Tom Medina

This was a pamphlet that I designed for the NYC Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD) as part of their campaign to inform New York businesses about the laws and best practices concerning individuals with disabilities.

For this project, my job was to create the pamphlet’s layout and illustrations using an outline that had been provided by my supervisor. I created the images in Illustrator and Photoshop, then used InDesign to create a layout and bring all of the assets together.

While this gave me a lot of freedom, there was also a lot of collaboration involved. I often relied on my superior’s feedback to produce the best work possible. This was also an exercise in focusing on details, since the mayor’s office has very strict standards regarding diversity.

This pamphlet has had the largest audience of any of my work to date, which was daunting, but also exciting. However, I’m most proud of the pamphlet for the message that it sends. As someone with a disability, this is a cause that means a lot to me and it felt good to make my contribution to spreading awareness.

These were a set of logos that I made for JJB, a Staten Island-based musician. I created two basic designs and three different color schemes.

JJB told me that the logo would be printed on custom guitar picks, so I kept that shape in mind. Both logos have a wide top and a narrow bottom. I wanted to fill the whole pick so the logo looked more integrated and less like something that was just added to fill negative space.

The first logo was clean and upright, but we decided that it was a little bit too rigid for a rock and roll musician. The final logo design looks more curved and handwritten, like a signature.

I drew these vector images for Minds+Assembly as part of the office’s fitness program. Minds+Assembly is an advertising agency located in New York City. Each diagram demonstrates various exercises and how to do them. The characters are wearing Minds+Assembly’s brand colors.

The two illustrations at the end of the gallery were the first two that I made and ultimately went unused. While their cute and expressive appearance was appealing, I decided to go with a more modern design, using less details and more realistic proportions. This change was definitely the right call, since realistic proportions are better for demonstrating motion.

These are two illustrations that I made for a zine created by Minds+Assembly, a New York-based advertising agency. Since the zine is printed on a Risograph, each image is made from a palette of 3 colors.

The first image is for a moon-themed issue of the zine. The text in the middle is Minds+Assembly’s slogan.

The second image is from what I imagined as a running comic strip for the zine called “Complete Monster”. The strip would depict annoying people as horrid beasts. In this case, the monster is an unruly customer. I thought it would be funny to make the monster more detailed than anything else in the picture, making it stand out even more. It’s over the top and utterly absurd, which is why I absolutely love it!

This was a side project that I did at Minds+Assembly. During the holidays, the company held a food and coat drive. Rather than simply write the company name on the box, I offered to decorate it.

My only real requirement for the project was to include the company’s branding in every image., which is why there are “plus signs” on every cardboard box. This is also why white, black, and deep blue are such prominent colors.

After pitching a few ideas, we decided to populate the box with the characters you see here. I was inspired by the animatronic characters from the (now defunct) “Food Rocks” show at Disney World, but decided to give my characters more childlike faces.

The biggest challenge was find a medium that would work on a cardboard box. Pencils and markers were too light and paint would be too messy for an office setting. I eventually discovered paint markers, which let me paint on the box without making a mess. The box’s dark color also had its advantages. Stray pencil lines were very easy to cover up!

Sadly, these photos are all that remains of the boxes, since the originals were destroyed after heavy use. It’s a little sad to see something I worked on, but such is life.

This page is dedicated to my works that are worth featuring, but don’t necessarily warrant their own page for whatever reason.