Kronos Branding

The creators of Kronos, a high-end hair care company, came to me with the name and a word document outlining the target market & science behind the product. I collected color pallets, typefaces, made an imagery storyboard, researched possible packaging materials & wrote a short treatment on the brands metaphors and emotional themes. I began creating possible logotypes, marks, and typographic treatments created a table of elements idea for combining products into groups, came up with naming ideas and created possible bottle and packaging designs. I then edited and refined these into a document I call a brand story which is similar to a style guide. Unfortunately, the branding and design were executed poorly for the final project, but I had no control of that as I was no longer involved in the project after the initial branding.

Creative Direction
Branding
Packaging
Style Guide

Santeria Coast

Santeria Coast was a personal Project that turned into a limited addition T-shirt line. I've always been interested in Latin Art, Culture & Religion. I began exploring this first graphically and then with trips to Mexico. I discovered a richness of symbolism and a primal energy in Santeria that grabbed hold of me. Santeria Coast became a Brand as well as the place in my mind where all these symbols and forces resided.

Pure Movement

This was some layout and imagery juxtaposition I did for a brochure for PureMovement. PureMovementwas a campaign for a unique alternative energy system used for small and light vehicles.

Lugano Diamonds

This is a great example of the product photography doing most of the work. I created a set of poster images as well as Rich Media Advertisements for Lugano Diamonds. The design is meant to present and accentuate, not to compete.

Design
Animation

Ingenue Magazine Article Layout

This is a spread I designed featuring Kristianna Loken for Ingenue magazine. I choose an asymmetrical layout with a delicate balance of Image and type.

Art Direction
Design

Agora Wine Branding

The Agora was a central spot in ancient Greek city-states, a "gathering place" or "assembly". The logo design and label beyond being visually distinctive and creating a shelf space uses a visual language to describe this meeting place. A graphical representation of a slice in time at the Agora.

Piece Love

This is a selection of Branding for a conceptual apparel line I created. The concept was apparel Hi-jacking. We would take pre-existing pieces add custom bullet holes with by signature shooters and add the spent shells as decorative elements re-branding the piece as Piece Love.

Creative
Branding
Product
Apparel
Design

Dead Celebz

A T-shirt Brand I created inspired by Punk music culture & collective unconscious trend of death, skulls, and destruction that's surfacing in popular culture. The Brand was designed holistically with production and SEO marketing in mind. Dead Celebz uses the strategy of piggy-back branding to tap into pre-existing market penetration while still being original content.

Product Design
Branding
Packaging
Design
Apparel

Cocaine Whites

I wanted a simple product. How could I add value with branding and packaging to the classic blank T-shirt? I came across these DEA photos of a cocaine bust on the internet which showed a stack of kilos piled up with stamped with a primitive scorpion symbol. I thought this would be an excellent way to package the T-shirts. I refined the scorpion into a brand mark and created a bilingual branding system that was applied to the packaging promotion and website. The Tees were embroidered with the scorpion mark and packaged as a set in a kilo wrap & individually in zip-lock bags.

Product Design
Branding
Packaging
Design
Apparel

Hourglass Packaging & E-commerce Website

Over the Span of three years, I worked on multiple projects for Hourglass Cosmetics. Margo Chase of Chase Design Group created the Mark, Logotype & Leather Case for Hourglass Cosmetics; I picked up the project a little later. The First phase of the project was extrapolating an Art Direction from the unfinished branding and creating a cohesive visual system for the projects and promotional collateral. The second phase of the project was designing and developing the e-commerce website and online marketing campaigns.

Art Direction
Design
Custom Typography
Packaging
UI/UX
Development

Animalia Essential Oil Candles

Animalia is a collection of essential oil candles that have healing qualities. In my approach to the branding, I discovered a system of organic shapes inspired by the spirit of the essential oils. This system juxtaposed with a more traditional engravers typeface became the foundation of the brand. After the branding project was complete. I moved on to the packaging applying the organic shape system sculpturally to the product package. The next project in the campaign was the design and development of an online store. The organic branding system was integrated into the online site while still maintaining an intuitive UI and enjoyable user experience.

Branding
Packaging
Design
Web Development
E-commerce

Cynthia Boxrud Eyetopia Collection

This project was a branding and style guide for Cynthia A. Boxrud's Cosmaceutical line Eyetopia. She wanted clinical but fresh. I tried to keep all the elements simple & clean while juxtaposing bright springtime clouds of color. The logotype is a custom crafted font based on traditional serif typeface.

Branding
Design
Style Guide

Broken Heart Stones

In a dream, I had dropped an oval shaped stone, and it broke in two. I flipped one-half of the broken stone upside down and placing the two broken pieces together discovered they created a heart-shaped symbol. I bound the two halves of the stone together with colored silk thread. I thought about making more for many years but could never find the time. The time eventually found me. Broken Heart Stones was a Sculpture and nonlingusitic poetry project which consisted of 101 individual pieces each of them given away or hidden in a public place.

Creative
Sculpture
Nonlinguistic Poetry

Hotkiss Website and Interactive Lookbooks

I was responsible for the design and development of the Hotkiss website and Interactive lookbooks for five seasons. The online experience would change with each story for the season. I designed the site according to the style guide for each season as well as Designed and developed a Rich Media Interactive lookbook.

UI / UX
Design
Animation
Development
Website
Interactive Lookbook

Orange Voodoo

I created Orange Voodoo as the branding for my design services but over the years it evolved into a more visually experimental project. I was fascinated with the primal energy and mystery of the voodoo traditions, if you don't know much about it I highly recommend Maya Daren's Documentary "Divine Horsemen: the Living Gods of Haiti". I used the symbols and themes of voodoo in a series of graphic illustrations here is a small sample of that work.

Visual Research
Creative
Branding
Design
Illustration

GIA 4C's Suite of Mobile Applications

The Gia Suite of applications was a three-year project in collaboration with Xealous studios executed in several phases. In Phase one, we inherited a pre-existing iOS code base which needed to be refactored into a cross-platform iOS / Android code base. The suite consisted of 4 Applications: A consumer based English diamond buyers Guide, A Chinese language Diamond Buyers Guide, An English Diamond Retailers Diamond Sellers guide and a Chinese language version of the Diamond Sellers Guide. A tall order considering the number of devices and quirks among the various versions of the Android platform. The second Phase consisted of the addition of new sections and features including a Geo-location driven Store locator, Customized Diamond Report and Strategizing a Custom Mobile App Content Management System.

Mobile Application
Development
iOS
Android

Christian Weber

This project has spanned a little over ten years. The original website christianweber.net was created in 2004, and has gone through 6 different versions and several different content management systems. The latest system being the prototype for Tree and Field a visual data asset management system currently in development. Over the past ten years, I also developed a searchable image anthology, several related front end websites and ran the web, file server and e-mail.

UI / UX
Website
Development
Custom Content Managment Solution
Administration
Hosting

Adidas

A series of website comps and interactive animations I created while on retainer at TBWA\Chiat\Day's interactive division Tequila. Beyond the work itself, it was a fascinating experience being involved in the dynamics of such a large agency.

Art Direction
Design
Animation

Peanutbutter Motherfucker

Peanutbutter MotherFucker... it rhymes what else do you need to know? I first heard the phrase "Peanutbutter Motherfucker" sung by children in a Harmony Korine film, either Julian Donkeyboy or Gummo I forget which one. I liked the sound and rhythm of the phrase so much I started to explore it visually. Those explorations lead me to series of six elephant themed shirts packaged in peanutbutter jars and each labeled with a chapter from a graphic story called, "The True Story of Peanutbutter Motherfucker." The current line consists of limited edition collection of very high-quality polos with the original elephant applique.

Creative
Product
Branding
Design
Logo
Apparel

IChing of the Wanderers

IChing of the Wanderers is based on a unique translation of the IChing by Marcial Gonzalez Camperi. This translation was integrated into a simple iOS mobile Application. I created the Branding & developed the Application.

Design
Branding
Mobile
iOS

PurchLive

Website.

Storm Interiors

Website for boutique-style design firm Storm Interiors.

Chase Design Group Website

I developed this rich media site with a custom content management system for easy updating of the work news and navigation. It came together nicely. This project was a strange coincidence because Margo had designed the logo and tree illustration for Hourglass a project which I did the packaging and other multiple projects for. Then randomly I happened to develop her website and custom content management system, I only met her once and found the whole thing very amusing.

UI/UX
Data-Driven Animation
Custom Content Managment
Development

MTV Hits Website

Website Design for the television show MTV hits. Another Agency had produced some short video spots featuring behind the scenes footage and interviews from the TV Show. I extrapolated some of the elements in those videos to create an Art direction for the website. The site allowed users to create and share interactive playlists in a social campaign to supplement and promote the site.

Art Direction
Design
UI/UX

Desired

Millennials drink 42 percent of all wine in the country, more than any other generation. The branding for this wine is a humorous take on the tremendous wine consumption of this age group. With wine labels defining a shelf space and standing out in the crowd is important, the label can often be the decision-making criteria in the purchase. Desired appeals to the light-hearted wine drinker with a healthy self-effacing attitude towards their lifestyle.

Product
Branding
Packaging

University of Phoenix

Graphics for University of Phoenix graduation ceremony.

Designers Call

This project was done in tandem with the creation of Storm Interiors. Designers call started with a server migration and re-coding of the current site. We then did some UI/UX improvements and e-commerce store integration. The next phase was integration with a custom interactive shopping application PurchLive. Lastly, we integrated blogging software, a user funnel, and an outreach program.

UI / UX
Website
Development
E-commerce
SEO
Hosting

Panasonic Sales Presentation Engine

This project was a customizable Presentation Engine and Content Management System deployed as a Desktop Application. The System allowed the Panasonic sales force to customize sales presentations for their in-flight hardware-software solutions. This solution was incredibly valuable to the sales team as it allowed them to tailor-make presentations for each prospective client.

UI
Development
Content Management
Desktop Application

Rev Cube Sales Demo

This was a development and data-driven animation project I did for MossWarner. This was an interactive sales demo with some simple navigation controls for a new analytics and online marketing company RevCube.

Real-D Website Development

A pinacol DEV project. Real-D Came with a idea for a Flash based rotating video cube integrated into a CMS. I wasn't even sure if it was possible but with the help of Papervision3D and programming genius Jeremy Smith, it came together pretty smoothly.

Toyota Highway to the Future

This was a really interesting project. Toyota received a 53 foot 18 wheeler and outfitted the back as a mobile interactive kiosk experience. Then they traveled across America teaching people about the environment and alternative fuels. I designed the layout and UI for the Carbon Footprint Calculator Kiosk. Then developed the calculator and integrated it into the rest of the Kiosk experience.

Development
UI
Design
Live event

Laura Scudders Website

A comp for a website pitch I did for Laura Scudders. The creative brief called for humor and old 50's imagery. This is what I came up with... and if you have never packed your pipe with Laura Scudder's bean dip, I highly suggest it. Spicy!

Art Direction
Design
Layout
Website

Procore Website

Procore was a very cool company, and I had a lot of fun working with these guys. They were an Action sports trading card company. The Branding, Art Direction, and Card Design were done by Justin Clark at Clark Studios. I took care of the website keeping in line with what Justin had already created and handling the Interactive Development along with a pretty basic PHP Content Management System.

Pure Spores

Pure Spores nutrient branding and packaging.

Pioneer

I don't watch TV, so I don't know what you call it, but it was an interactive instructional demo on how to use the software that lets you record and play-back live TV.

Subject Matter

Subject Matter was a Store and Gallery at the Anti-Mall in Costa Mesa, Ca. I took their pre-existing website and integrated a custom PHP content management system to make updating simple and efficient.

KingSeal

I've worked on various projects for Kingseal off and on for the past ten years. The Kingseal website was one of the first independent projects I did early on in my career. I've created brochures marketing materials, trade show booths, Business collateral and an e-commerce website. Although we have to work inside the corporate branding on the design side, it's been an interesting chance to learn all the intricacies of the printing process.

Design
Development
E-commerce
Print
Trade Show

[src][mgk]

This is an ongoing experiment in Intention, Symbolism and Typography.

Your 401k Connect

This was a project I did for vWise. I handled the Information Architecture and Actionscript Flash development along with filling out some design here and there. The idea is to help educate and lead employees through the decisions they need to make about their 401k program.

E! Entertainment

E! Had redesigned their site and needed help developing some CSS drop down menus. The menu was required to be IE 6 compatible, so the majority of the work was in browser detection, creating fallbacks and failing seamlessly in the worst case scenario. An excellent example of the huge amount of work that can go on behind the scenes that the user and quite frankly the client would never notice.

UI
Website
Development
CSS
Javascript

Kikkoman Your Teriyaki Landing Page

I developed a 3d rotating navigation system. This was a playful and interesting landing page that allowed users to spin through the various dishes in a fun and exciting way. It had great motion and a game like feel, a great way to engage the user and lead them to deeper into the brand experience.

Design
Animation
Rich Media
Development

(x) detector

(x)-detector is a prank interface for your iPhone that can detect anything you can imagine. Endless fun and a great conversation starter. Localized in 12 languages.

SunCandy

SunCandy is a photo blog & archive. I've posted a new photo every day since Jan 2000 & will continue to do so until Dec 2012.

Tied Stones

This may sound odd, but rocks have always been friends of mine. I collect them everywhere I go. I don't remember why I first started to tie them together, but there is something about the juxtaposition of stone and thread that fascinates me. I made 100's of these, gave some to friends, left others in places and buried the rest in a big steel box in the desert east of San Diego.

Microsoft: View my World

This site was an Rich Media Video website that was developed to try to recruit people into working for Microsoft. The View my World site used humor to portray some "day in the life" scenarios working for Microsoft, creating the image that Microsoft is a fun loving enjoyable place to work.

UI
Website
Animation
Design
Development

Ricky Truth

Creative Consulting / Custom Coded Systems / Content Creation

Contact

Ricky Truth
Email: lie (at) rickytruth.com
Phone: (424) 238-3311
Mobile: Request my mobile number.

Not on facebook, by choice.

LinkedIn Profile

Services:

Product creation
Branding
Packaging
Creative & Art Direction
Content creation
UX, UI
Website Design & Development
Mobile App. Design & Development
Custom Front-end and Content Management for niche business challenges
Project management & Workflow logistics

About

My talent is an exceptional ability to think outside the box and find creative solutions to problems other people may not see. I'm a team player and enjoy collaboration. A prolific idea generator & a quick study who enjoys challenges & learning new things. I'm also incredibly reliable and persistent. I understand and get along with many different types of people.

I've spent my career leveraging my unique skill set, aptitude, and experience to help create startups and launch brands.

Currently in Southern California seeking new opportunities.

References provided upon request.

Summary of Qualifications

Creative Holistic & Convergent Thinker
Work well as part of a team or independently
Superior skills in areas of problem-solving & research
Idea generation, Brand Creation & Development
Comfortable and experienced in presenting concepts and direction to all levels of management as well as clients
Ability to design and hand code standards-based Web & Mobile applications

Technical Proficiencies

JavaScript, AngularJs, Node, Webpack, JQuery, PHP, HTML, CSS, SASS, JSON, MySQL, NoSQL
Adobe Creative Suite, Sketch & Craft, Coda, Xcode
Agile, Lean, MVP, GTD

Professional Experience

The following is a selection of long-term parallel projects, consulting agreements & retainers.

2017 Rocket Communications, San Francisco Ca & Honolulu HI

Remote Consulting Agreement

Programing Angular JS Components, Custom CMS Technology Research, Design & Programing of internal front end website.

Team of 7

Research, problem solving and programming for a series of AngularJs Components using Node webpack & sass
Technical Strategy, and research for custom CMS that managed the Guidelines for the Angular Components
Research, Interactive wire framing, design and programming of companies internal website.

2014-2016 CreativEngine, Los Angeles, Ca.

On Site Retainer Agreement

Mobile Application Consulting & Work Flow Logistics

Team of 8

The introduction of GTD style project management
UI/UX, Technical Strategy, development & Coordination of a private iOS Enterprise Distributed Application
Development of iOS Consumer application
Identifying bottlenecks in workflow for web development, proposing solutions

2011-2014 Xealous Studios, Dana Point, Ca

Remote Project

Mobile Application Development

Team of 2

Research & Technical Strategy Gia 4c's Diamond Education Cross-platform App Suite
Porting & Refactoring Gia 4c's Diamond Education from iOS to hybrid iOS / Android
UI/UX development of new features for the App Suite

2009-2011 MadeinHaus, Los Angeles, Ca

Remote Projects

Advertising Development Consultant

Multiple Teams of 2-5

Research and Coordination of Rich Media Deployment platforms
Development Multiple Rich Media Campaigns including Toyota Hybrid, Windows Phone, Nike 3 on 3 Invitational & Ally Bank

2008-2012 vWise, Aliso Viejo, Ca

Remote Retainer Agreement

Rich Media Application Consultant

Team of 6

Research, Design, Development, Information Architecture, Hosting & Support for SmartPlan Advisor, SmartPlan Enterprise & AXA-Equitable Fiduciary Educator video education, and investment management applications.

Research & Strategy of technologies and services
UI / UX & Development of custom video educational online application SmartPlan
UI / UX & Development of the custom content management system for SmartPlan
Development of financial transaction plugins for Charles Schwab, SunGard, Relius, ExpertPlan, Envisage and DST

2007 Intelligent Beauty, Los Angeles, Ca

Remote Project

Branding & Packaging Consultant

Remote Project

Branding, Packaging Creative & Art Direction for Kronos Haircare & RedPoint Cosmetics.

Created Brand Strategy, Packaging and Style Guide for Kronos Haircare
Redesigned RedPoint Cosmetics Branding

2007MossWarner, San Juan Capistrano, CA

Remote Project

Presentation Consultant

Team of 2

Development of data-driven interactive presentation & custom CMS applications for Panasonic
UI / UX, Animation & development of a custom presentation for RevCube

2006-2008 Pinacol, San Clemente, Ca

Onsite Retainer

Web Design, Rich Media Advertising Development, Web Applications Development

Team of 7

Web Design for Laura Schudders & MTV
UI / UX, Rich Media Development & Animation for various of clients including • Microsoft, Kikkoman, The Learning Channel, Kia, & The United Way
Development of the Coachella Music Festival Music Player

2005-2006 Caliber, Orange, Ca

Onsite Retainer

UI / UX, Web & Interactive Application Design & Development for various clients including Glidewell Laboratories, Seven Crown Resorts, Argus Reality, Escena Communities, Boss Safety & line Gear Fire & Rescue

Team of 6

Branding
UI / UX, Web & Interactive Application Design & Development for various clients including Glidewell Laboratories, Seven Crown Resorts, Argus Reality, Escena Communities, Boss Safety & line Gear Fire & Rescue

2003–2009 Hourglass Cosmetics, Los Angeles, Ca

Remote Project

Creative Design, Branding & Development Consultant

Team of 3

Design & Printing Hourglass Cosmetics Packaging, Company Stationery
Design & Development Hourglass E-commerce website
Hosting & supporting online promotions for Hourglass Cosmetics website
Branding Art Direction Animalia Luxury Candles
Creative Direction, Design & Printing Animalia Luxury Candles Packaging
Design and Web Development for Animalia Luxury Candles E-commerce website
Hosting & Supporting online promotions for Animalia Luxury Candles website
Branding & Art Direction for Dr. Cynthia Boxrud Eyetopia

2004-2006 CreativEngine, Los Angeles, Ca.

Remote Projects

Design & Web Development Consultant

Kiosk Presentation Development
Custom CMS Development
UI, UX, Web Design & Development for various clients including E! online, Learners Library, Senator Edward Kennedy & Toyota Mobile Hybrid Experience. Print design & production for The Table Group

2003 The Content Project, Los Angeles, Ca.

Onsite Project

Design, Animation, Development

Team of 15

xxx

UI / UX, Development Custom CMS
Hosting & Support for Christian Weber Inc, Portfolio, Ghost Digital & Auditorium Editions

2002-2012 SurfCity Design Group, Huntington Beach, Ca

Remote Projects

Web / Interactive Design & Development Consultant

Team of 2

Web and Interactive Design & Development for various clients including Crown Crafts Infant Products, Kingseal, Supermex Restaurants, RSX Racing, Westridge Valencia, The Galloway Group & David George and Associates Architecture.

2002 TBWA/Chiat/Day Playa Del Ray, Ca

Onsite Retainer

Art Direction & Design Consultant

Team of 3

Art Direction & Design for Adidas-Soloman Corporate website

Education:

Laguna College of Art & Design, Laguna Beach CA (1996-2000) BA - Visual Communication.

Personal Interests:

Convergence of Art & Technology, Social Media Research, Collective Unconscious, Photography, Custom Applications, Poetry, Shotguns, Obscure cultural references, Humor, Juxtaposition of all kinds, Non-hierarchical & Redundant systems, Rap & Folk Music, Transparency, Barter, Burlesque, Conspiracy theories.