Richard B. Miller

The Seattle area band Mister Master approached me to develop a word form logo for them.  They wanted to release an EP, but did not yet have a logo for it.  They had a cool T-shirt that blended their band name into the tentacles of a jellyfish, but they were reluctant to use it, as it had legibility issues.  

I had the band list a number of examples for me to base my work off of.  They mentioned the lettering in the Miller and Rainier beer brands, I also had them provide me a page of titling fonts they liked.  With these materials in hand, I began studying their selections and listening to their music to inform my sketches.

I arrived at something they liked very quickly.  As soon as my point of contact showed his band mates my initial sketch, they green lit it.  I refined my sketch a little bit, scanned it in, and reconstructed it using Illustrator’s Pen tool. After that, we met to colorize the logo.  They have been using it on all their materials ever since.

This is a mockup of a double vinyl LP for a Po’ Brothers compilation album.  This work was not commissioned by the band, but was rather made for a typography assignment.  The Po’ Brothers being short for “The Poor Brothers”, I thought it would be appropriate to use a low-end, or budget aesthetic.  

The artwork of 60s vintage matchbooks, safety matches, and coasters came to mind.  These prints were inexpensive, and the color plates often used bright colors, weren’t evenly inked, and were often misaligned.  To further compliment the budget aesthetic, I chose to print my mockup on unbleached kraft paper, and use an impact label maker for titling. For the digital mockup, I used a real impact label maker, and scanned in the labels at multiple angles, so that I could control reflections, and how the white embossed lettering interacted with light.

The artwork for the interior spread is, as best as I could approximate, the location sings about in its most popular song, “Grand Junction”.  I digitally sketched the spread illustration, as well as the front and back cover illustrations using the same technique.  , Trying to do so in a way that lent itself well to the safety match aesthetic I was pursuing.

This illustration was developed for use in a poster by a Seattle band. I collaged 3 photos from a show together to bring the band closer together from across the stage.  I then processed the resultant image through a number of photo filters, artistically recombining them to generate a unique effect with the aim of capturing the mood of a live show.

Packaging for Bloom Dish Soap.  Design of a custom die line was not required, but after finding the uniquely shaped packaging I wanted to see if I could address the problem of laying out type for a cone shaped surface.

Curiously, the packaging I found, when squeezed, would only dispense a pea-sized amount of soap, which inspired me to generate additional copy for the product that extolled the benefit of that feature.

Here I printed concentric rings on transparencies, both in color, and in black and white. I then sandwiched them between several layers of art board, so that as the piece is turned, different moire or interference patterns emerge.

Retail artwork for a 1-pint container of Fainting Goat Gelato for two flavors.

For this Design History assignment I blended the styles of two designers, in my case one of Otl Aicher’s 1972 Olympic Posters and one of Muriel Cooper’s MIT Press Posters.  My choice of event was limited to The Pacific Science Center.  I chose “The Studio: Vaccines & Immunity, It Takes A Community”

A scale model of a custom cake box I designed for ice cream cakes to be sold. I designed the die line to use no adhesives, and to resemble the company’s logo, an overturned goat.

A T-shirt for the 2017 Bouman Family Reunion. The design features a family tree where each branch represents a family member. The line form of the illustration is based off of Woodcut, Linocut, and Scratchboard artwork. The Back of the shirt, rendered in a similar style features the same people, organized by what state they live in, represented by the state tree.

A colleague and I developed assets for a food truck selling Japanese dude food.  Together we arrived at a name and visual style for the food truck.  Among the assets we developed were mockups of the food truck itself, Packaging the food would be sold in, a menu to be posted on or near the food truck, a logo, a website, and something to make going to this food truck unique.

We chose the name Wabi Sabi, the name for a philosophy of the acceptance of transience and imperfection.  My colleague and I felt that this was an appropriate choice as it felt like a concept that meshed naturally with street food culture, and as a concept already had purchase in the millennial zeitgeist.  It didn’t hurt that it was highly memorable, and rolled off the tongue nicely.

There have long been T-shirt designs referencing the fictional “Little Lebowski Urban Achievers” organization featured in the cult-classic Coen Brothers movie, The Big Lebowski.  In addressing this design challenge, I decided to treat the exercise as though it were being commissioned by a real organization.  I modeled the design and color choices after organizations like The Boys and Girls Club, or Big Brothers, Big Sisters.

When I began working with the Seattle band Dogstrum, much of the art for their first album was already complete. What they were lacking, however was the CD art and the cover art. For their CD Art they wanted something that looked as though they had embroidered their logo on fake leather.

Most Photoshop or Illustrator tutorials were at best, unconvincing. Fortunately I found Abduzeedo’s 2011 tutorial that made use of both Photoshop and Illustrator, and while it was a little see-through, I was able to shore it up by repeating the process, adjusting the parameters slightly each time.

Pictured here are scale models of a box whose die line I modified to accomodate ice cream pops. You will notice taht there is a perforated surface level with the bottom of the display. Below is a surface with identical perforations, allowing 12 ice cream pops to be held upright in the container.

The word-form logo for the Seattle band, Po’ Brothers.  The band required the letter forms work for their full name, as well as an abbreviated version, “Po’ Bros”.  The band required a scratchy, scrawled look.  Based off of sketches they sent me, I built them this word-form logo.

When I began working with the Seattle band, Dogstrum on their debut album, they had most of their raw assets. One asset they needed was a cover.

I showed them what Google’s Deep Dream filter could do to some of their promo shots. The band loved the look and told me to run with the idea. I decided to recombine several iterations of the same image to make it appear as though the band was spreading the distortions.

The product of coffee and sleep deprivation, this piece is the product of work I needed to do to keep myself awake for a very important phone call.

Select magazine Spreads from a student project where I was tasked with designing magazine content.

Just before gaining final approval for this poster, I was informed that the band had gained venue approval to add a fourth band to their lineup.  My determination to use band’s word-form logos when available required me to rebuild some of the hand-drawn assets.  The artwork for the skulls were generated using filtered photographs, the rest of the assets and textures were hand-rendered in photoshop.

This Assignment had us explore the impact of color by redesigning a book’s dust jacket.  Represented here is the final selection of 5 color themes, all using the same line art, and copy placement.

Originally a napkin sketch of either a Plesiosaur or the Loch Ness Monster, this design went on to become one of the most consistent sellers on FarOutShirts.com under the name “Nessie”.

When available, I use word-form logos of bands in show posters.  Unique to this poster, I decided to match text elements of the poster to the word-form logos of every band.  I also developed all of the visual assets used in the poster by isolating photographed subjects from their backgrounds, passing them through multiple photo filters, and artfully recombining them to create a more unique effect.

Hand made replica of Inogon Guide mark, a ship guidance beacon that relies on the phenomenon of Moire or Interference Patterns. More information on the Inogon guide mark may be found at the youtube link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d99_h30swtM

This t-shirt design for the Po’ Brothers is built on the Rainier beer logo.

An inkwell style holder I constructed for my Apple Pencil stylus. I constructed it using part of a disposable toothbrush head, a wine cork, and some iron filings.

A rendering of H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu in the style of Haribo’s Hello Kitty.  After completing this design, I was made aware by a friend of a web comic by this exact name.

A Torus constructed of sections of cardboard tube and spray foam for still life drawing.

A travel case for a wireless keyboard & Tablet Stylus made from thin Birch plywood, cotton webbing, Jute twine, an old T-shirt, and metal clasps to protect the keyboard from torsion stress and the keys from abrasion.

This is a one-sheet I generated for a Seattle band, the Po’ Brothers.  The one-sheet needs to be at once, a business card, a resumé, and an advertisement for leaving with owners or planners of venues a band wishes to play at.

I found an iPod HiFi (2006) at a thrift store recently. I wanted to see my phone’s display from a distance, so I purchased an iOS device dock along with the adapter cable required to interface the device with modern iOS devices. To cover the cavity where an iPod would have rested, I used wood veneer and foam resin to make a part that rested flush with the iPod HiFi body. I also adhered some of the same veneer to the iOS device dock.

Originally commissioned by a Seattle band, this shirt borrows font, color, and imagery choices from the original Twin Peaks title sequence.  This t-shirt design was supposed to embody a uniquely Pacific Northwest vibe, and feature the band name.  In this rendition I have replaced the band name with “Pacific Northwest”.

A simplified map of Western Washington inspired by Massimo Vignelli’s famous New York Subway map.

One of my first T-shirt Designs, from several years ago.  Because I could not find a font that satisfied my needs I created all the letters manually.

Over the summer of 2017 I taught myself how to make a Texas style barbecue beef brisket.

In working with the Seattle band, Dogstrum I also expanded off of the lettering in their logo to generate a titling font. I drew additional inspiration from woodcut titling fonts and titling fonts based off of tattoo art.

Unfortunately I did not, as of yet have any formal graphic design training, so while the individual characters work quite well, the font did not work well in application.  This is a project I intend to revisit now that I better understand typography

A printable tool I was commissioned to lay out for welders and construction workers to determine the size of excavated pipe on worksites.

A flyer I built for a wilderness guide as they provided live feedback.