Copter Design Studio » Branding

Kaksikko: furniture and tableware from Helsinki

cj — Sun, 29 Apr 2018 02:21:00 +0000

Pamphlet design for Helsinki based product design duo, Kaksikko.

Kaksikko design wooden furniture and ceramic tableware. The goal for the pamphlet was to let these products take center stage through austere, atmospheric photography, minimal information, and generous white space. The print design stays harmonious with Kaksikko’s product design in its use of bold, unadorned typography, carefully chosen materials, and emphatic minimalism with just the right amount of warmth.

Good Times masthead

cj — Mon, 10 Nov 2014 17:36:40 +0000

I drew the masthead for Good Times, a weekly publication in Santa Cruz, California. Roger Black lead the publication redesign and the internal team came up with the initial masthead sketch. Roger then reached out to me to re-space and re-draw the masthead based on this sketch, balancing the weight, harmonizing the slope and improving the flow between connecting letters.

Initial process notes:

Eastern Suns art show

cj — Sun, 05 May 2013 16:54:15 +0000

Eastern Suns is an art show curated by Sean Kelling featuring artists from the world of skateboarding. The show’s venue, Max Fish, is a famed lower east side bar long known as a hangout for skaters and artists. Along with designing the identity for the show, we created a promotional Max Fish pint glass.

In addition, a series of my hand painted signs were featured in the exhibition.

Past to Present Exhibition Branding

cj — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 21:30:56 +0000

As an alumni of the Idyllwild Arts Academy I was honored when the school hired me to design the branding for “Past to Present,” the Visual Arts Alumni Exhibition at the Idyllwild Arts Academy. The exhibition includes work by artist such as Shepard Fairey, Nate Lowman, and many others who were once students at this prestigious arts school and have gone on to achieve success in the visual arts.

The Idyllwild Arts Academy is an arts school located in a secluded mountain town, so for the exhibition branding I created a “typographic mountain” which also includes the school’s iconic tree logomark on the left side “growing” out of this formation. The primary typeface is a proprietary typeface design which I started while at the Cooper Union postgraduate typeface design program. It is a revival typeface design based on the work of Morris Fuller Benton from the 1920s.
In addition to the original design, I created a custom display version of the typeface with extra thin hairlines which was used for the vinyl lettering on the gallery wall.

In conjunction with the exhibition there were lectures given by alumni including Shepard Fairey and myself, CJ Dunn.

Screenprints from the exhibition by Shepard Fairey

Painting by Monica Lundy

Screenprinted Canvas by Nate Lowman

Sculpture by Hawkeye Glenn

Original Typeface Design Specimen, Letterpress Print by CJ Dunn

Nike: Harlem Team Hyperfuse

cj — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 09:34:52 +0000

Nike released a Harlem team hyperfuse using the branding we designed for the Battle of the Boroughs innitiative.