Business card

Hello there! Today I have been putting together my business card with the logo that I designed a few weeks ago. This is what I have accomplished thus far. It is a clean and minimal design which is very much my style, plus a bit of my winning humor... because I am a winner!

The typeface is Franklin Gothic Std.

Ocean Garden

I have a somewhat freelance project going on. My parents are opening a second restaurant in Ennis, Texas (hit that up if you are nearby!), and I have taken the liberty of designing a little bit for them. I sincerely took this project due to moral conviction. The designs for the initial signage were appalling.

Seeing these designs brings me to a topic of much discord in my mind. I don't have many hopes and dreams anymore, but one of them is still to be a designer. People like this "designer" do not deserve that title. Yes, perhaps he has the software to design, but the work that he puts out is an embarrassment to my field. People who hire "designers" such as this are squandering me out of a job because they don't know any better and/or want to save a few bucks. Good design comes at a price, but if it is good then it is worth it. I don't create a design in a few minutes. Even if the concept and style is minimal and monochromatic, I still spend a significant amount of time conceptualizing, sketching, kerning... We designers like to move by the pixel! This is why artists are always starving (speaking of which... I missed dinner whilst designing). I'm not an amazing designer, but I know what looks good and what doesn't. 

This was my first design. The typeface is Copperplate. I wanted it to be a minimal and clean design. At first I only had the text and yellow lines because I didn't want clutter, and I wanted it to look sophisticated and refined. Then I remembered that the restaurant has a buffet. With the buffet completely negating any chance of sophistication and refinement, I went ahead and added those little sea creatures at the bottom.

I went crazy with this design. I pumped up the motherf**king jams! The typeface is Eurostile, and it is all vector art. I did this in a couple of hours of twiddling on Illustrator. Eventually I ended up repeating a wine bottle shape to create a fun and modern concept. The fish could definitely use more work.

This was the last one I made before deciding to call it a night. The typeface is Futura, and I used bold-condensed, book, and medium. I added a stroke to help see the image. Do you see it? The fish! I had trouble because sometimes it looked like a person with spiky hair and an elf ear. In the words of Bob Ross, this was a "happy accident." I was playing around with the type, changing fonts and shuffling the arrangement, when I realized that the O and C looked like eyes.

Remember, there is always room for improvement, especially since I did most of these all in one go. I honestly don't even know if these designs will be picked up because word on the street is (and by street, I mean my sister Jenna) that my parents might even open the restaurant this week. Way to keep your back-up daughter in the loop guys (-_-'")
So even if I am too late, I'll still probably put these in my portfolio... unless you guys tell me they're crap, in which case I won't... I'll just go home, rethink my life and consider cavorting about in my underpants and shutting the door on my head.

Update

Many happy returns to the Jammery! Ideally I make at least one post every week, however I have gone over two weeks now without delivering any jam. Two weeks ago, I went back home to Plano for Spring Break, or in my case, "waiting-tables-to-ring-in-spring." I didn't design at all. There was no jam to be had. The complete opposite of jamming happened. Buttering. Ah yes, I was indeed buttering my customers up for bountiful tips.

One week later I returned to school with much jamming to catch up on. The Creative Summit conference would take place the following weekend, and I was behind on my jam orders. Production was behind! Much to my dismay everyone else seemed to feel well rested and even extended their Spring Break revelry to the weekday. The Monday night following the end of Spring Break, I jammed it up in the lab until about 2:00am when I finally went home. I holed up in my room ready to unwind (perhaps for some RuPaul's Drag Race, being the classy dame that I am) when a knock came at the door. Steve pops his head in. With his face a ketchupy callous of the night's debauchery and clad only in a very distracting pair of underpants, he calls me Jeffrey and shuts the door on his own head. Ending the night on that note, I had to rethink my life. Sense, life makes none.

Here is an update of one of my jams.

I added a ton of stacked text to this, but it still isn't working for me. I think what I 'm going to end up doing is painting and/or drawing the tampon-rocket out my hand and scan it in. I also want to distress the type a lot to match the texture of the image. I submitted it into Creative Summit, but it didn't make it :(

This is a spread from one of my mini books for the Tom Waits song Temptation. It included a little paper figure that you could cut out and assemble. I actually meant to submit this into Creative Summit, but I forgot. Oh well.

I don't have any other images on this particular flash drive that I am working on at the moment, and I am not at home so you'll have to wait for the next shipment of updated jams. One of my books make it through two rounds in Creative Summit. Two rounds! The judges actually liked it! TWICE! But alas my poor little book didn't make it into the final. I was quite sad. I will upload some spreads of my book for the Jammery some time soon.

I almost forgot, I somehow acquired a part-time design job for a small web design firm in Austin. So far I have made designs for a company that sells police equipment. Not beautiful in terms of high-brow art, but it is a fun experience. It gives me a sense of accomplishment and warmth to know that I am spreading the jams.

Past Work

Since I need to put together a final portfolio before Exit Review, I decided to share some of my favorite past works. I can still work on these, but I like them enough to have them in my final round.

This one was a campaign for my Art Direction class for Crest Sensitivity toothpaste. It was a series of seemingly innocuous foods bearing painful messages. This one is one is one of my favorites.

These posters were from an assignment in my Poster Design class last semester for ACL. It was It was completely hand rendered with ink, scanned digitally, and then arranged in Photoshop. This is very much the style of my line work with a pen. Click to view larger in all its glory!

I had a shoe assignment in my Digital Illustration class so of course I picked my sassy yellow Docs. This was the first time that I learned how to take something that I had hand-rendered and alter it digitally in Photoshop.

I would like to share more of my past work, but unfortunately, I do not have jpg images of my work to share at the moment. They are all still in their ai, psd, or indd form.

Until next time!

Jammery logos

I had time to play today. The gods saw fit to grace me with a free day (and curse my professor with illness). What to do on a free day? Go to the library! I love to play at the library, and I've been remiss in making time in my life to do so more often. After a couple of design books, one novel, and two Noah and the Whale albums, I designed three logos for myself. Keep in mind, these are quite rough and need more development. However, I am quite pleased with today's work.

Exit Review

Tonight I bring you two posters that I designed for my Exit Review class. The final frontier for Communication Design students. It is also a great place to feel self-conscious about your worth as an artist, hear discouraging tales of impending hopelessness in the job field from the always lovely David Shields, and feel generally uncomfortable and suspicious of your peers who you eventually realize are your competitors. I liken the journey of a ComDes student to that of the ladies on America's Next Top Model. We begin the program with numerous young hopefuls with dreams of becoming the next great designer. We have the typical contenders: the small town underdogs, the elite experts with actual field experience, the free spirit with delusions of grandeur, the one who is "here to win, not make friends," and the wild card who we keep around just to see what fun fruit flavors she rolls out with next. Basically, we have Shandi, Saleisha, Jade, Dominique, and Lisa. Of course, David Shields is our very own Tyra Banks: mentoring us with her infinite wisdom whilst filling us with fear in her presence, and reminding us of our inferiority lest we grow too proud. By May 6th of this year, I will expect David Shields to stand before the entire ComDes department (sporting a brand new hair cape, no less) and say,

"I only have one portfolio in my hand. Only one of you will become a designer. The person whose name I do not call must pack your bags and go home."

Tears will be shed, emotional voiceovers will ensue, and none of us will get that $25 back that we paid in cash last week. I've had a strange and rewarding journey as a ComDes student. I both look forward to and fear the day of Exit Review, much like my feelings toward David Shields's classes. I don't know what will happen on May 6th, but I hope that it will be something like this:



Yes indeed, I am Tiffany. David Shields just wants me to learn somethin'.

I hope to see you all at Exit Review!