AG & Co. Trade Show Banners

The folks at Alan Gaynor & Company, an architecture firm, approached me recently to design a trio of banners for use at a trade show. Trade show booths are an empty canvas and it is up to the occupier (and/or their designer) to transform them into an inviting space. Alan and Michele wanted a lively, professional backdrop to their booth.

Our goals were to feature the company logo, contact info and association logo on the central banner, and display their scope of work on the side banners. Using the angular shapes associated with their brand, I created a framework of shapes to place the images in. I was supplied with a large variety of portfolio images, and took great care paring the selection down. I looked for images that contained dynamic shapes, which played off the angular framework, and bright, bold colors to pop against the black.

Photo courtesy Alan Gaynor & Co.

An interesting tip to keep in mind when designing these: make sure the main focus of your design is in the upper half of your banners. When looking at the photo above, it's probaby a no-brainer as to why you would do this. The bottom of the banners fall behind a table, often with people in front of them. However, when you are designing, with only your template open before you, it's very easy to forget the environment, and get lost in the details of the design. I had originally placed the company contact info and association logo down at the bottom of the central banner. It looked more balanced there than in the current location, but would never have been visible after placement in the booth. Always remember your end use!  

Michele and Alan working their magic at the trade show. Photo courtesy Alan Gaynor & Co.

Alan, Michele and the rest of their team were very happy with the end result! It was a pleasure to work with them. Banner printing was done by banneraholic.com.

Flag Garland Illustrator Brush

The triangle. Have you noticed how popular this simple shape has been the past few years? Search 'triangle bunting' on Pinterest and your head will spin. In this tutorial, I will show how to create a festive triangle garland in Illustrator, using a custom pattern brush. Once you've got the brush in your palette, it's easy to add some flair to your next project!

Let's start with a blank Illustrator document. Select your Polygon Tool (nested under Rectangle Tool), and click once in the drawing area. A box will pop up and you can enter 3 for number of sides and anything you like for Radius. I used 0.6944 in.

Click OK and voilà! Your triangle. It will automatically be filled with whatever your foreground color is.

Select the triangle, and go to your Brush panel. Click on the little triangle in the upper right of the panel and select New Brush. From the resulting dialog box, select Pattern Brush and OK. In the next dialog box, give your brush a name. If your triangle had its point toward the sky, like mine did above, you'll want to check Flip Across. For the Fit, I used 'Stretch to fit.' This setting has the corners of each flag touching one another. If you select 'Add space to fit,' there will be a bit of space in between each flag. Choose whichever you like best! (P.S. it is fun to play around with the other settings and options here, so go ahead and give it a shot.) Click OK.

You will now see a representation of your new brush in the Brushes Panel and can start experimenting. Select your pen tool and draw a swooping curve. Make sure you have no fill, and then select the triangle brush from your palette.

Except, I think my triangles are a little too large. Double click on your brush in the Brushes palette, and reduce the size some. I went down to 70%. Click OK, and then Apply to Strokes. 

Ta da!  It's that easy to make a garland of flags. If you'd like to make them different colors, select your path, go to the Object menu at the top of the screen, then under Path, select Outline Stroke. You can then select each individual triangle with the Direct Selection tool and recolor it. I've done an ombré look below.

For another way to use your custom brush, select your Brush tool, rather than the Pen. Make sure your triangle brush is selected. If you drag a long curvy stroke out with the Brush tool, your flags will have more dimension and character to them. I picture them blowing in the wind.

Also reminds me of the scales on a dragon's back...

...but I digress.

If you use the Brush tool and make short, choppy strokes, you will have a sort of confetti-like effect, drawing out one, beautifully imperfect triangle at a time.

This brush can lend itself to so many applications. What can you come up with? Please share!

P.S. For the garland image at the very top, I copied and pasted the flags into Photoshop as a Smart Object. I then added Drop Shadow, Bevel/Emboss, and a Texture Overlay.

One Cute Crab Invitation

For my adorable son's first birthday party, I wanted to create an equally adorable invitation. How cute is this guy? 

We read books each day and the little one always has a big smile for a story with sea creatures in it. Add in the fact that it's a summer birthday, and he already had a crab outfit, and our party theme was a no-brainer!

For the illustration, I wanted to keep the shapes simple and flat and let their uneven edges give the lil' guy plenty of character. The bright lobster (or in this case, crab) red has such a nice punch combined with the nautical blues. A classic serif font ties together well with the illustration's elementary style.

Supporting my theme for the party were some cute crabby balloons, the outfit I mentioned above, and a very crabby cake made by yours truly. A professional cake decorator I am not, but I did have a lot of fun doing it :)

Beach Crab mylar balloons

Carter's boy's romper

Our cute little crab also made an appearance on the thank you notes, which I paired with bright blue envelopes.

I am so pleased with how the bright, happy illustrations set the scene for a very bright, happy birthday. If you'd like this design customized for your party, please drop me a line!

Beautiful Beach Umbrellas

I always love visiting the beach. However, as a member of the 100⁺ SPF club, I can usually be found hanging out under an umbrella. Instead of taking in the rays, I take in the scene before me, and often spend time painting and sketching. While the water is awe-inspiring and the sky can be breath-taking, my eye is always attracted to the fun array of umbrellas dotting the beach. They shout SUMMER! in a way nothing else can.

I painted these umbrellas while on vacation in Ocean City, MD last year. They make a nice reminder of a great vacation. Of all the beach artwork I've done, this was the first time I took the beach out of the scene and just focused on the umbrellas. I like how it brings out their individual "personalities".

I'm not the only one using the beach umbrella as a muse. Below is a colorful collection of artwork showcasing beautiful beach umbrellas. Don't they just make you feel happy? Enjoy, and stay cool in the shade. It's hot out there!

Beach Umbrellas by Eileen Seitz

Beach Umbrellas by Jan Matson

Color Beach, a reworked photograph of a 1940's postcard by VintageBeach

Seaside Umbrellas by Kathleen Deni

Sand Dunes by Heidi Malott

The Amazing Ampersand

The amazing ampersand is one of my favorite typographic characters to play with. Have you ever noticed the great variety of ways it appears?

Type designers have been able to inject a wide range of personality into this single glyph. So much so, that at times it can seem like several different characters.

The ampersand came into existence way back in the first century A.D. as a combination of the letters E and T into a ligature. Et happens to be the Latin word for—you guessed it—'and.' If you care to read more about the ampersand's long and storied history and view a visual evolution of it's design, Adobe has a very comprehensive article.

In today's world, each and every font face has an ampersand design, and many have completely different looks for the roman and italic versions. If I asked you to write an ampersand, the roman version is probably the one you'd probably draw.

Perpetua bold

The italic version of the ampersand is where we see the greatest variety. The mark in many serif faces looks more like an upper or lowercase 'E,' depending on the font, and tends to be quite fancy and full of flourish. Slab serif and sans serif font faces, on the other hand, tend to simply use a slanted version of the typical roman style.

Italic versions of (clockwise from top-left) Bel MT, Garamond, Didot and Glypha

Here are some artistic representations I found inspiring:

Ampersand art print by Bill Pyle | Society6, available for purchase here.

Ampersands poster on Behance by Brad Henderson

Snowman-style ampersand by Joe Francis of Typophile

Ampersands by Randy Jones on Typophile

These little guys make me so happy, you'd think they were smiley faces. They're versatile. They add flair. They're just so curvy, flowing and delightful!  The ampersand is a wonderful typographic tool to have in your design arsenal.

How have you used the ampersand in a creative manner? Share with us!

Technical Writer Business Cards

Hot off the presses are these sleek, new business cards! Technical writer Renee approached me recently for help translating a very—well, technical—line of work into a smart, cool business card.

A technical writer—or a good one at least—must be organized, precise, concise, smart, and pay great attention to detail. I tried to put the same qualities into this business card design. I wanted it to read modern and yet still pay tribute to the written word. Because of this, a text-only design was definitely the way to go. The font (Trade Gothic) gives off a technical vibe, while the bright pop of cyan reads both cool and friendly at the same time.

The end-product is a well-organized, concise card design that is sure to leave a good impression on a future business contact.

You may be wondering, "In this day and age, are business cards even relevant?" My answer is a solid, "YES." True, social media is everywhere and has expanded our networks exponentially. But most jobs are still won by personal contact. Think about it, wouldn't you be much more likely to hire someone you just had a great face-to-face conversation with rather than someone you simply "met" on facebook? And rather than fumbling about for a pen and a scrap of paper, or exchanging digits right into a phone, the business card is an instant, visual reminder of the person and their style.

What do you think, are business cards worth the trouble or a dying art?

April Flowers Giveaway

I realize that April showers are supposed to bring MAY flowers, but I start thinking flowers in April, when my daffodils and hyacinths bloom. After a long winter, there is nothing more refreshing than the sight of fresh buds peeking out of the dirt.

To celebrate this wonderful time of year, I'm giving away a set of five greeting cards featuring my latest illustrations. I had my daughter in mind when starting this series, illustrating some of my favorite flowers in a rainbow palette. I think they'd bring a ray of sunshine to anyone's day. They'd also look sweet framed and hung in a grouping.

I plan to sell the cards, as well as giclée prints, on Etsy in the coming months. Stay tuned for more details!

Rainbow daisy

Rainbow tulip

Rainbow peony

Rainbow dianthus

Rainbow pansy

To enter, leave a comment below telling me which is your favorite. Be sure your name and email are associated with your comment, so I can contact you if you win. For an extra entry, become a follower of the blog through Google Friend Connect, and write a second comment telling me you've done so. The winner will be selected at random by Random.org and announced May 1st. The giveaway ends Tuesday, April 30th at 8 p.m. EST. Entrants must be residents of USA or Canada. Thanks for viewing and good luck!

Simple Stripes in Photoshop

If you haven't noticed, bold stripes are big right now. On a recent trip to the mall, I managed to buy 3 different shirts, all with bold, horizontal stripes. I hadn't consciously done this, but it was unavoidable. They're everywhere!

There is just something so classic, yet modern, about a vibrant stripe.

Sources, clockwise: Olin rug from Crate & Barrel, Michael Kors Handbag available at Macys, Matt Chase logo mark via brandingserved.com, Marc Jacobs tank dress, Wedding invitation by flock press via minted.com

A stripe is probably the simplest pattern you can create. And it's super easy to whip up a quick pattern in Photoshop that you can apply and reuse to your heart's content.

First, create a new document that is twice as tall as it is wide. Next, create a square shape layer in the top section, filling with the color of your choice. {Note, if you aren't sure, use black and you can always do a color overlay later.} You can either fill the bottom half with a second color, or leave it white as I have. Then you select all {Command-A}, and select Define Pattern from the Edit menu. Give it a descriptive name that will help you later.

To see your pattern in action, create a new document with larger dimensions. First, let's test it out on some type.

After typing your text, add a Pattern Overlay to the layer. Tweak the opacity, size and positioning until you find what looks best with your word. I used 70% opacity, with the pattern at 100%.

Nautical, eh? And oh so simple. That's the beauty of stripes. Even a simple striped background gets my attention. Just create a new Pattern Fill layer, selecting your saved stripe pattern. Which reminds me of a good point: save your patterns! Click the small triangle button {upper right-hand corner} within the Pattern Fill menu, and then Save Patterns. You can then save a copy of your current pattern list into the Patterns folder within your Photoshop Presets.

This background inspired me to create an eggy illustration. Or two. I just love how the oval shapes contrast with the sharp, striped pattern. I do love a stripe!

Next month, I'll be giving away a printed set of my latest illustration series. Don't miss it!

Love for Hand-Drawn Type

When it comes to type, I'm a sucker for anything with a human touch. There's nothing more unique! And when it comes to Valentine's Day, I'm a big believer that home-made gifts trump store bought. Unless the store sells flowers :)

Last year, I decided to forego the Hallmark store and create my own card for hubby. I've always admired intricately-shaped type illustrations full of flourish, but always thought my handwriting was too sloppy. Above is a new take on that card I made hubby last year for Valentine's Day. I love its curly cues, rhythm and movement, and its sketchy, imperfect style is definitely me.

As my Valentine's gift to all of you, I'd like to share some other examples of beautifully-executed hand-drawn type. 

With expressive line work, even a single letter can become a piece of art. The letter 'M' means nothing to me, but I wouldn't mind hanging something like this on my wall!

Letter M. Alphabet symbol from shutterstock, Copyright Viktoriya

Equal parts illustration and typography, hand-drawn type really shines in editorial and advertising applications. UK-based illustrator Kate Forrester intertwines her type and images into beautiful, flowing compositions. 

Source: Kate Forrester

I especially love it when the type becomes the illustration, as in this advert for Always. Check out Kate's website for more inspiring examples.

Source: Kate Forrester

I could probably write an entire entry on chalkboard type alone, but here's a fun example by Mandy over at dear musketeer:

Source: dearmusketeer.blogspot.com

Precise or sketchy, funky or elegant, understated or over the top—hand-drawn type has a certain something to it that you just don't get with a standard font. If you'd like to feast your eyes on more great work, Pinterest has hand-drawn type boards as far as the eye can see. Warning, you may lose track of time and emerge from your Pinterest coma hours later, overstimulated and dry-eyed. I'm not saying this happened to me...but definitely a friend of mine.

I'd love to feature reader submissions in a future post. So break out your pen and ink, your chalk, your watercolors, your markers, and/or your digital tablet and start experimenting! Then send me some love!

Happy V-day!