The upcoming issue of .net Magazine (Issue 193, September 2009) features insight from our Sr. Art Director, Joe Branton.  The article is part of .net’s “Makeover” feature, in which prominent designers are asked to redesign a lackluster site—in this case an online vodka retailer called Vodka Emporium.  You can check out the article here.  And since you don’t get to see the real of the quality of Joe’s work, we also wanted to share full resolution images of the designs.  Click the thumbnails below to view the work.

I’m so excited to finally see our K-Y Intense collaboration with Mother New York go live! Just for kicks, I went through my sketches of the reaction room to see how close my original drawing compared to the final composition. I was both surprised and delighted that they were remarkably close. It just goes to show you that drawing your ideas out on paper before putting them into Photoshop is the best way to avoid making critical mistakes and help get your head wrapped around a project before even hopping on the computer! If you haven’t seen the live site, visit it at the K-Y Intense Satisfaction Lab, and enjoy a laugh or three.

Whenever we wrap up a big project, we like to celebrate with a fun-filled Grow outing. As luck would have it, Drew’s birthday fell on the same day as our latest adventure, so we had even more reason to party.  At the always-delicious Plaza Azteca, Drew dawned his sombrero like a good sport, but he was thoroughly embarrassed when the whole place was clapping and singing to him.

After our delicious and entertaining lunch, we headed over to a nearby mini golf / driving range. After an exhausting 18 holes and a few astonishing holes in one, the scores were tallied and a winner was announced. Drew, Careyann, BJ and I took home bragging rights. Go team!  We spent the rest of our day at the driving range, where we mostly made fools out of ourselves.  The full Flickr set is here.

It was a lovely day and a well-deserved break for our hard working team.  The celebrated project just launched, too.  Check out the HP Photosmart site, or see more details here.