Burciaga » Design

Music I Listen To When I Design

Ismael Burciaga — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 22:16:55 +0000

Here is a list of artists and bands I listen to when I design. My genres range from rap, hardcore, pop and emo. I know my range is weird but I love all types of music.

Rap:

Hardcore Rock:

Pop:

Alternative:

Soft (not sure what genre)

Electronica:

BBQWar is now on Unmatchedstyle.com

Ismael Burciaga — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 13:16:30 +0000

My Tuesday is looking good so far. I just found out via twitter that my BBQWar.com site was listed on the homepage of Unmatchedstyle.com. Thank you for adding my site. Gene Crawford had a few kind words about my site: “Love this design, the colors and type are perfect for a BBQ site like this. There are a ton of really great little details across this entire website. It really makes me hungry just looking at it. BEEF!” Don’t worry Gene, whenever I look at the site too, it make me super hungry.

Mirror of the Future

Ismael Burciaga — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 13:35:04 +0000

It would be great to have one of these mirrors in my house. Only if there was a way for it to do work for you too.

PaintbrushJS: Image Processing Library Built With Javascript

Ismael Burciaga — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 13:18:40 +0000

I was just blown away this morning when I discovered Dave Shea’s PaintbrushJS via Dribbble. PaintbrushJS is a lightweight browser-based image processing library built with Javascript and canvas. The canvas element is part of HTML5 and allows for dynamic, scriptable rendering of 2D shapes and bitmap images. You can learn more about canvas here.

Man this is really crazy because the other day I was just thinking about how neat it would be if there was a sepia jQuery plug-in that I could use on one of my website projects. I know this might not work on all browsers just yet, but I can’t wait to use it.

Thanks Dave for this amazing code.

BBQWar

Ismael Burciaga — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 03:38:05 +0000

Check out my new project that has been out for a couple of weeks now. Warning: you might get hungry. BBQWar.com

The Therme Vals

Ismael Burciaga — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 13:46:27 +0000

Ok you have to see this video about architect Peter Zumthor who designed Therme Vals in Switzerland. I came across this structure in a Vanity Fair article. The Therme Vals was inspired by the spa’s majestic surroundings which was built on the sharp grade of an Alpine mountain slope with grass-topped roofs. One day I would love to have an office, or a spa in my house, that mimics this design.

One of the main things I love about this design is how the light is reflected through the water. It gives it a very intimate feeling and not just a normal spa that you would see around town. I also like how Zumthor used locally quarried stone for the walls to allow the design to blend in with its surroundings. Gosh I miss architecture.

Here are some photos:

Free Photography Homepage Photoshop File

Ismael Burciaga — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 03:16:41 +0000

I have been wanting to design a photography website for a long time now and so finally today I decided I would do just that.

I kept the design of the site very simple. The colors scheme is neutral so that the images would pop, however, I did add a splash of teal. I also added a warm ambient glow to the back to set the mood. Feel free to download the PSD file and use this design for your website. I will also give you permission to modify and do whatever you want with it. Remember, this site is for you!

The social icons is the work of Gedy Rivera of Lifetree Creative. You can buy her entire icon set for only $5 dollars. If you think that is expensive, then you are definitely a cheapskate. The photograph was taken by Dimitri Castrique and downloaded from stock.xchng. The font used for the navigation and social content is Trade Gothic Condensed Bold No. 20.

If you do happen to use this design for your website, I don’t mind if you don’t link back to my website, but kudos if you do and leave a comment with a link attached on how you are using it.

Download File

Enjoy!

Designed in Photoshop CS5.

The Free Download had to be removed for reasons I can’t share. However, feel free to click on the image to view a large preview.

My Top 10 Favorite Logos I’ve Designed at Church Media Group

Ismael Burciaga — Fri, 07 May 2010 13:15:31 +0000

There are so many logos I have designed at Church Media Group that are absolutely my favorite. This was definitely not an easy pick and choose, but after a long battle I chose my top 10 to share with you.

Valley Creek Church

Paul Wilbur Ministries – World Parnter

Kings Chapel

Bethel Temple

Here’s Life Mission Africa

West Africa Initiative

Bayview Baptist Church

Israel Houghton’s New Breed

Dallas First Church

Portico

Bonus

Okay I couldn’t help myself with just 10. Here are an additional 4 favorites:

City Church

West Coast Life Church

Life Church

Landmark Church

Here is the Church Media Wall of Logos:

My Top 10 Favorite Sites I’ve Designed at Church Media Group

Ismael Burciaga — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 14:06:34 +0000

It is not easy being able to pick 1 website that I enjoyed designing the most, however it is easier to choose 10. The sites listed below took an entire team to develop. I would hate to take credit for it all. I give props to the entire Church Media Group staff I work with: Chris Miller (@dancehands) for doing all the back-end php development work, Travis Gates (@travisgates) for selling the job and amazing project management, Jamie Freeman (@jamie_freeman) for all the hosting and project support, Jenna Hamp (@jenna_beth) for graphics support, Brian Buchanan for content support, Jurgen Beck (@jurgenbeck) for being an all around smart genius dude and of course Yuri Star (@yuristar) for being the man with the plan. My part was just the design and the front-end development. Ok enough with the talking, here is my list:

Ryan Edgar

WARNING: Please make sure your speakers are turned down before you click on the image below.

Collide Magazine

Glocal Ventures

Planning Center

Kari Jobe

Integrity Worship Institute

Revive Africa

Sower of Seeds International

Higher Fitness

Church Media Group

My Top 10 Favorite iPad Apps

Ismael Burciaga — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 04:14:58 +0000

Here are my top 10 favorite iPad apps that I can’t wait to download. I am still deciding if I should buy the WiFi or wait for the 3G. Oh well, here is my list:

USA Today
By USA Today

Epicurious Recipes & Shopping List
By Condé Nast Digital

Tweetdeck
By Tweetdeck, Inc.

Netflix
By Netflix, Inc.

Yahoo! Entertainment
By Yahoo!, Inc.

Things
By Cultured Code

iBooks
By Apple, Inc.

BBC News
By BBC Worldwide

Wikipanion
By Robert Chin

Craigsphone
By Next Mobile Web

My Top 5 Favorite Educational Sites

Ismael Burciaga — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 03:28:21 +0000

College websites play an important role in society. It is the place where prospective students, parents and alumni visit for information about the school, courses and activities. Most educational sites that I have seen are either plain boring with no design elements or the user interface is hard to figure out. In this post I have put together what I think are my top 5 favorite educational sites.

Click on the link to pop open in a new window or click on the image to view a larger image.

1. Integrity Worship Institute
I love the background design of the header, the logo displayed horizontally and the light shadows used throughout the site.

2. Maryland Institute College of Art
I love how the designer thought outside of the box when figuring out the placement of the images.

3. Nebraska Wesleyan University
In this site I love the design of the footer and the use of gradients.

4. Washtenaw Community College
WCC uses a unique design layout.

5. Elon University
The shine behind the logo really makes the header pop.

What are your favorite educational sites?

Beautiful Wedding Invitations

Ismael Burciaga — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:18:37 +0000

A friend told me about a cool wedding blog called Style Me Pretty and I ran into Grapevine Paperie. Grapevine Paperie is a couture invitation design studio located in both Manhattan and Boston founded by Karen Bartolomei. Her work has been featured in several books, one that I own called 1,000 Greetings: Creative Correspondence Designed for All Occasions. I love how Karen is able to create invitations in many different styles ranging from Modern, Contemporary, Classical and Elegant. If I had all the time in the world to just do nothing, I would probably find myself looking at wedding invitations and typography layouts. I am a big sucker for serif fonts, especially with lots of kerning and open space.

Stop reading my blog! Go check out Grapevine Paperie and let me know what you think.

Vintage Grunge Patterns

Ismael Burciaga — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:38:02 +0000

Here is a great resource I found today from PSD Tuts on Vintage Grunge Patterns – A Myriad of Vintage Grunge Patterns From Across the Web.

Enjoy!

My Threadless Collection

Ismael Burciaga — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:21:37 +0000

For the last three months I have been on a v-neck kick. Almost every day I would wear my Gap skinnies, a Hane’s white v-neck and of course, my black Tom’s. However, in October I was snooping around Threadless.com checking out the site design when I ran into two cool shirts, The Politburo Explains & Liquid Shot. I didn’t hesitate to order them. It took about 3 days for my shirts to arrive and when I tried them on, it felt as if I had a rope tied around my neck. I didn’t wear the shirts for a couple of weeks, I was actually going to return them and get a refund. Finally, last week I decided to wear them and now I want to order more. I think it would be a great idea if Threadless would begin to sell v-necks for those who enjoy to wear them. They might already do so, and I’ve missed it but it could possibly bring more revenue for them.

Enough about me, what is your favorite Threadless Tee?

The Periodic Table of Typefaces

Ismael Burciaga — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:50:39 +0000

This morning I was going through the Behance Network and I came across this interesting poster. I think it was a brilliant idea by designer Cam. I studied Chemistry back in college when I thought I was going to be a Forensics Pathologist so when I saw the Periodic table, it made me laugh but at the same time I so wanted to order it for my office.

This Periodic Table groups by families and classes of typefaces: sans-serif, serif, script, blackletter, glyphic, display, grotesque, realist, didone, garalde, geometric, humanist, slab-serif and mixed.

Order your copy today!

Kari-mor-pho-sis

Ismael Burciaga — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 04:07:58 +0000

Kari⋅mor⋅pho⋅sis – a profound change in form from one website to the next in the life history of Kari Jobe.

Here are the websites I’ve designed since 2004:

Visit her website at http://karijobe.com

KOHLER Advertisements

Ismael Burciaga — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:07:06 +0000

I don’t know what it is about the KOHLER advertisements that keeps me staring at them for long periods of time. Is it the sharp details of the image? or is it the imagination of the photographer? I can be at Barnes & Noble looking through an interior design magazine and BAM — there it is, the beautiful Ads by Kohler. They have used photographers such as Sacha Waldman, David LaChapelle, Hugh Kretschmer, Erwin Olaf, Sanjay Kothari and Jean Claude Maillard giving them the opportunity to run with their own imagination. I look forward in seeing the future Ads of KOHLER.