We’re honored to share the winning work from this year’s Orange County Design Awards. Awards were given to Agencies, In-house Designers, Individual/Sole Proprietors, and Students for the categories of Advertising TV/Video, Advertising in a Print Publication, Brand Identity, Print Design, Web Design, Mobile/UI Design, Environmental Design, Packaging, Direct Mail, Illustration and Photography. Please join us in congratulating the 2016 winners!

See photos from the awards celebration.

Best in Show

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Best In Show
Jovenville
Grammy Map Fund

Agency Awards

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Advertising, Print & Publication
SDA Creative
Hobie Ad Campaign

Advertising, Video & Television
SDA Creative
El Niguel Country Club Video

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Brand Identity
A Name Brand Co.
Saint John the Divine

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Environmental Design
November Press
Pita Pita

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Packaging Design
WHA Branding
MMW | Egg Carton

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Print Design
WHA Branding
MMW | Pamphlets

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Web Design
Jovenville
John Wayne Airport, Annual Report

In-House Awards

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Advertising, Print & Publication
Philip Rotondi
LCGC Print Advertisement, Bal Seal Engineering, Inc.

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Brand Identity
Valerie Reneau
Brandify Summit 2016

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Environmental Design
India Howlett
The Camden–Hollywood, for TCA Architects

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Illustration
Arturo Jimenez
Beyond Meat

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Mobile & UI Design
Margaret To
Brandify Discover

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Package Design
Travis Rasmussen
2016 Meguiars Marine Products

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Web Design
Mikael Lee
Brandify Summit Interactive Station

Individual Sole Proprietor Awards

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Advertising, Print & Publication
Jamie Stark
Pacific Coast Producers Tomato Ad

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Brand Idendity
Tied: Olga Bukhalova
Road Master Driving School

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Brand Identity
Tied: Lowell Ong
Long Beach Zine Fest

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Direct Mail
Petre Spassov
Kibota–Meshkinpour Wedding Invite

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Illustration
Wendy Lee Oldfield
100 Days of Being Nice

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Package Design 
Petre Spassov
Love of Type Holiday Promo Package

Print Design
Petre Spassov
Love of Type Holiday Promo Package

NOTE: This project was entered and won in two separate categories of Print Design, and Package Design.

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Sustainable Design
Wes Bentley
Brian the Pekingese 2016 Pajama Line

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Web Design
Arturo Jimenez
Galerie-Simard-Bilodeau

Student Awards

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Advertising, Print & Publication
Winston Elliot, LCAD GD+DM
The Independent Party Rebrand

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Advertising, Video & Television
Phillip Park, LCAD GD+DM
Google Infographic

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Brand Identity
Nick Paff, LCAD GD+DM
Port

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Environmental Design
Makenna Sullivan, LCAD GD+DM
The Independent Party Voting Registration

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Illustration
Winifred Kwan, CSUF
Portrait

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Mobile & UI Design
Torye Cooke, LCAD GD+DM
Fetch App

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Package Design
Wesley Chau, LCAD GD+DM
Hachi

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Photography
Julia Meni, LCAD GD+DM
Joris

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Print Design
Sophia Shimamura, CSUF
Infographic About Sophia

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Web Design
Manny Alvarez, CSUF
Portfolio Website

A special thanks to our event partners Vitamin T and Mohawk we couldn’t have done this without you!

The Orange County Design Awards (OCDA) are almost here and we’re looking back and reconnecting with former OCDA winners. Today, we’re sitting down with Margaret To from Brandify to answer some questions about where she’s been and where she is going. Last year, Brandify was selected for the In House Award for Brand Identity.

Brandify is a location-based digital marketing solutions provider who helps brands maximize their online presence and drive customers to store locations with customized marketing services and strategy. In the design department, our projects vary from in-house branding and video promos, to mobile app and client web page design.

Brandify recently moved to a new office in Anaheim, only 5 minutes away from the Packing House. The new office space is much more spacious, allowing our teams to be more creative and collaborative.

Earlier this year, Margaret worked on a personal project, “Bloom.” It is a 3-minute animated visual music piece that explores different scenes in a forest from dawn to dusk, syncing to the classical music piece, “Barcarolle” by Offenbach. It was challenging because it was the first project she’s done where she was given the music first.

Traditionally, filmmakers create animations before adding the soundtrack. Reversing the process makes the music much more important, like a protagonist in a story. “I listened to Barcarolle over and over again to come up with illustrations and stories that fit the beat and emotion of the music,” she says.

One important thing she learned throughout this project is being open to critiques. “When you’ve worked on a project for a long time, it becomes even more important to get fresh eyes and a new perspective on it.” Bloom was screened at the Sight of Sound International Film Festival in Dallas in April, check out the film trailer here: https://vimeo.com/megatoe/bloomtrailer.

For inspiration, Margaret loves going to film/animation festivals, gallery openings and museums to check out other artists’ work. Observing different artists’ styles and learning about their stories inspires me.

The best advice she has to share is to remember that “it’s about the journey, not the destination.”

Margaret says, “many of us work really hard to reach the goals and aspirations we have. Working hard is important, but enjoy the journey as well. Sometimes we may feel discouraged or incompetent of the big dreams we hope to achieve, but embrace the fear and challenge. Start by trying your best in the little things, taking it one step at a time, and have fun in the process.”

Te be selected for the OCDAs meant a lot to her and the Brandify team. “It was especially inspiring to see the amazing work from other designers and agencies in Orange County,” Margaret admits. “We can’t wait to see the work at this year’s show!”

You can find Margaret via her web site and via social meda.

Instagram: megatoe.design

Twitter: megatoeDesign

Website: http://megatoe.design

The Orange County Design Awards (OCDA) are approaching and this is the fourth feature where AIGA Orange County looks back and reconnects with former OCDA winners. Today, we’re sitting down with Sarah Armstrong from A Name Brand Co to answer some questions about where she’s been and where she is going.

A Name Brand Co (ANBCO) is a creative agency based in Downtown Santa Ana that handles coaching new freelancers, consulting on new ventures, developing key art for campaigns or building brands for businesses they love. For all intents and purposes, A Name Brand Co is just Sarah on a day-to-day basis. She has the embarrassing luxury of getting to hire talented people to work on things as the projects demands.

“It’s truly a dream. I can’t believe I get to do this. I’m still sort of waiting to get caught. Like this whole business isn’t a thing I’m allowed to do. If that ever happens, I swear to God I’m going to be the BEST Kinko’s employee the world has ever known,” Sarah remarks.

A Name Brand Co has been sought after for craft food and beverage, but this year has been about going after things Sarah cares about, like comedy, queer and feminist issues, and facilitating creative community or curiosities (museums, spoken word poetry, etc).

The most challenging thing for her is definitely the “spec” work that comes with going after new projects. Luckily, it’s paid off almost every time so far. But choosing to invest your time and resources into work that you may or may not get paid for is really straining, especially for an operation as small as ANBCO.

Her favorite place to go to for inspiration? “Is there a not cliché way to answer this? Honestly, for me, it’s just being out doing other things. Reading in public. Museums and community events. Watching people. Watching people interact with each other and objects and the spaces they’re in. Overhearing conversations,” Sarah admits. “I think this all feeds into being a good problem solver. You have to watch and pay attention to what people do and how they are when they don’t know they’re being watched.”

Sarah wants designers to know themselves, especially if you’re self employed or running your own shop. “I really think we do our best work when we know how we work best. What rituals or practices help your productivity, what drains your energy, what challenges you in positive ways and what challenges you in discouraging ways. Play to those strengths and weaknesses. We’re living in a brand new time!” She states, “Stop judging your practices, your work, your successes by people before you. Figure out what really works for you and how you work best. That’s how you play the long game.”

For being selected for the OCDAs? She was happy. “It’s always validating when people with objective eyes, who haven’t been looking at this stuff nonstop like I have, recognize that the work is good.”

You can find Sarah on Twitter and Instagram at oohsarahcuda, and her agency at http://anamebrand.co.

The Orange County Design Awards (OCDA) are approaching and this is the third feature where AIGA Orange County looks back and reconnects with former OCDA winners. Today, we’re talking with Julian Lozano to answer some questions about where he’s been and where he is going. Last year, he was selected for the Student Award for Mobile/UI Design for 1303 Interactive Telescope.

Julian Lozano is a recent graduate from Laguna College Art + Design and now works as a product designer at digital product development studio Fishermen Labs, located in the heart of Silicon Beach in LA. They specialize in creating products for web, mobile, virtual reality, and augmented reality. He works on projects for various clients and startups that includes e-commerce, publications, video games, education, real estate, and management.

“Also, we just got back from a company retreat in New Zealand not too long ago. So that was pretty cool,” adds Julian.

The most challenging thing Julian has done all year is finding the type of work that he’s most passionate about. Coming out of college, he didn’t expect to land that dream job.

Julian shares these five tips for fellow designers:

1. Don’t expect learning everything from instructors, there is a lot of things that have to be self-taught.
2. Be familiar with the design industry, it is bigger than one may think. Check out sites such as Dribbble, DesignerNews, Behance, Product Hunt. We do more than just create graphics, we have the ability to change the way a person thinks, we solve certain problems that can improve the world. Design can be applied to many things such as the apparel industry, tech industry, startups, environment, architecture, signage, and much more.
3. Embrace critiques, even if they are harsh.
4. Always Be Humble.
5. Have a good online portfolio and be sure to update it. Have online presence such as Twitter and Instagram.

About being selected for the OCDAs, Julian says “it was a great honor to be selected by highly talented designers in the industry. There is a lot of talent in Orange County that goes unnoticed, so I urge designers and students not to miss out on this rewarding opportunity. ”

You can find Julian on Instagram, Twitter, Dribble and Facebook.

Instagram: julianlozano
Twitter: julianlozano
Dribbble: julianlozano
Facebook: julianlozanoaz

The OCDA celebration will be held on Thursday, November 10 at Seven-Degrees in Laguna Beach. It will be an inspiring evening with good company and great prizes. Get your ticket today!

The OCDA event is hosted in partnership with Vitamin T, Mohawk, and ChoosePrint.org.

The Orange County Design Awards (OCDA) are coming and this is the second feature where AIGA Orange County looks back and reconnects with former OCDA winners. Today, we’re talking with the India Howlett of TCA Architects to answer some questions about where they’ve been and where they are going. Last year they won the Agency Award for Environmental Design for the AVA Little Tokyo Signage. See the winning work.

TCA Architects is an architectural firm with offices in downtown LA, Irvine and Oakland, California. The Graphic Design Studio at TCA Architects delivers comprehensive visual communications programs to help their clients articulate their distinctive, branded identity, from print to web to environmental graphics and signage. They deliver cohesive and comprehensive brands for the built environment.

India and her team is currently working on all kinds of fun projects with very interesting clients in the branded office and public art realm.

When asked what’s been the most challenging thing they’ve done all year, India remarks, “trying to figure out how to cast shadows for shadow puppets in the office!” She laughs and adds, “our newest art installation is using silhouettes of Athena and Apollo as shadow art for our client’s lobby. It looks really cool; I am proud of my team for figuring that one out.”

For inspiration, they go the art museum or happy hour. “The more we drink the better the ideas–in fact I think that’s where the shadow idea came from!”

India’s advice you budding designers is to listen to your teachers! And stay true to your concept all the way to the end.

When India and her team at TCA Architects was selected for the OCDAs, she danced around the room and sang. “I won, I won, I won! I was so happy and surprised. No seriously it was a great honor, and so humbling. l love the project and how it came out and it was a surprise that others felt the same way.”

Connect with India on Instagram (indiahowlett) and visit the TCA Architects website at tca-arch.com.

The OCDA celebration will be held on Thursday, November 10 at Seven-Degrees in Laguna Beach. It will be an inspiring evening with good company and great prizes. Get your ticket today!

The OCDA event is hosted in partnership with Vitamin T, Mohawk, and ChoosePrint.org.

The Orange County Design Awards (OCDA) are right around the corner and this will be the first of four feature blog posts where AIGA Orange County looks back and reconnects with former OCDA winners. Today, we’re talking with the Joven Orozco of Jovenville to answer some questions about where they’ve been and where they are going. Last year they won Agency Awards for Direct Mail, Print and Web Design (see the winning work).

Jovenville is a creative agency located in Newport Beach, California, which is deeply rooted in brand strategy and believes that design innovation can affect business goals. Lately, they’ve been busy working on expanding their service offering into to more markets and regions.

When asked what’s been the most challenging thing Jovenville has done all year? “Figuring out what’s for lunch? [laughs] Really, it is working on refining what we do and making it better.” Joven adds, “leading a team to look for ways to always challenge ourselves and discover new technologies that will help us create a better solution.”

For inspiration, he gets business insight from the company and does quite a bit of research. He also considers feelings and emotions and says, “I try to determine how people “see” what a particular word means. Our process allows and encourages collaboration. I’m inspired by my team. I encourage team building, getting out and having fun. It allows for more creativity. The quote “procrastination inspires innovation” fits because I find it’s easier to be creative when not so stressed out.”

Joven was honored when his team was selected for the OCDAs. “We are so honored to be sharing a platform with very talented agencies and designers. There is just such great talent out there. We were humbled to be chosen.”

The OCDAs will be held on Thursday, November 10 at Seven-Degrees in Laguna Beach. It will be an inspiring evening with good company and great prizes. Get your ticket today!

The OCDA event is hosted in partnership with Vitamin T and Mohawk.

On August 11th, the AIGA Orange County hosted a screening of InVision’s new design documentary, Design Disruptors. This event was free for the public thanks to Kneadle, California State University Fullerton, and CFO Andrew. Design Disruptors is a full-length documentary that features design leaders and product designers from industry-toppling companies and explores the question: what does it mean to disrupt?

One of the biggest disruptions in human history was the industrial revolution. Processes that were once performed by hand were replaced with machine-driven production, and this change influenced almost every aspect of daily life. Population boomed. Median income increased. This growth and disruption happened because someone stood up and said that the status quo isn’t good enough anymore. Someone asked, “what if?” and zigged when others zagged.

In today’s world there has been incredible success with companies like Lyft, Airbnb, and Google. These companies have disrupted the way that things have been done over the last century by taking established practices and improving upon them. By focusing on users’ needs, they are able to create experiences that enhance and improve people’s everyday lives. Twenty years ago we were all walking around with pagers. Today we have smart phones in our pockets. Imagine what we’ll be sporting twenty years from now! How will we design for it? In the documentary John Maeda states, “the role of the designer is constantly changing”. Change is always occurring, and those who succeed are the ones who can embrace and take advantage of these changes. With this in mind, designers should be constantly evolving.

“The biggest challenge designers are facing right now is the fact that they’re designing a lot of things that are new, that have not been done before; in organizations that are evolving and changing, and for audiences that are evolving and changing.” —Ben Blumenfeld

Successful designers are problem solvers. They explore users’ needs and figure out how to create experiences that eliminate frustration and build trust with their customers. They understand business and technology and how to play a supporting role in both. They do not assume that how things are done today are necessarily how they’ll be done in the future. They realize that if you want to stay at the top of your game and continue to be innovative, you have to be open to change.

One of my favorite parts of the documentary is when Braden Kowitz of Google Ventures says:

The questions now aren’t, “can we build it?” because more and more the answer is “yes, we can build anything.” The question is, “what is the future we want to build together?” For me, that’s the power of design.

I couldn’t agree more.

The AIGA Orange County team has been inspired by many of our recent studio tours and designers. After seeing how much time and effort goes into the development of design, we felt it was worth taking a deeper look into the process. For designers, question and analysis is not unique to any one industry; it stems from a history of strong design practice. We met up with Ryan Rommelfanger, Executive Creative Director from Envoy to discuss how his agency uses some of these skills in working on projects for Envoy. Ryan is currently leading digital product teams, and specifically, some exploratory product innovation projects for Vizio.

Find New Ways to Engage

Choosing projects is an essential step in the creative process. Envoy became involved in the Vizio project because they have a bold client. According to Ryan, “this is the first step in any great project. Bold clients are willing to challenge the norm, explore and leverage their core business to find new ways to engage their users.” Vizio may specialize in consumer electronics but Envoy remains “agnostic when it comes to clients or verticals.” In Envoy’s approach to solving problems, they focus on human-centric methodologies rather than one particular category. This adds a lot of value and dynamics to their problem solving. According to Ryan, the creative team at Envoy uses the word “human” a lot. “We define personas and frequently reference them throughout the creative process,” says Ryan. Personas act as a guide to help focus their solutions at every stage.

Become Proactive Whenever Possible

Ryan emphasizes that asking questions, doing research and developing personas is all about really knowing what your problem is before you start to change the world by solving it. “Personas are research tools – not rules. There is a tremendous amount of research that goes into a project.” See it —touch it — understand it — it isn’t just data. Envoy’s creative team does a great deal of research through observation of people using products and through experiencing the products themselves. Understanding the environment of the product and user helps the Envoy creative team foresee problems and opportunities. “We want to be proactive wherever possible,” says Ryan. “For example, a lot of the work we do for Vizio is about trying to look forward and work through what we think the state of TV will be two to three years from now.”

Question Constantly, Be Surprised

“We are constantly questioning choices with the data we have at hand,” says Ryan. The Envoy creative team is always asking what they want the user to do instead of purely focusing on the design ascetic. In doing this, one might think you get routine responses, but you don’t. Ryan says “the team is constantly surprised by how much more innovation can happen in the space.” There may be significant evolution and innovation with the internet and Smart TVs but, “we’re just hitting the surface of opportunities,” says Ryan.

Bring Others Into the Process Whenever Possible

Having been doing breakthrough work with world-class companies, we asked Ryan if he has any advice for new designers working on their own projects. His words of wisdom were, “Work with others. Get your work out of the computer so others can critique, question and provide feedback.” If there is one take-away he wants you to have, it is “Don’t do it yourself; bring others into the process wherever possible.” Information is power and that power will help you build successful design projects that will make you and your clients proud.

Envoy is a hybrid agency that creates second-nature experiences for a connected world. The bulk of Envoy’s work is digital, but the agency tries not to focus on one particular medium. Ryan says, “we like to think of ourselves as specializing in problem solving.”

Summer is a time when everybody is active, changing their routines and looking for new things to do. Helping the local community is an exciting way to do that and participating in the AIGA OC Design for Good initiative is a great start. I sat down with Paul Bresenden, President of 454 Creative  and current Design for Good Chair, to learn more about what drives him, what’s in store for the AIGA OC’s Design for Good program and long term goals.

Can you tell us a little about yourself and what you are currently doing?

Paul Bresenden

I lead the amazing team at 454 Creative  in Irvine. We are a digital marketing agency that is obsessed with driving growth for organizations. We do great stuff like website development, PPC advertising and lead generation strategy.

How did you originally get involved with AIGA OC?

Personally, I became involved with AIGA OC roughly eight or nine years ago, after our agency relocated to Irvine from the Los Angeles area. I have been more directly involved within the last two years after signing up to help lead the Design for Good team.

Why did you join the Design for Good team and volunteer to become Chair?

I want to give back in very meaningful ways. Our agency is already having these conversations; building strategies and creating meaningful outcomes. I realized that some of the best things that I can contribute are the things that I am uniquely gifted in doing.

If we [in the creative community] can provide expertise that helps drastically grow non-profit organizations serving Orange County, the inherent value of our impact grows exponentially.

What are you looking to achieve with the AIGA OC Design for Good program?

Meaningful impact.

The irony is that all strengths have negative implications. Orange County is amazingly beautiful and known for great wealth. But right under the surface is also an incredible amount of poverty, despair and hopelessness. There is this false perception of paradise. We want our community to be a better place for everyone and we can’t do that from our gated communities.

Design for Good aims to connect the design community to the needs of Orange County. We aim “to be good neighbors” and want to encourage empathy and sharing appropriately. The connection is professional and personal. Our job as human beings is to build and invest in systems that look out for the people marginalized by society. As designers — we get to create those systems. That is powerful.

You hosted last year’s Design for Good event working with KidWorks, what were some of the team tasks?

Kidworks creative brief

The event in December 2015 was a design sprint building marketing campaigns for KidWorks, located in Santa Ana. It’s amazing that Santa Ana was named as the toughest place to grow up in America.  Tougher than Compton or Detroit or any other place we associate with violence and poverty.  

The first challenge was getting both designers and the non-profit to think systemically. We had to define an outcome and build a framework for achieving it. This included a lot of training on how to engage a donor base, create clear marketing objectives and build alignment on process. Like many organizations, they knew what they wanted – they didn’t know why. If you don’t know the “why” it’s hard to deliver something that works.

How did the group work together?

It was a fun electric atmosphere. The format was powerful and it really encouraged teamwork. There was such energy in the room and that energy was leveraged to have the teams work in a fast, new, collaborative format. Doing a sprint is so different — by its very nature it breaks designers out of their rut and forces thoughtful interaction with others.

What’s in the immediate future for the AIGA OC’s Design for Good?

Currently, we are looking to build a leadership team of approximately 10 people help drive Design for Good.  

Additionally, we assembling a team to help with the planning and preparation of the annual OC GUTS. OC GUTS is a pumpkin carving contest on steroids with the goal of raising $100K for the Orange County and Inland Empire chapter of Make-a-Wish Foundation.  

We’re going to need an army of people to help pull it off and would love for designers to get involved!

If you are interested in joining team or have questions
please email sara@aiga.org.

Want to learn more?
Check out AIGA Charlotte’s pumpkin goodness at their 2015 GUTS event. 

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
– Margaret Mead

In 2011, AIGA launched Design for Good as a platform of opportunity for both designers and worthwhile causes. AIGA “…recognize[d] the wide range of designers’ work and leadership in social change…” and sought to expand these relationships within local communities all across the country. Since then, there have been some amazing achievements by small groups of designers working on behalf of local non-profits (some grassroots and some established organizations). Success stories include, but are not limited to:

• In 2015, AIGA OC worked with KidWorks (Santa Ana) to help build brand awareness and fundraising campaigns for the organization. Located in one of the most economically challenged areas of the County, KidWorks serves over 800 children, youth and parents through weekly programs. That translates into over 3,000 community members, annually, from three learning centers.
  
• AIGA Grand Rapids Michigan worked with their local school district to troubleshoot declining enrollment and graduation rates.
• AIGA Portland collaborated with the Right Brain Initiative (an organization working to integrate arts into the public schools). Together they started Brain Food – a project that provides creative thinking exercises for kids and was described on the HOW blog as `inspiring and worth checking out.’
• AIGA San Diego initiated the Peach’s Pen Pal Project in 2015. They partnered with Peach’s Neet Feet to create and prepare creative goody bags for children living with illnesses and disabilities.

When participating in Design for Good activities designers from all specialties, cultures and walks-of-life feel productive and significantly connected to their communities. Proof that design not only unifies concepts and visual elements but it unifies people, their surroundings and their goals.

AIGA OC has some big Design for Good  activities and projects planned for 2016/2017. Sign-up now and get involved. Let us know your skills and your availability and we will find a place for you. Did we mention this is a great place to start building your professional portfolio and get experience working with creatives in different disciplines? Well, it is. Want to learn more? Join us at the AIGA OC Mix 6–9 p.m. on July 21 at Caffé Primo in Anaheim. Enjoy some fun icebreakers and meet the Design for Good team, then get started on shaping our communities and our future one design at a time.

More info: sara@aigaoc.com