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Archive for 2010
I fairly flew out to the printer this morning to pick up my copies of Spirit of the North, Summer 2010 (I’m art director and designer). This issue is packed with all kinds of neat stories from all across country.
The theme of this issue is bears – not surprising, especially for those of us who live in BC and often see bears in our backyards in the summer. Well, I don’t (I live in Vancouver), but my friends who live in North Vancouver and West Vancouver do!
This beautiful cover image, and many of the photo gallery images were shot by Nova Scotia-based Thomas Kitchin and Victoria Hurst. They are so, so talented!
In this issue you’ll find some interesting cross-Canada briefs…
beautiful illustration work by Ian Johnson…
the story of one fellow’s bicycle ride through the Rockies:
the tale of an unlikely friendship between an Ontario family and a fox they called Little One:
and a step back in time to Northern BC’s Telegraph Creek…
It makes a great summer read! You can learn more by visiting Spirit of the North’s website.
I’m so, so excited to introduce you to Banana Abby! Is she not just the cutest little basset hound you’ve ever seen? Josh + Jenny Solar and their kids sure think so; that’s why they adopted her into their family and named their latest photography venture in her honour (Josh decided earlier this year that his wonderful dog photography needed a home of its own). I was so pleased when they asked me to work with them on Banana Abby’s visual identity and marketing materials. We worked together on the refresh of Solar Photographers (you can see that post here) and it’s such a compliment to get repeat work from a client.
OK, enough talk… let’s get to some show and tell. When I asked Josh what he was looking for in a visual identity for this new venture, he told me he wanted something very simple, very un-cluttered — something where the focus could be on the dog. He wanted it to be a little fun (no surprise there… the Solars are all about fun!), joyful and also to express the bond that dogs and humans share.
Here’s what we developed:
The star of this show is clearly the dog – and a well-loved dog at that. We’ve got some subtle heart shapes in the nose and tongue to reinforce the emotional bond between dogs and their people. And we’ve chosen a joyful yellow to give the mark some energy. Classic typefaces help keep the look classy, not kitschy.
For the watermark, we re-assembled the elements into a circular shape that’s easy to place regardless of the image (that’s Josh with the real life Banana Abby, snapped by Jenny):
For business cards, we developed a fun pattern featuring four essential doggy components: bones, balls, fire hydrants and dog houses:
We used that pattern and its elements in the website design (and if you visit the Banana Abby site you’ll see Banana Abby has a little animation going on… very cute!):
Finally we developed a pricing guide, which kind of pulls all the design elements into once place:
In keeping with the Solars’ commitment to give back, 10% of the proceeds from Banana Abby photo sessions will be donated to Wayside Waifs, the animal shelter that was once Banana Abby’s home (and where Josh volunteers to photograph animals for adoption).
This was such a fun project — thanks to Josh and Jenny for the opportunity to help bring Banana Abby to life!
Is this not the cutest idea for a birth announcement? Love the originality of the design thinking!
First seen in the French Paper sample room.
This identity for NYC optician Silver Lining is just gorgeous. Elegant, sophisticated and the B&W is just so classic. And look how well it translates into a little icon for eyewear. I would love to execute a script-based, hand-lettered kind of logo… just need the right client! Any takers?
First seen on Graphic ExchanGE. If anyone knows the designer, I’m happy to credit!
Form & Function designs and builds furniture for keeps. Located in my hometown — Vancouver, BC — this retail operation is masterminded by Jack and Susan McCullough. Jack looks after operations and Susan is an incredibly talented designer.
When they contacted me, about a year had gone by after they had lost much of their inventory in a devastating fire. But – they had re-located, re-built and were ready for a visual identity re-fresh! We started off by taking a hard look at their logo. Here’s what they had been using:
And you know, it wasn’t terrible. But it was completely lacking in the qualities they wanted their brand to communicate: custom design, fine manufacturing and style! So we spent some time working on type choice (we went with Bembo, Perpetua and Meta); we gave some thought to harmonious letter spacing, and we chose a colour that reflected Jack & Susan’s love of cherry wood. Here’s the final logo:
Much better! Next we tackled an update for their website. It used to look like this:
Now it looks like this:
We have plans to build it out; but for now it’s a simple landing page that is more effective at describing what they do, and how they do it.
We designed some new business cards:
And a brochure (the first one they’d had in a long, long time! And it’s a tri-fold, so imagine it folded if you please):
We also did some notepads for in-store notations:
And a suite of advertisements for Canada’s leading daily newspaper, The Globe and Mail:
Jack & Susan have been such a pleasure to work with. If you are ever looking for a beautiful piece of furniture made right here in Canada — and built to last — please do think of Form & Function. You won’t be disappointed!
Summer just will not get itself to my part of the world. We are not experiencing June; we are experiencing Jun-uary. Blech. Cloudy skies. Rain. Cool temperatures.
Since the weather isn’t putting me in a summer frame of mind, I’ve chosen to turn to the runways for a little seasonal inspiration. Here are some of the looks that caught my eye from the recent resort collections.
Bottega Veneta (when I win the lottery, I am dressing exclusively in this line — Thomas Maier is a genius)
Rachel Roy
Jason Wu (I pretty much never met a stripe I didn’t like)
Carolina Herrera
Michael Kors
Yigal Azrouel
Stella McCartney
Lela Rose (see? stripes!)
Derek Lam
All images from Style.com.