ILLUSTRATION, Lasher Design

Illustration

In marketing or advertising, illustration is meant to visually explain a concept or invoke an emotional response. Technical illustrations must be concise and easy to understand for the viewer. Often the most difficult part of technical illustrations is taking a client’s sketch and visually synthesizing it down to a more succinct form.

NIWeek Keynote Presentation Illustration

Cofounder and NI Business and Technology Fellow Jeff Kodosky needed a presentation to complement his annual NIWeek keynote. The presentation was projected on a 70-foot-tall video screen to an audience of over 2,500 attendees. It had to visually explain the highly technical nature of the topics, including the Internet of Things (IoT), Big Analog Data, and machine learning.

During the presentation, Kodosky used the human eye as an analogy to describe sensors, processing, and awareness in explaining the concept of IoT. He used this comparison to describe NI’s role in helping companies meet their engineering challenges.

Matrix Net Systems Product and Service Illustration

Matrix Net Systems provides internet performance optimization solutions to companies that use the internet as a critical business service. It needed a technical illustration for a brochure that showed how its cloud-based system and products helped a business keep its internet running at peak performance.

NI TSN System Diagram

Engineers in NI’s Industrial Internet of Things Lab wanted to create a 3D mockup of a Time Sensitive Network (TSN) to show how NI and third-party products work together to create a flexible manufacturing ICC testbed. This required creating not only the illustrations for the large-format poster explaining the system but also a larger illustration of the system block diagram as the backdrop for the 3D system mockup.

London Underground Track Monitoring Illustration

The London Underground is using NI CompactRIO to monitor its Victoria rail line. NI needed a technical illustration demonstrating how the monitoring system works for a PowerPoint keynote presentation. The illustration was projected on a 70-foot-wide screen while an engineer on stage talked about how the system was built and implemented. The illustration showed how trains entering the station trigger a track circuit (red light) and trains leaving the station trigger a green light. Not only did the graphic elements need to be created for the presentation but they also had to be animated in PowerPoint.

G Systems Software Component Architecture Illustration

This illustration for a G Systems data sheet shows a software component architecture using NI TestStand. Simplifying the design and using color to organize the information make the technical illustration easier to understand.

Commercial Illustrations

Sometimes illustrations can be fun and whimsical. The illustrations below are examples of graphics used for a variety of applications such as social media graphics, invitations, announcements, and an illustrative exploration for a children’s book.

Cover Illustration for Event Invitation

Cover art for direct mail invitation inviting customers and vendors to a special event for Blue Wave Technologies.

Promotional Illustration

Social and print media graphic to promote a UX/UI company. They specialize in interactive interface design based upon the science and analytics of web design and development.

Connected City Illustration

Social media illustration to promote a white paper examining what 5G means for connecting smart cities and mobile devices.

Connected Factory Illustration

Social media illustration to promote a white paper explaining how IoT connected devices can allow for remote asset monitoring in a modern factory.

NYC Cityscape Illustration

I created these illustration as moving announcements when I moved to NYC for my graduate studies.

Austin Cityscape Illustration

The Austin cityscape is my moving announcement for when I returned to Austin.

Illustrations for Children’s Book

Character studies for a children’s illustrated book.

Something Fun!

*Warning 1980-90s Design Alert* — Though old school, these are still some of my favorite graphic works from my fledgling career in the late ’80s and early ’90s. If you’ve made it this far in my portfolio, you deserve a peek into the past. Keep in mind some of these were created with Adobe Illustrator 3.0, Photoshop 2.0, and Bryce 1.0.

DJ Mehrzad Promotion Poster

Ad for a DJ to promote his residency at a local Austin club in the late 1980s. A lotta fun was had at Backstreets.

Scratch board ad circa 1988.

OHMS Club Ad

Promotional ad for a night club in Austin, TX. OHMS was a club in the mid ’90s that showcased local and international DJs. Music styles included deep house, progressive and industrial dance music.

circa 1994

OHMS Club Ad

Promotional ad for OHMS night club in Austin. This mid ’90s club featured local and international DJs as well as performance and interactive art shows.

circa 1994

90s Rave Flyer

Those were the days. Late, late night (early morning) raves. Dance until you couldn’t dance any more. Eyes twinkling from the colorful, strobing light show. Ears ringing from the loud bass. Bliss.

circa 1995

New Frontiers CD Cover Art

CD cover art for a techno band called New Frontiers. This would have been around 1996. I was really into the fractal based software Bryce 1.0.

circa 1996

SDN CD Cover Art

Soul Defense Network was an ATX progressive techno band in the mid ’90s.

circa 1997