Dan Hauk's blog and online portfolio

I’ve decided to try my hand at the podcast/video podcast scene. It’s a little late, but I don’t feel like it’s reached its peak just yet. Plenty of time for it to grow. That being said, take a look at the new site I’m designing to go along with the video podcast. Some of the links work, others don’t. The only working links on the navigation bar are “latest episode” and “all episodes,” but there’s more to come.

What it will be is a weekly video podcast about music. Music news, reviews, discoveries, and anything else. There’s so much good music out there that doesn’t get a lot of play time, and I’ll try to bring it to light.

This won’t really start until after a few weeks once the wedding/honeymoon storm has passed. Then I’ll have some actual time to work on it. Check out the new site and let me know what you think. Comments, suggestions, critiques, any feedback is encouraged.

One of the great accomplishments a designer can achieve, in my opinion, is to create a company branding that is known worldwide. Of course, there are many factors that play into this achievement. It not only has to be a great design, but the company has to market themselves the right way to become recognizable and iconic. It also helps if they’ve been around the block a few times.

Here are ten logos that show the power of company branding. No text is needed, yet you know the company name and what they’re about. Coincidentally, many of them are circular. Maybe there’s something to it.

I really love when designers think outside the box. Being in Reading, PA, though, there are few unique ads to be seen. While browsing the internet, with the help of Digg, every so often I come across some high quality, creative advertising. This campaign by Denver Water is one of those examples of thinking outside the box.

Now, using the environment in ads isn’t really anything new. Plenty of companies and ad agencies have used pieces of the environment to help their ad campaign. But these just strike me the right way, especially the ones using only part of the surface. Not to mention, it’s to get people thinking about a good cause and their personal water usage.

I think my favorite of this set is the bench ad. It’s good to see designers pushing the industry out from behind the “stay within the surface limits” mentality. I have a feeling this trend will continue to grow and it’s a great direction for graphic design to be heading. One of these days I will make a larger post with a bunch of clever, creative, and fun advertisements.

Remember the ad I posted a few days ago? See Design At Work. Well, my predictions were correct. As with any other design, the client hates white space. They have decided to use another design I came up with that I don’t like as much. However, with the other design, they came back with revisions, changing a big part of the design quality. It’s pictured to the right with their revisions made. Not quite as good, in my opinion.

I don’t understand. White space is good. It gives text room to breathe. Not only that, but it adds contrast and grabs your attention. Ever see those full page ads in the New York Times with nothing but a logo and maybe a sentence? It’s almost impossible to skip that ad. When there’s white space to contrast the typical text-filled space, it pulls you in.

This ad will be placed in a yellow page directory. Lots and lots of text, so why not add a refreshing break for the eyes, while at the same time calling attention to your logo and product? They prefer little white space, so the design can feel crowded.

In other news, the Black and White Photography section is up and running. Check it out and let me know what you think, either through the comments or the newly added (huge) “email me” button to the right. All the information to reach me can also be found in the about me section.

Also, I’ve got a couple ideas for a new website or video podcast. One of them I think is more doable than the other as it only takes time and a little bit of money for the domain. The other would require more people to help me out with development. More information on that as it becomes available (i.e. if I can afford it/find a staff). So stay tuned as I’d like to get started on that soon if I can.

I have this widget on iGoogle that displays pretty amazing photos from around the world. Maybe I shouldn’t have installed it because it’s making me want to get back into photography more and more. One of the pictures today was this one from Machu Picchu, Peru. It looks surreal.

Looking at this picture made me look up more about Machu Picchu, of course. Check out the picture on the front page there. It’s pretty awesome. Then I started thinking about how amazing it would be to travel for photography and get paid. Almost makes me want to take a third shift job so I can do more photography during the day to get going with that.

Gary Vaynerchuck of Wine Library TV had a very inspirational keynote at the Web 2.0 Expo in New York. Certainly made me think about what I really love to do and how it shouldn’t matter whether I can get money from it. But there’s almost always a way to monetize what you love in this day and age. I would love traveling the world taking photos, journalistic or artistic. The real kicker would be to get paid and have the funds to travel.

Summary: I need more photography in my life, but I need more time first.