I recently completed a project for Erin Peloquin… also known as the Photoshop Elements mastermind of Texas Chicks Blogs & Pics. Erin’s site is just packed with tips, tricks and proven techniques to help you learn everything you would ever need to know about Elements. She’s also the Elements specialist for MCP Actions and she converted half of the Pioneer Woman’s actions to work in Elements.

(Phew. Let’s just say she knows what she’s doing when it comes to Elements!)

When she completed writing the curriculum for her new course about actions for Photoshop elements, she came to me for some assistance in presenting it to her audience. In addition to designing the e-book (90 pages of awesome content), I helped her come up with the product name, I wrote sales copy and I designed some promotional items (e-flyer and blog buttons).

Here’s a look at the book cover:

(And yes, it’s an e-book, which means it comes in PDF format. So if you purchase the course you will not be getting an actual book.)

Here’s a peek at some of the content:

As you can see, the content is a great mix of written and show-don’t-tell instruction.

We did some fun blog buttons:

And I wrote some sales copy and designed an e-flyer for Erin:

I asked Erin how she felt about the project, and working together, and here’s what she had to say:

Thank you so much for the amazing identity you created for Texas Chicks!  The formatting of my ebook was inspired. And I am so thrilled to have found a one-stop shop where I could get a coordinated set of graphics and copy. I have been looking for you for a long time….

It was such a pleasure working with Erin. If you are in the market for some Photoshop Elements coaching, you need to check her out! Here’s a link to her site and you’ll find her on Facebook here.

Kristi Hill is a wedding, lifestyle and boudoir photographer based in Greeley, Colorado. She has a photo-journalistic style with a distinct flair for the artistic! When she approached me about refreshing her visual identity and marketing materials, she had this to say:

I feel a little “mom & pop.” I feel like my current logo doesn’t encompass “weddings”, which is my primary business focus right now, it’s not feminine enough and feels a little corporate. Also, since there’s been a lack of an actual “look,” I feel like my marketing items are a little disconnected from one another. I want everything to work together as a whole, hip, but still classic, package. Also, as much as I love my Hillside box, I say that I am a creative and think outside the box, which clearly my logo does not say.

Kristi really wanted to keep the hills of her current logo, but other than that we had lots of room to work with type, colour and overall design to develop a visual identity that was much more representative of Kristi and her photography. Here’s the before and after:

Although I’ve looked at script typefaces for logos before, this is the first time that it really made sense for both me and my client. Something about the open, feminine shapes of this particular typeface really work for the message Kristi is trying to communicate: that she is a professional photographer that clients can connect with on a personal level, and who will deliver high-quality images through fun and creative photography sessions.

We kept the hills, but treated them as a layered landscape – you know those hazy days when hilly landscapes look dreamy? That’s what we were aiming for.

And the blue? Well, blue has always been Kristi’s favourite colour. So we went with it!

Once the logo was done, we developed business cards. Kristi had a hard time picking a favourite design, so she went with two: one traditional size and one square size. You can print high-quality business cards at a great price these days, which makes it easy to have options.

Next we tackled her blog. Here’s what it looked like before:

And here’s the after – fresh and open a little bit dreamy!

Kristi has a separate portfolio site from her blog, so we re-designed that, too! Here is the before:

And here is the after. That’s more like it!

(This is a customization of a CMD site template. We were able to make it completely Hillside Studios!)

Finally, we developed a brochure. Keeping with our design guidelines (fresh, open, lots of white space, emphasis on the photography) we put together a piece that really helps Kristi tell her story effectively. Here’s a peek:

How does Kristi feel about the new look? You can see her comment below!

It was such a pleasure working with Kristi – if she’s half as wonderful working with her clients as she was working with me well, her clients are in for a treat.

You can connect with Kristi through her blog, her portfolio site, on Facebook and she’s on Twitter, too!

(photo courtesy The Memory Journalists)

If you need a reminder, here’s The Memory Journalists’ logo:

So how did we get from there to that suite of materials up above? I always recommend to my clients that we think about a visual identity as something modular – with elements that can moved around — mixed and matched — to suit the application. And that’s just what we did. And we added a few pops of colour for good measure.

As Jen says: “Now we have cute MJ cards to send out to our clients and industry friends. We have always been big on the hand-written card and now we’ve taken it to the next level. Now the cards we send out are The Memory Journalists cards with our fun colors and our logo. We also had some beautiful Memory Journalists coffee mugs made and have been sending them out to our brides each season.”

You can check out The Memory Journalists for yourself here.

Courtney is just starting her business, so she needs a visual identity that is going to stand the test of time. As she said to me, it needs to reflect who she is now and where she is going. So we stayed away from trends (that’s my general approach) and focused on developing a visual identity that was fresh, young and modern but sophisticated enough to appeal to, well, a sophisticated clientele.

And here’s the logo:

Now, I’m the first to say that I think the icon portion of a logo can be a lot more than initials in a circle… but in this case, that design approach just fit perfectly. Courtney is blessed with initials that take a ligature so beautifully. Look at the c-t connection! And connection is the name of the game when it comes to making images with impact. So we both felt this was a perfect solution for her logo.

The type is Futura; Courtney loved the round shapes and spare feeling of the type, and it is a great alternative to the very over-used Century Gothic that we see so much of!

Courtney specializes in three kinds of photography, so we developed a main logo (above) themed for weddings, and two secondary logos:

On the left, a spicy magenta for Courtney’s boudoir photography; on the right, a fresh green for Courtney’s seniors photography. Overall, the palette is bright and energetic and very positive.

Next we tackled Courtney’s blog. She wanted to implement a combined portfolio-blog, so ProPhoto was the way to go (their templates are just terrific, and the customization options are endless!). Here’s what it used to look like:

And here’s how it looks now:

Love that fresh blue! The blog feels so welcoming, now.

You can see it for yourself, here.

See that grad cap icon in the blog post? It’s a little hard to see, I know. We developed a set of mini-illustrations that Courtney can use in her blog posts and in her other marketing materials. There’s a little something for weddings and engagements; a little something for boudoir (spicy!); and a little something for graduation.

Once the site was done, we did some work on Courtney’s client guides. First we did a wedding version: fresh and airy and just a little bit romantic:

For Courtney’s boudoir clients, we spiced things up a bit with some punches of magenta and lots of feminine touches:

Courtney, thanks so much for letting me help you tell your story!

Jenny & I talk a lot about what mark we want to leave on this world. How can we make the world a better place? What do WE have to offer? We’ve spent many nights up late talking about just that… about what we’re passionate about. About our WHY… it always comes back to our relationships with our loved ones. The ones we’re connected to the most, each other and our kids. We live our life pretty unconventionally. Both Jenny & I are pretty much stay at home parents. When we are spending time away from our kids, it’s doing something we love, photographing couples in love and families with strong connections.

Being with our kids and doing what we love has taught us many things, but the most important is that we should be LOVING the life we’re living, and we do our best to do just that…

So, where does that leave us? With a new project, this project, which started just six short weeks ago, yet truly started six short years ago when our first child, Max, was born. It started with a tiny idea and happy music, but it also started with a much bigger idea, years ago, an idea that WE could raise a happy, loving family. An idea that WE could do things differently, that WE could have fun with our kids, that WE could live by our own rules.

So, with a name like the Happy Family Movement, it seems pretty clear that we needed a visual identity that is, well, happy, right? When we talked about what would work best for this project, we decided pretty quickly that a strong, typographic logo and type-based visual identity elements would work best. I mean, it’s pretty hard to “own” an icon that says happy. And we knew we needed strong, clear, bright colours that were youthful but not childlike. Overall, we wanted to communicate a very strong vibe of positive, happy, loving energy.

The Happy Family Movement logo comes in three colour ways, so that Josh & Jenny can have maximum flexiblity in using it:

Aren’t you smiling already?

Next we tackled the Happy Family Movement website.

See? Lots of strong type (oh League Gothic and Museo Sans, how I love thee!). Bright colours. And fun icons.

When you visit the Happy Family Movement website, you’ll find a bunch of fun features. Interested in happy music? Then sign up for their weekly Music for Happy People playlist:

[Trust me. They have great taste in music!]

Want to bring a little more fun back to family meal time? Then try out their latest challenge:

[This is a family that loves pancakes. I think folks who sign up are in for a good time!]

The Happy Family Movement will be offering some really fun products. The first Adventure in a Box is focused on Road Trippin’:

[Can you tell I had a ton of fun working on this project?]

How will you know if something is Happy Family Movement approved? We’ve got some fun badges:

There are tons of other fun visual identity elements that are still in the works. I’ll do an update soon!

This is the third project I’ve done with the Solars and I continue to be inspired by their passion, their commitment to living life out loud, and their incredibly positive attitude. I simply could not ask for a better client relationship. And I am so pleased to play a role in this wonderful project.

Please, do check it our for yourself. You’ll find the Happy Family Movement website here, and you can follow the Solars on their own happy family adventure on their blog, here.

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Enjoy!

Here’s a peek:

A shout out to Garnish for providing us with all the packaging and food presentation supplies.

You can see the whole issue over at Nonpareil Magazine (our feature starts on page 58). If you like the printables (the invite, the CD label and playlist card and all the stickers), you can download templates via Nonpareil.

[edited: Apparently the Nonpareil download links are no more! If you'd like the templates, just shoot me a note via my contact page and I'd be happy to email a zip file to you.]

How about coffee to go?

Or some sweet socks for a friend who likes to have cute tootsies?

Or my personal fave to date, alphabet cookies. These spell out you are awesome.

Of course, the star of the show is the thought you put into making someone smile. But those sweet printables don’t hurt either. Here’s what we came up with to help make it as easy as possible to make someone’s day:

To add to the fun, Garnish will feature your random act of garnish on their blog. Sign up for the promo, send in your pic and share your inspiration with the interwebs. Fun, right? I think so.

Get the deets here, over at the Garnish blog.

Get your own Garnish goodies here.

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