Family History Graphic

I put this together for my extended family.  We grew up hearing about how Grandpa Don built airplanes during the war, and this shows exactly where it happened and some of what it looked like.  It started when I tried looking up "Weeks Ave." after I came across the photo of the house; it turns out that the street no longer exists.  So instead I found a map of San Diego from just before the war (the map is from 1940), and the rest came together from there.  

Postscript: Consolidated merged with Vultee in 1943 and became Convair, which was bough by General Dynamics in the 1950s, which was bought in turn by McDonnell Douglas in the early 1990s.  McDonnell Douglas closed all manufacturing operations in San Diego by the mid-1990s, and Lindbergh Field is now the San Diego International Airport.  All the old buildings are long gone, but you can still see artifacts from the 1940s on display at the San Diego Air & Space Museum in Balboa Park, including a fully restored PBY.

Framed Engineering Posters

A total of over 80 items used for a mix of permanent display, VIP tours, and open house events over several years (sample set shown below). Worked with engineers and management on everything from the design of the original template to the assembly and creation of component visuals to the drafting of copy. Also worked with two different printers and framers on final production. Typical size of 60" by 38", with some much larger. 

Assorted Flowcharts

A handful of charts for various technical and business processes, including an overview of screens and functions for the third revision of my iOS app (the app of my design, at least).  These have been used both for management approval and programmer reference.

Most of my charts are created with Visio, but some are custom-made mixes that include interface mockups and other graphic-type cues as needed.

(As with other proprietary items, the copyright
 of the component images belongs to Novatek
and the thumbnails pictured are intentionally
shown at a size that obscures many details, alas.)

Org Chart Management Module

Detailed specs and interactive wireframe of interface that allows for at-a-glance review and easy updating of supervisor-supervisee relationships as well as drilldown to check on profile details of any individual.  This module has hooks into many other back end modules (profiles, time/expense allocations, etc).

All in all, another management tool customized to fit the unique needs of Novatek, built with Novatek-standard interface elements; touch-friendly parts/features that are either standard implementations or straightforward extensions of the existing code framework (reporting, search, action panels, etc.).

(As with other proprietary items, the copyright of the component images belongs to Novatek and the mockups pictured are intentionally shown at a size that obscures all the good stuff, alas.)

Annotated Mockups for Profile Module

The image below is a composite of a few composites, all prepared in the course of working with an independent off-site programmer/developer to update the profile editor portion of the Novatek employee portal. These images were used together with standalone specs, flowcharts, and correspondence (phone, e-mail, and Basecamp).

(Standard disclaimers apply: the copyright of the component images belongs to Novatek and

 the mockups pictured are intentionally shown at a size that obscures all the good stuff, alas.)

Company Business Overview Report

A multipage report made to provide a high-level overview of the company for select external partners.  As with the publicly-available press report [post forthcoming - available here in the meantime], this was designed to work both as a printed booklet and as an all-digital package.  Some design cues also taken from the capabilities report.

As indicated in the tags for this post, the project required a combination of creating new content, finding and adapting existing content, copy writing/editing, and then bringing it together into a cohesive whole.

The copyright on these images belongs to Novatek, and the versions posted are intentionally shown at a size that obscures the finer details, alas.  Though it's probably overcautious on my part, I've also blacked out some sections, just to be sure nothing even remotely sensitive is wrongly hinted at.  A further disclaimer: a period of time after the first drafts were proofed, the report was updated before further internal or external distribution, but what's posted here is the old, outdated content.

Web Graphics for Novatek, Inc.

I started working for Novatek in June of 2010 doing engineering research and analysis.  In September I was internally recruited/promoted into the Information Systems department.  One of my first assignments involved prepping for a soon-to-launch website redesign.  The majority of the effort was focused on updating dozens of placeholder images, but there was also a fair deal of copy work (production and editing), and even some tweaking of the site design.

All of the material is available on the site itself, so clicking on the image set below will take you directly to the Novatek domain.  Note that I did not take the pictures or do the rendering or the modeling – what I did was sort through the available images, pick the best ones, improve them as needed, and then give all the different labs and projects a consistent look.  Note also that Novatek owns the copyright for these images.

Simple Heritage Chart

 In progress. 

A quick layout showing four generations for each half of a recently married couple.  A little too simple or basic to stand alone, but I'm not sure what I'll do to complete it.  Maybe add ancestor pictures, maybe add a map, maybe add another generation... Note that the names are not blurred on the original.

Family Calendar, etc.

Tabloid-sized print with all birthday information on one side and a montage of all family members on the other.  I also produced a single-sheet summary of all family contact info as part of the project.

This was commissioned for a great-grandmother with 17 biological and adopted children and nearly three dozen grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  Copies were sent to all the adult children in the family.

Completing the project required extensive collaboration in order to collect and organize four generations worth of names, dates, and photos.

Family Cards

Forty laminated credit card-sized pictures with initials and color-coordinated backgrounds (more on the color scheme below).

These were made to help keep track of who's who on both sides of the family, but they have been used in many other ways, too.  The letters are good for learning the alphabet, the family groupings allow games of Go Fish, and there are many different ways to rearrange by type (to see which side of the family has more members, to see if there are more boys than girls overall, to see how many people wear glasses, etc.).

Colors indicate relationships (all cousins have a blue background, for example), and the letters are placed to show maternal or paternal relationship (letters for people on the father's side are on the left, those for the mother's side on the right, as below).

Family Contact Info Sheet

A single-sheet summary of the addresses, phone numbers, and birthdays of 18 people in six households.  The overall dimensions are just right for printing on 8 by 10 photo paper, making it easy to get a high-quality hard copy from the digital file.

Note that the information shown has been scrambled and fictionalized (even images are not of the people that appear in the original).

Cemetery Guidebook

A 52-page guide to the burial places of four generations of client's ancestry. Project included researching burial locations, on-site photography, creating a comprehensive organizational system, and of course the layout and formatting of all materials.  I also got it placed in the FamilySearch Digital Library/Catalog for permanent online availability. (Note that you'll need a FamilySearch login to get access to the full version and that I updated this 2010 version in 2014.) 

Significant features:

• Full-bleed maps of the region in which each cemetery is located (with addresses, hours, and contact information for regional resources such as museums and family history centers).
• Full-bleed aerials of each cemetery (with GPS coordinates and burial sites markers).
• Ground-level photographs of each gravesite, accompanied by map and portrait insets.
• Life outlines for each ancestor.

Set of Brochures and Flyers

Some marketing materials:

• On the left: my rates for creating a digital manuscript of a family or personal history.
• In the middle: the kind of digitization that I can do.
• On the right: a combination brochure and order form for custom calendars (the full PDF of this document is linked below, and finished calendar examples can be seen here and here).

   

Climatic Branch Overview Briefing

I made this PowerPoint briefing completely from scratch to replace one that was very old and ugly.  Some key attributes of the new version:

• Curb appeal: a polished, professional look that's clean and simple rather than gimmicky and cluttered. 
• Flexibility: the core slides can be used effectively for a five-minute overview, but they are backed by dozens of supplemental slides that contain enough information to use for test program negotiations. 
• Navigability: both the person giving the briefing and those receiving it benefit from the visual cues to the organization of the content.  Extensive linking allows for easily diving into details at any point and for easily returning to the point of departure.
• Maintainability: Updates and edits can be made without triggering a cascading set of consequences.  This was especially important in that an expansion of facilities and some organizational changes were imminent at the time this was produced. 

Travel Report Infographics

In both 2007 and 2008 my wife and I combined work trips and vacation time into multi-week cross-country journeys.  These infographics summarize the trips, and the state outline photos show some of the specific locations visited.