I love doing edgy designs, and that’s why I love this client.  Team Quest MMA (mixed martial arts) and their Fight Club is putting on a huge tournament for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Gi/No-Gi type fighting.  There was quite a bit of info to include on these small 1/4 page sized postcards, but I really made use of the space.  They requested that I use the “Fight Club” logo, which has a green fist instead of the usual white one as seen in the postcards below.  I was also asked to come up with a logo of sorts for the title of the event “NorCal Classic 2010″.  We used the trendy North Star over the state of California, and I added a little flair to the sides with what is actually an exclamation point punctuation from the font called “the King and Queen” (thanks dafont.com).  I had to convert those punctuations to outlines & give them a bit of rotation (obviously).  I also included their “burst” background to this layout because it’s kind of become a branded look for them.

Along with this order was another postcard for their “Back 2 School” specials.  They supplied a design for the front of the postcard, so I wont take the credit for that.  I was also given a word doc with a table for the schedule of classes to go on the back of the postcard.  What I did was, export the word file as a pdf and then I placed it into my own design layout for the back of the postcard.  I kept their design theme going with their official logo and the elements from their business card design.  Most all of this is vector art, and it really lends itself to the overall theme.

–updated 8/26/10–

Final design for KIXE Easy Street Sweepstakes (click image for larger view):

KIXE (PBS channel 9) is having their annual sweepstakes, and again this year we get to do the design & printing! It was nice this year to have a little more creative freedom with the concept of everything. When the marketing person asked me what came to mind when I heard the name “Easy Street”, I thought of monopoly type line art/cartoons.

I had Tony draw the street sign for me, while I did the rest of the flyer. I thought it would look fun if I put the sponsor logos in clouds at the top. The clouds were easy in indesign, I just drew several ellipses, then merged them together with the pathfinder->add command. The wood signs I downloaded from vecteezy (thanks guys), and I drew the rest in indesign with the pen tool.

When I first presented the layout to the staff, they were all excited about it. No constructive criticism or bad comments! I love doing work for KIXE because they always want the designs to look fun… and if you know me, I love doing “fun” designs.

This flyer is going to be used as a handout and a mailer, so I put the order form for tickets along with the Rules & Regulations on the backside.

We’re going to print this puppy offset on 100lb. Gloss Book paper (kinda like magazine paper), and it will only have an aqueous coating so you can still write on it with a ball-point pen.  The next projects to work on with this order will be the tickets and the large posters.  I will post the tickets when the art is approved

Final layout for ticket (front only):

I really wanted to keep the ticket layout simple, so I only put on the pertinent info.  The sponsors were put on the back of the ticket along with the portion of the stub that the entrant fills out.  These tickets will be numbered (also on back) so they can keep it legit.

I’ve done a few projects for this client, including their grand opening posters & postcards.  This project was pretty easy once I understood that it was actually an advertisement for 2 different things!  On one side (the blue side), they wanted to advertise to new MMA (mixed martial arts) students for summer sign ups.  I use the burst looking dealy-ma-bobber behind their logo on a lot of their stuff. It’s kinda part of the look ya know?  The client really wanted to put photos on this project so newbies would really know what they’re about: they are not a karate class, they teach everything from physical fitness to down and dirty fighting.

The red side of the card advertises their MMA camp to the same age group as new students, and explains what is covered at the camp.  The client actually suggested the different colors so that folks reading the advertisement would get the idea that it actually is 2 separate things being advertised.  I gave them an awesome deal on 14pt UV Gloss coated cards, and even printed 100 free digital cards so they could start handing them out the day they approved the artwork.  The Team Quest people have become great clients, and I really enjoy doing their artwork because it gives me an opportunity to do something different than the stuff I normally do.

New to Palo Cedro: a summer flea market!  This design wasn’t that challenging, except for the challenge of keeping “clutter” out of it… i.e. images or clip art of “flea market finds” or piles of “yard sale” junk.  I just wanted some natural background to suggest the location in the country, and I had to have a cute little mascot to represent the title.  I actually found him on google images, and drew the tag hanging from the string on the ‘R’ in market.  The background and the wooden sign are both vector stock from vecteezy (my fav site).

I hit the nail on the head (so to speak) with this design, the client approved it immediately, she loved my mascot flea, and thought the hanging tag was a “fabulous” idea!  I printed a bunch of these 11×17 posters, and I have seen them plastered all over town!  I also converted the entire thing to greyscale & printed a bunch of flyers on various astrobright colored papers.  She (the client) was so happy, she said she wants me to do something similar for the upcoming “Certified Farmers Market” in Palo Cedro. Yae!