Who's hungry?

I'm going to try and post one thing I've designed every week. Knowing me, it will probably last 3 weeks and then disappear. But I can dream, can't I?

Anyway, the clip I'd like to share is actually from last week. It's for the Shreveport Times. The centerpiece was about how all these chain restaurants keep popping up on a certain street in Shreveport. So instead of using the building shots provided by the paper, I got a little creative. With inspiration from Google Maps and vector logo help from BrandsoftheWorld.com, I created a more striking CP.

I learned things along the way, too! Like how to create feathered perspective shadows in Illustrator. It is done by adding a fill to an object (for example, the reddish pointer has a reddish fill, and the gray shadow fill, but it's the same shape), then skewing the gray fill to create a 3D effect. Pretty cool, eh?

Shreveport Times: August 25, 2013

Too bad the obnoxious ad at the bottom of the page takes all the spotlight.... 

A Strange Wedding

So sometimes life just gets so busy that you look back and realize you haven't blogged for 7 months. Sorry about that, folks. But I have a good one for you now.

Since about May, I have been working on my best friend's wedding stationery. It was my gift to her and the groom for their wedding. I also happened to be her maid of honor, and my first act with the title was to invite Sarah (the bride) to Pinterest. This was a few years ago, when you had to be invited to the sacred temple of heavily stylized artsy pins. There are pros and cons to the site, which I could go into long detail about, but for the purposes of this blog, I will just say that it served as inspiration for Sarah's wedding suite. She was able to pin flowers, dresses, jewelry and -- most importantly -- preferred design styles for her stationery. Plus, we were able to pin things to the same boards and compare and contrast different styles.

A screen grab from our stationery board. (Don't mind the typo.)

It took a while for me to get the hang of the style and tone Sarah wanted to convey. I might not have been the best designer for the job, actually, because I am used to big and bold design. She wanted a more delicate and elegant feel to her invitations. So, after months of phone calls, emails (some passive aggressive, some generally heart-felt), we came up with a suite. 

The save the date postcards were the first and hardest item, I think. Probably because we were still trying to figure out each other. What we came up with was a very unique, somewhat vintage design that got rave reviews. I wasn't married to the "Save the Date" font, especially because it didn't really return in any of the other stationery, but Sarah and her husband brought it back for things at the reception, so that made me feel a bit better. It went through many revisions, but there is so much that's unique about it. I love the aged filter I gave the photos. And my favorite part (the post card label thing on the back) was actually hand-drawn by Sarah. She fell in love with something similar and decided to replicate it. 

Strange save the dates, front and back.

The next pieces came together a little more smoothly after we could both agree on fonts. Instead of going with a pocket-fold invite or something else with a ton of pieces, Sarah decided to do an oversized postcard and a business card insert, both in a shiny lilac envelope. It made it easier that she had her guests RSVP online instead of sending in an additional postcard. I love the way these turned out. What do you think?

Strange invitation and insert, front and back.

One of my favorite designs for the suite was actually something I hadn't seen before. It might have been that I haven't been in that many wedding parties, but I digress. It was a rehearsal dinner invitation. They decided to Molly's in Soulard, a creole restaurant nearby the venue. (Which is amazing, by the way.) Sarah and Jeffrey tried it out, and they loved the string lights they had on their patio. So, with a little help from our wedding board, a design was born. If I could do it over again, I would have simplified the type choices on the back, but hindsight is always something... right?

Strange rehearsal, front and back.

The next two things were both present on the wedding day -- the programs and menus. They came together the easiest because we had a groove down by then! The menus were also kind of postcard-like, and the programs were printed on pearlescent white and cream paper. It was super classy. I'll only show the cover here. Can you spot the typo? It kind of became a running joke for a few days ...

Strange menu and program, front and back.

All in all, I'd say the fact that 1) Sarah and I are still amazing friends and 2) we came up with some things that are pretty awesome is a great accomplishment. I was so glad to be able to contribute so much to her special day. For an actual opened gift, I framed a collage with some the pieces of the suite for them to hang on their wall. Maybe I can get her to send me a photo of everything all framed and pretty!

Sarah's framed gift set

Maybe it really is the end of the world

Yesterday, folks, I got to feel like a designer again! That might be a little harsh, but I've been feeling like a template monkey lately. (And that's all I'm going to say about that.) ANYWAY, today's Springfield News-Leader 1A featured a centerpiece dominated by mugshots. With help from my team leader, I drew readers to the story, told a story and created a kick-ass page.

Dec. 22, 2012, Springfield News-Leader 1A

I kind of tried to channel my inner Des Moines Register with the red, black and gray. But why fix what isn't broken for a heard news CP? What I love most about this page is that it was totally up to me how it came together. I rewrote the breakout to make it flow better from the end of the headline. And I listed the mugshots in a clean and orderly way without repeating the name information a million times.

What do you think?

I found something cool.

It's a website. I feel like it would work really well on an iPad because it is a simple click-and-drag navigation. Even though it took a long time for me to go through it on a normal computer, the content was exciting enough to continue through all the pages. I won't be attempting this level of awesome on my new website, though. I'll just sit and admire. Welcome to faub.org.

Illustrator fears have been dashed

I was tasked with an economic project last week. Every year, a monitor is released on how the local economy is doing. Depending on the results, the paper will either centerpiece the story or play it up in some way, usually with file art or a good concept or something. Guess who got the project this year? Me!

The initial idea of this year's monitor was that the two industries of ports and tourism were really the driving force behind the economy's upturn in Savannah. There is a quote in the story about the two industries being "tentacles" that reach out and assist other industries with things such as jobs and other opportunities. So we thought that maybe we could illustrate these two tentacles reaching out for things. Several editors, the writer and myself were all gung-ho on this idea, so this is what I came up with:



The response overall was pretty "eh." It looked cartoony, I thought, and new readers of the story didn't get the whole "tentacles" feel from the story at all. So, it was back to the drawing board. The headline for the story was "Savannah economy turns corner," and the real overarching theme was the uptick of the economy in general. After some brainstorming with a few co-workers, we developed a road sign idea. You know, actually turning a corner. I had to dive into Illustrator for this project, something I tended to avoid because of general lack of knowledge. That definitely changed. Here is what we came up with, which executed with some help:



I created a traffic sign using vector graphics and and a bit of gradients. I am really proud of the result, and the overall response from editors was good, too. What do you think?

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After all of that craziness, I decided I should really focus on my Illustrator skills. I shouldn't be that intimidated by a program. So, when I had some time on my hands tonight, I tried an Illustrator tutorial this time. Through this tutorial, I learned how to manipulate gradients with both the gradient tool and the layer overlay function. Here's what I made:



It might be a little early for Halloween, but I thought it was good practice!