Hi, I'm Liam Donnell, a graphic designer studying at Rochester Institute of Technology.
Projects
Archaic — Branding
An online store which specializes in vintage analog audio equipment
Archaic is a (fictional) online store dedicated to providing musicians the ability to buy and sell vintage analog equipment, used by thousands of talented musicians to create some of the beloved tracks of the late 20th century. To a musician, the limitations and quirks of vintage gear is just another tool to generate creativity. In addition to provided gear to musicians, Archaic also offers vintage listening equipment and albums.
The goal of the project is to create an effective branding for Archaic including a stand-out logo that relates to musicians seeking to expand their musical bucket of paintbrushes. For this project, I was the sole designer, but I have my classmates and professors to thank for providing feedback and guidance.
Moodboard
My moodboard includs a lot of the companies who made the equipment Archaic would sell, the equipment itself, and some of my favorite music created using this technology.
Sketches & Type
I spent a lot of time thinking how I can bring the energy of music production and the form of vintage equipment together in a logo to represent the brand. I considered many pieces of gear such as synthesizers, samplers, drum machines, and other instruments. I also considered the other elements of listening and collecting, and how those can be implemented.
I thought and iterated a lot about the type as well, it needed to be suit modern standards but reflect the landscape of both design in music in the 80s and 90s. The final typeface was Orbitron, a modern geometric sans-serif typeface that hints to typefaces like Eurostile, which sit nicely in the futuristic visions of the 80s that could fit in the world of groups like Daft Punk and Orbital.
Logo
The primary logomark is an "A" using a sawtooth wave as the crossbar. The sawtooth waveform is used frequently in subtractive synthesis and represents electronic sound synthesis. However, the brand also represents collecting and listening to music, so a system involving 3 logos is also used—a cassette tape to represent collecting physical media, and a smiling face with headphones to represent the joy of listening to music.
The colors each reflect the aspect of music they belong to—the primary red being the excitement and passion involved in music production. The yellow representing the permanence of physical media and the happiness of owning music. Lastly, the blue representing the relaxing atmosphere that can be provided by listening to music.
Brand
Village of Carthage — Web
A simple website for my hometown
The Village of Carthage is the town where I grew up. It's small and mostly uninteresting, but it needs a great website for its community to stay informed. And there are a wide variety of users, from those just trying to stay up to date, the community event gurus, and the local politics followers. For this project, I was the sole designer, but I have my classmates and professors to thank for providing feedback and guidance.
Current Website
The current website is lacking in clear navigation and consistency, understandably so for a small village. Accessibility problems like text in images and articles as PDFs were other things I immediately noticed.
Competition
I visited the websites of other towns and villages in New York for reference on structure and layout. Two in particular were Canton and Liverpool, which had much more intuitive navigation and layouts.
Personas & Site Map
The website needs to serve a wide range of users and have a clear navigation in order for users to quickly find what they need without frustration.
Result
The end result was a simple and clean website. The left side navigation makes it easy for users to find what they're looking for while giving a lot of space for content in the center. The layout is consistent betweeen pages but also flexible if a new type of content needs to be added.
Silly Walks — Editorial
An editorial spread to spread the joy of silly walks
Silly Walks is an editorial spread about the benefits of exercising via silly walking, from the incredible Monty Python skit, Ministry of Silly Walks. I love the original skit and wanted to express the joy of silly walking.
Simplicity is The Key to Good Design — Print
A poster series that reflects on simplicity
"Simplicity is the key to good design" is a quote by designer Raymond Loewy. The goal of this project was to create posters interpreting the quote in different ways — each poster had different limitations. One poster had no limitations, it could use type and imagery. Another poster could only use typography. And the final poster had to use physical mediums.
Moodboard
Sketches
Posters
The leftmost poster uses both type and imagery, and is a mockery or parody of simple design, but also representing how a message can be given through simple shapes. Often times designers add circles and lines and other nonsense to make their design seem more intricate or mathematical, when it's really just unnecessary embellishment.
The center poster uses only type and is a juxtaposition between a simple message in the center with heavy white space, and loud type on the top and bottom. The type on top and bottom is large and trying to grab the viewer's attention, and the simple type in the middle provides a break from the rest. This is also a reference to the relentless advertising and neverending attention demanding world we live in.
The rightmost poster uses analog methods, and is a redrawing of a Calvin & Hobbes cartoon, with the dialog removed. The viewer is able to understand the meaning without dialog as the concept and imagery is so simple.
The Peasant and The Devil — Motion
A video that tells the story of a crafty peasant and the devil
"The Peasant and The Devil" is the tale of a crafty peasant and a devil, from the Brothers Grimm collection of fairy tales. My project combines collage and motion graphics to tell this story.
Axolotls Are Cute. — Motion
A video that explains the difficulties of caring for an axolotl
Axolotls Are Cute is in educational video about the difficulties of taking care of an axolotl (an aquatic salamander often kept as pets). Many people are not aware of the numerous conditions axolotl's require to remain healthy. This video serves to educate and raise awareness about this, in order to avoid harmed axolotls.