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.

Rack Card - Front & Back

So it’s no secret I do graphics.  It’s also no secret (on my part) that I do graphics for 3 other small print shops in the area.  I don’t feel like we are competitors, we are friends who help each other out and scratch each others’ backs when needed.  I got a call from my friend Deb, who I’ve known since I was 4 years old.  Her daughter and I went thru elementary school together, and we are all in the same Bunco group, too!  Anyway, she needed some help with client supplied artwork that was not print-ready.  It was slightly worse than I expected, it wasn’t just a matter of cloning in some art to make bleeds so they could produce it right.  I had to redesign the rack for several reasons: 1. the supplied file was 4 x 9 and the order was for 4.25 x 11; 2. the photo on the front was sloppily cropped from it’s background obviously with the magic wand tool in photoshop (big rookie move); 3. the backside was typed out in size 6pts font with serifs (a huge no-no when you go that small– I guarantee arial or verdana is easier to read at 6pts than times or goudy); 4. the “layered” photoshop file they supplied was NOT layered, in fact– each file had 3 layers, two copies of the background (the entire artwork flattened & rasterized) and the 3rd layer was a white box (wtf?); last but not least, and certainly the most important, 5. the whole thing was riddled with typos! (wtf to the 8th power!!!)

They were unable to get the person who supplied the files to work on them again (not sure why).  So, in my Mighty Mouse voice… “Here I come to saaaaaaave the daaaaaay!”  I really enjoy working on political stuff now & then, because not only do I learn something about a candidate, I get the feeling of pride that my design is going to be viewed by so many eyes in our area (even if there is no shameless plug for me at the bottom of the ad).  When that solicitor comes to my door with one of those, I can say “hey, I designed that”… and my friend Deb can say, “hey, I printed that”!  Thanks for sharing your work with me guys.

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!)

I often do jobs for fund-raisers, and KIXE is no stranger to fund-raising.  Our local public tv station (KIXE – channel 9) is having another sweepstakes this fall… This year’s offer is a little relief from the “so called” recession.  They are giving away a bunch of gift cards, for gas, groceries, etc.

Just like last year’s “Water Wise Landscape Makeover”, we did the graphics & printing for their flyers, entry forms & tickets.  Although we had a completely different concept for the graphics on this job– a pile of money in a life preserver floating in an ocean, they had a concept of a money tree in mind.  At first, Tony & I were like, “…a money tree??? really???”  We were trying to imagine how a money tree related to the words “recession” and “relief”… I admit, there is some relation there, but we just weren’t “into” the money tree idea.  So, we had to ask what was up with the money tree thing…  Apparently, a money tree is not real, and neither is the recession. HA!!!   I can say, I’ve used better client-supplied graphics, but we were asked to “please use the tree graphic the client picked out”.  I think we made the best of it, and they were very happy with the final products, which is all that matters.  If my client is happy, then I am happy.

KIXE Channel 9 is having another sweepstakes contest

Sample of the flyer with attached entry form for the sweepstakes