terrytoledo.com - web design, graphic art and illustration

dhavir productions - Web Design

dhavir productions - Istanbul, Turkey - 2009
Wordpress, HTML, CSS, PHP, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator

dhavir productions is a Middle Eastern production company serving the greater Portland, Oregon area. The site was designed with Photoshop and hand coded in HTML and CSS by myself. The code is WC3 valid. As CDs and DVDs are produced, the admins for dhavir will be able to set up descriptions for products in Wordpress. The second phase of the launch will include a basic Zen Cart installation which will allow customers to purchase products online. As we develope the site, I will be integrating the two php scripts to interact seemlessly. Currently the site will archive two important newsletters: The Portland Middle Eastern Update and Dhavir Productions Newsletter. The site can be seen here: http://www.dhavir.com.

Debra Beers - 2008
Wordpress, HTML, CSS, PHP, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator

Debra Beers is a Portland, Oregon artist that has been showing her art since the 1980’s. Her site runs off Wordpress with the NextGen Gallery Plug In. The bulk of this project was actually prepping over 200 images to be used for the web. A large number of photographs needed to be cropped, touched up and the levels adjusted. Fortunately, I have experience in image prepping from working on product catalogs. This experience helped me keep the project within a reasonable time frame. Her website can be found here: http://www.debrabeers.com.

A new service is available for 2009, I am now able to install and customize an open source application called Prestashop. It comes with a PayPal gateway, great web stats and some sharp effects. The admin control panel is completely customizable, so if you want the information architecture rearranged you can spend 10 minutes on the site map. Same goes for the storefront, too. I’ve tried eCommerce, Zen Cart, Magento and a number of other free applications but this is the best by far. Thanks Prestashop!

Take a look at my paintings, too! I now have a way to sell my artwork over the web. So far, everything in my store comes with free shipping. Check back often as I offer digital prints of past work, cafepress tees, stickers and my first comic book.

This webpage represents a group of teenagers on the coast of Oregon who participate in activities that benefit their community. The kids designed their own logo, Gray’s Web Design wrote the code and content, and I designed the graphics for this webpage. The kids wanted a trendy look with red, blue and yellow graphics and I presented them this. They loved it.

I had previously illustrated and designed the cover of this company’s premier board game, Cornerstone. The website was designed around the elements used in the package design and runs off a content management system. The entire site was installed, designed and hand-coded by myself and is WC3 valid. Good Company Games is located here: www.goodcompanygames.com.

Good Company Games - Board Game Package Design and Logo Design

Good Company Games - Tucsan, AZ - 2009
Illustration, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Streamline

Good Company Games has been contracting me to do web, graphic and illustration work since the company was founded. The original Cornerstone game has since won the Mensa Select award, Mensa’s organization has over 110,000 members worldwide who qualify by scoring in the top 2% on a standardized intelligence test. The game has been in high demand since winning and I was contacted to design the package for this follow up game. Cornerstone Essencial has less pieces than it’s predecessor. A sticker will be added to this package to denote the player colors, buying a number of these smaller game sets will allow larger groups to play a single game. My illustration kept this in mind showing an endless horizon of towers. I hope this version is just as successful.

UFOTV - DVD Package Design and Logo Design

UFOTV - Venice Beach, CA - 2009
Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop

Dead Whisper is a documentary presenting contact and communication with deseased spirits. The authors’ communication is recorded and interpreted with help from computer software. With that in mind, I designed the cover to feature visual symbols of sound waves as they are rendered on computer screens. After modifiing an image of a scary building, I added wispy clouds and photographs of moving green and white lights. Without even reading the title, the viewer has a good guess that this may be a haunted program about sound.

UFOTV - DVD Package Design and Logo Design

UFOTV - Venice Beach, CA - 2009
Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop

Lapis Exillis is a documentary focused on the Holy Grail. The author explains why specific works of art may suggest the location of the grail. Two of the works (Shepherd’s Monument and The Shepherds of Arcadia) are featured in the documentary and used on this DVD cover. Although the documentary does not attempt to link these artworks by overlapping the images, I felt it reflects the spirit of the subject matter.

I also think the result is a bit errie, more so if I am the first artist to present these masterpieces in this manner. Regardless, the Knights of Templar cross acts as the heart of the piece, uniting all the characters involved.  The spine of the DVD package repeats the title of the movie while covering the last figure. This figure is revealed on the DVD disc and appears to be handing off a head to the kneeling figure. Without going into theories, the DVD art stands well on it’s own. An original piece that merges modern design with iconic fine art.

Rock ‘n Socks - Logo Design

Stop Physics - Portland, OR - 2009
Illustration, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Streamline

The final and third attempt at the pin-up woman riding a tricycle. This is one of my most realistic images, yet. Although the client chose to follow an alternative route. I’m including the image because it marks a milestone in my illustration style. I would like to work more with realistic illustrations that are used for rock posters.

This shows the process of how the final illustration was produced. Each revision was created with the client’s requests in mind.

My first attempt was too similar to a Dr. Seuss illustration.

My second illustration was more realistic, but the tricycle may look better on an angle.

The third sketch was crude and needed more attention once it was scanned in.

The fourth step in the process produced the vector look of the third sketch.  I felt the woman’s face still needed some work and tweaked some other areas before the final image was presented.

Marrienette - Logo Design

Stop Physics - Portland, OR - 2009
Illustration, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Streamline

A fun little elephant logo. The shading and outline of the elephant was drawn by myself, the wings are modified from an actual photograph.

I started out with a sketch, drawn by hand and then scanned.  After I transformed the sketch into a vector image, I began giving the shape highlights and shades.  This was done in Photoshop.

I began outlining the major shapes of the elephant with strong strokes.

I then muted the shading and highlights.  I also added some texture to replicate skin wrinkles.

I pulled some wings from a butterfly photo, modified the wings and added them to the elephant.

Hits coming from search engines are called organic visits. If you’re a business, however, you might as well call them new customers. Most businesses invest in a website to expand their customer base, unfortunately, without proper attention to SEO (Search Engine Optimization) a nice website can sit unnoticed.

Each click that leads to your website is a vote. These votes are weighed with additional factors and ultimately determine a page rank by a search engine. The process of ranking every website is so elaborate, an independent industry has developed to provide search engine optimization. Companies can now guarantee page rank results by adjusting html files and adding specific content. Optimizing a website can run up to $3,000 and can turn a business into a multi-national company within a year. For the best explanations, visit Wikipedia’s search engine optimization and PageRank definitions.

In Search Engine Optimization, Content is King

Search Engine Optimization often involves something that most web designers avoid. Writing copy. The content of a website will always be the main factor in search engine results. Search engines will read and analyze your content, determine common phrases and store the results among millions of other sites. Researching key words and including them within your content is a standard way to improve your stats. Keyword density in document text is most effective when your keywords appear more than 3% of the time. Anything near 10% may indicate keyword stuffing and cause your site to be flagged. A good way to check your site’s keyword density is to visit http://www.webconfs.com. Keywords that are used at the beginning of the document are also considered more important. Keywords that are used together are called key phrases and add extra value to a page rank, especially if the phrase is repeated on multiple pages within a website. I have been adding content to my site for over five years and have finally noticed the benefits in my page rank.

HTML Optimization

Using key phrases and words within the html is a science to be mastered. Links may be the most important part of html on your site. URL titles are also considered by search engines. Luckily, the content management systems I use to build my sites add URL titles, file names and meta data automatically. A website that names for html files with keywords will be rewarded with a higher page rank. There are a number of tags that can be labeled with key words. Here are a list of tags that I use to optimize websites.

• Title Tag - This is one of the most important places to have a keyword. What is written in the title tag shows in search results as your page title. The title tag must be short and words towards the front are given more emphasis.
• Heading Tags - There are 3 or 4 levels of heading tags that can be utilized on a page. Most content management systems will automatically put your page title in a heading page.
• URL Title Tag - This tag defines the box of text that appears when a pointer is moved over a link.
• Image Alt Tag - The images that are used in your site can drive traffic from image searches. Keywords placed in IMG ALT tags will add to the importance of those words.
• Meta Tags - These tags are typically hidden from view and give information about the content. These tags are becoming less important over time yet are still automatically filled out by most content management systems.

Outside Links to Your Site

You want more people to link to your site. Not only do you want more links, but you want links from websites that are popular and have a strong page rank. Links from popular sites will add points to your ranking. To find where backlinks are coming from, type in “linkdomain:www.yourdomain.com” in the search field at yahoo.com.

There are only so many things you can do to add links to your site, but here are a few ideas.

• Take part in online forums - If you have opinions or experience in a field related to your keywords you may be able to drive traffic to your site by helping others solve problems. The internet is full of forums debating politics, revealing scientific breakthroughs and defining history. Contribute to your online community and search engines will reward you for it. Just make sure to include a link to your website in each post and interested readers will want to learn more about you.
• Write articles for online magazines - Not only will this help your page rank, it can be profitable.
• Get involved with a nonprofit or your local government - Get involved and make sure your website is credited with a link. Links from .gov or .org websites have a better reputation and carry a stronger vote for your site.
• Get listed in directories - Having your organization listed with yahoo.com, DMOZ, citysearch.com or uscity.net and add more links to your site from other domains. Directories can also help drive new visitors to your site without using a search engine.

If you are placing a link to your website from an outside source, include it only once and it will become more important to the search engines. In any case, professionals always discouraged tricking the search engines. Chances are, Google has already thought of it. Attempting to trick a search engine with mirrored content, hidden text and high-jacked rss feeds will hurt your ranking and perhaps lock your website out of future search engine results. Manipulating computer language to benefit a specific web site ultimately makes the search engine service compromised. Organizations like http://www.seopros.org are working to expose hackers and standardize appropriate methods for optimizing web sites.

I find it amazing to follow the “wild west” of the internet. Ownership of copyrighted material is constantly a hot topic. Constructing a democratic processes to define computer language and protecting equal rights for each domain are causes I am proud to take part of. I hope the intentions of our communication will always trump manipulation when it comes to sharing information over the internet. Give me a call if you would like an free estimate on any of the services mentioned above.

A new service is available for 2009, I am now able to install and customize an open source application called Prestashop. It comes with a PayPal gateway, great web stats and some sharp effects. The admin control panel is completely customizable, so if you want the information architecture rearranged you can spend 10 minutes on the site map. Same goes for the storefront, too. I’ve tried eCommerce, Zen Cart, Magento and a number of other free applications but this is the best by far. Thanks Prestashop!

Take a look at my paintings, too! I now have a way to sell my artwork over the web. So far, everything in my store comes with free shipping. Check back often as I offer digital prints of past work, cafepress tees, stickers and my first comic book.

I plan on sending these postcards out very soon. Let me know if you would like a copy by sending me your address with the contact page!

Do you visit a number of web pages for information? Does it also relate to your web page? If so, you should think about offering posts from those sites on your website with RSS feeds. An RSS feed can add links and text directly to your site. Plus, it updates itself automatically! In fact, this post is an RSS feed found on my homepage and on the admin panel of all my client’s web pages. It’s a new way I can keep everyone up to date with new services that I can provide. If this sounds interesting to you, give me a call or send me an email and I will be happy to explain it more. Cheers!

Triceratops

Self Promotional - 2009
Pencil, Ink, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop

This is a gift to my friend. The triceratops is inspired from an art car that I helped construct.

Bike Portland

Self Promotional - 2009
Pencil, Ink, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop

This was inspired by poster artwork by Echo Chernik, Adam Thurman and Emek. My art falls on the cartoonish side by default but I am expanding my style to more realistic images. This image marks the first step in that direction.

This was done with pencil, ink and photoshop.  This image is available for purchase exclusively (meaning I won’t use it for any other projects).  For $200 it can become your next CD cover or film poster!