Software Icon Design

We were asked by a development team in Connecticut to design a set of GUI icons for an online software interface.  We created "off," "hover" and "click" states of each icon commissioned in the job.
Below, you will see just a sampling of all the iconography we generated for the programming.  Our main challenge was to marry graphic impact, simplicity and a universally decipherable visual language.

 

BRANDING | IDENTITY DESIGN | LOGO DESIGN | ICON DESIGN | STATIONERY | PACKAGING | BROCHURE DESIGN | MARKETING | WEBSITE DESIGN | SIGNAGE | GRAPHIC DESIGN ARIZONA

Tactix Logo and Branding Design With Celebrity Appeal

OK, so we don't laugh at ALL of Russell Brand's jokes here at Tactix, but we were very excited to see a photo of him practicing his Los Angeles driving skills in December's issue of US Magazine in a Toyota Prius training vehicle branded by Tactix Creative!  Drivers Ed Direct has been a great client.  They are a prime example of how success follows bold innovative branding language. 

Good luck to Russell and his driving lessons... With his last name being 'Brand', Russell can't be seen endorsing companies with poorly designed brands, right?  LOL!  (Thanks James and Patty Pettus for the scan, Photo by Brad Witter)

The Power of a Logo...

About four years ago Tactix Creative was commissioned to create mascot logos for seven different Arizona schools in the Higley Unified School District near Gilbert Arizona. One of the logos was for the brand new Williams Field High School... "The Blackhawks."

Well... we are proud to announce that the Williams Field Blackhawks just won their tenth and final regular season game with an undefeated 10-0 record and will be advancing to the Arizona State 4A High School Football play-offs! Congratulations Blackhawks!!

I'm sure that the school has a great coaching staff, and some very talented players... But... we like to think it was all because of the logo ;-)

We love mascot and athletic graphic design...


Creative Director: Paul Howalt
Illustrated by: Von Glitschka & Paul Howalt

Tactix Creative Design | Answers to Life's Deepest Questions...

   
How fast...?

If you were traveling the speed of light and you turned on your headlights, what would happen?


Hmmm...

BRANDING | IDENTITY DESIGN | LOGO DESIGN | ICON DESIGN | STATIONERY | PACKAGING | BROCHURE DESIGN 

MARKETING | WEBSITE DESIGN | SIGNAGE | GRAPHIC DESIGN ARIZONA

Paul Howalt's Phoenix Design Week Presentation

Phoenix Design Week has been over for about a week now, but I just received this photo from Von Glitschka of me presenting in my session on Sunday at the Phoenix Convention Center, and I thought I'd post it.  What a great time it was meeting everyone who stuck around after the session.  Big thanks to Jim Nissen and crew for coordinating such an overwhelmingly complex conference.  The Phoenix design community is lucky to have you all.

I would have liked to see all the speaker's presentations, but the standouts for me were Von Glitschka, James Victore / Paul Sahre, Joe Ray & Jon Arvizu.  I hope everyone took away a little bit of inspiration to last through 2011.  I can't wait to see what's in store for next year!

 BRANDING | IDENTITY DESIGN | LOGO DESIGN | ICON DESIGN | STATIONERY | PACKAGING | BROCHURE DESIGN | MARKETING | WEBSITE DESIGN | SIGNAGE | GRAPHIC DESIGN ARIZONA

B to B Magazine's 10th Anniversary Marketing Trends Icon Design

Tactix Principal, Paul Howalt was commissioned by B To B magazine  to Illustrate10 'icons' to accompany their feature article in the 10th anniversary issue, highlighting the top trends of the last 10 years in Business to Business marketing.  Each of the spot illustrations conveys one of the top 10 trends. Thanks to my reps at Three In A Box. (Click image for more detail)

 BRANDING | IDENTITY DESIGN | LOGO DESIGN | ICON DESIGN | STATIONERY | PACKAGING | BROCHURE DESIGN | MARKETING | WEBSITE DESIGN | SIGNAGE | GRAPHIC DESIGN ARIZONA

Cellular Service Map Icon Design

Tactix was recently commissioned to develop a group of icons to represent states in which this particular client provided cellular service. Some states were definitely easier to brainstorm on than others!  After final art was generated, these icons were then placed onto a cellular service coverage map to help sell the service to residents in each featured state.  (Click on image for detail) Icon Design: Paul Howalt, | Art Director: Sherwin Schwartzrock.

 BRANDING | IDENTITY DESIGN | LOGO DESIGN | ICON DESIGN | STATIONERY | PACKAGING | BROCHURE DESIGN | MARKETING | WEBSITE DESIGN | SIGNAGE | GRAPHIC DESIGN ARIZONA

Target Stores "Well-Being Program" Icon Library: 100 icons designed in less than a day!

Target's in-house design team concepted a visual system to promote it's new inter-office Well-Being Campaign.  It supports the idea of wanting greater harmony between the many facets of one's life. Well-being is not an end, but a means, and by making a simple decision to improve one area of your life, you positively impact another. It’s all about you and your choices... In health, career, financial, community, social and family life.

This visual promotion system demanded the design of a library of 100 icons in a carefully crafted, hand-cut style.

Target's hired gun, Sherwin Schwartzrock, turned to Tactix Creative to flesh out the design of all 100 icons in less than a day!  It was a tall order, but after a well caffeinated sleepless night, we delivered a massive set of 100 icons, ready to drop into Target's design layouts.  Below, you see a sample of 50 of the 100 icons done for the library.  (Click image for larger view) Icon Design: Paul Howalt | Poster Design Above: Target In-House Team.

 BRANDING | IDENTITY DESIGN | LOGO DESIGN | ICON DESIGN | STATIONERY | PACKAGING | BROCHURE DESIGN | MARKETING | WEBSITE DESIGN | SIGNAGE | GRAPHIC DESIGN ARIZONA

Hilarious Neutraface Font Parody Video! - Sans Lady GaGa...

Mad love to these fellow designers - who seem to have too much time on their hands.  When Richard Neutra designed his incredible typeface, 'Neutra', I don't think he ever imagined that it would have inspired a, um, well, 'music video' based on Lady Gaga's 'Pokerface'.  House Industries issued a (more than complete) set of this layout staple font in 2001, but it seems that the glitter has not faded after all these years for many of us... including Jason Kinney and pals.  Check their ode to this geometric typeface backed by a "Weird" Al style vocal tribute!  Too Fun!   Go To Neutraface Video!

BRANDING | IDENTITY DESIGN | LOGO DESIGN | ICON DESIGN | STATIONERY | PACKAGING | BROCHURE DESIGN | MARKETING | WEBSITE DESIGN | SIGNAGE | GRAPHIC DESIGN ARIZONA

Permaguard Logo Design & Stationery

Changes, changes, changes... sometimes it seems to be 90% of what we do every day.  This logo design and identity project for Permaguard Termite and Pest was the exact opposite, however.  (I suppose that could be called a "welcomed change.")  After brainstorming and presenting a broad range of logo design concepts, they ended up adopting our favorite solution... with no changes.  We then moved quickly to the stationery system which sailed through a fast approval process as well.  Permaguard is now up and running with a new identity.  That's how we like to see things happen for clients... efficient and effective! (Click images for larger view)

BRANDING | IDENTITY DESIGN | LOGO DESIGN | ICON DESIGN | STATIONERY | PACKAGING | BROCHURE DESIGN | MARKETING | WEBSITE DESIGN | SIGNAGE | GRAPHIC DESIGN ARIZONA

"Holmes on Homes" Magazine Icon Design

We've just finished up a set of icons for a Canadian Magazine called "Holmes On Homes" - published by HGTV star Mike Holmes.  We infused some of the linear designs with personality and even a sense of humor. Everyone was very happy with the final set.  They will see their first printing this month.  Thanks to Holly at 3 In A Box for negotiating the deal and art Director Patricia Cavazzini, who made the job run as smooth as any project we've worked on! - (Design and Illustration by Paul Howalt) Click Image to enlarge.

BRANDING | IDENTITY DESIGN | LOGO DESIGN | ICON DESIGN | STATIONERY | PACKAGING | BROCHURE DESIGN | MARKETING | WEBSITE DESIGN | SIGNAGE | GRAPHIC DESIGN ARIZONA

Hasbro Operation Game Logo Design

Last year Tactix Creative was called upon by Hasbro to redesign the Operation game logo; arguably one of the most memorable type treatments of our time...   Rarely does such a magical opportunity come around. 
 As children's games go, this just so happened to be my very favorite.  The first Operation game actually rolled off the assembly lines in 1965, the year that I was born... Coincidence?  I think not! ;-)  Needless to say, I felt honored and privileged to be a part of this process! 
We produced many conceptually sound, and appropriately whimsical sketches, but in the end, Hasbro decided on going with the option that most honored the visual heritage of the original logo done in the 1960's. 
I also was asked to do illustrated concepts for the box top and "Cavity Sam" character buzzer board, which I will be displaying at a later date on this blog.  Mike Swiatlowski dished out some great art direction and made this entire overhaul a joy!
Side note: A few weeks back, while walking through Target,  I happened to stumble upon a very entertaining marketing effort.  I saw a box of Operation "gummy-snacks' shaped exactly like the little plastic medical 'ailment' icons that I illustrated as game pieces... LOL!  (Click image to enlarge)

Benadryl Pause Button Design

A big part of what we do on a daily basis is the designing of "Visual Components" to be used in large campaigns crafted by Ad agencies across the country.  It can be something as complex as an interchangeable modular page layout for a print campaign, or even as 'simple' as a tastefully rendered icon to be used as the focus of a brilliant line of copy. That's exactly what we did here. 
Billy Faraut from JWT called upon us to work out a perfect pause button for the copy they had sold through to Benadryl.  We did many more visual studies than are shown here, but you can get a feel for the process we went through, from the tight sketches and final layouts shown below. (Click on images for larger view).

BRANDING, IDENTITY DESIGN, LOGO DESIGN, ICON DESIGN, STATIONERY, PACKAGING, BROCHURE DESIGN, MARKETING PROMOTIONS, WEBSITE DESIGN, SIGNAGE, GRAPHIC DESIGN ARIZONA

East Valley Wellness Center Logo Design

We've just finished a new identity for East Valley Wellness Center. Internally, we had a hard time deciding which one of the 9 concepts to pitch the hardest. They were all pretty solid. The one on the top is the direction we felt was the most conceptual and appropriate... each initial E, V, W & C woven into a sitting yoga-esque human form. However, in the end, the one that we sold through was a bit more genderless and risky. Click on image for larger view (Design: Paul Howalt)

BRANDING, IDENTITY DESIGN, LOGO DESIGN, ICON DESIGN, STATIONERY, PACKAGING, BROCHURE DESIGN, MARKETING PROMOTIONS, WEBSITE DESIGN, SIGNAGE, GRAPHIC DESIGN ARIZONA

Arizona State University Sparky Sun Devils Mascot RE-Design (ASU)

Having graduated from ASU's design program, I am continually surprised at how poor reproductions of Sparky find their ways onto shirts, unofficial merchandise and especially websites. I've always respected Walt Disney's mascot illustration / design that seems to be derived from a costumed character that appears in Peter Pan's "Never Never Land".

I never purposely set out to redesign ASU's "Sparky" mascot, however... a couple years back, I was asked to do a cover illustration for a local paper here called The New Times, depicting Sparky's face in a board room. I had fun with it and the rest just snowballed from there.

Now, like it or hate it, I've stopped periodically revisiting this fun little uncompensated side project.
This is how Sparky would look if I had a chance to put my 'spin' on him... I didn't make huge drastic changes; this version below is just a bit more modern, polished, dimensional and has a better balance of positive and negative space. (Design/Illustration: Paul Howalt 480-688-8881)

COLLEGE MASCOT, COLLEGIATE LOGO, SPORTS MASCOT, ASU SUDEVILS, SPARKY, BRANDING, IDENTITY DESIGN, LOGO DESIGN, ICON DESIGN, STATIONERY, PACKAGING, BROCHURE DESIGN, MARKETING PROMOTIONS, WEBSITE DESIGN, SIGNAGE, GRAPHIC DESIGN ARIZONA

Tactix Client, Driver's Ed Direct, makes an appearance on The Tonight Show!

Earlier this month, Eric at Driver's Ed Direct (a Tactix-branded company) let us know that they were asked to help out Conan O'Brien out with a little on-air 'driving lesson for one of their producers on The Tonight Show. It turned out to be a pretty funny spot on the show! We did a 'head-to-toe' branding and identity package for this start up company back in 2006... It's great to see that they've really carved a niche for themselves out in the Los Angeles, CA area! We're so proud!

M.G. Peterson Logo Design Update

Sometimes clients just need a bit of an update to modernize the logo design they already have. We brought a bit more structure and embellishment to this CPA's old logo, done quite some time ago. We also developed a less ornate version of the logo to appear in smaller applications such as on business cards. (Click image for detail)

Effectiveness vs. Accuracy

Unisg the icndeblire pweor of the hmuan mnid, aocdcrnig to rseecrah at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mttaer in waht oderr the lterets in a wrod are, the olny irpoamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rhgit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whoutit a pboerlm. Tihs is bucseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey ltteer by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Aaznmig, huh?

Musician's Website Logo Design

Recently, I collaborated with Vianet Internet Services to resurrect a website identity that they had placed on their 'back burner'... MusicianAudition.com. The site connects musicians looking to collaborate, join bands, get gigs, etc. The first step in any well branded website design is a carefully crafted conceptual logo, right?, so... we began there. They had a pretty solid sketch of what they had in mind. I ended up designing a few versions for consideration, pulled it all together and polished it off for implimentation. (Design: Vianet, Paul Howalt)

Rainforest Stationery Design

Rarely do we come across a client with such a tenaciously vigilant marketing drive! Ike Tippetts of Rainforest Plumbing and Air came to us with project after project where his street team was passing materials out sooner than the ink could dry on the sheets. His inititiative is inspiration to us all. We've also never run across a client that has wanted to be more playful with his identity. We've been pleasantly surprised with the creative latitude we are given with his materials... to the point of sometimes needing to encourage a little more structure and less whimsy just so we don't end up tearing down the solid credibility that he has built over the years. We'd love more clients like Ike! Click on image for more detail (Design: Paul Howalt, Dena Soukieh)