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.

We’re going to print these full color labels on pre-kiss-cut 2.5″ label stock.  There are 12 labels on an 8.5×11 sheet, so at $1.50 a sheet for full color, the labels are pretty cost effective in small quantities (each circle label costs $0.125).  You can’t get full color labels for less than 12 and a half cents wholesale unless you buy 10,000 or more.  (I checked with an outside vendor on that one).

——–end of update———-

I haven’t posted any business cards in a while, so I thought I would share my most recent project proofs.  I’m pretty sure these folks went to vistaprint and were not satisfied based on the sample I saw and the whole “we need awesome cards fast” request.  I can’t say this enough, “YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR”.  There is no such thing as “free business cards”, because you pay for the shipping… and then you pay a REAL print shop to make you better ones in about 2 weeks when you get sick of looking at the cards you thought you could design yourself using a crappy flash based design generator.  C’mon people, seriously… quit supporting the corporate internet monsters and go to your LOCAL printer!

Whoa, enough ranting…

Back to the project:  So we know the client likes illustrations and line art (or vector art in designer’s lingo).  I wanted to give him something more than the lame template he picked from vistaprint (bastards)… so i mixed up 3 and 4 vectors from vecteezy, manipulated some of them so the highlights and good parts of the background would “caress” the text (like in #1 & #2 in the proof shown).  I used a rainbow gradient in a rectangle to cover the whole design & set it to “multiply” on the transparency palette.  I got kinda carried away with the different tweaks to each design, hence there being 2 similar in a couple of the choices.  In design #3, I found that vector of the turntable with the record, there was different text on the record, so I thought it would be cool to use the client’s name on the record instead.  A simple tweak to some text– I opened the vector file from vecteezy in illustrator, got rid of the stock text on the record, then put in my own.  I had to convert it to outlines, skew it and do some rotating to make it sit just right.  I only just emailed these proofs yesterday, but I will tell you #1 & #6 are my favorites.

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.

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.

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!

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!

Memorial Card - Front Only

I do a lot of memorial cards, and 99% of the orders are due the same day or the next day because of the circumstances with the funerals.  I thought I would share this card I did recently because although I could have used photoshop to remove the background on the picture, I used a little trick in inDesign instead.

I created a clipping path using the pen tool & edited my anchor points to crop her out of the photo.  I placed it over the image of the clouds, and gave it a white drop shadow so it looked like she had an outer glow.  For the heart with her name, I just drew a heart, typed the text, then converted the text to curves (or outlines).  Then I subtracted it from the heart like a compound path.  This card really was simple, and the family just loved it.  They thought I spent hours on it, when in fact, the whole job only took me about 1/2 an hour.  This card has a 1/4 inch margin on all sides, I was able to get 2 cards out of 1 sheet of cardstock.  Had I done this design with bleeds, I would have had to charge more to print on oversized stock & cut down to the finish size.  I try to keep the costs down on memorial cards because I know how costly funerals can be, and if I can save the family on the printing, I will– even if it means sacrificing my paycheck a bit!

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).

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.