I am traditionally a fine art designer - what that means is my background comes from freehand drawing (still lifes and human forms) print making, painting, etc. Because Adobe Illustrator is so cool, yet so rigid, I needed to find a fine balance between my sketchbooks and beautiful Vector Art. I present to you (drum roll please…) The Pencil Tool.

Now this is not just any pencil tool in the tool kit - its a fine tuned vector forming machine! For a while there I was doing a lot of Photographic Rotoscoping for projects - actually I still employ these pricipals today - all the time. What I learned is that Pencil tool needs some love - If you double click on the Pencil toolin Illustrator you can set the Tolornce, Roundness and Threshold for editing purposes.Try using the settingsbelow - or create one that fits your Drawing style. Combine this technique with a WACOM tablet - and watch out Picaso - its on - vector style!

Here is an example of a photo that I Rotoscoped. Love you Grandpo!

Sometimes you just feel like bragging about your family and friends and this is one of those times. We helped Kim Gonzales with her Interior Design portfolio site. She is so amazingly talented - it did not take much on our part to build her a smokin’ hot site. She is amazing with Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop so all we had to do was help her skin a WordPress CMS. She can now update on her own time and start promoting those new Business Cards!

Congratulations Kim - Skys the Limit!

Blue and I talked about doing a microsite this year to show off some new product and drive more traffic tour Social sites like Twitter and Facebook - hopefully meet some new faces.

In the traditional CAPiTA fashion - the microsite is full of oddities and glorious colors. We took most of the graphics straight from this year’s assets including posters, hang tags and catalog.

Here is a link to the site - notice the URL - fun stuff:

 http://www.capitasnowboarding.com/thismicroWEBsiteISaMETAPHORforallTHATisNOTdoneYET.html

This was a perfect oppertunity to connect with the kids in the Summer Snowboard camps like Windells. Click on a Cirlce and see what happens.

Maybe a Poster…

Maybe follow us on Twitter…

Either way - its sure to be a great way to attract a few visitors during the often times slow Summer season and pump up the kids for This coming up season!

We started Sole Position Internet Marketing back in late 2007 as a concept site for our Search Engine Optimisation work. Since then we hired 3 employees to help with the project including myself. After a solid year of research and trial and error we formulated our branding. Now we have new logo set, new business cards, Twitter Page, FaceBook profile and a new website.

Every once in a while you meet somebody that changes the way you look at things; such is the case with Jeff Valdovinos. You see Jeff called us up just like any other potential client - probably found us on the internet for Graphic Design in Portland.

When he talked on the phone - he was soft spoken and  explained to me his intentions. Jeff is a musician, better yet, he is a composer of music. He left his career in electrical engineering to pursue his dreams of being a film score composer. His pursuit of happiness inspired me. Jeff is a dedicated family man of 7 children and one one the way - his wife was the one who initially contacted me about doing a website. You could tell that the whole family was there to back him up. I was sold.

At first we spoke of doing a simple informational website landing page; before I knew it we had worked out some concepts for his new logo, cd packaging and business cards. The deadline was super tight, but in the end we created a beatiful project together.

Good Luck on the new projects Jeff - we wish you and your family the best!