Crunchy Catalyst

Watercolor Tree

After quite the sabbatical, I am back. The word "sabbatical" come from the same word as "sabbath" meaning to take a break from work. Sabbaticals, in my opinion, are for rebuilding and rekindling if you get burnt out. It's a time of remembrance and soaking up. To be filled up after pouring yourself out. 

During my "break from work" I was blessed with a loving husband, a cuddly puppy, and lovely house. Surrounded with people who build me up and inspire me, it is time to return. 

I also discovered Pandora, which when opened, floods my life with new music and inspiration. On this blog I will include some of the artists and songs I have grown to love. They have more soul and more talent than most musicians on the radio. They need to be recognized and loved.  

Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce you to Ronald Jenkees's "Stay Crunchy"  there are no words, and it's all done electronically. It has a good beat and if it doesn't get your foot tappin', then you need to turn up the volume! He is a very encouraging artist and he seems like a very down to earth guy. 

Above, you see a painted tree. I broke out the water colors and decided to play around. I saw something on Pinterest that I wanted to try. It's no Monet, but I love it. It was a blast to create and having fun is primary in art. If you aren't having fun, then what's the point? 

It's a catalyst of more things to come. Sometimes you need a bite to remember what you enjoyed so much. 

Enjoy!

Campaign Logo

As many of you know, I don't do politics. In college I didn't care about who was running or platforms or any of it. ASG (Associated Student Government) was seen as pointless and a popularity contest. Usually, the Greeks ran and they didn't show an interest in us art students, so I didn't show any interest in them. All I saw were badly designed "campaign logos" and signs. They were difficult to read and did not provide any info about how or where voting was done or even why I should vote for these people. So when a friend of mine told me he was running for ASG treasurer, I rolled my eyes. Really? You want to get involved with these people? You want to be associated with badly designed campaign signs and stickers?

Yes, he did. I told him if he was going to run, then I wanted to help him with their (he and his running mate, Erica) design. He said I had full creative licensing! BOO YA!! This could be it!! The day that the ASG people actually cared about us art students (it's beside the fact that I graduated 2 years ago) and actually come to us for help, ghasp! Heaven forbid one asks the design students to design their posters and such. I saw this as a revolution, an opportunity to help these political types to break out of the mold of boring ineffective design.

So, this is what I came up with. No stars, no stripes, no blue... just red and white, school colors. I wanted it to be easy to read and to easily translate to stickers, signs, and banners. In the past, as rectangular format was used, I chose circular. Visual texture helps break up all of the info, I accomplished this by bolding, outlining, and changing the kerning ( space between letters). Conveying how and when to vote were very important. Graying their titles emphasizes as well as breaks up the info into more readability (this was Erica's idea).

It is a simple design and Chase and Erica love it. It is an honor to see my design all over campus, a designer's dream actually.

As far as my attitude change for ASG, I have actually met the people running for President and Vice President. They are unlike any other people I've seen run in the past. Genuine, authentic, approachable, humble, and able to cause good change on the campus, these are the qualities these people possess. One of their goals is to show students that things have changes with ASG and that it is no longer a popularity contest, but it is actually about what is best for the campus.

old to new

I have a wonderful friend who is a goldsmith, her name is Sacha. I found out that Sacha can take existing jewelry and turn it into something brand new. I sent her a bracelet that had tiny rubies in it and an old necklace with an amethyst and wanted her to make me a new ring! This is her design and I think it is beautiful (she took the picture as well). I love how colorful it is. The organic structure works great with the man made cut of the amethyst and ruby. This will be fun to wear!

The best part about this is those pieces of jewelry were given to me by past boyfriends...so, if you have any old jewelry laying around that you don't wear, consider having something completely different made out of it.

Visit her website www.goldsmithdesigner.com

pin stripes aren't just for cars

One of my friends in going to Japan this summer and requested that I design him some business cards to pass out to the businesses he will be visiting. This is the first business card I've designed for someone not in the design field.

Without a logo, I had to use the font and layout to create visual interest. I also wanted his card to stand out among the usual boring layout for business cards. I chose the dark red for two reasons, 1. he loves red 2. it automatically catches the eye. Not to mention it is very classy when placed with black, white and gray.

I got inspiration from other business cards I looked at and turned the contact info on end. By graying it, I add texture, but leave the other info to stand out. There is a visual hierarchy in this design. Lining everything up is the key to this design. His majors/minors are lined up perfectly with the last letter of his last name. Then the contact info is lined up with the majors/minors. After lining everything up, I realized the card needed some form of solid structure, aligned text wasn't heavy enough. So I added a pin stripe. It adds that extra weight and structure. The contact info and major/minors have something to be grounded to. Not to mention it separates his name from the other info. The pin stripe adds a classic look, which will be (hopefully) appreciated in the business world, I mean, why else would they put it on suits?!

A new frame of mind

Not too long ago I bought a set of 10 black picture frames in various sizes at Target (the smallest is like 2.5 x 3.5 and the largest is 8 x 10) . The possibilities were endless on how and with what I could display. I decided to print off a different word for each frame. The size of the frame impacted the size of the word chosen. I chose words that have meaning to me and remind me of certain truths in life. My existing decor, rust reds, burnt oranges, chocolate browns, and avocado greens, decided the color pallet.

I hung these up by myself....using a leveler. The picture doesn't do it justice of how straight these are in real life. I am very proud of myself for tackling such a task. I secured them with the 3M command velcro strips.

This is a classy, simple way to decorate. I highly recommend it, though don't get too fancy with your fonts, unless it goes well with your existing decor.

Russian Constructivism Inspired Flyer

"Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with God something to be grasped -

but made himself nothing,

taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself

and became obedient to death -

even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place

and gave him the name that is about every name,

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father. "

Philippians 2:5-11

Just recently I designed a flyer/shirt for this retreat. The theme for the retreat was " Down is the new Up" illustrating how Christ humbled himself, made himself a servant, and God exalted him. An illustration using arrows would be used to convey this concept to the students. In my designs I used arrows and then I realized that I needed some more inspiration. Arrows reminded me of Russian Constructivism which reminded me of one of the albums of the music group Franz Ferdinand...so I did some research and was inspired and this is what happened. In order to give it that feel I needed simple colors. Black, and white were a must. Red was used in Russia, but I didn't want to favor the U of A colors. I went with a light bright blue. Neither feminine, or too masculine. Since it is the Spring retreat, I thought a bright blue would fit.

The theme of the Russian Constructivism continued in the san serif, bold fonts.

The arrows show movement and illustrate the point being made. This is really a simple, fun design, and I am very proud of it. It was made for the shirts as well, but everthing that was black is white and everything white was the color of the shirt. So the arrows are black on the shirt. "Sand" was the color chosen for the shirts, it went well with the design and the blue.

Yay for Russian Constructivism!

Lilies

Wow, it has been a long time since my last post. I apologize, so several posts will follow this one to catch everyone up on what I've been up to!

This blog is not just for my design, but a place where I can post things I believe have good design elements. Lilies are one of those. I received these for Valentine's Day from a special someone. I love lilies. Their form, color, in this instance the simple white and green, their shape and texture, and most of all, their aroma. My apartment smelled like lilies for for 2 weeks straight! Lilies are bold, but delicate and with an exotic flair. He did good!