Ahoy, Mates. LEVEL is currently accepting entries for the annual Cal Poly Design Competition. Because like all groundbreaking creative agencies, we’re looking for good ideas to steal. You, in turn, get bragging rights, recognition, something to put on your resume and cool prizes! It’s a win-win.
Deadline to enter: May 31st
Two Categories:
Print
Identity Systems, Posters, Illustration, Typography, Package Design, Books
Interactive
Website, Flash, Video, Motion Graphics, Mobile Application Design
Take a plunge through the rest of our site and enjoy the art. It was all contributed by some very talented, very tired LEVEL designers.
Shiny New iMac
Best Overall
Cool iPad2
Best of Category | Print & Interactive
2-Year Communication Arts Subscription
Honorable Mention | Print & Interactive
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The ship has sailed. LEVEL is no longer accepting entries for
the 2011 Cal Poly Design Competition.
LEVEL delivers integrated marketing and product development for global brands. Through the interplay of branded content, technology platforms and connected devices, we design a total user experience that amplifies the relationship between brand and consumer. Our methodology is proven; our behavior is adaptive.
On deck, we believe in Nerf guns, horseplay and running with scissors, adult swim, Thirsty Thursdays, dogs and composting. We’re proud to have 70 Cal Poly grads in the LEVEL family, including several designers and UI developers. Maybe our next family addition will be you.
This is the result of the 4th night with 3 hours of sleep and the dark passenger taking the reigns. 10,000 subconscious clicks of the mouse, which I’m guessing, derived from far too many hours of watching horror movies. I awoke on day 5 in front of the computer with this in front me. Time to go back to sleep.
By day (and sometimes night), I work with a kickass creative team to define the BlackBerry and RIM brands. By night, I write and illustrate Eleanor, a graphic novel. I’m also married to a ninja knitter, and will soon be the proud father of a tiny bearded ninja. My design is directly inspired by my graphic novel, which tells the story of a girl who never stops falling. This panel was sketched by hand, scanned, then digitally inked and colored in Photoshop, using a Wacom Cintiq.
A major influence to my design approach was Finding Nemo. I really like the unique style and design approach to Pixar’s characters.
In a drastic contrast to the ethereal, magical under-the-sea days of old; this world has evolved into something slightly terrifying and always amusing due to its proximity to a busted power plant’s underwater pipes. Deep in the ocean away from the casual observer, these creatures have mutated and evolved to previously unfathomable levels of weird.
I wanted to take one of the most recognizable album covers of all time and infuse an underwater scene with it. With the help of our 3D guru, Jason Fuhrman, we were able to use replicators within MODO to produce the fishes in the same geometry as the baby from the Nirvana “Nevermind” album cover.
After discarding the idea of an anthropomorphic hot dog fleeing a shark attack in a hamster ball, I decided upon the idea of an assortment of sea creatures waiting for a bus. They all have their places to be, and like most people waiting for buses, they all are at least a little bit impatient. Except maybe the blowfish, he looks pretty stoked. I worked with Katie Gilfoy on concept, characters, and sketching, and with Craig Nanaumi and Miguel Castro with background and overall tweaks.
I have always admired Swiss design and influential designers like Otl Aicher. Even though Otl Aicher was German, he had a particular clean aesthetic that has always inspired me. For this project I adopted Aicher’s infamous pictograms, designed specifically for the ’72 Munich Olympics, and with them waged an epic war against a unique, less symbolic army of animal symbols designed by Gerd Antz.
My design is inspired by collage, mixed media and high fashion photography. The end result is loosely inspired by Peter Pan, but underwater. Basically, I gathered a bunch of inspiration and then my design process was like this: started, scanned some stuff, scrapped, started again, scrapped again, and then I came up with this last minute. Refine until you run out of time?
My design was inspired by a combination of Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries and very old school Atari box art that looked nothing like the actual game.
Underwater Fantasy = bikes, kites, croquet and narwhals. As a huge fan of the wild blue yonder, I wanted to see what some of my favorite hobbies would look like among my finned friends. I went with a light-hearted, fun, illustrative style with lots of color to bring this underwater world to life.
The synchronizing squeals bounce off the laboratory walls as each individual brain cell passes away in anguish and horror. Lack of oxygen, lack of sleep, and lack of caffeine resistance- the idle hands work relentlessly. Submerged into a hazy unfathomable abyss the death of my many cells did not depart in vain. Madness has been born and the 72 dpi hell-scape is all there is left to show for what could have been my last night of sanity. It’s too late to go back, but at this point it’s crazy - keep going...going...gone.
