Get Moving

Like so many people this time of year, I'm finding it hard to get outside and exercise. Brr! It is COLD! Sometimes, you just need a friend yelling in your ear to get out there and do it :)

I turned my friend's encouragement/taunting into a fun hand-lettered reminder. Hope it gets you moving too!

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.