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?

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• Marketing Your Brand: Part 1