Apriltara
Design That Works!Prints Pal Character
Today I had to design a three-dimensional looking character doing various things for a print companies website, a basic mascot of sorts. I designed a “ink” character with an ink drop shaped head.
The logo design
basic character stance with color options
The character in different situations
Blank aka GLASS
OK so today I spent 3 hours on this illustration on the word “blank” as glass being shattered. All in all as any designer knows these kinds of things are tricky and can surely affect the readability of the logo. However, out of curiosity I went for it and learned some things….
From start to finish
the final result...as you can see the bottom white background is hard to read (at clients request tho)
Cutsie + Pie = Fun
This is a logo project put on by the company I work for The LogoLoft. We had to makeup a company and then draw a character and vectorize it. This is what I came up with 
My Sketch
simple vector outline
With company name and lots of gradient and shading
simple flat design for more variety in final materials
Freelance Logo Design!
A graphic design friend has been sending a little work my way lately…this is the latest design I did for him for a company called Shadow Catchers. They wanted a very clean sophisticated look (thing pottery barn/ elle deco). They gave us this sketch:
I was inspired by the sketch to come up with this design (see below). I wanted to show shadow somehow without going to far away from the original feel they were looking for.
I also like to provide various background colors to show how it would look overall when used for various materials.
Let me know what you think!
Cosmetic Surgery Logo Revised
A week or so ago I did this logo for a Cosmetic Surgery Practice in which they wanted to show beauty along with their initials. They wanted a classy look so we’re talking minimal detail, no random effects or busyness (aka PLAIN or FLAT as the non-designer would classify it most times lol)
They decide to go with Idea #2, which features a swan/”s” as the graphic. The swan being the “beauty” element. They chose this design with a revision of something they wanted to try out or see. They wanted me to take the swan and change it to a woman. The woman’s arms would be the “A” portion and her body/head would be the “S” portion. I was stumped, really! lol It’s one of those…what tha?! moments us designers get on occasion. They sent in a drawing for me to reference, see below.
Client's Drawing for Revision
Honestly, it helped alot to see this, even though its not “amazing”. Otherwise I would have completely misunderstood what they wanted I think. I always have a tendency to speak/hear through my design goggles and completely misread what a client means when they are trying to explain something from their non-design view point. It’s a matter of working around language and imagery in order to visualize an idea that doesn’t exist yet. The statement “I can see it in my head what I want, but its hard to explain.” gets used alot. lol Which doesn’t help much in the practical sense. Anyway, had my work cut out for me on this one!
So I did a rough sketch of what I thought it might look like and this is what I conjured up from the above revised graphic.
basic sketch
Which I think is ok, but am wondering about it’s awkwardness. Her back didn’t lend well to the curve of the “S” in an attractive way, I was concerned she might look hunched over, so I did change it while I vectorized it. Below is the final design with color options so that they could see it on various backgrounds etc.
I decided to change the color of her arms to keep the integrity on the letter shapes, but I am still not sure it comes across in a pleasant way. Would love to hear your thoughts!!
New Business Cards!!!
I am so excited about these!!! A couple weeks ago my best bud Steph offered to get them for me and they just came in yesterday! I had to whip up a design real quick and wanted to do something that projected not only my own personal style, but the kind of work that I would like to do in the future! I think they turned out really well and I will be using them for everything! I am also reconfiguring my website/blog to match as you can already tell.
One Song…One Story…different decades!!
Notice the lyric change from Julie Andrew’s and Leslie Ann Warren’s song to Brandy’s version….from ” slave in Kolkata” to “thief in Kolkata”…NICE. One discriminatory association fixed, now whata bout the small issue of little girls everywhere hearing “I’m a girl men go mad for love’s a game I can play with cool and confident kind of air” to the ever so demeaning concept of “Just as long as I stay in my own little corner All alone in my own little chair. I can be whatever I want to be.” Don’t get me wrong, I grew up hearing Leslie Ann Warren’s version (the worst of the lot in talent) and LOVED it. It’s just a shame we are all so preconditioned to think some things are “normal” and “right” vs. other things. For Instance, I get the concept of mascara…I do and I use it daily. I also like high heels…but really, do we HAVE to do these things to believe we are “normal” and “fit for society”?? Just interesting cultural beliefs I guess. I mean what little girl (woman) isn’t dreaming of the Cinderella fantasy in some way…in some version of her own? Maybe if I sit in my own little corner and my own little chair and stay quite I can be JUST LIKE Cinderella?? YAY!!!
Just thoughts…and I am sure I am only skimming the surface.
