Write Michigan logos

I recently had the honor of developing some logo options for a short story content. Here are the three designs that were presented to the committee.

 campfire, storytelling, myths, messages, memories, words leaping off page

ripples, water, remembering, land and place as inspiration, clouds, dreams

bold type, waves and water, the printed page, books

My favorite is the middle one so I will end showing it to you in color. I developed several color versions of each of these. The committee ended up choosing the final logo out of the above three choices.

I would love to hear which one resonates with you and why. Please leave a comment!

hand painted signs at Cherry Point

 

I told you I was going to take more sign photos this summer! Here's a few I snapped at Cherry Point Farm and Market. It is in Oceana County, not far from my family's cottages and the shores of Lake Michigan and always a part of summer for me. I like to imagine these signs have been at the shop forever but even if they were recently painted I still admire the signs' handmade look!

point the way

Arrows, round one and round two? Pick your favorite size and color?

elegant invites with lovely lace

I had the honor and pleasure of designing invitations for my sister's August wedding. Her gown is creamy lace, which inspired both the lace pattern and the paper choice.

One of my favorite things to do as a designer is come up with the art I need in a unique and interesting way. In this case, I wedged a cardboard envelope inside a shirt with lace up near the collar, mashed it down in my scanner, and then went to town in Photoshop.

I am also quite happy with the typography. I think that is one of thing that sets apart a piece done by a graphic designer – a real attention to the type. Not only the font choice, but the size hierarchy and the arrangement. I used Bodoni, a dramatic and elegant classic.

And I really liked making everything a nice, matching set! Besides the invitations and enclosures, I designed the program and created table numbers and table tents and blank advice postcards to be used at the reception.

quite a Q

From the Pere Marquette, a train on display in Grand Haven, Michigan. I am going to be more diligent this summer about taking photographs of letters and signs. A virtual collection, so to speak.

I adore funky old signs

This spring we ventured to Lakewood, Ohio to celebrate Grandma's 80th birthday at an ice cream shop and a fabulously vintage flavored bowling alley. Love the signs!

in honor of improvisation

 I noticed this manhole cover while on a walk through the neighborhood. 1941 must have posed a challenge since twice the number ones were required. So why not substitute the letter "I?"

On the road

The past few weekends have been full of family functions and travels and I just haven't been making time for art, hence the recent lack of posts. I am going to try to get back on track this week.

I love funky typography. Travel is always a good time to spy new signs of interest. Like this number 2.

Black, white, blue, green seemed to be the color theme. I do love these tennies.

A movie about type?

Yes, a movie about type!

I admit, you really have to be a design nerd to take this one off the shelf. I think it might have appeal to the curious types though!

I first read about Typeface on the Design Envy blog and then checked it out from the library. It's an hour-long documentary that originally aired on PBS. The film chronicles the history and the current state of the Hamilton Wood Type Museum in Two Rivers, Wisconsin.

The Hamilton Wood Type company was producing individual letters carved out of wood up until 1985 (which was when, not coincidentally, the Mac computer came on the scene).  Posters and other print pieces used to be made of individual letters carefully "set" into place and then printed. The museum is this grand collection of old machinery and heaps and heaps of old wooden type. A designer's playground!

The film shows everyone from the hip Chicago designers who have a passion for old type and printing using the letterpress, the town's historical society who are struggling to make ends meet, and the older residents who are some of the few people who know how to carve type in the way it used to be done.

I would love to visit someday when they have workshops. When the design profession has gone so far into the world of computers, there is a real appeal to doing things by hand once again.

Please take a peek at their website to see the beauty of these letterforms.

GR Reads 2011

The last big thing I completed before my maternity leave from my job as a graphic designer at the Grand Rapids Public Library was promotional pieces for this summer's GR Reads. It's a summer reading program for adults and this year's theme is good vs. evil.

My first inclination was to do a design in stark black and white. Or perhaps using some gray to represent the so-called gray area. Maybe a fuzzy border between the black and white? Perhaps the words "good" and "evil" and reflections of each other? Linked? Grown together? Is the line between the fuzzy or solid? I had many many visions, sketches, and drafts. And nothing was pleasing me.

Then I thought some more about GR Reads, the overall program, and realized that it was supposed to be fun. Sure, some of the books are obviously going to be serious in nature, but the point is for all of us to have some fun reading and go to some interesting programs. It's summertime, not homework time.

So I switched directions, introduced some bright color (I do love our color palette), added an outsider font and created an illustration for the theme that's just a touch lighthearted (reusing and modifying characters from the font, I might add). At last, a design solution I am pleased with!

Tah-dah!

before there were designers and computers

You might just stamp your own sale signs for your business!

Check out this wooden case of alphabet stamps I bought once upon a time at an antique store. My 2-year-old and I had fun with them. You may have noticed the stamped labels in yesterday's post. They were the result of this little craft fest.

I am especially fond of the phrase "up-to-now!"

 

1950s fonts!

I got this in an email update from Veer, a site that sells fonts, stock photography, and interesting vintage style illustrations. They are offering some new fonts straight from the 1950s and put together a slideshow of the advertisements the fonts were used in. I found it very amusing. Take a moment to enjoy it! And, if you're in need of expanding your font collection, these are rather affordable.

a periodic table of fonts!

My husband found this for me and it was a gift via email forward. He's a chemistry teacher and I am a graphic designer. Combine these and you get this:

 I am greatly amused!