Logo Land: Townsend 25th Anniversary

I've had the opportunity to make a few logos lately. Here's one I did for my Center, which will be used on almost all our materials during the year of our 25th anniversary. Woo!

Logos can be a challenge, but I like practicing making something simple that can be really small. Its also a good exercise to work in B&W only (even if the logo uses colors later) so you aren't distracted by colors or fancy effects.

I just finished a freelance project involving a logo as well, and hope to share all of the stuff I created for that with you too!

Creative Chandelier

I can't believe in all this time I never blogged about this lamp, which was hanging over the dining room table in my old house. One of my housemates sent out this photo when we were moving out, and I just re-discovered it in my email. Our landlord in that house was a contractor, and he had done all these interesting modifications to our house, including this chandelier made of scrap copper and other stuff.  Isn't it great?! 

A Great Wedding, a Great Design Project!

Some of my very great friends got married about a month ago in Minneapolis.  These are the same folks we threw an engagement party for just a few months back. I was so excited when they asked me to help with a few design projects for the wedding!

 

I had some fun with signage for the ceremony, which was held in an old theater....

and for the reception, which was at an art gallery...

 

And the coolest project of all: aren't these glasses as favors a great idea? Even cooler is the fact that the bride drew this graphic of the Minneapolis skyline (it was also used in their invitation). Then we worked together to digitize the drawing and add the date and the city.  I've seen favors like this with the couple's names and hearts for the design...but does anyone really want to keep that? This seems less likely to hit Goodwill in 2 weeks, am I right? ;)

I had already designed a logo that was printed on glass for the beer fest project I did a few months ago. Still, I was nervous when we sent the file off to the glass company...but they turned out great!

 

  I love this photo from the big day (they are actually standing on the bridge that is featured in the drawing.  Congratulations, A&M!

Another Day, Another Poster

Here's a poster I just sent out to the printer.  I'm not in love with it as a whole, but I do love how the three images in black and white look in a row. Also it is an important lesson about design: sometimes you just have to give your client what theywant, and sometimes you may not love the outcome. That's all I'll say about that.  :)

And moving on, this is going to be an awesome event! Desdemona is a collaboration between Nobel Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison, singer/songwriter Rokia Traoré, and Director Peter Sellars, in response to Sellars's 2009 Othello. The play is supposed to be "an intimate and profound conversation from beyond the grave between Shakespeare's Desdemona and Barbary, the woman Shakespeare identifies as the African nurse who raised her." I got to talk about it with Peter while they were still working on it, and I can guarantee it will be amazing!

Toni Morrison doesn't travel much, but we did get her to agree to skype in for a panel discussion. I wish I could have told my freshman in college self (reading Beloved in a lit. class) that I would one day receive an email from Toni Morrison...so cool! 

Quick and Simple Flier Design

I had to create a flier very quickly today, and I am actually pretty happy with how this turned out with only 1 hour of work. Simple and effective, I think. This is a good reminder that not everything you make has to incorporate a new skill or design trick: though I like using each new project as a learning opportunity to try something new, sometimes you just gotta make something!  And sometimes, you'll get something you kinda a like when you do.

The Golden Hour

Over labor day weekend I was in Minnesota for TWO weddings.  It was a whirlwind weekend of festivities, and after all the organized fun was over, I met up with a few of the friends (including one of the newly married couples) for some quieter time on the gorgeous Mirror Lake, behind the house of the groom.

This was one of my most favorite chunks of time ever. What more do you need than some good friends, a few little boats, and the glow of the late afternoon sun?

Work for Work: Lecture Series Poster

I finally sent our series poster for the "Forum on the Humanities & the Public World" to the printer, so thought I'd share here!  For this design I had fun creating the speech bubbles and using some layering & clipping mask techniques to add the texture and different colors within them.  Took longer to do than you might think!  Now I've got the process down though, so it will go quicker in the future!