MICHAEL SUTHERLAND Portfolio sutherndesign@gmail.com 201.618.0746
LOGOS Illustration
A Logo is Like the First Line of a Book And also the final punctuation at the end. I love logos because there’s so much opportunity for great storytelling within the form and the negative space where it lives. My approach for logo development is often conceptual so the form can reveal new meaning as your relationship with the brand grows.
Crestron Pyng ® Logo identity for home automation control system. The Pyng system paired with a phone app, allowing installers to configure everything from one central location.
Crestron President’s Circle Emblem and business cards for elite sales team. These thick matte black cards were pressed with black and silver metallic foil.
Crestron Technical Institute Identity for corporate on-premises training and educational program. The mark represents the program’s dynamic facilities and multi-faceted course offerings.
Intel ® Open Pluggable Specification Badge for electronics product technical specification. The mark was inspired by the bi-directional hardware component it specifies.
Optimum ® Lightpath Identity for business division providing data services over optical cable. These three services are represented in the triangular form.
Alpine Tea Logo for beverage brand. The mark reflects the tea leaves and the mountains they’re grown on.
INTEGRATED CAMPAIGN Crestron Flex™
Marketing a Suite of Products that Connect Spaces The Crestron Flex family of products is an enterprise-grade conferencing solution that connects hundreds of rooms and allows them to communicate seamlessly. There are different product series for different room sizes, and the timeline to the right shows how the Flex system increases productivity throughout the day.
A PRODUCTIVE, STRESS-FREE EXPERIENCE THROUGHOUT THE WORKDAY Unified Communications has been around for more than 25 years, but you’d never know it based on the user experience. As you go about your day, it can feel like a series of puzzles you have to solve to get the technology in different meeting spaces to work. Precious time is wasted. Meetings run late and often bump up against the next scheduled meeting. Frustration builds up. Productivity goes down. By providing a simple, consistent user experience in all the places you work, Crestron Flex solutions clear the way to a productive, stress-free day.
8:00 AM The day begins
9:15 AM
In your office, Crestron Flex P100 voice devices provide you with your day’s calendar and connect you with coworkers and customers alike.
Your colleagues need to review a spreadsheet before the team meeting. No problem. Crestron scheduling touch screens connect to your calendaring system. It indicates a nearby huddle room is available. You book it on the spot.
Emergency meeting
10:00 AM Team meeting
12:00 PM Global meeting
3:30 PM Training session
Your colleague quickly pairs her Bluetooth® device to the Crestron Flex M100 tabletop conferencing system and you all discuss in real-time.
As you head to your next meeting, the illuminated Crestron room availability hallway signs help you easily locate the room. As you enter, your team’s name is on the display and the same interface greets you on a 10" touch screen.
Joining the session is simple. The Crestron Flex C100 Integration Kit provides an intuitive interface, even in the most complicated spaces, giving meeting facilitators the confidence they need to have a great session.
The Crestron Flex B100 smart soundbar provides crystal clear voice pickup around the room. One touch and everyone is connected to the room, along with the UK leadership team. On-time. Efficient.
WEB DESIGN Crestron.com
Revealing Narrative Through Sequential Panels The Crestron website takes complex technical information and breaks it down in sizable chunks. Here are event pages for the annual trade shows. But I can’t take all the credit—we collaborate closely with the web development team to make interactive elements and parallax imagery come to life.
Company: Crestron ® Electronics, Inc. • Graphic Designers: Michael Sutherland, Briana Wickham • Digital Director: Michael Mongiardo • Front-End Developers: Ron de Leon, Rich Rowbotham
MAGAZINE SERIES Crestron Electronics, Inc.
Cover-to-Cover Art and Layout I love the structure and hierarchy of editorial design. Producing this in-house magazine series meant first establishing a flexible layout and typographic system to match. All the artwork was custom-created for each article, with added interactive elements for the digital distribution.
Company: Crestron ® Electronics, Inc. • Art Director/Graphic Designer: Michael Sutherland • Editor: Jeffrey Singer • Copywriter: Eric Rosenberg
Opening Spread
Editorial Layout
Incorporated Advertising
Editorial Layout
ADVERTISEMENTS Vertical Trade Publications
Speaking to the Industry Trade advertisements can be more dry and technical than consumer ads. Still, I had a lot of fun creating visuals that would stand out from the other ad placements in the publications. These Crestron ads feature a consistent layout system I developed to easily recognize the brand.
ADVERTISEMENTS Vertical Trade Publications
Every Product is Beautiful I was lead-designer on the Nikon account at ThinkDM2, which meant finding new ways to showcase seasonal product lines in the dealer-facing trade pubs. I’ve manipulated the flat product photos from Nikon to add dimensionality and a sense of depth. At Crestron we photographed our own products after acquiring them from the Engineering department.
PRODUCT LAUNCH KITS Nikon®
Stoking Enthusiasm in Camera Dealers On the Nikon account, I produced these seasonal kits for camera dealers, announcing all the updated specs for the new product lines. One of the challenges was the confidentiality — meaning the cameras could not be shown on the covers. Instead, I found other ways to allude to the product — like image slices or typography.
Client: Nikon ® • Agency: ThinkDM2 • Principal: David Annunziato • Art Director/Graphic Designer: Michael Sutherland
DIGITAL ART
Design Deserves Better Than Stock Imagery I like to produce original artwork when there’s opportunity to stand out or convey a conceptual idea. The two images here showcase some of the methodology for how I render dimensional objects, apply texture/lighting, and overlay elements to create something new.
PHOTO RETOUCHING Crestron Electronics, Inc.
Making Images Your Own When time or budget requires stock imagery, I like to imprint a brand’s signature on them. These stock images here were developed for a product line release of conferencing devices. Look at the before/after to see how I straighten perspective lines, composite products, alter human interaction, and apply lighting filters.
TRADE SHOW DESIGN InfoComm Las Vegas
A Guided Experience Trade shows are huge industry-leading events where all the new technology debuts annually, with several thousand visitors attending the Crestron booth. I design the show experience starting with product placement and wall messaging, then a guided brochure walkthrough of the technology on each wall with a companion app to assist wayfinding. For InfoComm Las Vegas we concentrated on room design which featured life-sized depictions of conference spaces.
The only AV platform that does it all 4K/60 Scaling a & Distribution | HDCP 2.2 | Copper | Fiber | h.264 2 | Dante Audio | Video o Wall Processing | Audio DSP
FIBER
2 support HDCP 2.2 HDMI Sony 4K Player
Fiber
Fiber
DMF-RMC4K-SR
DMF-CI-8
DMF-TX-4K-SR
HDMI
47” 4K Monitor 43W x 24.6H 27” Monitor
27” Monitor
27” Monitor
27” Monitor
4K/60 video wall processing
28” 4K Monitor
4K/60 0 over copper in IDOC-PAD2-LCA-DSWC-W w/ iPad 2
4K/60 over copper outt HDMI
Zero-latency, e uncompressed in room switching
IP Cam
DM
DMPS3-4K-50
DM
DM
®
DM
DM
h.264
DM
DM
DM-MD16X16
DM-RMC-4K-SCALER-C
COPPER
Plug & play o collaboration
AM-100
DM-RMC-4K-SCALER-C
HDMI
Wireless presentation
DM
SAROS SR4T
HDMI
SAROS SR4T
32” 2K Monitor
TT-101
HDMI
MacBook
CEN-WAP-1500
h.264
IDOC-PAD-LCA-DSWC-W
DM-RMC-4K-100-C
HDMI
Stream HDCP P content
Low-bandwidth, high quality l network video in & out HDMI
Recessed Sony BluRay Player (NEED SPECS)
DM-TXRX100-STR
h.264
40” 4K Monitor
Network video without a switcher h CEN-SW-POE-16
h.264
DM-DGE-200-C
HDMI
40” 4K Monitor
Downscale & de-embed audio to speakers
TRADE SHOW DESIGN InfoComm Orlando
A Vibrant Experience The Crestron booth at InfoComm Orlando focused on differing room sizes and the technology for each. I distinguished each zone using vibrant colors and filled the outer walls with typographic texture for allure. A new diagram style was implemented on mounted plexiglass to show device connectivity within each space.
TRADE SHOW DESIGN Integrated Systems Europe
A Simplified Experience The theme for Crestron at Integrated Systems Europe was simplicity and the design methodology exercised restraint. The launch of this show coincided with my redesign for the Crestron brand literature with the use of a rectangular block to mark the start of new messaging.
ILLUSTRATION Signal Flow Diagrams
Connecting System Design with Spaces Signal flow diagrams educate customers on how Crestron products connect within their respective spaces. For trade shows, Crestron needed an isometric diagram style that was simpler and more room-focused. These line-drawings are the result of studying complex engineering schematics, then translating that language into dimensional spaces.
Enterprise Signage
Small Collaboration Room
Large Conference Room
Impromptu Meeting Space
ILLUSTRATION Isometric Products
Illustrating Products from Scratch Crestron produces hundreds of application diagrams in-house. When we lost our illustrator, I set about developing a costeffective redesign that other team members could reproduce quickly. I built these product illustrations in Adobe Illustrator along with the isometric floorplan, then passed the technique on to the rest of the team.
Network Streaming Player
Media Presentation Controller
Scheduling Touch Screen
Wall-Plate Transmitter
Sonos ® Connect
Sonos Play1
Sonos Playbar
Sonos Sub
8x8 Media Switcher
Media Player Amp
In-Table Cable Hub
Shure ® Mic Pod
In-Wall Speaker
Audio Amplifier
32x32 Media Switcher
4K Computer
Document Camera
AV Receiver
AirMedia ® Presentation Gateway
Sony ® Blu-ray ® Player
Apple T V ®
Sharp ® Display
Touch Screen
Mobile Devices
Proximity Beacon
Local Area Network
MICHAEL SUTHERLAND Manager | Art Director | Graphic Designer Organized designer and manager with focus on efficiency and streamlining processes. Thrives in busy work environments, performing well under pressure and deadlines with meticulous attention to detail.
Current Employment
Previous Experience
08/2017 – Present crestron.com
09/2012 – 08/2017 crestron.com
CRESTRON ELECTRONICS, INC.
CRESTRON ELECTRONICS, INC.
Manager, Graphic Design
Senior Graphic Designer
Management of 3-4 graphic designers within the Marketing Dept. of a global electronics and home-automation company; spanning commercial, enterprise, and residential markets.
Lead designer on trade show, product line, and campaign launch collateral for commercial markets.
Oversees art direction of graphic design team • Manages team priorities, assignments, and project workflow
Developed holistic campaign and sub-branding for product launches
• Develops high-level direction for evolving Crestron brand identity
• Created logos and brand identity for emerging product lines
• Provides design tools/templates for team to execute new visuals
• Conceptualized key art and hero imagery to represent campaign launch
• Responsible for quality control of all vendor and publication submissions
• Executed composite imagery to display in-situational product placement • Designed editorial layout for brochures, magazines, advertising, and other literature
Develops global trade show experience and design
• Illustrated schematics, diagrams, and technical drawings
• Designs booth walls, product placement, show banners, app/brochure walk-throughs, and digital communication surrounding the event
Designed trade show and event collateral
• Includes multi-million dollar expos, InfoComm, Lightfair, and Integrated Systems Europe
• Executed trade show design
Acts as creative liaison across global offices • Coordinates global distribution of collateral for regional markets – including Europe, Asia, Israel, and Latin America • Implements and oversees brand alignment across other departments – including engineering, manufacturing, sales, training, facilities, and human resources
• Prepared final mechanical files • Coordinated delivery for vendor production
Education 09/2010 – 09/2012 thinkdm2.com
THINKDM2
Graphic Designer/Senior Graphic Designer Multi-disciplined designer within a small creative agency requiring quick turnaround for consumer electronics accounts – including Nikon, Intel, and Canon.
09/2009 – 02/2010 grey.com
GREY NEW YORK
Graphic Design Consultant Managed portfolio and promotional material for pitch presentations to prospective clients in the Dept. of New Business Development for a global advertising firm.
09/2005 – 06/2009
SCHOOL OF VISUAL ARTS
B.F.A. Graphic Design/Advertising • National Dean’s List, 2005 – 2009
Technical Skills Adobe Creative Cloud • Photoshop • Illustrator • InDesign • Lightroom • Bridge
05/2008 – 09/2009 bbmg.com
BBMG
Associate Graphic Designer
• InCopy MS Office • Word
Assistant designer for a boutique agency that develops brand architecture for companies in sustainability markets.
• PowerPoint • Outlook Project Management • Basecamp • Teamwork • Wrike Asset Management • Widen Web Development • HTML, CSS
MICHAEL SUTHERLAND Portfolio sutherndesign@gmail.com 201.618.0746