After sitting down for coffee and getting an idea of what Ryan was looking for I started sketching and designing. (An industry that’s very close to my heart, this one). Ryan loved the work I did for Kitchenhaus (graphic archive) and was hoping to do something similar in colour and style. Although we went through over a dozen options—the one that stood out was the most modern, slick, clean and simple. I tried to pull in what we loved most about the Kitchenhaus design, and voila. Since printing, he’s received some great compliments on the cards and logo. The most common feedback is “they stand out because they’re simple”. I love it.

I thought I’d share some images of the printed cards and the logo here on the blog. I also did a social icon and short-form logo in addition to the full version.

Rachel is a bit of a dream to design for. Basically, she knows what she likes, and makes solid decisions quickly *swoon*. She let me know what she was after, I sketched and put together a series of digital roughs, and she selected what she liked from that first draft.

I played with the idea of ram-horns in a few of my sketches, and this icon really stuck. Rach loves red, which I appreciate. We started with a logo, then moved to business cards and a “sprucing” of the microsite she built on Yola for her business. I registered the domain ramc.ca, and it should soon be pointing to this yolasite.

If you’d like to connect with Rachel, feel free to email her or follow her on twitter.

“Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country.” ~Anais Nin

Shalon was thrilled with the result and from what I hear, the Bridal Shower was lovely. Congrats Nancy.

I think it was probably some time in March when I started to quietly put on the brakes, responding carefully to emails and ignoring my facebook account. I went about my day-to-day, one foot in front of the other. Life events and new realities had rocked me. In many ways, I was just completely at sea.

By somewhat random chance I met an interesting and insightful woman during this time who (for some reason) suggested I start painting again. Here’s my history with the paintbrush: Love it, but rarely do it. Painted in Junior High & High School and have pulled out the brushes for crafting and the occasional canvas, since. Often expensive and hard to justify, it falls off the to-do list and gets forgotten. Tried pin-striping (with a big thanks to Butcher), which also managed to fall off the list of free-time fillers. For some reason though, when it was suggested this time, it stuck with me.

I saw a Michael’s flyer advertising 50% off all Artist’s Loft products, and decided it was too good to pass up. I went and stocked up, came home and dug out the easel, threw on some music and started making a mess.

Here’s what I’ve been loving about painting: the total chaos of it. As a designer, there are times I’m staring at a file at 6400% zoom, moving something by two pixels. It’s obvious I enjoy graphic design—however it can be technical in nature, regardless of how obscure the layout. There is just something deeply liberating about making a mess with random glops and swishes of colour and not getting caught up in the potential results. I have no aspirations for photo-realism when I’m painting. I’m not looking to create perfect works of art. And so far, when I start opening the tubes of acrylic, I have only a very loose idea of what I’m about to put on the canvas. I just start putting down colour, and let go. You see where I’m going with this. That’s right: painting has been a great way to relax & be mindful. To welcome inspiration and give up control. It’s meditative. Even though the results have been varied—and it’s been one small activity of many—taking time to make a vibrant, silly mess on canvas has been healing for me these many months.

It’s because of the encouragement of someone dear to me that I’m posting these images here on my blog, and may keep doing so. Putting these out there is what I would imagine streaking through a church during mass is like. I hadn’t painted them thinking anyone would ever see them, exactly. So here I am, nakedly showing you a corner of my heart from 2011.

I am sincerely grateful for the support of my family, friends and clients this year. There are some great things on the horizon, and I’m looking forward to them with a fresh perspective and enthusiasm.

Wishing you health, wealth and happiness in 2012. The best, (as they say), is yet to come.

In addition the these postcards, Isaac had a vision for their ‘guestbook’. Something that’s become popular is a photo framed of the couple with an oversized matte for guests to sign on their way into the reception. To make this idea a bit more personal, Isaac thrifted some records that had never been played (Michael Bolton was my personal favorite) and asked if I could do some custom labels for them. At his request, I found high-res images of the Sun, Verve, Apple and Atlantic record labels (from specific years) and manipulated them to include song titles that were unique to the couple. I wound up printing these on Avery sticker-paper, cutting, lining up and sticking them to each record. The results were better than expected—some guests even asked if they were real, until they read the song titles. After the wedding, family of the couple had them framed, and now all four hang in their condo.

All in all, this project was really fun to work on. Dream clients who were enthusiastic and had some really unique ideas (not to mention a beautiful wedding!) Congratulations Isaac & Monique.

I had a lot of fun doing this invite. Hours of bending bezier curves while grooving to Cat Power and Mumford & Sons proved to be pretty relaxing and therapeutic. Robin opted for a digital print, and Warwick did a great job for us. The silver foil-lined envelopes, sparkly star and white ribbon finished it off, all on budget.