At HillCrest Vineyard west of Roseburg, Dyson and Susan DeMara share their passion for wine with their tasting room guests. Their vineyard and winery is family owned and operated and steeped in history.

Originally founded by Oregon vinifera pioneer, Richard Sommer, HillCrest is Oregon’s oldest estate winery. Sommer introduced European style grapes to the Umpqua Valley in 1961 and is credited for producing Oregon’s first Pinot Noir. The rustic tasting room serves as the perfect backdrop as the DeMara’s pour their wines and share HillCrest’s history with their guests.

They came to Creative Images last October with a desire to have labels that matched the quality of their small-lot artisan wines.

As you can see they have two lines. Their signature limited production HillCrest wines are available for tasting and purchase in their tasting room, but are not sold in stores. However, Heydon Road which honors wine pioneer, Adam Doerner—who brought grapevine cuttings to the Umpqua Valley in 1888—is handcrafted using old world techniques from Oregon’s oldest vineyards and is sold in select stores and restaurants.

Based on the labels that I designed, my coworker designed HillCrest’s website.

I then designed this ad for In the Land of Umpqua magazine.

Project Team Included:

• Creative Director: Gary G.
• General Manager: Paul Z.
• Client Services Director: Sande D.
• Graphic Designer: Karly Barrett
• Web Designers: Patrick S. and Toshie A.

I highly recommend visiting the DeMara’s at HillCrest and enjoying great wine while learning about Oregon’s wine history and how it is made.

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I always get that warm fuzzy feeling when I design for non-profit organizations. Such was the case when I designed a brochure for The North Umpqua Foundation. The North Umpqua Foundation provides assistance for educational, legal, biological and scientific protection of rivers and their anadromous fish. Specifically, the foundation supports efforts to maintain the historic, […]

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“The Best Jerky On Earth”
Highly prized and sold internationally, handmade jerky from Umpqua Indian Foods provides consumers with a delicious, healthy eating experience.
Owned by the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, their “Classic” jerky line includes six distinct flavors: Original, Teriyaki, Black Pepper & Garlic, Brown Sugar, Jalapeño and Smoked Spicy Sweet. […]

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One of the things I love most about designing for an advertising agency is logo design. You don’t normally get to do that with in-house design and it’s definitely what I’ve been craving all these years. Logo design may not seem like much of a challenge when someone looks at the end result, but often […]

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Since 1979 the Umpqua Valley Arts Association has been involved in the culture of Roseburg. They offer classes in most artistic areas, have five art galleries, a gift gallery and a variety of art programs for people of all ages. They also host arts events, exhibits and introduce the community to the wide range of […]

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One of my favorite projects from this last year was designing the collateral for Music on the Half Shell. Creative Images takes an active role in the community and this is one event that we are a Benefactor Sponsor for every year.
This summer concert series began 17 years ago with a mission to provide […]

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I can’t believe it’s been over a year since I last wrote a blog entry. Life has been busy and many changes have taken place. Most notably, I took a position designing for an advertising agency called Creative Images. Working full-time and commuting have left me with little spare time, but it’s all worth it.
My […]

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For the third year in a row, the Portland Lindy Society asked me to design the materials for the Portland Lindy Exchange. The exchange is a huge swing dance event including about 35 hours of dancing, live bands, great venues and dancers from all over the world.
This year I designed the materials with a […]

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For those of you who are wondering what happened to me, unfortunately, the last three weeks have been crazy for me. The company I worked for eliminated 600 positions on April 25 including mine. Unemployed life has been quite hectic—applying for jobs, scrambling to make ends meet and wrapping up freelance projects has left me […]

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This is a type design exercise I did while I was attending the Art Institute of Phoenix. It proved to be one of my favorite projects, so I decided to share it with you here.
Project | Typographically Represent a Cliché
Purpose
To understand the expressive quality of words in a phrase and explore type as a […]

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