sherwin!

The first icon in the series is a gas station. The next will be a cargo truck, which is what really inspired the entire set. Panic’s Transmit icon is well loved and being fanboys, we just couldn’t help but be inspired by their design. So we’ll give a shout out to those guys to give credit where credit is due! Speaking of which, this reminds us of this site about other Panic inspired findings. Stay tuned for more!

Just launched! We’ve created a new site for Bethany Retirement Living!

Bethany, formerly Bethany Homes, contracted Charpie to freshen up their existing site. We wanted to create something more friendly and approachable and look toward the positive side of retirement living.

We also wanted to focus on the actual people residing at Bethany and shed them in a new light. There’s so many great stories within the Bethany community that we just couldn’t resist not telling them. So, the site will feature newly updated pictures and biographies of actual residents that will not only keep fresh content flowing but develop an entire library of great stories from the Bethany community.

Additional features include the ability to email residents, look for jobs and careers, apply for admission, and check out maps and details of all their locations.

The site was coded by Jason Hummel of Humjay!

Check it out at http://bethanynd.org.

Thought we’d get a post in to highlight the design of our latest campaign element for the Pedigree Technologies OneView platform.

The campaign introduces OneView’s latest spokesman, Jack (of all trades), as an everyday, hardworking good-old-boy and targets Pedigree’s existing customer base as well as prospects. The landing page design reflects Jack’s desk, littered with sticky notes, loose papers, and the random stuff that collects on the average day of last minute phone calls resulting in change orders, reroutes, equipment failures, headaches, etc.

The design is the beginning of a new approach to Pedigree’s commercial presence taking it away from a possibly intimidating tech approach to a more friendly, light-hearted, “we understand what your days are like” approach geared toward attracting those who shy away from the assumption that implementing such an advanced platform is just for the tech oriented, IT computer geek guys.

Today we’ve launched a landing page campaign for Fargo-based company Pedigree Technologies. We whipped up this little diddy of a video to both intrigue the viewer and educate them on the Pedigree Technologies OneView product and service. Trying to put such a complex product into lamen’s terms proved to be a bit of a challenge, especially trying to do so quickly, but I think we’ve got a winner here that will give us legs for 4 or 5 more installations starring or new favorite character, Jack (of all trades).

Watch Now! Requires QuickTime.

We also designed the landing page for the Google Pay-Per-Click campaign. Check it out.

Hope ya likes!

Felt like drawing a bowl of tomato basil soup. So here it is. kthxbye

We are so super excited to launch our up-and-coming sister site, GrillingAddiction.com, that we just have to give you a visual taste of what’s in store. Introducing the Grilling Addiction logo.

For us, it started as a love for grilling over hot coals in our trusty Weber grills with a cold beer in hand. Now, it’s an addiction. Grilling has not just become a past time or a means of preparing that which we need to survive. It’s become our life.

We want to know every tip, trick and recipe for every meat, fruit and vegetable that could possibly come in contact with a grate. And, we want to share our experiences with you through GrillingAddiction.com

The final design took a couple weeks to finish off and is vastly different than some of the first concepts. We originally went down a road of traditional western-style typefaces and used visuals such as flames and wood grain. Although nice, the designs didn’t pertain to the feel we wanted the site to have — something lighter with more modern lines and easy on the eyes.

Follow Grilling Addiction on Twitter!

Yay Earth Day! We’ve put up a quick site for our friends over at EcoSet. They are extremely busy reducing the environmental impact of the film, television and commercial industries. What an awesome business! Check ‘em out.

New logo for LA based consulting company EcoSet! Woot!

EcoSet contacted Charpie in an effort to help them make a splash in a breakthrough new industry offering green solutions and logistical environmental support tailored specifically for the feature film, television, and commercial industries. Their goal is to reduce the industry’s negative impact on the environment.

While working in the production office of the latest Coen Brother’s flick, A Serious Man, Ecoset’s founder Shannon E. Shaefer helped divert nearly 80% of the set waste which totalled precisely 11.1 tons! Yowza. Read more about Shaefer’s efforts.

EcoSet will help production staffs integrate environmentally responsible practices involving composting, recycling and waste diversion, energy and transportation, client services and general production support.

Follow @ecoset on Twitter!

With all the Twestival excitement going on, I figured I’d offer up some simple, fun desktops depicting my design submitted to be the official Twestival t-shirt for the 2009 event. Voting for the winner of the t-shirt contest will end tonight, February 8th, and the official design will be unveiled on the 9th at 10:30 AM CST.

The folks over at Desired Hearts are hosting the contest for Twestival and will be producing and selling the shirts with proceeds going to Charity: Water.

Get yo’ desktops here:

1024 x 768, 1152 x 768, 1280 x 854, 1280 x 1024, 1440 x 900, 1600 x 1024, 1600 x 1200, 1680 x 1050, 1920 x 1200, 2048 x 1280, 2560 x 1600

I recently dug up this little gem. It’s a video I made with my mother for her submission to last year’s “So You Think You Can Cook?” contest put on by Rachel Ray. We thought it would be fun to make it a mash-up of food, football, and reality TV. Although we never did get accepted to the contest, it was a good time with food and friends and that’s what counts. See more on the finale here.

Thought it be fun to post the video for everyone to enjoy. Yay internet!

When designer denim and fashion boutique Luxe contacted me to create a new logo for them, I was faced with a challenge. The store catered to both young fashionable women from age 16 to more mature women with refined style up to age 55.

My initial designs always swayed one way or the other. I struggled to find a middle ground between young, fun and innocent and bold, sophisticated, yet not highbrow.

This is how this design was born. The custom Luxe typeface seems to have two personalities. That of a younger still emerging and developing style as depicted at the base of the word to another as you continue to scan up the logo and the initial personality becomes more defined and even refined as it appears to almost grow and lift off the surface.

Zip zing!

There’s a few things I love about summer: softball, beer, and design. Ok, so beer and design have nothing to do with summer. Those are kinda year round things. Regardless, my softball team, The Crew, needed something for our jerseys. Since beer drinking is as part of the sport as the game itself, to us anyway, we had to come up with some combination of the two.

My life in graphic design wouldn’t be complete without at least one creation of the standard brush script baseball logo, so this will be my offering to the logo cliché gods. Yay! Check it off the list! Now all I need is a clipart spinal chord chiropractor logo to complete my sacrifice.

All in good fun.

Yay for new work! Recently, an up and coming electric vehicle manufacturer asked me to polish up their image. Fargo-based Electric Vehicles Unlimited wanted something that looked clean and professional that would have room for future growth.

Up until I met them, they strictly referred to themselves as EVU, and their current logo also suggested this moniker. So, this is where I began. Hiding the word “electric” was not something I wanted to do for it was the foundation of the company’s existance. Let’s get EVU out the window and bring Electric Vehicles to the world. Now when someone sees their name they’ll know exactly what they are all about. It won’t be another acronym guessing game.

I also didn’t want to overcomplicate things. I’d like Electric Vehicles Unlimited to have a symbol, but I don’t wanna go overboard with something that overshadows the most basic definition of the business. My solution was to make Electric Vehicles Unlimited a text based logo accented with a well known symbol for electricity - the good ol’ bolt. The bolt also ties the two basic elements of the company; electricity and vehicles.

The room for future growth will rely on the bolt. It will be able to be used with tags and as a physical emblem on the vehicles themselves, and it will create a second wave of branding after the initial establishment of Electric Vehicles Unlimited. For example, check out this spec animation I whipped up: Watch. (Requires QuickTime)

Currently under development! We’ve got a new site coming for local hair stylist Steph Fischer! The site will be her stomping grounds for the latest opinions in fashion, style news, and checking out pictures of her latest masterpieces.

Steph’s site will even allow the unique ability to book an appointment online! We’re excited to get this out and see what customers think. What a world we live in!

We’ll also be offering the ability to purchase products recommended by Steph herself via Amazon’s affiliate program.

Check out the preview here.

Just whipped up this graphic to be used in conjunction with some other materials I’m working on for stencil maker, Industrial Stencil Design. I’m currently working on a new logo for the business as well as a spankin’ new site! Zip zing!

We are continuing to put a new face on San Rafael, CA based production company Dandy Dwarves! We’ve just launched the new website featuring a plethora of new and old work. There are some projects in there from way back in our college years even!

For the site we wanted something that looked artsy, but still played well with web standards. From our research, it turns out to be one of only a few production company sites that aren’t Flash based — which is a good thing. Building the site complient with web standards will allow for better search engine optimization and an easier way to link to specific projects.

I’m surprised at how many large production companies have terrible websites in which you can’t link to a specific project. Can you imagine getting inspired by something and wanting to share it with your creative team or client? The conversation would go something like, “Ok go to blah.com. Wait for it to load. Now do you see a projects link? Ok click that and wait for it to load. Now is there a Directors link? Click that and then click on Joe Schmo. When his thumbnails animate in go to the third one across and second one down. Yeah that’s it!”

We can just send ‘em a simple link directly to any page. That’s how it should work.

We’ve revamped the logo for San Rafael based production group Dandy Dwarves! They really wanted something simple with room to add a little fun later, so I’ve initially based the logo off the Century Gothic typeface. I evened out all the stroke widths, and rounded everything off. A little nip there, a little tuck there, and that’s what you see.

We’re gearing up to launch the official Grill-A-Thon website within the next few months! The site will be a great source for event information as well as grilling tips and tricks. Once underway, we’ve got plans for even more grilling fun with all kinds of merchandise and podcasts. Stay tuned!

Check out the preview here.

If you know me, you know I love to grill. And who love to grill just as much as I do? Well, a lot of people, but mostly my friends and family! So, this year we’ve created a seasonal event dubbed Grill-A-Thon. The idea is simple. Wake up and start grillin’ and keep on truckin’ until you literally can’t stand anymore. We gather as many grills as we can find and get as many chefs and eaters as we can to take part of this little spectacle.

Grill-A-Thon was created as a time to get together with friends and learn from each other tips, tricks, and recipes. You can come and cook, or just enjoy the food. There’s really no rules at all.

What would an awesome event be without a little design for desert? That’s why I created this logo for us and am currently working on a website and some merchandise. I figured I’d through the design in a starry night scene around a glowing grill as is how the event usually comes to rest. So feast your eyes!

Just completed! To help launch the new Redline ‘Redefine’ campaign we’ve completed this quick, action packed animation. It will be used to tag on to existing Redline videos while we continue our work to bring everything up to speed with the new look. Charpie teamed up with fellow production crew Dandy Dwarves and Mike Goubeaux to make it happen.

Dandy Dwarves | Mike Goubeaux

This week will mark the beginning of a brand overhaul for Minnesota-based Redline Performance Products. The company had been widely known in the performance vehicle industry for their snowmobiles, but they’re letting go of the snow-chained vehicles for a more dynamic, all terrain genre. They call it a Sport Terrain Vehicle (STV). Think of a dune buggy after a case of Red Bull, throw in some Fox shocks, a 72hp Weber engine and hit the trail; be it dirt, snow, or sand. These machines truly rock any terrain, and they do it right out of the box.

I got an opportunity to ride one of these devils a couple weeks ago. It’s a thrill that has to be experienced. I’m not a skilled enough writer to even attempt putting it into words. I can say that I about crapped my pants on the first jump I took at the company’s two and a half mile test track. I was not expecting to get the air that I did and was definitely not expecting such an easy landing. It was as if I shot into space and came back down on a cloud.

Getting back to business, the above type treatment utilizing the new campaign tag ‘Redefined’ is the first snippet of an all out makeover. What’s to come? New print pieces, a dealer kit, online video campaign, and a few other surprises. Stay tuned. This will be a fun one to watch.

Hey, everybody! The TEP Inc. website is now up and running! The site for Thermal Energy Products was designed a couple months ago as part of an identity makeover. We wanted to keep the design simple, clean, and refreshing given that there would be a lot of complex images the user would be bombarded with once delving into the content of the site.

TEP Inc. is the leader in thermal and accoustical insulation covers for very large equipment in factories and plants. Their solutions help businesses maintain efficiency from an energy standpoint. Go green tech!

We’re pleased to announce the launch of the new First and Deli site! We’ve pushed up a simple little one page design for your enjoyment. First and Deli, formerly Barbara’s First and Deli, is an outstanding place to grab some fresh grub in downtown Fargo. I frequent quite a bit and highly recommend the Combo sandwich on the garden vegetable bread. Their salads are great, too! What’s more? They deliver! Yippeeeeeeeee! I think you stop in, though. There’s usually a pretty good crowd around the lunch hour, and that’s always more fun.

If you’re on the Twitter bandwagon, check out www.twitter.com/firstanddeli for the soup of the day. We’ve incorporated Twitter into the site as well. We wanted to make it as easy as possible for First and Deli to update the soups on their site. Knowing they’d have to do it every day, we thought what better way to do it than with Twitter. So now, all they have to do is text the soups from their cell phone, and the First and Deli site will automatically style and update the graphic at the top of the page. Pretty nifty! And on top of it, fanatics like me get the soups delivered to our cell phones as well!

Enjoy!

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!

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!

One of my first jobs when I started as Art Director at Fargo-based marketing company, Sundog, was to develop a new logo for a nearby tool and die shop. Performance Tool & Die needed something sleek that represented precision and professionalism. This is what eventually came of the project. Their original logo had the crosshairs, and I didn’t feel they needed to go. It was a nice, easy way of bringing the precision aspect of the business into play.

But how do I portray the underlying personality of not only the company but the folks that make it up? That’s where the typeface comes in. I wanted it to look as if deriving from a classic, timeless vehicle. I wanted it to look like it was ripped right off the back of a car from a time period when they actually had personality and to own one was to love and care for one, because that’s what you could see in the faces of these employees that worked hard and cared about what they did.