Sean Gaffney is a newskool HTML5/CSS3/JavaScript/jQuery front end guru. Was that a mouthful? You may not have heard of him yet, but he’s been some of the muscle and brains behind the new Pattern Tap, Blue Sky Resumes as well as Barley’s Greenville. He’s also presented at conferences on jQuery and front end development.

When Sean was growing up, his Dad used to tinker around with radios. He get’s all misty thinking about it and he loves that minimal old world transistor diagram/radiophile vibe. He wanted to tie in his nostalgia for such a style into his new website. One of Sean’s goals as he makes his foray into the world of blogging is to pour out his skills to help the people that helped him learn so much.

It’s been awesome working with Sean and while this project spanned out many moons, we were able to achieve something that he could truly love…and that’s exactly what I wanted to design for him — Something he loved and cherished.

A Testimonial from Sean:

“YOU ARE THE MAN! I mean that, really!!… Thanks bro! You’ve truly blessed me with this project!”

You can view larger images in the portfolio.

Matthias Dietrich is a PHP and Perl social media and web application architect. As a German, soon to be international brand — he wanted a sexy (my words) logo/icon to evolve his brand and propel his business, Rainboxx further. He loved my style and I loved making this for him.

A Testimonial from Matt:

“I was amazed by Rogie’s commitment to his work. After reviewing his sketches and concepts of my logo, not only did he create what I wanted him to design, but he also had additional ideas to add. These ideas caused him more work, but he was dedicated to creating awesome work, and he did!”

Matthias, or Matt is active in blogging and contributing to the open source movement. His business at Rainboxx.de is open for business. Don’t let the smattering of German text fool you, he’s rapidly becoming bi-lingual and his site will be available in english soon as well as getting a new coat of paint.

It’s been a blast working with Matt and very fun learning a bit of German as I worked with him. I was stoked about his willingness to let me post work in progress on Dribbble as well as create screencasts as I designed. I wish him all the best in business as he moves forward.

You can view larger images in the portfolio.

Dankeschön, Viel Glück und Gott Segne Dish Matt!

Before unveiling the new identity for Komodo Media incarnation five, let’s take a trip down memory lane by looking at the previous evolutions of the almighty Komodo Media logo:

Version 1: The Reptilian Head

Komodo Media version 1 reptilian head logo

There’s a reason this isn’t my logo anymore. Most people thought that this was some form of funky microphone, even though I insisted that it was a digital reptile head. Yeah…no. This didn’t really work out, however if I were to remove the digital tongue, I think that it would have been a whole lot stronger.

The text however, was really where it was at. I built the text my self and at the time, I really loved it. I loved all the circular shapes, however I was no font designer. That was for sure.

Version 2,3: The Stegosaurus Spine

Komodo Media versions 2 & 3 stegosaurus spine logo

Continuing in a reptilian direction, versions 2 & 3 was a much better attempt. With a few “stegosaurus” platelets and something that looked somewhat like an eye, I was fairly happy with this version. At least happy enough to keep it around for two versions of my site. I think I’ll still look back with fondness at this logo because it was during versions 2 and 3 of Komodo Media, that people started taking notice of my designs.

Version 4: The Cute, Consolidated One

Komodo Media version 4 “Cute” logo sans mark

As much as I loved having a logo mark, I always hated having to try to pair the logo text with the mark. It became a pain most of the time and I found myself really wanting an all text logo with the mark built into it. Also, the previous version looked so much like a stegosaurus’ back instead of a Komodo dragon, so it just became confusing.

This version saw a reworking of most of the characters in the text logo as well, fixing the ‘K’, which I always felt was ugly.

Version 5: Drafts

Komodo Media version 5 drafts

At this point, I really want to get away from the rounded text. It felt too cute, too ‘web 2.0′ if that even makes sense. I wanted to move away from the bubbly feeling and get to something more natural and more mature. With these drafts, I felt like many designers feel when working on a personal site design — I didn’t really know which direction I wanted to head — just somewhere new.

With the above drafts for the version 5 logo, I was trying to keep an all text logo, while incorporating some sort of reptilian feel. My goal was to remove the “cute” style and design it to be a grown up, more mature logo. Eventually, I decided against these. They ain’t bad though.

Version 5: Enso Brush Stroked

Komodo Media version 5 brush stroked logo

This is the logo that I have fell in love with. I’ve seen it in my head for months now, and it’s finally come to fruition. I think what I finally realized is that I’ve always wanted an all text logo that is totally original. I didn’t want to use any known fonts and I didn’t want it to seem like any font out there. This is why the logo was brush stroked by hand. I’ve also realized that I really wanted a logo that felt human…imperfect. Something that denied that we design using pixel perfect design tools with perfect vectors and grids. I wanted something that felt perhaps a bit unbalanced…a bit raw…a bit savage…like a Komodo Dragon.

Feedback?

I’d love some feedback on this logo. What do you think? Do you agree with me and do you love it? Not sold? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks for reading.

Komodo Media just launched another website design, Alternative Care Evaluations. It can be seen at alternativecareevaluations.com or you can view more information about it in the portfolio section.

About a year ago, my church Friendship Baptist had approached me to create a website design for them. As all churches these days seem, they needed a website…and they finally got one. With all free work, I find it very hard to get it done alongside paying work, so I approached this one a bit different. I decided to go with a very simple static page (no CMS) design. Slowly, I will integrate a calendar, a stories section, WordPress, etc. This way I take the work in bite-size chunks and the church still gets a site with valid information.

Feel free to check out more details for this site in the portfolio section.

• Digitally Imported Electronic Internet Radio

  Rather, refound, I used to listen to Digitally Imported internet radio all the time in my college years. I recently rediscovered my love for it while telling a friend about it. In case you didn’t know, I <3 all music electronica.

• TiltViewer Flash Image Viewer

  The first time I saw this viewer, it was over at Signal Noise and I thought it was pretty cool. I used to love flash and flash image galleries, but since, my love for flash has faded. Nevertheless, this is still a rockin’-cool looking flash image viewer.

• Buero Ink

  Markus Shaefer’s logo work is stunning as well as his minimalist site. Even though my work doesn’t reflect it, I love minimalism and simple, monotone forms.

• display:inline-block;

  During my day job at Dealerspan as a UI designer, our target broswer is Firefox 3+. This means I get to use display:inline-block; all day long and it is such a time saver. No more floating!

• :hover:focus

  If you ever want to simulate an “onpress” selector in CSS, this is handy. Use a:hover:focus.

• “Star Wars” – an a capella tribute to John Williams

  This a capella video is amazing. From Star Wars to Jaws to Jurassic Park, I nerded out!

  I suggest a new strategy: let the Wookie win…

• Wilson Miner’s Website

  I love Wilson Miner’s minimalist site. Wait…he did the redesign for Apple.com? No wonder I like his style.

• Apple Keyboard

  After asking a ton of people on twitter, I broke down and bought the new apple keyboard. I love it. It so totally rocks compared to the plastic breadbox I was using before.

• Cold Calling Monetizing for n00bs

  A legit way to monetize your blog or vlog. Just call the company and ask them!

• Coda updated to 1.6 Plugins Available

  Of the myriads of updates and new feautres that Panic packs into every update, one feature stands out from the crowd: Plugins. That’s right – you can develop your own plugins for Coda. That’s freaktastically rad.

That’s it for today peeps. Let me know if you like this and want me to keep it up. Cheers!

Nerd Glasses

I <3 Nerds. I can sense a nerd like Gandalf sensing the ring...and "Nerdification" - I'm adding that to my list of words to use once every 2 minutes.

Cappuccino

Hmmm, nerds, coffee…is there more to life? I love the scripted “Cappucino”.

MailChimp

Jon Hicks: He rocketh vectors hard. Mental Note: If Jon Hicks designs one more monkey, I’m recommending him for leading actor in the new “Gorillas in the mist”

Espresso

More coffee? Maybe I need to get on a program. I almost want to drink the foam. Wait – there it is. yes. I DO want to drink the foam.

I’ll post more on what I learned in the designing process as well as releasing some freebies, so stay tuned. As for now, I’m a tired boy and I’m gonna take a rest. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think!

I made this bad boy live and I have much to fix and redo, however I would appreciate all of your comments and criticism. I would love to hear what you think. If you think the site is confusing or you feel that you have a great idea that could contribute to the overall merry-ness of this site, then by all means do so, no matter how beginner of a designer that you feel you are. Also, if you see any missing content, please let me know. All comments are appreciated :)

Just to let you know about things not yet done on this site:

• Portfolio: The portfolio section still contains my old style. I think I am going to move it away from flash and into the html world.
• Tweaks & Nitpickiness: There are quite a few margin/padding and misalignments. I still would appreciate you commenting on them, but realize that I know this thing ain’t perfect.
• Music Section: Parts of the music section aren’t perfect. Still gotta get those done.

In addition to criticism, if you love/like the design, please say so. Thank you for your visit :)