Expansion on the Original Subject

As I discover, learn and understand more, I feel it is only best to update and append my original work.  I now have a solid understanding of the Minor scales; how they work with their variable 6th and 7th step and their ascending/descending nature. I have shown this in my scale pattern diagrams.  

I have built both the Harmonic and Melodic scale patterns for this poster.  I follow that same pattern as before, with the horizontal borders demonstrating the repeating nature of scales on the guitar fretboard, along with two new Minor scales and their pertaining borders.  The fretboards and individual patterns now have relation numbers to assist in separating and visualizing the individual patterns for practice and transposition. Also added to the Major/Minor pattern are some arrows demonstrating the guitar step pattern for the first position and implied pattern for the entire fretboard.  Contained in each of the headers for the the scales is their step pattern; Highlighting the different construction method of the Pentatonic scales due being based on Interval theory. As well as the number for each step of the Natural, Harmonic and Melodic Minor .  The modified 6th and 7th steps in the full Harmonic and Melodic scales are marked respectively as well. 

Download larger version Personal Use Only 

The Rest of the Design

As for the rest of the design and layout, I ensured the the patterns were stacked by a certain level of importance, their popularity, and by educational simplicity.  The Major scale and it's ever so closely linked Pentatonic companion being the first to learn, and the most popular.  I added a techy looking illustration of a guitar to bring the piece together, helping with the layout of all the scales and overall feel of the piece.

Original Post Date: February 09, 2011
Fingering Chart (heh...)

I am an avid guitarist; And whilst learning more about music and guitar theory, I found that many of the charts were difficult to fully understand and didn't show any of the correlation between the Major/Natural Minor scale patterns, and the Pentatonic and Blues scale patterns.  I always felt being able to connect the two most popular scale patterns in Western music, would not only help you gain a quicker finger memory, but would also help you learn the notation of the fretboard quicker; Something I am currently working on, and working on this chart most definitely aids in my learning of the fret notation. 

To many guitarists the chart will appear fairly standard, but every part has a purpose.  The chart is easy to follow, showing the Major/Natural Minor (Top) and the Pentatonic and Blues (Bottom).  The centre shows the correlating five patterns paired, Pentatonic with Major/Natural Minor root, showing each pattern in first position and what key they are in.  Even the border with help you visualize how the five patterns and full fret fingering are interconnected and can be shifted along the fretboard to achieve different keys, and is ultimately how you begin to see the fretboard (Just not quite as diagramy).

"Design", you say?

I mentioned most of the design elements above.  Apart from the musical aspect, design also plays a part.  I made sure that the full design of this diagram was simple, straight to the point, and every element was focused on the subject at hand.
From the borders(To help with visualization of the connected pattern) to the legend(With the Minor Root also being the Blues Root, I made sure that the two fingering dots represented that), even the san-serif typeset to make for easier distanced reading, the entire design applied to assisting with visual and finger memory for the guitar.

The design was made in Illustrator, each of the patterns, fret diagrams, and dot styles have been saved as symbols, pattern strokes and styles for further use.  If you're interested in using any of those pieces above, leave a contact email below.  The above image is for personal use only.

I have plans to work more on music theory and instrument cheat sheets in the future, as this also demonstrates my ability to do more technical work.

Two Friends and More Work
During the summer of 2010, I worked with Tim Lynch of Glyphnosis (Courtesy of Leif Peng, thank you) . The job was for Kleen-Flo, a company some may know.  While I'm not much of a car guy, I do seem to have a knack for this design thing.  The job was to take Kleen-Flo's logo and "Racing Style" it, to go with the FXR jacket logo. 

3, 2, 1, GO!
Below is a series of images showing my process for this job.   I worked closely with Tim, over Skype and email throughout this project. We discussed the project as it progressed and made changes as needed. We started with some basic details such as to emulate the FXR typeset, keep "Kleen-Flo" streamlined, without serif and a single text line. The first image was a slightly raced-up Kleen-Flo logo sketch that I took into Photoshop to do all the variations, instead of re-sketching them all. From there I created a digital thumbnail sheet of some of the various logo vectors I had produced.  One emphasizing the "K" and "F" and retaining some aspects of Kleen-Flo's logo; the other's streamlined in shape with simple frills for looks. Each style with different colour schemes, and slight modified frills. The logo design I felt was best I enlarged at the bottom.

The Final Lap...

...And Down Goes the Checkered Flag

I've kept in contact with Tim since this project, and in light of my blog update he sent along these manufacturer's renderings of the jacket.  The logo was decided to go on red, so the colours were tweaked slightly (and easily because of the file I provided) for the design.  If I can get a real photo of the jacket in the future, I will be sure to post it.

School Was Finally Out

Not quite, I still had an extension I was finishing up on, but this was my first paying job. One of my professors, Leif Peng, was already preparing for the following semester (Enrollment and Open House) whilst buried under marking for the previous one.  So he hired a bit of help in for (their expertise on) a resolution independent design for a rather large print.  He emailed a thumbnail of his idea to build the design from.

Big Pictures Eat RAM

The requested size for the above concept was 34" by 102", a rather large design where vector is required for its scalability.  Too produce a design like this as raster would be illogical, as it would prove to be slow and computer resource consuming to design for print.

I collaborated very closely via email while I was working on this file, so I could get exactly what Leif was looking for. As I approached the look my former instructor was looking for, it came as a surprise to me when he suggested that my blog, that I designed in his class for the semester, be used as an example along with the text. I was sure to include Trademark information at the bottom as well as all the text and details requested. Beyond the use of my SEO and networking, I like how the final came out.  So did Leif.