Welcome.
This is the design portfolio of Studio Taraz, a boutique design company started by Colin O’Brien, based in paradise Paonia, Colorado. Studio Taraz specializes in helping businesses with both their web prescence as well as traditional media design and photography.
If you need a website
Studio Taraz specializes in Wordpress-based website development. Wordpress is an open-source content management system (CMS) that is infintiely flexible, and can be configured to run a wide variety of websites. The benefits of a Wordpress site is that they comply with modern web standards, are very SEO friendly, content can be edited by just about any one who has basic word processing skills, and are designer friendly. We can create themes from scratch and customize your Wordpress site to accomplish just about anything.
If you need print design
Studio Taraz loves tradtional printing, fine typography and great design. Principal Colin O’Brien was art director for Mountain Gazette from 2006-2008 and oversaw a complete redesign of the “flat-out magazine legend” in 2007. In the last year Colin has also crafted 2 full length books, designed a logo for an apparel company launch, and has been honing his skills as photographer and videographer.
If you need photography
If you have seen and heard enough
Shred White and Blue
Studio Taraz partnered with outdoor media icon Peter Kray to launch Shred White and Blue, an apparel, community and media company based out of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Studio Taraz worked with Peter to develop an iconic logo, a multimedia website and the first round of stickers and apparel.
For the logo, we wanted to create something that not only said winter and summer boardsports, but also had a transcendent vibe, and double as a badge of inclusion in an elite club.
For the website, Peter wanted to be able to post long articles, short blog posts, have a space for videos and images as well as sell his merchandise and apparel. We built the site using Wordpress, as it had the flexibilty we needed and skinned it with a completely custom theme. The site features a dynamic featured content slideshow, ecommerce integration, and tons of slick wordpress plugins that make it super easy to run such a diverse multimedia site. And, it can grow with Peter’s business.
“After working with Colin O’Brien on four separate projects, I continue to be impressed with professionalism, imagination and design expertise. As art director for the Outdoor Retailer Show Daily, he was the calm core at the center of a hectic newsroom. As art director for the legendary Mountain Gazette, he consistently provided the artistic spark that stoked the magazine’s loyal following. And in both logo and web design, he has been indispensable in helping me launch my Shred White and Blue brand. Thanks, Colin.” — Peter Kray, Founder Shred White and Blue
Visit: shredwhiteandblue.com
Dr. Jenn
Studio Taraz has been working with Dr. Jennifer Austin Leigh, “Dr. Jenn”, for the last two years contributing art direction, web design, Wordpress development, and book design to building her brand.
Dr. Jenn has dedicated her life to helping teen girls and their moms to navigate the tumultuous sea that is being a teen girl in America. We created two websites, one for teens and one for moms. These sites have a custom theme built on a Wordpress backend. She posts news and blog posts, guest blogs, custom quizzes, polls, videos and a forum is under development. These sites are under perpetual improvement, as time and budget allow.
“Colin has been the driving force behind the scenes of my business. From design to execution of my websites, book covers and brochures, he continues to amaze me with his creativity, knowledge and keen eye for detail. He’s the most trusted and honest person I have worked with, and I feel at ease putting any project on his table and letting him run with it. It’s rare to find his dedication, creative ability and integrity in today’s marketplace. If you want your job done right, hire Colin. When he is not designing, my hunch is he is out walking on water.” —Dr. Jenn
Visit Dr. Jenn’s sites: drjennforgirls.com | parentingteengirls.com | honorthegirl.me
Mountain Gazette
As art director for Mountain Gazette, Studio Taraz completely redesigned the magazine from the ground up, including the logo. The goal was to honor its legendary status among long-time readers and stay true to its roots, while at the same time, try to separate the magazine from some of its past mistakes and improve readability and appeal.
Studio Taraz also handled all of the magazine’s marketing materials and branding. Included here are a couple postcards and the media kit Studio Taraz created to market the advertising value that MG had.
The top two images are covers Studio Taraz concepted, provided photography for and designed.
“Colin is a pleasure to work with and very professional. He took the look and design of our publication to a whole new level.”
—Paul Gibb, former publisher of Mountain Gazette
Some other websites I have made
Classic Cakes of Aspen – A static XHTML/CSS site for a wedding cake designer in Aspen, Colorado, with a custom flash movie on the homepage. Circa 2006.
Family Playground spec site – This site was built to be the web-side of a print publication. It never went live as the magazine folded Circa 2007.
Pomeroy Instruments – This site was partially redesigned by Studio Taraz. A dynamic image gallery was installed, with a matching theme, so the customer could keep his inventory up-to-date on his own. Circa 2007
Rattlebone Road – An example of an inexpensive XHTML/CSS brochure site for a musician. Circa 2007.
Ruby of the River Lodge – Another example of an inexpensive XHTML/CSS brochure site. This one for a bed and breakfast. Circa 2008.
Tapestry Coaching Blog – Studio Taraz built a custom wordpress theme to mesh with the clients existing site. Circa 2007.