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.

Palo Cedro Barber's Biz Cards: Old vs. New

These nice folks asked me to “reproduce” their business cards because they had run out.  I love redesigning old stuff that’s so generic it’s sickening.  The old design probably came from a template at office depot or something.  Soooo obvious what to do…  Give these old school barbers a fresh look, but keep it clean.  I put together a reproduction of their old one, along with the new surprise design (yeah guess which one they picked haha). They went with digital business cards, and I had them ready the next day.  Clean and simple just like their old card, with a little more color.  By the way, this barber pole was a freebie I found on vecteezy a long time ago… not sure if it’s still there (see my favorite places links).

Poster with Full Bleeds

I love doing posters, especially when I have a lot of creative freedom.  This is the 3rd year I have gotten to do the posters and printed media for the Palo Cedro Christmas Celebration event.  It’s a lot of fun really… the whole center of town is packed with people walking around, there are bon fires in the rocks (put on by the fire dept), there’s wagon rides, and every business has free stuff and food to give away.  Sue Kossol from Palo Cedro Eye Clinic has been the organizer of this event for the last several years, and it’s amazing what one person can do with a little spreading of the word!

This project features the logo used in the last 3 years (so its kinda branded to the event), and this year I thought the poster needed to be a bit more elegant.  The last 2 years I had my assistant designer do this project, and I wasn’t happy with either of them.  I wanted to put my own touch on it this year, so I included some vector poinsettias, and a fun curve with the red box at the bottom.  I kinda threw the vector gingerbread cookies in at the bottom by the entertainment because it felt like there was something missing there… but I’m not sure if I like them with the poinsettias.  These vectors were all downloaded at Vecteezy.com (see my links menu), with the exception of the vector wreath in the logo, that sucker cost me $10 from istock.com!!!  Well, it’s what the client wanted 2 years ago and my designer back then didn’t know about all the free vector sites out there… oh well.  So this project will get printed on 12×18 100# cardstock, and I will cut it down to the bleeds so it’s finish size will be 11×17.  I’m really into the red this year for the holidays, and I put a hint of a gradient on this poster’s red box just to make it a little richer.  Feel free to leave your comments, suggestions, constructive criticism, etc.

This project is a first in a series with details on how we produce your projects, from start to finish.

I was given the opportunity to design & print the 2010 calendar for The Oak Run History Group.  I love doing stuff with old photos… though I’ve never been much of a “scrap booker”, I felt like these photos deserved something with a little whimsical feel, but with the old fashioned detail old photos look best on (know what i mean?)  We originally had the design with an old fashioned candle burning in the corner with a quill at the bottom, all done in 3d style with gradient meshes, but the need to squeeze more photos warranted it’s removal.   The basic idea, have a notepad of 12 calendar pages mounted to a nice poster that will become a frame-able poster after the calendar is gone.  You’ll follow some of the challenges I faced with this project below…

After about 3 hours in graphics, we have an approved proof the client has approved to print.  The finish size of the poster is 11×17, but notice how the ink “bleeds” off the edge.  You have to include a little extra artwork to be trimmed off to get this finished look.  So we digitally print it on 12 x 18 cardstock, and cut it down to the bleeds at 11 x 17.

Over the bottom portion of the poster for the year will sit the actual calendar itself… So the bottom photos are kind of a surprise at the end of the year.  For the calendar pages we’ll use 12 sheets of 20# white bond paper and we “pad” them with chipboard (recycled cardboard) at the top edge, just like a regular notepad.

The challenges in production:

The regular calendars I have made in the past just get stapled to the poster part, but since this poster was going to remain a keepsake, I didn’t want to damage it with staple holes or any glue.  So, I thought and thought… I need something to attach the chipboard backer to the poster, without causing damage to the front of the poster.  I decided to try my regular label stock, 60# mac-tac (permanent adhesive)… then I perforated a 7 x 2 inch strip vertically so the perforation will fold the strip to 7 x 1 inches.  I attached half of it to the chipboard under the calendar pages, folded it at the perforation, then attached the other half to the back of the poster.  This way, the calendar pad is attached at both sides to the back of the poster, and when the year is gone, the user can break the perforation to remove the chipboard from the poster without any damage to the front of the poster.  See below for more…

Oak Run History's 2010 Calendar with Poster

So I see 3 downsides to this form of bindery:

1. Label stock is not as cheap as staples
2. A portion of the label will remain on the backside of the poster after the calendar is removed
3. There is no attachment to the poster along the 11 inch edge at the top of the calendar pad.

I can’t help but realize that this may not the best way to attach the pad to the poster (darn!)  As of 11/11/09, I will be working on this project… I hope to post it’s progression as it goes!

11/24/09 Update:  So I printed 10 extra calendars for this project and totally wasted only 2 completed calendars to test the sticker bindery method.  I really wanted to test how rough I could be at tearing off the calendar pages one by one while it was hung on the wall, the test was to see if those perforated stickers would hold the pages to the poster thru the entire year.  To my surprise, they really held up well.    I was worried that the perforated sticker would come apart because I folded the sticker on the perforated line and put that fold right on the edge of the poster & chip board backer of the calendar pad.  The first one I tested ripped after the first 4 months were torn off… Then Mom had the idea to just put the perforation about 1/32 of an inch more toward the back of the poster.  It worked better!  Mom’s always right!  When I had the perf right on the edge of the poster, there was a little sticker showing after the pad was removed, and it just looked sloppy.  By putting the perf slightly more toward the back of the poster, it left a clean edge on the face of the poster, and no perforated sticker showed from the front.  (Thanks Mom!)