A fantastic and quirky guitar maker, tucked into an unassuming Sacramento Valley town — who’da thunk it? Well, I’ve seen his shop and played those gorgeous guitars … and it’s all true. Joe Dragony is a hidden treasure.

We’d worked on a logo together many years before, but you know the story — to connect with the world of potential customers, to come out from hiding, Joe needed a website.

Not just any website, but something that reflected his personality, his ascetic no-B.S. aesthetic — and a site he could make changes to whenever he needed.

For the design aspect of the project, I just did that thing that I do. For the technical development of the website, I suggested that building a WordPress site for him would be ideal, and what the heck — I threw in a blog, too. Take a peek and you’ll see why!

He loved it. I love it.

Please visit Joe and commission one of these guitars for yourself!

Or a ukulele. He won’t mind.

I was pleased as punch when an old friend, after years of mulling, finally decided to throw open the doors to his own guitar repair establishment: Chicago Fret Works.

Guitar repair is a tricky business, bringing into play the same questions of competency and trust that you find in the waiting room of a hospital. Musicians treat their instruments like family members, and need to feel that the folks about to perform surgery care for them too — and know exactly what they’re doing.

Though the budget for was small, we were able to put together a logo, signs, business papers and easy-edit WordPress website that perfectly fit this scenario. Steve and his partner Dan are both musicians and artisans, so their brand was constructed to evoke reassuringly been-there-forever master craftsmanship — and a sense of authentic connection with this century’s working musicians.

They’re right down the street from Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music, so if you and your stringed instrument of choice are in the neighborhood, drop in and say hello.

A little back story: I began studying German several years ago, and in an effort to improve my ear, started cruising the interweb searching for German-language podcasts that might help. The first one I discovered, in fact my first podcast experience of any kind, turned out to be a brand new effort by a young woman in Munich named Annik Rubens: Schlaflos in Muenchen.

She was so charming, funny and (thank goodness) clear-spoken that I sent her a fan letter, she responded, and a long-distance friendship was born. This illustrated graphic was simply a gesture of gratitude for the countless hours of entertainment (and education!) she provided.

In the intervening years the podcast has made Annik famous; she’s one of the best known internet personalities in the German-speaking world. And the graphic I created — featuring her beloved cat Tiger and Munich’s famous Frauenkirche — still sits atop her blog, enjoyed by thousands.

A factional rivalry

These pieces were developed for the relaunch of “Scooterlounge.com”, a website inspired by and devoted to the fanatical appreciation of vintage Italian scooters.

The world of vintage scooter fandom is split in half; each faction aligned with one of Italy’s two postwar scooter manufacturers — Vespa and Lambretta. The twinned headers for the site communicate both similarity and difference… and the difference is vital; though the vehicles are similar to the untrained eye, devotees of these curvy mechanical icons are as tribally loyal (and fractious) as the Hatfields and McCoys!

Entry graphics — choose a side

The entry page to the site offers the discerning scooterist the option to visit either Lambretta or Vespa territories, serving as well to communicate the mid-century hipster visual tone of the site, a tone deeply ingrained in modern scooter culture: Viva la Scooter!