Welcome to the first Transmission of 2023.
My hope for this year is to make better use of this platform for sharing updates on projects, behind the scenes work, and inspirational designs. Expect to see a focus on interesting graphic design niches. I'll try to occasionally do a focus on a specific trend or industry with unique constraints. I don’t have a timeline or plan for updates. It’ll be based on when I find something interesting to share or find a new design niche to hyperfocus on.
Before that though, a quick retrospective.
2022 and Freelancing
2022 was the start of my first official year of freelancing (work before that was kind of a soft launch) which kind of got off to a rocky start. I had a ton of projects to work on and while I was able to get them over the finish line, the process wasn't as smooth as it could have been and my output was considerably lower than I would have liked. Several personal projects had to go on the back-burner. On top of that, I ended the year getting COVID which absolutely killed any productivity.
Even so, I'm extremely grateful for the projects I was able to work on as well as the several wonderful clients I worked with. To name just a few:
MeatCastle GameWare - Logo Design
Obermueller Games - Logo Design
Always Checkers Publishing - Last Sentinels
Anodyne Printware - Hull Breach
Rowan, Rook and Decard - DIE RPG
2023
So what's the plan for 2023?
Well first off, wrap-up In Other Waters: Tidebreak. It's been a fun project to work on with my collaborating partner, Gareth, and we're very excited to get it in your hands! For more details on that, check out project updates over on Kickstarter.
I'll also be continuing freelancing and hoping to streamline my process in the future to make it easier on both myself and clients. Unlike the last few years, I probably won't be launching a major crowdfunding project so that I can focus on wrapping up current projects as well as a handful of secret client projects that I can't talk about yet.
As much as I love ZiMo and ZineQuest, managing freelance work and my own major project is a lot. Like most indie creators can attest to, writing, designing, managing, and fulfilling a crowdfunded project on your own is exhausting and before I hit full burnout I'm going to try improve some of my workflows.
When I'm not working on the big projects though, I'll still be publishing smaller personal projects. Always have an idea in the back of my head and need new projects to stay fresh. I have some abandoned adventures for FIST, Offworlders, and Mothership (which I teased over 2 years ago already...) that will make their way over to Itch. Eventually.
I also like doing low-effort side projects for myself. Stuff that's likely not ever going to be for sale or for a client. Low-to-no pressure projects to stay inspired. The two I'm going to be focusing on for the next while are Dungeon23 and a new blog...
Project AGL
I'm launching a new blog dedicated discovering and highlighting graphic design in the tabletop gaming scene: the Analog Game Logos Project.
I see a lot of resources for logo design and inspiration through pages like Game+Logo or Logo Archive but not many that focus on tabletop gaming. And we have a lot of great pieces to pull from. Just look at the original Shadowrun or Spelljammer titles.
As a games and graphic designer, blogs and resources like this are inspirational when working on new projects, seeing trends, or even stepping out of my comfort zone to think of a new approach for designing the title for a game.
Not everything has to be a clever minimalist mark.
So my hope with Analog Game Logos Project is to do just that, act as a font of inspiration as well as connect game publishers with designers to make their games stand out.
And as it's meant to be more archival than promotional, Project AGL will not include any of my work (I already have a site/portfolio that does that).
Dungeon23
Dungeon23 is a daily writing challenge conceived by Sean McCoy that encourages you to write just one room of a dungeon every day. And at the end of the year, you’ll have a 365-room Megadungeon.
I’m often intimidated by the idea of mega dungeons so being able to work them into a daily routine definitely has its appeal. I’ll be writing an orbital ring space station that is integrated into a planetary asteroid belt. You can read more about that here.
That’s it for now. Thank you for tuning into Transmissions from the Archive and hope you’re here for the next broadcast.
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