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.