But talking to you about Creative Commons is not the point of this post. This Shepard Fairey designed t-shirt is the point of this post!

Slightly Kentucky-Derby-ish sun hat and cheesy grin aside, that’s one sweet t-shirt design. Let’s take a look at the men’s version.

Why don’t they make the man wear a crazy sun hat and cheesy grin? Yeesh.

At any rate, the t-shirts are just $25 and proceeds benefit Creative Commons. Get your own here.

You can see the full collection of posters here, and read the backstory (this is a self-initiated design project) here.

What was she looking for in a visual identity and marketing materials? I’ll let her tell you…  “I need something bright, but still professional enough that brides would look to me for weddings.  Serendipity describes me to a ‘T.’  Making it Sarahendipity just screams ME. Fun, personal, and descriptive.”

We  needed to make sure that her new look would appeal to her client base. “I am drawn to people that like to be themselves and have that side of them captured in photos. I love to have a good time and love a client that loves to do that too. Whether it be engagements, wedding, family or children. I like to see the real person and capture that in photos.”

The visual identity we developed captures Sarah’s desire for something fun, fresh and unpretentious.

The type is dynamic, but the elegant typography (that’s Bodoni, folks) tempers it a bit. Really fresh colours inspired by Spring, and a heart-based icon that is both floral and four-leaf-cloverish add to the heartfelt feeling of the logo.

Using the elements of the identity, we designed some business cards (Sarah couldn’t choose, so she opted for two looks):

Some DVD packaging:

and a pricing guide:

Sarah’s old blog was a bit dark and dreary and just didn’t really reflect her sunny, bubbly personality:

So we gave it a fresh new face. So much better, don’t you think?

Sarah – thanks so much for the opportunity to help you bring Sarahendipity to life. It was such a pleasure working with you …. and I know you’ll have lots of success in your new venture!

St Ryde is available in five weights (with true italics for each weight too!) from MyFonts.com. The regular weight is free — that’s right, free… only fueling my desire for the remaining nine fonts. They’re definitely on my wish list!

Artwork found here. Happy to credit the artist if you know who it is!

For women:

For men:

images from christopherraeburn.co.uk

Yesterday during savasana my yoga teacher played this song, You Take My Breath Away, by Eva Cassidy. I was entranced. Click on the screen cap below to listen on YouTube.

I’d never heard of Eva Cassidy, so I did a little research. She was an American vocalist known for her interpretations of jazz, blues, folk, gospel, country and pop classics. And what amazing interpretations they are! Tragically, she died in 1996 at the too-young age of 33, and the majority of her recordings have been released posthumously.

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.

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!

First seen in the French Paper sample room.