I was one of the beginning members of small design shop called Uppercase. I branded Uppercase as a company and maintained that brand in all of our marketing, print, and digital applications.
This is a smattering of some of the things that I made while there.
Work was done while at Uppercase.
GroundCrew is a brand that is for an app that has yet to be released.
Work was done while at Uppercase.
My wife and I had the idea of doing more fun things together than just watching Netflix and binge watching House of Cards. We decided that a weekly VLOG would be a fun thing for us to both be creative and to make rad memories together.
It was fun to brand it and to put together an editing style, title cards, end frames, etc. to make it a cohesive branded package for our VLOGs.
It's a lot more work than you would think it is and we've been a little slack of late but you can at least watch one of my favorite ones here: Girl Learns to Skateboard
This was a summer series at NewSpring where we wanted to capitalize on the patriotic culture of South Carolina. We love how this country was built by hard working hands, so we decided to build things with our hands too. The logo was CNC out of plywood, hand painted, roughed up, and staged in a wood shop as apart of our video opener. The rest of the branding lived digitally with a textured treatment applied to the mark for all print materials and online.
Here you'll see two different shop setups, the first one was too clean but was still fun to do. We learned from that one that we wanted it all a bit more rough. Having time to rule out the clean idea was key to landing where we did.
I saw that people make NES Repro games all of the time and I fell into that area of the internet for a day or so and thought it would be a fun project. I found a company online that has different color carts and would also print and adhere the label for me.
I also went through the process of installing two NES games inside of these carts because a cart without a game isn't as fun!
What games do you think are inside of these two cartridges?
I even made an 8-bit sticker to go with these retro carts just because why not?
Work was done while at Uppercase.
Cody and I had really been wanting the opportunity to rebrand NewSpring. When the leadership at NewSpring asked us to do this, we commandeered an office and made it our brand cave. We had three months to design, one meeting with our senior pastor, and several check-ins with our brand team to land on this final solution.
We also went through nine months of production to take stock of all of our portable wayfinding, reading guides, bulletins, and anything that was redundant in the old brand and really systemize the entire brand. We launched the brand on "I Heart My Church Sunday" where for the past few years we have given away thousands of shirts to anyone who attended a service.
We held the brand close to chest and let our pastor be the one to launch it on that day and each shirt that was designed had the new logo. Everyone was given the vision of the brand and what it meant when they received their free shirts. Since then, we've seen thousands of people wearing the shirts in our communities, decals on cars, cakes made of the logo, and even a few tattoos. It has been humbling to see how many people have championed the new brand in this way.
Designers
Dave Keller
Cody Bridenbaugh
Brand Story: The Empty Tomb
Press: Under Consideration Brand New
Underbase was a branding project where I was tasked to come up with a lively system for an app that would make screen printers and their clients’ lives easier.
Work was done while on the Uppercase team.
Things have been busy since launching the new brand for NewSpring, but I am pleased to say our brand identity standards are finally finished. In all honesty, we were just figuring out all of the limitations when we launched the brand. I feel like a lot was learned through the past year, and this guide is better due to marinating for this long.
I went with an accordion fold and something that was pocket size but could also sit on your desk as a quick reference. This format is something I received on my first day working at Gensler and I have kept it with me ever since.
It's more of a brief overview of do’s and don'ts and vision for the brand. It's not exhaustive but doable for on-boarding a new creative to the team. There are plans to have more detailed brand instructions on a future internal website for the team.
We were approached by a custom rifle builder out in Texas for a new website and slight modifications to their current logo. We wanted to make a site for them that utilized a lot of white space and showed off their craftsmanship as much as possible.
It goes without saying that their rifles are beautiful and the client was happy with how it showed off their hard work.
Work was done while at Uppercase.
Mill Creek Shooting Resort is a shooting resort out in Colorado where they’ll host long range precision classes and competitions. We wanted to make the mountains a central part of the mark along with a slab serif since the resort is an old cow town ranch. It marries the western vibe of the property along with the amazing locale.
I also shot & edited the video that loads at the top of their website.
Work was done while at Uppercase.
This is a poster that I made to memorialize my twin brother Daniel who passed away on 4/16/15 and was given out to my family members to keep in their homes.
You can read more about this project on my blog.
Featured on For Print Only.
Print Specs
11x14"
2c
French Paper Co.
Pop-Tone Blu Raspberry
Edition of 20
Pick. Track. Go! is a brand that is for an app that has yet to be released.
Work was done while at Uppercase.
I worked with Sentry.io to design an upcoming conference website that they have coming up.
Hwy Pro is a brand that is for an app that has yet to be released.
Work was done while at Uppercase.
Every year at NewSpring we have a summer conference for our student ministry called "The Gauntlet". It's a week in Daytona Beach, FL where we typically have 3,500–5,000 students attend!
I was in charge of the art direction, branding and execution of this conference and was inspired by 80s skateboarding, especially Christian Hosoi's Rising Sun skate deck.
The campaign consisted of leader/student magazines, snap backs, bags, sun glasses, water bottles, bracelets, leaders journals, t-shirts, beach towels and a skate deck or two.
Photos: Chris Isham
The Wave conference was an event hosted by the Children and Student Ministries at NewSpring Church for people who also work in Children and Student Ministries at many other churches around the country. The conference provided main and breakout sessions with various speakers sharing how we do ministry at NewSpring Church.
Since the conference was about Children and Student Ministries, the overall design goal was a fun school vibe. We created a lunch box as the container for all of the conference materials. Inside the lunch box we designed a custom Wave Conference memo pad style conference book/schedule and a foldout poster with tips about doing ministry with students at school lunches. We even threw in some Goldfish to represent our Children's Ministry, KidSpring, and a NewSpring Network branded No. 2 pencil.
This journal represents how my wife and I have had to remind ourselves to keep getting back up despite our struggles with infertility as we've tried to start our family. Never forget to just keep pushin’.
You can donate, shop, and find out more about this journal here: daveandellieadopt.com
Size: 5x7" / 48-pages
Paper: Cougar 100lbs Cover / 60lbs Text / Plus Grid Pattern
Printed by: The Olive Press
It has been an honor to work on this really fun local Carolina branding project for the last 10 months. We launched the site with truck vinyls and t-shirts as our first offerings for the brand. We have also forged a relationship with Sitka and Matthews Bows, as well as assembling a team of hunters under the Carolina Legacy Outdoors brand.
I've grown up in South Carolina and when this project came to me, I had to jump at the chance. I've always been into firearms and target shooting! This project has motivated me to go deer and waterfowl hunting and to truly embrace this outdoor lifestyle.
Website: Carolina Legacy Outdoors
Introduction Video: Intro Video
Instagram: Feed
Branding/Web Design: Dave Keller
Web Dev: James Baxley
Intro Video: Evan Oliver
Photography: Chris Isham
My wife and I have launched a campaign to raise money for the adoption of our first child! We would love your support as we go on this journey!
You can donate, shop, and find out more about us here: daveandellieadopt.com
Size: 6x6"
Paper: French Paper Co / Carbon Copy Kraft
Colors: 2c / Black / White
Printed at Shed Labs
You can buy awesome stuff from these rad designers who made stuff: Allan Peters, Benny Gold, Lindsey Hudlow, Jacob Boyles, Elisabet Oliver, Kelsey Estrada, and Shed Labs
We teamed up with Amb3r to make a wool NewSpring hat as a proof of concept. We've been playing a lot with our apparel and trying new things and Amb3r offered us the chance to trick out a hat! So, naturally, I jumped at the chance to see what they could produce.
What really brings this project to life are the details. The stitched felt logo on the front and the cleaning instructions being set in our house font on the inside are just two of my favorite details.
We're not sure if we'll roll this out to the masses but it has at least given us the confidence that Amb3r can produce some high end stuff.
Our adoption journey has been a long road so far but having these opportunities to design everything has been so awesome. Knowing that the birth mother of our future adoptive child will see this book as a first impression of who my wife and I are is humbling.
The journey isn't over but this book is something that we can share with our future child when they're old enough.
Photography
Colin Mukri
Chris Isham
Vendor: Blurb
Size: 8x10"
Pages: 24
Paper: ProLine Uncoated (100# Text, Eggshell Texture) w/ light gray end sheets.
Cover: Hardcover Imagewrap
I finally had the chance to work on my first bit of design work for a company in the firearms community with this tee. This company makes some of the best steel targets I've ever used.
Student Section is a brand for the student ministry of Resonate Church in Indianapolis. They wanted it to carry the idea of the ripples resonating from their main brand but with a more youthful energy.
I went with a heavy type and gradient color palette for them to carry that youthful vibe across their brand with a sound wave feel emitting from the S in the mark.
This design started as a custom hoodie/shirt for our senior pastor and he liked it so much that we decided to do it for the whole church. These hoodies sold really well and much better than any of our previous hoodies!
"We Are The Smiths" is the story of the Smith family, four years after Zac Smith passed away from cancer. See how the Smiths have wrestled with the loss of a husband and father, what it means to have hope and why Easter makes all the difference.
Our portion of this Easter campaign was to come up with a way to tell the story in print for the day of our Easter services. I went to the HOW Design Conference last year and picked up a copy of Mohawk's Maker Quarterly and held onto it ever since. When this Easter came around and we were tasked to make something different than what we did last year. We used the size of their quarterly and the exact same paper stock since we loved it so much.
This was an all hands on deck effort by the entire team. We're really proud of the work we've done in telling this incredible story of the Smiths and how Jesus is bringing them through their grief.
Our awesome Web Team also put together this website: wearethesmiths.cc
And finally, here is the trailer that our Video Team put together and played in our main service: We Are The Smiths Trailer
Art Direction: Dave Keller
Design: Lisa Oliver / Dave Keller
Title Lettering: Lindsey Hudlow
Photography: Lisa Oliver / Chris Isham
Poster/Sticker Design: Jacob Boyles
Ad Designs: Cody Bridenbaugh / Kelsey Estrada / Lindsey Hudlow
Handwriting / Copy: Mandy Smith
Printing Specs
Mohawk Superfine Eggshell 80lb Text
4 Color Offset
12-pages / 3 Signatures
12.5 x 17.5" Folded
25 x 17.5" Open
This is the final lockup that the client liked and we went with this red/pink color. The mark is for software and even though the brown is true to the industry it sends the message of it being muddy. You want software to not be muddy so we steered away from using it for this particular mark.
This is the first t-shirt we have designed specifically for our NewSpring online store. It utilizes the leaf pattern with the NewSpring logo and has a woven logo at the bottom of the shirt.
This is a piece I worked on with my awesome team of designers! Unfortunately, we have not released this out to NewSpring yet, but these are photographs of our mocked up dummy and would be perfect bound in the end.
It's awesome to be surrounded by such rad designers who can collab on such a fun piece.
Art Direction/Designer: Dave Keller
Designers: Lindsey Hudlow, Joshua Blankenship, Cody Bridenbaugh, and Brinson McGowan
The My Story magazine is for new believers who have just accepted Christ as their Savior! It is something that we typically hand out as an addition to a free Bible. It is packed with some great stories about people being found by Jesus and how He helped them through trying times, ultimately showing that God is living and active today as much as He is in the Bible.
This branding was for a fun series at NewSpring Church where we asked people in our church to submit questions online that we were answered live over several weeks during service.
I was told that it needed a game show vibe and so I drew from casino signs found in Las Vegas. Here are some ways that the branding was rolled out in web, print, motion, and stage design.
I was only responsible for the branding and the other great teams such as web and motion brought all of this to life!
This Easter at NewSpring Church we printed 40,000 copies of a 6x6" 44-page magazines that we gave to every attendee. We wanted to cast vision about our church to first timers and to show what our Easter service was about on that day.
Cody Bridenbaugh and I pulled an all nighter on this and strived to make this the coolest thing we've done for Easter!
We had a total of 49,335 people show up for an Easter service which is pretty awesome!
Various t-shirt designs that either made it or didn't make it to print while working at NewSpring Church.
Earl Zero is not only a superb Reggae legend but an imperative influence on this genre in music history. Earl Zero’s Marketplace album expands from his typical reggae background to produce more modern vibes, while still maintaining his roots.
My brother is really important to me & when he got married, I wanted to make something special for him and his rad bride to be. I knew I wanted to do a skate deck since we both grew up skating together.
I thought about it for several months and decided that it needed to be a fun illustration that would tie in both of their personalities, my brother's full tattoo sleeve and their two dogs.
Some older and new photography done over the years just for fun or that have ended up in print/web projects.
