Makeup Artist Business Card design
My friend wanted some business cards for her growing side business as a makeup artist, and although I somewhat tried to hand off this task to a more qualified person, she really wanted me to help her and trusted me with giving her something she would love. We worked together to get ideas together (she wanted something simple, modern, yet elegant) and this is what I designed. The cards were printed with uvcards.com on black silk laminated paper with spot uv on the white back. I think they turned out pretty good and she loves them, so win win!
P.S. They look and feel way better in person.
Pressed! Letterpress Workshop at Two Paper Dolls in 35mm
This set of photos were taken at the Two Paper Dolls letterpress and design house in Wayne, PA during a Design Philadelphia event back in October. Shot with a Minolta x-700, the photos come from the first roll of Kodak Portra 400 film I had shared some photos from a little while ago.
The day consisted of a tour of the Two Paper Dolls facilities (their space is quite lovely), an overview and demonstration of how their presses worked by their pressmen and finally, the group got to create an awesome letterpress calendar on a Vandercook press. I’m not a designer by profession, but definitely have an appreciation for great print design, so it was fun to be surrounded by all sorts of wooden type blocks and get an inside look at how these guys produce some beautiful work.
Entire set can be viewed on my flickr.
Kristin’s Grad Party by hellonedman
Nathanael of hellonedman.com recently themed and put together a graduation party for his good friend, Kristin. From the moment he dribbled a sneak peak of the invite, I knew it would look awesome. I had the pleasure of being at Kristin’s graduation party and so I took some photos of Nathanael’s work. It’s pretty obvious by the theme and the giant tooth cake, that Kristin will now be working dental assisting. Sure, some of us really hate the dentist, but it’s ok, Kristin’s awesome and well prepared for the job! I should point out that Nathanael also baked and decorated a variety of cupcakes – and who doesn’t love cupcakes? Great job, Nathanael and congratulations, Kristin!
Entire gallery of the party decor is here
Poster: NY
I wish every weekend were a 4 day holiday weekend. With the extra “idle” time on my hands, I decided to create a poster from one of the pictures I took a few months back. After looking through lots of inspirational images to get a feel for what I thought I would like to do, I came up with the poster below. I laid it out as 18×24, 300dpi. I think it would be something I’d like to print and hang in my personal art gallery (aka the IT office where I put in my time between the hours of 9 to 5), but I’m not sure where to get something like this printed at a reasonable price. There is so much to learn with Photoshop – I have barely scratched the surface. There are great tutorial resources out there that I check up on often, so I hope to create more “stuff” soon. This also reminds me that although I live only 10 minutes from the Betsy Ross Bridge and I can see the top of the skyscrapers every morning on my way to work – I have no skyline pictures of Philly!! I will have to add that to my to do list. ASAP.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
October Wallpaper – 10/10
Hard to believe it’s already October! Here’s a 1280×800 desktop calendar/wallpaper for the month of October. I started this wallpaper during my lunch break today and finished it up while going thru several TiVo-ed episodes of Intervention (this show is an addiction itself, I tell you). I haven’t done much with Photoshop or Illustrator in the last few months – and so I’m just trying to get back into trying to create stuff with the help of some awesome tutorials I”ve found online. For this month’s calendar, I wanted to keep a minimalist look. I layered a few rust textures, and a leaf texture for the background and took it from there. If you’d like, you can download it from my flickr or browse my SmugMug.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
Ray Ban Rare Prints Wayfarers by Matt W. Moore
I think this Ray Ban Rare Prints Wayfarers ad is pretty awesome. The Wayfarers print and ad is designed by Matt W. Moore. He also did a live mural for the Sunglass Hut store in Herald Square. I think I’ll put on my new pair of black Wayfarers on today.
No Beer, No Work! (Poster)
Seventy-seven years ago, prohibition was repealed for beer. A popular slogan was, “No Beer, No Work.” This also happens to be the title of a poem by Ellis Parker Butler and the title of an anti-prohibition song. All this started when earlier in the week, I googled (ok, so I really “binged”- I don’t know, as much as I love Google, perhaps I need to give Bing more of a chance because I yielded better search results – ok back to the topic) 1920s and Prohibition era posters. I stumbled across a slideshow put together by the New York times, was inpsired by a few specific photos, and found another photo of a button that started this mini project. After checking out a few great Photoshop tutorials that helped me achieve the effects I wanted, I created the “No Beer, No Work” poster as a 16×20 and created the button graphic below. My idea for the poster was that this slogan would have been imprinted, or burned in, on a barrel of beer. I couldn’t quite figure out how to “warp” all items so that it looked more like a barrel shape – but then I thought – maybe this could have been imprinted on the top of a barrel! Either way, the here is the final product.
Enjoy the poster, the button – and enjoy a beer!
16×20 Poster idea comes to life
There are some really great tutorials you can find out there to improve your Photoshop and Illustrator skills. I have been using both for about a year now, but only on a very limited level…I’ve barely scratched the surface. In an effort to better my skills, I’ve been reading and following some tutorials to get a better feel for all the pretty amazing things you can do with both programs.
Last night, I created the above, retro-inspired poster. Probably took me longer than it would any other Photoshop expert, but the point was to work more with masks, layer styles, blending modes, textures, etc., and really start to feel comfortable with it. The idea came from a conversation a few days ago…
So, you may ask what does the DMAK stand for? Well, though there’s more to the story, it’s the acronym that stands for the initials of a few great friends, people who besides my family and a few other childhood friends, I’ve known the longest (not forgetting though, that some other pretty awesome people pop into your life as time goes by). We actually got to thinking the other day in conversation, “wow, we’ve known each other forever!” Actually since my family moved into the area back in 1992 (I think). Sentimentalism and jokes aside, here’s my first ever “real” poster.
For some really great tutorials, design freebies and creative inspiration, check out some of my favorite sites: Smashing Magazine, Abduzeedo, PSD Tuts+.
50 Stunning Typography Wallpapers For Inspiration – Noupe
Designers love Typography by tom2stobl
50 Stunning Typography Wallpapers For Inspiration – Noupe
(via Smashing Magazine)
Free Font: Brandon Grotesque
Until April 15, you can download the Brandon Grotesque Regular weight font for free. Designed by Hannes von Döhren and available at MyFonts.
Letterheady
Old letterhead is pretty cool. Check out Letterheady for some examples and design inspiration. I tried to come up with my own “vintage” looking letterhead.
To Sketch or Not to Sketch
I came across the above article written by Erik Ford and thought it was a good reminder of what the design process should include whether you have a real client, are creating something for yourself or doing it for a class. The class I’m taking right now requires I create a CD album cover. In Week 2, the assignment called for some thumbnails…people are throwing up mock-ups they’ve sloppily put together in Photoshop and I am super intimidated because all I have are some sketches on graph paper. However, a few more people submitted hand drawn sketches and I felt better. I don’t do graphic design for a living, but I think most people would agree with me that this step is an important one not to be overlooked.
I declare March my month of art…
I’m declaring March my month of art. Why you may ask? Because.
All winter long, we’ve been couped up indoors…snow has ruined plenty of good weekends and now that spring is around the corner, I need something to jump start my creativity. Something that will make me want to grab my camera all summer long and not put it down – ever. This month I have planned to visit the art museums around Philly and get inspired. There are some great exhibits and events going on and I want to be there. I also want to pick up my camera a lot more and let that become an extension of me.
Some events that may be worth checking out (and that I’m planning on checking out myself):
Philagrafika – Philadelphia’s international festival celebrating print in contemporary art
Picasso and the Avant-Garde in Paris – Surveys Picasso’s work between 1905 and 1945. Also explores the important role that Paris, France played in the history of modern art during the first half of the twentieth century.
Typography on the web
I saw this today via Abduzeedo. On a weekly basis they share works of typography found on the web. You can also find design inspiration and tutorials, as well as awesome design freebies. I absolutely loved this, because I LOVE FOOD.
Color Theory
I love reading design blogs and seeing the creativity of other people. It definitely serves as a source for inspiration. In the last week or two I have been reading up on color theory and the meanings of colors. I had been looking for an awesome reference guide, and I had yet to find one. Today, though, I found what I had been looking for – a color theory quick reference poster – available as a printable PDF and as wallpaper! Today’s link comes from the Paper Leaf design blog.
Wallpaper by Paper Leaf Design
MJM Photography [The Blog] 
