For those of you who are wondering what happened to me, unfortunately, the last three weeks have been crazy for me. The company I worked for eliminated 600 positions on April 25 including mine. Unemployed life has been quite hectic—applying for jobs, scrambling to make ends meet and wrapping up freelance projects has left me little time for blogging.

That said, I am going to try to do a better job even through the stress of it all. While I’m finishing up my entry on the history of the Roman alphabet, I thought it might be nice to share one of my freelance projects with all of you.

Without Further Ado…Coucou Bleu

Coucou Bleu is a vintage jazz band located in Portland, OR. Their tunes are inspired by artists such as Billy Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald, but with a French influence in the arrangements. The band manager wanted a classy poster with a French feel. He also wanted it to be reusable for different dates and locations.

When I inquired about the origin of the name, he told me a similar band, L’heure Bleue (The Blue Hour), inspired it. The blue hour is the hour at twilight when the sky turns a deep shade of blue. Coucou was chosen to denote time as in a cuckoo clock and because there is a French jazz musician by the name of Django Reinhardt that wrote a song called Coucou.

The manager provided the photo which was taken by Evrim Icoz Photography and features the Portland skyline during the blue hour behind the lead singer. I searched through hundreds of Art Nouveau posters for inspiration. Although, the Art Nouveau period happened around 1890-1905, which was before this style of jazz existed, I felt it would kill two birds with one stone—create a vintage feel and give the poster a French quality. I experimented with different ways of combining Art Nouveau with modern photography. I finally settled on the feather border to refer to the cuckoo bird. It’s almost as if she has wings. I chose Eccentric for the headline font, which was originally issued as a caps-only type by The American Type Founders Company about 1898. I left the tan space at the bottom blank to allow them to write in the time, date and location as needed.

What are your thoughts?

Filed under: Graphic Design || 2 Excellent Comments

David Airey’s newest blog Logo Design Love has been featuring various logos from many lesser-known blogs in his Logo Design Love Awards. I am happy to announce that my personal logo was nominated for this week’s competition. You can vote for me here.

If you care to read more about my logo these two posts are full of insights about my process and the choices I made:
Personal Logo Design Sketches
What’s Your Logo Font?

Happy voting!

Filed under: Graphic Design || 3 Excellent Comments

A few people have inquired about the font I chose for my personal logo. When I first chose the font, I selected it because it felt like me. Could I be any more ambiguous?

When I was searching for the perfect font for my logo, I wanted something inviting, somewhat feminine and dealt with the negative space between letters well — the k and y can cause problems in particular. I wanted a font with warmth — one that felt slightly personal. On the other hand, I did not want a script font. My personality is too structured for script.

I finally fell in love with Baker Signet. Its calligraphic influence combined with its roman structure spoke to me. Not surprising to see its handwritten quality when you note that it was designed by American calligrapher Arthur Baker. The serifs are small yet are the perfect finishing touch to the letterforms. The large openings on the a and e allude to my open nature and, when combined with the tight kerning, it helps represents my reserve to allow myself to be open to absolutely everyone. The sweeping descender on the y cradles the rest of karly and leads the eye back to the start of my name before moving on to my last name. The narrow set-width helps the overall shape of my name and keeps it from running too long.

As far as I can tell it only comes in one font weight even though I have read in several different locations that the bold version of the font was used in the Coke logo.

Not just bold but also oblique? I cannot find that version of the font anywhere, I guess I need to be Coke to be special enough to own it.

To help illustrate some of the concerns I ran into with my name in other fonts, let us take a look at it in the same fonts as my previous post.

Notice the similarities between the shape of Baker Signet and Adobe Garamond. They both have those large openings on the e and a, small set-width and low contrast between the thick and thin strokes. Although, Garamond is one of my favorite fonts, I felt it was not personalized enough for this purpose. Baskerville gives my name a much lighter feel, but my logo mark called for a slightly bolder font to help balance the weight of it. Bodoni starts to feel more masculine. I am not a fan of how my name looks in Century — those slab serifs make me think of a typewriter and lose the personal feel. As for Helvetica, it does not even begin to hit the mark of what I was trying to achieve. It feels very corporate and somewhat sterile.

This is not to say these were the only fonts I explored. In fact, I cannot even remember looking at these in particular when I did my original search.

What do you think of my choice? What font did you choose for your own personal logo? Why did you choose it?

Filed under: Graphic Design, Typography || 9 Excellent Comments

The fifth project in Designing with Type is to explore the expressive quality of words through typography. I remember doing this project on several occasions while I was attending the Art Institute of Phoenix, but this time around, I gave myself greater parameters.

1. I limited myself to the five classic typefaces the book discussed in great length: Garamond (Old Style), Baskerville (Transitional), Bodoni (Modern), Century (Egyptian/Slab Serif) and Helvetica (Sans Serif). The idea was to challenge myself by avoiding the thousands of display typefaces that could easily express the word just through the style of the typeface. Plus, it is nice to study these specific typefaces more closely.
2. I had my roommate choose the words for me. When I did this project in school, I got to select my own words. That often makes it easier, but as a graphic designer, I have found it is extremely rare that a company asks me to design a logo for them and lets me name their company whatever I like. Did I say rare? I meant that has never happened to me. Therefore, I felt I should practice with words someone else gave me.

Project | Expressive Words

Purpose

To typographically enhance the meaning of a single word.

Assignment

Select five words and explore their expressive quality by manipulating the letterforms. To achieve the desired effect, avoid simply repeating the words or creating an illustration from the letterforms. The best solutions not only enhance the word’s meaning but are clever and aesthetically pleasing. Sometimes an unexpected effect can be achieved when the typographic solution contradicts the meaning of the word, setting “big” with small type, for example.

The first word she gave me was bright. This one proved to be the hardest for me. I started by thinking about the word and reading multiple definitions. I could have gone with bright light, a bright idea, bright color or bright in terms of intelligence. As far as I was concerned, bright color was out because I had no clue how to represent that typographically in black and white. After sketching a few ideas, I settled on this solution. I think it can represent bright light, bright idea and intelligent — depending on how you interpret it. FONTS: Helvetica Neue 55 Roman and 35 Thin

My next challenge was charge. I really liked the idea of the letters working together to ram or charge at the “E” at the end of the word. I enhanced it more by playing with the weight of the letter to give an idea of greater force as you move across the word. Fonts: Helvetica Neue 37 Thin Condensed, 47 Light Condensed, 57 Condensed, 67 Medium Condensed, 77 Bold Condensed and 75 Bold

After my masculine battering through letters, she gave me bloom. I wanted this word to have a feminine quality to it. The type solution has actually given me a new love for Baskerville. Look at the beautiful shape of those letterforms. They feel taller than Garamond, which helps with the feeling of growth. They are also more feminine than both Century and Bodoni — Baskerville’s letters have a curvy nature, elegant brackets and beautiful balance between thick and thin strokes. Not to mention that asterisk looks almost like a floral dingbat. FONT: Baskerville Regular

I then moved on to lost. I must not have thought much of the word when she originally gave it to me because I had to have her remind me what it was. It was lost in my memory. I played around with the idea of taking parts of the letters away as if they were lost. I ditched that idea for a more legible solution. I tried the word the opposite way with LOS and T floating by itself. However, I started to think I was trying to communicate in Spanish. This arrangement appealed to me the most. The L does not seem to know where it belongs. I wonder if the meaning would come across if the L were missing all together. FONT: Century Regular

My final challenge was magic. My sketches included replacing letters with similar letter shapes — like two inverted Vs to make the M. However, I thought it would not be clear enough that the Vs were creating an illusion of the M. If the reader does not understand the point is the illusion, the concept is lost. I kept thinking magic makes me think of fanfare, wands, top hats and making things appear and disappear. However, I did not want to light the word up by surrounding it with asterisks. I finally came up with a solution where you might think the “agic” is appearing out of the M or disappearing into it. FONT: Adobe Garamond Regular

The only font I was not able to use was Bodoni. I did not like the feel it gave to any of the words she chose for me. That is not to say I think Bodoni does not have a purpose, I just did not find a use for it in this exercise.

What do you think of my solutions? How would you express the words differently?

Filed under: Graphic Design, Typography || 28 Excellent Comments

Recently, I offered to design promotional materials for the Portland Lindy Society’s (PLS) regular weekly dance. They are the nonprofit swing dance group in Portland and their flyers needed a bit of design help. Since I was actively involved in marketing their recent large event, I thought it would benefit them if they had flyers and posters at the event to help them promote their regular dance night. They wanted something hip and eye catching — something that represented the energy of swing dancing. The flyers are 5.5×4.25 inches with color on the front and black on the back.

The thing that sets PLS apart from the other swing dance organizers in the area is that they are a community run/volunteer organization. I thought it was fitting to include several different members of the community on the flyers to help represent that diversity. Here is the full set:

I also designed an 11×17 poster for them to post at venues and around town. They liked it so much, they blew it up and created a 22×34 canvas version of it.

The photos were taken by Dennis Goetz Photography. If you look closely, you will notice that I drew all of their clothes and hair in Illustrator to give them a unique quality that is easily recognized from flyer to flyer. I went with the bright orange and olive green because the colors attract the eye and are edgy together.

What do you think? Do they accomplish the intended purpose?

Filed under: Graphic Design || 4 Excellent Comments

At Monaco, I constantly design rally applications. An RV rally is a gathering of coach owners for a few days of entertainment, RV related vendors, and time to socialize with each other.

Every rally has its own theme, though the event rarely sticks to the theme. My latest application calls the event a masquerade ball. I tend to laugh when I look at the entertainment they booked — an impressionist, a comedic singer, and the Four Preps. I wonder where the masquerade ball falls into the event. Which of these acts will they be getting dressed up for and waltzing around the room?

All that aside, Monaco club events had a very specific idea for the look of their application. So specific, they predesigned it for me before they asked me to design it. Here is what I received from them:

The masks were straight forward, but I had to get some clarification from them on what all the other geometric shapes were. I kept wondering why there was a picket fence going across the top. It turns out that was their interpretation of Venetian architecture. After researching a bit, I discovered it was supposed to be the Doge’s Palace in Venice.

When it came down to it, they wanted a mask and Venetian architecture. Here is my version. The flowers in the top right corner were clipped from a mask and the Doge’s Palace appears screened back behind the text.

This appears as a spread in all four of Monaco’s magazines. I also did a single page version without the entertainment for them to print and distribute at other RV events.

What do you think?

Filed under: Graphic Design || 1 Excellent Comment

For the past six months, I have been working on a side project marketing for the Portland Lindy Exchange. This is an event that happens every other year and swing dancers from all over the country and beyond come to Portland for a weekend jam-packed with dancing opportunities. It has been a challenging and fun project for me. I designed promotional shirts, flyers, web banners and the event shirts. I have been busy posting about the event on swing forums across the country and rallying others to do the same. The list goes on and on.

We are currently in the final stretch. The event is happening March 7-9. With just over two weeks to go, I am switching the focus from national advertising to local advertising. Now is the time to generate new interest in Portland and the surrounding area.

We have come up with a secondary name for the event for this purpose. People who have never tried swing dancing will have no idea what a lindy exchange is. Therefore, to advertise in the Portland community, we are calling the event Swing Fest. We are highlighting the 11 bands that are scheduled to play and the great venues we have lined up. Here’s the poster I put together:

What do you think? I will put together the rest of the exchange materials and post them soon. You will notice this poster looks nothing like the other exchange materials. A different target market called for a different approach to advertising.

If you live nearby, you should check out the event. You do not have to know how to swing dance already, lessons are offered each night before the bands take the stage. You do not have to sign up for the entire weekend either, pick a night and join us.

Filed under: Graphic Design, Marketing || 4 Excellent Comments

After pouring time and energy into designing a project for a client the last thing you want them to say is, “This is not at all what I was expecting, can you show me something completely different?” I hope that, by the time you have reached this stage of the process, it is clear what they want and you have not completely ignored their needs. However, even if you think you have given them everything they want, it is important to explain your design when you present it to them.

As the designer, no one knows your thought process better than you do. Hopefully, you have a good reason for your choices. You will do a much better job selling your design to your client if you have a better answer than, “I don’t know, I thought it looked pretty.”

My Own Defense Ignored

There are times when you are not the one that gets to present your work to the client. With any luck, the person doing the presentation is well versed on your reasoning and happy to explain it to the client. When you skip this step, it could easily lead to the detriment of the whole project.

Last May, the Publications Consultant and the Marketing Director at Monaco (where I am employed full-time) decided that it was time to redesign Lifestyles magazine and Safari Adventures. The other designer and I had already anticipated this would happen, as the two magazines look very similar to each other despite their different target audiences. We had already begun our research with a couple dozen trips to Borders and pouring through magazines. We sketched ideas we liked. We discussed the ones we did not like. By the time they asked for the redesign, we already had many ideas for each of our magazines.

The following is the current cover design for Lifestyles.

Some of the problems with the current Lifestyles cover:

1. Each of Monaco’s four magazines is for a different sect of owners. Consequently, each should focus on what would appeal to its target group. Currently, Lifestyles and Safari Adventures have almost identical covers.
2. Always putting a coach on the cover makes the magazines feel like a sales tool for Monaco rather than a magazine for the owners.
3. Finding a photo with enough space on it for the masthead and feature article text is extremely hard. Unfortunately, we do not always have the budget to do a photo shoot for the cover every month.
4. Issue text gets lost and at times is not readable on top of the photo.
5. The serif font used for the masthead reminded my editor of LifeStyles condoms (which I will discuss further later).
6. The Monaco brand logo was not appearing on the cover of the magazine.

We distribute Lifestyles magazine to Monaco brand owners. Though the brand has low-end coaches too, it is best known for its high-end line. Monaco owners tend to have a sense of added ownership when it comes to their relationship with Monaco Coach Corporation compared to Holiday Rambler, Beaver and Safari owners. They tend to think their coaches are classier than the others are and I wanted to reflect that in the magazine design.

I sketched 49 ideas before we narrowed it down to our three favorites. I put together a comp of each and accompanied them with a typed version of my thought process. Here is my favorite version and a copy of my reasoning:

Monaco Owners on the Cover: Lifestyles is a magazine for the coach owners. It is about the RV lifestyle. It makes sense that people will connect with it more when they see actual owners on the cover enjoying the lifestyle.

Addition of White Space: The interior of Lifestyles has always embraced the use of white space, more so than Holidays [the other magazine I design for Monaco]. If we introduce the reader to the airiness of the interior on the cover, it will tie the entire magazine together better. In addition, it will help it stand out from Monaco’s other four magazines.

Script Font: Lifestyle is defined as a way of life for an individual, group or culture. Factoring this in, it makes sense to use a font for the masthead that has a more personal feel. When someone is looking to add a personal touch, the most common way to go about that is to write a letter or card by hand. That is why I feel a script font is a better way to go than a sans serif or even serif. The font I chose here is both fun and elegant and mimics the style of Monaco Coach graphics. Plus, the extra tall ascenders give a larger than life feel, much like the coaches themselves.

Slab Serif Font: Again, I was looking for a way to personalize our magazine more, which is why the secondary font on the cover is a slab serif. Slab serifs often remind people of a typewriter and this one does it without feeling old fashioned.

Article Title Placement: In an attempt to switch things up, I experimented with placing the feature titles across the top of the magazine where they will not get lost in the picture. The idea is to make it easier for our readers to read them while not detracting from the masthead and cover image. I placed the product review in a prominent location within the color bar and bumped up its size to give it more emphasis.

Masthead: Using black for the masthead will give the magazine a slightly more formal feel without becoming too stodgy especially when combined with the addition of white space around the photo area.

Logo and issue details: Both are in an easy to read location on the bottom right side of the magazine where the reader should have no problem identifying who produces the magazine, what issue it is and where they can go to find more information.

Unfortunately, my editor never relayed the key points above when he presented the comps. The response I received about this design was that they felt the use of a script font would alienate the male readers. Consequently, my editor wanted me to explore capitalizing the first S in “styles” and using a bold sans serif with a tall x-height. That just so happens to be the exact kind of font used on Holidays magazine but, more importantly, it looks like LifeStyles condoms redesigned their packaging at some point with that exact idea. I wonder if he saw them at some point and filed it away in his subconscious?
Regardless, they asked for 10 new font options. I gave them to them and they decided they needed to rethink the project. It is still on hold until they give me the go ahead and maybe a new direction to explore.

The Ideal Presentation

Communication is the key to staying on the same page as your client. I would have preferred to present each of the options myself along with each of the key points. There was not a single part of the design that I had not carefully considered. In order for them to understand where I was going, it would have helped to speak to them directly about my designs and how they were or were not hitting the mark.

What do you think? Has something similar happened to you?

Filed under: Graphic Design || 2 Excellent Comments

When Ty Adams was getting ready to launch his bioTrekker campaign, he approached me for a logo. He wanted something with a clean look that represented sustainable energy and travel. His plan was to live and work in a diesel motorhome adorned with the bioTrekker logo while traveling the country to expand awareness of sustainable energy. For the last year, his coach has been powered by biodiesel and he has documented his travels on his website www.biotrekker.com.

After pouring through hordes of existing biodiesel logos and researching biodiesel, I sat down with my sketchpad and started the thumbnail process. Here are most of those sketches.

As you can see, I explored the idea of trekking, corn stalks, canola flowers, drops of biodiesel, sunflowers, the sun, nature in general and movement.

The combination of the drop of biodiesel with the compass rose opened the door to quite a bit more exploration.

I ended up presenting comps of 7, 32, 58 and 59 to the client. He asked me to explore the mark on 58 with the font of 7 more. Therefore, I came up with these:

What do you think of the final result? Do you like the concept behind it? Are there other ideas that you like better?

Filed under: Graphic Design || 7 Excellent Comments

I am curious. What is your favorite color? Is there a specific shade you prefer? Why do you like it?

I love color. I love the way it makes me feel. I love reading about color symbolism and color psychology. I love studying the physics of color and how our eyes see it. I love coming up with fun, new color combinations. Yet, I cannot seem to pick a favorite color. Every color has something to offer me. Consequently, my favorite tends to change — from day to day and even minute to minute.

When I was a young girl, my favorite was Crayola’s Ultra Blue. I loved that crayon and always searched for a reason to use it. When I was in high school, I switched to forest green. Later, I went through a phase of blue and orange together, but after I started designing, all of that went out the window.

Designing has stretched the way I think of color. Now my favorite color depends on the purpose — the message I am trying to achieve, the mood I want to convey or even the mood I am in at the moment.

There are so many fascinating tidbits and theories about color. It is hard to tell if nature or nurture is the cause of how colors affect us. My guess, it is a combination of the two. For example, in nature, blue often serves as a warning that something is poisonous. Thus, many people have studied the effects of blue on appetite and many have concluded that blue actually suppresses appetite. Consequently, it may not be the best choice for advertising food. Think about it, how many fast food chains use blue? Immediately, I think of an abundance of red and yellow. I do not think that was an accident.

On the side of nurture, the way we have been raised influences how colors affect us. In many Western societies purple symbolizes royalty, blue represents calm and loyalty, red represents power and love, yellow serves as a warning or can make you happy, green speaks of nature and fertility…the list goes on. Every color out there has many meanings tied to it. Check out this entry in Wikipedia for an extensive list of colors and their associated symbolism. For those interested in design these two sites have some more insights: www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.html and www.precisionintermedia.com/color.html. Keep in mind that different societies think of color in different ways. If you want to represent royalty in China, you should think about using yellow.

What are your thoughts? Have you noticed particular colors change your mood? Do you automatically associate certain colors with certain things?

Filed under: Graphic Design || 3 Excellent Comments