I'm an organizer for TEDxSunnyvale!

Recently I designed a piece of artwork to be used on a website banner for the new TEDxSunnyvale website. The reason I undertook this project is because I am one of the organizers of TEDxSunnyvale! What is TED and TEDx? In short, it's a gathering of people who want to change and improve the world by sharing ideas. I've blogged about them once before.

My apologies now for the overt copyright watermark. Because this was a design, technically for a client, I feel compelled to exercise more effort in protecting the copyright  of the images as enlargements.

As we designed our website we wanted it to represent the city of Sunnyvale so we asked ourselves: "What does Sunnyvale represent to us?"

First and foremost would be orchards because the area where Silicon Valley now resides used to be miles upon miles of fruit orchards. The most well know today would be C.J. Olson's Cherries. I even saw Martha Stewart mention them on her show years ago.

Next would be Moffett field located on the border of Sunnyvale and  Mountain View. Hanger One can easily be seen from HWY 101 as you drive through Sunnyvale. It's a military and civilian airport so you'll see everything from the Blue Angels to blimps taking off from Moffett Field. Thus the addition of the Zeppelin, which isn't a blimp, it's a dirigible. A diri-what-le? That's what I said when our fearless leader Gordon said it isn't a blimp. So what is the difference between a dirigible, blimp and zeppelin?

The term dirigible is like saying car. There are many types of cars but they are all cars. Blimps and zeppelins are like different models of cars. The one thing they do have in common is they are lighter-than-air craft that are steerable and have a power source.

A Rigid Airship has a metal framework with a fabric that covers it. Zeppelins are a brand of rigid airship made by the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin company in Germany.

Blimps are like big balloons. There is no framework that holds the shape in place. When deflated they flatten like a balloon.

The final representation for our banner was inspired by Lockheed Martin Space Systems. They create commercial and military satellites, space probes, missile defense systems. We chose to feature a non-military weather satellite as part of our banner.

And of course it's Sunnyvale, so I felt we had to include a sun. In fact I began the design with the sun. With the collaborative efforts of the group I was able to refine it to what you'll see when you visit TEDxSunnyvale.com. If you live in the Bay Area and would like to be added to our mailing list just sign up when you get there. You can also Follow us on Twitter or Friend us on Facebook :)