EVAN BROOKS

Moishe's Hamantashen

The hamantashen, a traditional Eastern European pastry, is mostly unheard of outside of Jewish households and the Lower East Side of Manhattan. I created a packaging and branding scheme to update a hole-in-the-wall bakery and bring Moishe's into the mainstream. Inspired by New Yorkers reputation for being always on the go and on the lookout for the next 'in' thing, I created a design that's fun and eye-catching.

More pictures are on their way. View the accompanying process booklet by clicking here.

Nestbox Starter Kit

"Whither away, Bluebird, Whither away? The blast is chill, yet in the upper sky Thou still canst find the color of thy wing, The hue of May. Warbler, why speed, thy southern flight? ah, why, Thou, too, whose song first told us of the Spring? Whither away?"

Edmund C. Stedman, The Flight of Birds

The Eastern Bluebird, sialia sialis, faces fierce competion from non-native species like starlings and house finches, so bluebird enthusiastsplace place nesting boxes far from buildings and monitor them frequently. To inspire a less environmentally-conscious user to participate in the conservation effort, my design had to engage with the user on an emotional level that an unadorned plywood box or naturally occuring tree hollow does not. By embedding typography into an unexpected geometric form, I sought to create something beautiful - to draw the user's attention to the responsibility inherent in placing it - yet not ostentatious in a way that would interrupt the environment surrounding it.

The final assignment for Design Principles 1 required us to design a birdhouse that appealed to consumers, packed flat for shipping, and was made with biodegradable or recyclable materials. Primarily, though, the design had to cater to the needs and behavior of a bird species picked from a hat.

Presentation board displaying background research on selected bird

A selection of preliminary design sketches from the ideation phase

Clerestory

Clerestory Journal of the Arts publishes twice a year as a small-scale magazine with prose, poetry, and art selections from RISD and Brown students. As Design Editor I led the magazine's art direction, designing and planning the cover, titles, order of work, and layout of content. The long-running magazine has no static visual identity, each issue has a unique design exploring the self-imposed limitation of a black-and-white cover and a small page size. The issue pictured conveys prestige and refined taste through its typography and minimalist embossed cover.

Jolly Roger

As Editor-in-Chief of Sir Francis Drake High School's newspaper, I did an in-depth redesign of the publication's identity, and maintained a direct hand in make graphics, layout, illustration, and written content for each of the monthly issues.

Above: I designed a custom typeface for the wordmark.

Bakodo

I worked closely with a local entrepreneur to create the visual identity of his company, a mobile advertising network, and its iPhone application. See more at bako.do

Sonic UI

I designed widget layouts and graphics for the PointUI mobile phone widget platform, responding to feedback and suggestions from other forum members.All icons and buttons are custom-designed expressly for this purpose. Working closeley with developer, I came up with a comprehensive home screen concept with a clear hierarchy of information to show the status of various phone functions.

An earlier version called "MnmlUI."

Moonbuggy

Applied a design-oriented approach to tackling an engineering contest, the NASA Great Moonbuggy Race. The vehicle is required to fold into a four-foot cube in addittion to carrying two team members through an off-road moon-simulated course. The studio culminated in a full-scale model, created with carbon fiber lashings around PVC pipes, as well as foamcore, plywood, and bicycle components. The model (below) proved the ergonomics and rigidity of the design.

Early design work included brainstorming new ideas and different performance metrics, as well as creating sketch models.

m365

Working with a peer, who designed and screenprinted the clothing, I worked on the logo and company's identity. I created a website mockup designed to communicate the simple, ecologically responsible, handmade aesthetic of the clothing without compromising its usability.

Krinkls

As part of a small group assigned required to create a child's chair out of a single sheet of cardboard without the use of adhesives, we created Krinkls. Krinkls was inspired by the inherent properties and limitations of cardboard, and evokes a flower shape with its playfully unpredictable layering. Rather than treat cardboard as a stand-in for sturdier materials like wood, plastic, or metal, we created something true to its paper origins. By soaking squares of corrugated board, we separated the layers and revealed a distinct pattern of stripes left from the glue. By forming each layer in a mold while it was damp, and then alternating the direction of the paper's grain, we created an surprisingly resilient rounded seat that attracted the attention of the children who tried it.

Photos courtesy Wesley Chau

flip!

A sturdy cardboard chair that may be folded into a portable form for transport.

Folding Chair

An elegant folding chair with a well-balanced folding mechanism that holds it in either the collapsed or expanded position. Laser-cut steel plate and sheet metal with stainless-steel hardware. Laser cut and TiG welded.

Sorry under construction, please check back soon!

Design principles I

An exercise in craft. I created a 2:1 scale model of Greatneck-brand long nose pliers. The handle is constructed from polyurethane foam and the head is wooden. As on the original, the hinge is fully functional.

wood I

metals I

Sorry under construction, please check back soon!

Hello there, I'm Evan. I grew up just north of San Francisco, CA and attend RISD in Providence, RI. I'm working towards my BFA in industrial design and I work with web, print, and interaction design as well. I'm fascinated by the impact the very smallest details of product or information design can have on the behavior of those who view, use, and interact with it. The consequences poor design can incur on society and ecology are significant, but by virtue of existing at all, the potential to do good is just as powerful. As a designer, I strive to make my work honest and responsibly crafted, because by addressing design problems - no matter how tiny - I can make our experience on our planet just that much more pleasant.

Download my resume.

My icon sets online are freely distributed for non-commercial use - download them here. That means you can't use them in paid iOS apps, on your company's web site, or on the business card you're making for a client without first purchasing a license. If you choose to become a commercial user you may also purchase access to the original vector files which you can scale, edit, and style to heart's content! Email me with questions

I appreciate questions, feedback, criticism (preferably constructive), and whatever you'd like to say. Unless it's spam. I'm not a big fan of spam.

Send me an email at evan@brsev.com