Case Study




			Peter Whitley 818 North Cedar Street • Tacoma, WA 98406 (206) 235-0138 petermwhitley@gmail.com CASE STUDY While I have worked on hundreds of projects throughout my career, here is one that summarizes the process to a great conclusion. Alchemy: Featureworks Challenge: A small fine-art metal studio needed an identity that would attract larger, commercial clients. With an incredible catalog of work, the challenge was to graphically combine the qualities of earnest creativity with a professional, productive capacity. Process: A meeting was held between Whitley and the client to better understand the scope and goals of the company. This allowed ideas to be casually discussed without commitment and provide a sense of what kinds of language energized the client. It was determined that Alchemy: Featureworks would need a logo, website, and printed printed materials, (business cards, etc.). After a short time a round of sketches was delivered to Alchemy: Featureworks. These sketches established some broad strokes and explored a number of directions. Only character and contour was explored at this stage; color would be refined later. Each sample included notes describing what was felt as the key attributes of that mark to help the client better determine which would resonate with their desired clientele and self-identity. The client expressed their top choice which was then used to explore color. The colors explored here were based on the client's photographic samples. At this stage some additional contour options were explore to ensure we were on the right track. It was mutually agreed that the darker tones expressed the most confidence and capability. Now that the contour was confidentally established, we decided to look at a photographic texture to see if that may better capture the visceral qualities of the client's product. Also, a business card concept had been bouncing around so those two ideas were teamed up in the following sketch. It was time to begin the website. The first stage was to develop a site architecture. The following sketch was the result of a few emails outlining how the website should perform and what value it should provide visitors. Namely, the site should be simple and direct...just enough to present a selection of photographic samples without being overwhelming. The website came together quickly and without many creative iterations as the company's stylistic framework had been explored during the logo development phase. By now things are wrapping up and everything is looking cohesive. The clients are happy with the ensemble, and final files are all being prepared to hand off to the web service and printers. To ensure that the clients have all the information necessary to maintain their brand image, all the native files and production notes are collected and delivered. WHAT MY CLIENTS AND COLLEAGUES HAVE TO SAY… Peter displayed an exceptionally strong work ethic during the entire publishing project of the Public Skatepark Development Guide, a 130 page handbook for skatepark advancement. Not only did he write the guide, he also did the layout and was also very instrumental in keeping the project on track and on time pulling together three separate non-profit organizations to make the guide a reality. —Per Welinder, Chairman, International Association of Skateboard Companies see this work Pete has extraordinary creative skills and was so fun for us to work with. The corporate identity he designed for our business exceeded our expectations, and always receives a second look from the architects and designers we work with. Spot-on design and great use of color. There is also a fundamentally solid quality to the design that creates confidence which we needed being a new business with high end product. My partners were impressed with the questions Pete asked to help create and define what we wanted. Our business is a bit unique and he just got it. Pete also had to produce our website with quite a few constraints, and looking at it, nobody would ever know. We are looking forward to working with Pete to create our “2nd edition”. We would highly recommend working with Pete Whitley. —Joy Fortney, Oly Jensen, Steven Heino, Alchemy Featureworks see this work I was Peter’s colleague and supervisor for over five years at Wizards of the Coast. During his tenure, I admired him for his many valuable qualities, and regarded him with great respect. Besides being a pleasure to work with, Peter is a take-charge person who is able to present creative ideas and communicate the benefits. He was an integral part of the design development process at the company, and his creative vision and strong technical skills is a huge asset. Very goal oriented as well as a team player, Peter was always diligent, yet easygoing. He was dedicated to his work and the job at hand. Though he was an asset to our creative and production efforts, Peter was also extraordinarily helpful in other areas of the company. In addition to leading art direction and development for key product lines Peter also assumed a leadership role in team meetings, inspiring and motivating other employees. I highly recommend Peter for employment. He is an excellent manager, creative talent and employee and would make a great asset to any organization. —Dawn Heiberg, Director of Creative Services, Wizards of the Coast I worked repeatedly with Peter on various projects and was always was happy to do so. He is talented, insightful, experimental, innovative, and communicative. You'd be lucky to work with him. —Jonathan Tweet, Senior Game Designer, Wizards of the Coast Peter is a highly creative senior designer with a passion for solving complex problems. He has strong leadership and communications skills which are expressed at work and also in his personal life through his involvement in community projects. —Adriana Moscatelli, User Experience Guru, Wizards of the Coast Peter is a high-integrity professional, always providing consistent quality work. I both value and admire his creative thinking and ability to respond nimbly to the changing needs of the client. Given the opportunity I would embrace the opportunity to work with him again. —Linae Foster, Buyer, Wizards of the Coast We worked with New Tacoma Design Studio on several projects recently; they provided a complete branding package of logo, colors, styles, fonts, usage documents for ITC’s branding, as well as several different sets of graphics for some of our web design clients... Pete Whitley’s eye for design and dedication to the visual craft of graphic design goes way beyond the basics, and captures the subtle details and textures of a brand. We’ll be using the mark and graphics NTDS created for us for a long time, and we’ll be contracting with them for graphic design services for as many of our clients as possible for the foreseeable future. The projects just go more smoothly when Pete is a member of the team. We literally couldn’t be happier with the services and results we’ve gotten, both for ourselves and for our clients. —Andrew Bacon, The Information Technology Consultancy see this work Download my résumé in portable/printable format (300k)