At HillCrest Vineyard west of Roseburg, Dyson and Susan DeMara share their passion for wine with their tasting room guests. Their vineyard and winery is family owned and operated and steeped in history.

Originally founded by Oregon vinifera pioneer, Richard Sommer, HillCrest is Oregon’s oldest estate winery. Sommer introduced European style grapes to the Umpqua Valley in 1961 and is credited for producing Oregon’s first Pinot Noir. The rustic tasting room serves as the perfect backdrop as the DeMara’s pour their wines and share HillCrest’s history with their guests.

They came to Creative Images last October with a desire to have labels that matched the quality of their small-lot artisan wines.

As you can see they have two lines. Their signature limited production HillCrest wines are available for tasting and purchase in their tasting room, but are not sold in stores. However, Heydon Road which honors wine pioneer, Adam Doerner—who brought grapevine cuttings to the Umpqua Valley in 1888—is handcrafted using old world techniques from Oregon’s oldest vineyards and is sold in select stores and restaurants.

Based on the labels that I designed, my coworker designed HillCrest’s website.

I then designed this ad for In the Land of Umpqua magazine.

Project Team Included:

• Creative Director: Gary G.
• General Manager: Paul Z.
• Client Services Director: Sande D.
• Graphic Designer: Karly Barrett
• Web Designers: Patrick S. and Toshie A.

I highly recommend visiting the DeMara’s at HillCrest and enjoying great wine while learning about Oregon’s wine history and how it is made.

Filed under: Graphic Design || Leave Your Thoughts

I always get that warm fuzzy feeling when I design for non-profit organizations. Such was the case when I designed a brochure for The North Umpqua Foundation. The North Umpqua Foundation provides assistance for educational, legal, biological and scientific protection of rivers and their anadromous fish. Specifically, the foundation supports efforts to maintain the historic, scenic, wildlife and fishery values of the North Umpqua River.

The North Umpqua Foundation came to Creative Images earlier this year for a brochure that would raise awareness about the impact people have had on the river and its fish. It is both educational and a call to action to rally people to help protect it through donations and volunteering.

Printed 12×18 flat and folds to 6×12—its sheer size requests attention.

Project Team Included:

• Creative Director: Gary G.
• General Manager: Paul Z.
• Graphic Designer: Karly Barrett

What do you think?

Filed under: Graphic Design || Leave Your Thoughts

“The Best Jerky On Earth”

Highly prized and sold internationally, handmade jerky from Umpqua Indian Foods provides consumers with a delicious, healthy eating experience.

Owned by the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, their “Classic” jerky line includes six distinct flavors: Original, Teriyaki, Black Pepper & Garlic, Brown Sugar, Jalapeño and Smoked Spicy Sweet. They also sell fruit and veggie snacks and various sundry items.

When Umpqua Indian Foods asked us to design a label for their new upscale beer-flavored beef jerky, I was excited about the challenge. They were looking for a departure from the design of the rest of their jerky line. They wanted something that would stand out on the store shelves and compete in the specialty food market. They also wanted a design that could be easily adapted for the additional flavors they are considering adding to the line.

My creative director and I began the project by downloading hundreds of beer and alcohol labels to use as reference and inspiration.

After discussing with the client which styles of labels they liked best, I began designing the label.

They narrowed it down to their two favorite designs and color palette and I continued the development process. Notice the various textures on the red background.

The label was designed to instantly communicate the flavor through both the imagery and message with its graphic influence coming from micro-brew beer labels. The bold red was chosen to pop against the existing black packaging.

Brew Pub^® was introduced to the market in December and has been extremely well received. According to Umpqua Indian Foods their vendors are purchasing the product faster than any other flavor they’ve launched in the past.

In order to help them spread the word, we’ve developed ads, P.O.P. displays, posters and other in-store collateral. We are also currently developing a few viral videos.

The larger of the two ads below ran in the Portland Trailblazers program and the smaller one appear in the Roseburg visitors magazine In the Land of Umpqua.

Project Team Included:

• Creative Director: Gary G.
• General Manager: Paul Z.
• Client Services Director: Sande D.
• Graphic Designer: Karly Barrett
• Video Production: Carl and Geno

I was never much of a jerky fan before working with Umpqua Indian Foods, but I think their jerky is pretty tasty—especially Brew Pub^®. If you want to try some for yourself, you can order it at uifoods.com or I’ve also seen it at Market of Choice in Eugene.

What do you think of the end result? Have you tried the jerky for yourself?

Filed under: Graphic Design || Leave Your Thoughts

One of the things I love most about designing for an advertising agency is logo design. You don’t normally get to do that with in-house design and it’s definitely what I’ve been craving all these years. Logo design may not seem like much of a challenge when someone looks at the end result, but often the simplest designs pose the greatest challenge. When I design a logo I try to create a unique, clean and lasting identity for a company. Something that looks good really tiny and blown up for a sign or a billboard. Something that works in black and white as well as color. Something that tells a story about what the company does. Who they are. What makes them stand apart…in a single graphic.

Such was the case when Umpqua Indian Utility Cooperative (UIUC) came to Creative Images for their logo. UIUC is one of our sister companies—we’re both owned by the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians along with nine other businesses. UIUC is the first utility in the Northwest both owned and operated by a Native American tribe. UIUC feeds BPA preference power to the Seven Feathers Casino Resort, Creekside Restaurant and the Seven Feathers Truck and Travel Center.

The Cow Creek Tribe maintains strong ties with the eagle and you can find the symbol in many of its affiliated businesses. Therefore, it was a natural direction to pursue in the development of their utility company’s logo.

As with all of my other logo design projects, I started sketching. I began to explore ways to create a relationship between their Native American heritage and the utility service they provide. I tried different ways of incorporating electrical voltage into an eagle feather. I explored the feather as the filament in a light bulb. I combined electricity with wings and eagle heads. I placed an electrical charge through a common Native American design. I also departed from their heritage completely in a few options.

My creative director chose a few of his favorite concepts and asked me to develop them more. Above you can see the evolution of the lightning in the feather, the eagle’s electric wings and the eagle head and lightning combined to make a circle.

We then completed the evolution and presented the four designs to the client in two color options.

They immediately narrowed it down to the feather and the circle options, but eventually decided on the eagle head in the circle.

I then designed several letterhead options for them and they chose this design on linen paper. We printed both horizontal and vertical business cards for them since they couldn’t decide which they preferred.

Project Team Included:

• Creative Director: Gary G.
• General Manager: Paul Z.
• Client Services Director: Sande D.
• Graphic Designer: Karly Barrett

What do you think of their choice? Is there a different direction that you wish I had explored?

Filed under: Graphic Design || Leave Your Thoughts

Since 1979 the Umpqua Valley Arts Association has been involved in the culture of Roseburg. They offer classes in most artistic areas, have five art galleries, a gift gallery and a variety of art programs for people of all ages. They also host arts events, exhibits and introduce the community to the wide range of talented artists in Douglas County.

Every year this non-profit organization hosts an art auction and benefit dinner to raise money for its community programs and gallery shows. This year, they almost didn’t have the event because of the costs associated with putting it together. They came to Creative Images for help and asked us to design announcements, invitations, programs and posters for their event’s theme: Serengeti Sunset.

We came up with this image of the sun setting over an almost desolate Serengeti Plain. In combination with the tribal sunset logo, the client was more than delighted with our design.

The Arts Center printed their own pages for the program below and inserted them before the event.

The blank poster was used at the event to help direct people from the parking lot to the gallery. They wrote on them with marker and posted them around the building.

Project Team Included:

• Creative Director: Gary G.
• General Manager: Paul Z.
• Designers: Karly Barrett, Stewart M. and Tristin G.

What do you think of the result?

Filed under: Graphic Design || Leave Your Thoughts

One of my favorite projects from this last year was designing the collateral for Music on the Half Shell. Creative Images takes an active role in the community and this is one event that we are a Benefactor Sponsor for every year.

This summer concert series began 17 years ago with a mission to provide free concerts to the people in Roseburg featuring quality artists who would normally perform at distant venues for a substantial admission fee. Every summer season, people gather on Tuesday evenings in Stewart Park to listen to music, socialize, eat dinner on the lawn and experience the great Roseburg community.

Each of the eight concerts averages $20,000 to produce and seasonal attendance exceeds 50,000 people. Music on the Half Shell is a private, charitable non-profit organization that relies on contributions from sponsors in the community to fund the concerts.

Fundraising for the 2009 season began in October last year when we designed and produced sponsorship brochures and posters. The purpose of these two pieces was to ask people to become sponsors of the event. The letter-fold brochure included a form that people could tear off and submit with their check and both the poster and brochure directed people to the website where they could donate. A TV spot soon followed these two collateral pieces.

The Music on the Half Shell committee hosted a big media event announcing the acts in May. We designed invitations that went out to the sponsors and media. At the event they passed out the event posters below which were posted all over the Roseburg area.

As you can see, the Nichols Band Shell is an icon in the Roseburg community and became the focus of this year’s design. The posters were soon followed by television commercials and black and white newspaper inserts.

Parking passes were designed for the event sponsors and backstage passes were designed for performers, guests and crew.

There are still two concerts left this season. The event is a lot of fun. If you can, you should try to make it out some time.

Project Team Included:

• Creative Director: Gary G.
• General Manager: Paul Z.
• Graphic Designer: Karly Barrett
• Video Production: Carl and Geno

What are your thoughts? Does your community have a similar event?

Filed under: Graphic Design, Marketing || Leave Your Thoughts

I can’t believe it’s been over a year since I last wrote a blog entry. Life has been busy and many changes have taken place. Most notably, I took a position designing for an advertising agency called Creative Images. Working full-time and commuting have left me with little spare time, but it’s all worth it.

My position with Creative Images is extremely fulfilling. I am working with some of their top clients including: Seven Feathers Casino Resort, Food Services of America, Umpqua Indian Foods, Henry Estate and HillCrest wineries, Music on the Half Shell and Umpqua Valley Arts Association to name a few. I design logos, packaging, collateral materials, magazines and publications among many other things. The variety keeps me inspired.

I’ll do my best to bring you all up to speed on some of my favorite projects. To start things off, below is a promotional piece that I designed for our most recent open house.

With a name as ambiguous as Creative Images, we feel it is important to communicate what it is that we do while still informing the public about our event. I wanted to achieve that through a clean design. The Creative Images family tree was developed to fulfill that role. It typographically informs the public about our services while remaining contained in the illustration of the tree. The black background helped communicate that it was an evening event.

Project Team Included:

• Creative Director: Gary G.
• Client Services Director: Sande D.
• General Manager: Paul Z.
• Graphic Designer: Karly Barrett

What are your thoughts? Does the concept work for you?

Filed under: Graphic Design, Typography || Leave Your Thoughts

For the third year in a row, the Portland Lindy Society asked me to design the materials for the Portland Lindy Exchange. The exchange is a huge swing dance event including about 35 hours of dancing, live bands, great venues and dancers from all over the world.

This year I designed the materials with a vaudeville flair. I searched all over the Internet looking for the perfect font and finally discovered Boston Truckstyle. I wanted a font with some flourish, but nothing too extreme. Boston Truckstyle has great options and beautifully simple finishing touches.

Evrim Icoz Photography took the photo in the flyer above at the 2008 Portland Lindy Exchange. I removed a bunch of people from the background for a cleaner look.

The whole job uses black and Pantone 877 metallic silver ink. I have been debating about whether or not I should create a fake metallic effect for the web banners and the header for their website. What do you think?

I’ve also designed materials for the event itself. I’m still working on a poster and the program. I will finalize both once bands and venues are locked down, probably sometime in December. However, I have already designed tickets to the late night dances and the shirts for the event.

The tickets will be hole-punched at the door so attendees can keep them as a souvenir if they choose. Both the promotional and event shirts will be printed on several different shirt styles to appeal to different tastes.

What do you think of my designs? Would you change anything?

Filed under: Graphic Design || 8 Excellent Comments

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 || 5 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