For this project, a therapy and wellness practice located in NYC needed a new, modern logo. After talking over the design brief and doing a competitor analysis - the next step is coming up with a handful of sketches and concepts.
This is the stage where I can present some rough drafts of potential logos and the client can give me feedback on what they like or would like to move forward with. From this initial effort, we were able to move forward with the direction of needing something more peaceful, less on the nose of the city and not floral. I started researching what other botanical, nature elements could be used and came across the olive branch. A symbol of peace and visually interesting, I moved forward with the next stage and made the next draft that would end up becoming the winning idea for her new logo.
Here is the final logo, which started as a sketch that I scanned and finished using Adobe Illustrator. With this vector illustration, I was able to provide a logo file that can be used at any size, in any medium, without any distortion. I provided both black and white (transparent) logos to be used on her website, business cards, and any promotional products she needs.
Summer is Coming, Upcoming Pin Project
Now that the weather is warming up, I have been focused on creating new print projects full of color and fun! I recently did a small letterpress card in magenta/purple ink, and I have been working on a new pin design featuring colorful popcycles for my Etsy shop!
Drawing Food is Fun!
Lately I have been sketching and drawing all sorts of food. From sketching some tasty donuts and coffee to illustrating a gooey-cheesy slice of deep dish, I have been exploring the creative side of my foodie habits. Here is a few illustrations I ended up using for food related event invitations for students at JMLS. Food is one of my favorite subjects to draw, if you need a special food related illustration let me know, I would love to do it!
2017 Calendar Design
It is time to find a new calendar for 2017! I love finding a new, unique calendar to hang up in the office and at home. I have designed this year at-a-glance calendar that features flowers and adorable foxes. This will be available on my Spoonflower shop soon, where you can make it into a tea towel or a unique wall hanging.
I took this sketch of a fox and a few floral elements and transformed them in Illustrator into this calendar design. The fabric design version that is going into my Spoonflower shop doesn't have the floral repeating pattern in the background.
Ready for School?
As summer draws to an end, and fall is right around the corner I felt inspired to draw a corgi getting ready to go back to school. This was a really fun illustration to do, I started in my sketchbook with a pencil, and then finished coloring it in Photoshop and cropped the original drawing down to this layout.
Women in Science Illustration of Margaret Hamilton
Margaret Hamilton is a computer scientist, systems engineer, and business owner. She was a part of a team that developed on-board flight software for the Apollo space program at NASA. Her contributions were an integral part of the successful moon landing, and I bet you have never heard of her. I was inspired to do this illustration of Margaret after listening to this segment on Science Friday about her and the all female team of coders working on the Apollo 11 mission. I started off by doing a rough sketch using a blue pencil, and finished it on my Surface Pro using the Bamboo App and finally Photoshop to add in a few finishing touches.
Learn more about Margaret and other women in science who deserve to have their stories told.
Seeing Design Come to Life
How cool are these paper cup PSD mock ups by Diogo Capelo? They are available for download on his Dribble page (https://dribbble.com/shots/1649858-Cups-Mockup-PSD).
I love seeing my designs come to life on a product like this. Free mock up templates are widely available in the design community, and attribution is usually optional, but I would like to say thanks to Diogo and all the makers out there who contribute their work so others can visualize their own designs in a new way, and hopefully learn something new in the process as well. For me, learning about smart layers and how they work in Photoshop has been really cool, it is a powerful tool available to quickly see the changes different designs have on the mock ups without a ton of layers involved. Here's to seeing the possibilities that are out there and using the tools available to achieve them.
Dinos + Florals
Spoonflower is bringing back the weekly design challenges! They are great at coming up with creative prompts, this week it is Floral Dinosaurs. I decided to go with a minimal design, using Illustrator to create these two cute dinos and the almost Scandinavian floral accents. I really like how this turned out and will have it up in my Spoonflower shop. It could also be very cute as a print as well, the beauty of a vector illustration is you can always resize it to fit your project.
April Showers
April is here and it has brought some wild weather with it. From snow to sleet to 70 degrees, what won't April do? I whipped up this little graphic for April featuring a feathery rain cloud + bold rain drops. Things are feeling pretty monochromatic lately so using only the blue seems fitting. Here's to the clouds clearing and the beauty of spring emerging soon.
So Kawaii Pets!
I designed this Kawaii Pets surface pattern design for a recent Spoonflower design prompt. Japanese anime and Kawaii culture came into my life once I started watching Studio Ghibli films like My Neighbor Totoro and after a trip to Japan that really ignited a love for all things Kawaii. From toys to stationery, this style makes me smile and fills my work space and home with a fun, positive energy.
Hummingbird Study
This weekend I was inspired to study hummingbirds. With their bold, beautiful colors, and spirited personalities, they seem to embody spring for me right now. I wanted to draw them and capture the spirit of movement without loosing too much detail. Sketching them with quick lines and spring, pretty colors seemed appropriate. I drew these three birds on my Surface Pro using the pen in the Bamboo app. It was really nice to get the lines just right using my reference photos of right there in app. I also really liked the intuitive, transparency of the marker setting to add just the right amount of color to finish up the sketch. I can see myself continuing this study working in watercolor, and working in Illustrator to create a surface pattern design for my Spoonflower shop.
Here's to studying something new, and stretching our creative muscles.
March is Here!
Bright, pastel colors are here! Today I was playing around with wet media brushes in Photoshop and created this bold graphic for March. I have been seeing a ton of St. Patty's day and very Easter looking graphics out there for March, and I wanted something a little different. This has the classic pink/blue/green color theme without being overly festive. My desktop will be happy with this, and maybe I will print out some little cards as well.
Happy March!
Spring is Coming!
I was just on a flight, flipping through the new Better Homes & Gardens magazine and noticed all the springtime products and garden goodies! This year we are finally able to have a small garden on our balcony and I can't wait to get it started. Feeling inspired I whipped out my notebook and started sketching. This floral sketch looked really nice when I later traced it in Illustrator, so I made a little note card. It will no doubt remind me spring is coming, even if it is still cold outside.
Here's to a plentiful spring ahead!
Thinking about Valentines
I love Valentine's cards. Cute, witty, little cards you give to your loved ones. This year I used the Bamboo app to draw a few, then I did one by hand and finished it in Photoshop. It was cool to see how true to my hand writing the Surface Pro 4's pen tool showed up in the first three. The one I did by hand (the llama) and colored in Photoshop looks pretty similar. These are ready to print and mail!