–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.

This project was pretty fun for me because I don’t use photoshop for creation as much as i could.  I found some fun brushes on brusheezy.com for wood and made my own boards and posts. I drew the little screws in photoshop too… pretty easy with a gradient fill, then an emboss to make it look sunk into the board.  I used a technique with several steps to burn the logo into the wood, too.  Then I saved those images as tiff files and did the rest in inDesign.  The “Pig Xing” sign is an actual photo from the ranch, so playing on that I drew the sign for the name, phone # & web address using just the rounded corner effect on a rectangle from inDesign.  The background is a 3D rendering I downloaded (can’t remember where from).  I actually designed this business card after I did the elaborate brochure (below).

When I did my brainstorming on what I wanted this brochure to look like, I kept thinking “outdoors” but “clean”.  I think the background image really lends itself to that idea with the blue sky and all… Again, in photoshop I made a separate file for my little screws so I could place them in the layout using inDesign.  (click on the brochure image to see it larger – those screws were so freakin’ easy!)

I wanted all the photos of the hunters to look like they had been posted on a wooden pole with the screws kinda like drying freshly developed photos (old school).  Repetition of the boards at the top for the titles reinforced the theme of the wood, and just to be different, I drew scotch tape (in inDesign) and taped my little “note” in the middle of the brochure.  I probably spent about 3 to 4 hours on this project, and the client was so surprised with the design.  He said he didn’t expect something so unique!

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!)