in the news

A friend of mine saw this on the news the other nite, and told me "Kate, you are the reason this man can't find a job." This guy blames his inability to find a job as a graphic designer on the younger competition. I was curious since the guy was a designer and all. I do agree that as you get older, this field is more challenging. To me, the biggest reason is that you probably want to sleep more, and don't have as much time to dedicate to ridiculously tedious projects. But I did a little research on this guy, and well, i don't think age is the reason he's not getting jobs. He refuses to adapt. Take a look at his site.

Timeless design.

The other day I was paying the rent, and while waiting for my receipt, I glanced around my landlord's office and noticed a letter from the Community Legal Services of Philadelphia. I admired the logo, thought the designer had done a nice job with the type. I'm pretty sure its Helvetica. I think its strong, really embodies the no-nonsense style a legal organization should. Then I glanced at the bottom of the letter...... and realized it was from 1975! My initial thought was, wow, could this logo be considered timeless? To me it still looks great, its effective, powerful....

I took a picture with my phone and went home to research. Unfortunately, Community Legal Services has redesigned it's identity since 1975. Although the new one is much more friendly, I prefer the old version.
Then I thought some more about what a timeless design means.....Jacob Cass calls the CocaCola logo timeless. Some more internet research led me to this. Seems what it all comes down to is to avoid design trends when creating your logo. Utility over beauty.

idle hands.....

.....make sweater-shaped cookies.

Tonite!

Mail Chimp to my heart.

A friend and I are planning an ugly sweater party and wished to send a creative invitation to our guests. We decided to create an email using HTML, and as I was searching for directions on how to do so, I came across MailChimp. MailChimp is a GREAT resource, and totally FREE. Of course you can pay them as well, and I'm sure a ton of additional resources come with that, but the free version is pretty sweet. MailChimp helps you format and track your email. Here is a preview of my invitation.

MailChimp lets you schedule the time to send your message, save lists of friends/addresses/cohorts/enemies to send repeated 'mail campaigns', add images, change colors, fonts, sizing, etc. For those of you who aren't too familiar with CSS, MailChimp makes it very easy to customize by offering lots of palettes, templates and video instructions.

Once the email is sent, MailChimp, will track who opened the email, clicked on the links, or unsubscribed (Mike). Zero complaints, phew! It even shows you in what part of the globe your readers clicked!

Apparently MailChimp has some competition. I've heard from other designers/marketing folk that they've used Constant Contact before. Here's what the Chimp has to say about that:

They boast 200,000 clients globally, including power clients such as Firefox, Mercedes, Canon, Intel, Staples, Dwell Magazine, the Penguin Group, Georgia Tech and the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

Of course, to make a truly unique email, you should code it yourself. This will just save you valuable time and energy.

friend in film

Be sure to check out Patrick Smith's new short film. I see a great improvement since he started studying at Temple. I really enjoy the giant mouth. This kid is always taping something. Its kind of amazing.

my old hood!

This is a map of my first home in Philadelphia. Working on a project for my friend Josef Reyes, the former editor of Conveyer, for his new zine about Philly. Be sure to click on the image to view the finer details.

sneak peak.

A preview of something I'm working on. ; )

empathy.

If you have a friend/child/parent/significant other who is a Graphic Designer, and yearn to understand what it is that drives them, well....good luck. No,wait, read The Cheese Monkeys, by Chip Kidd. Its a good place to start.

Lesson learned.

The announcement for the annual event Book, Paper, Scissors, held by the Philadelphia Center for the Book. They put a call out for design entries back in August. I submitted two. You can see them below.

I see alot of meaning in the winning design (above). I enjoy it because the graphic is clean and simple; it expresses the fundamentals of what this organization is all about: CMYK, printmaking, and ofcourse books and the paper and sharp objects that create them. The hands are symbolic because they reveal the reason why this organization exists: the enjoyment derived from their products appreciated only through the fingers, hands and eyes. Their art is meant to be touched, rubbed, flipped through, caressed, studied, inspected and handled.

The only thing I see lacking here is the typography. A sign that the creator of this flyer was not a Graphic Designer (this I actually know for a fact), but a printmaker.

When I created my original designs, I just went with the first ideas that popped into my head. After sharing them with a former teacher, I realized I should have researched the organization more before I started. My logo/illustration currently does not in any way convey the principals of the organization. Books like this would have been a great resource. I'm using this as a lesson and going back to "tweak" (or re-create, ha!) my original ideas. I hope to create several versions (a trip back to Vis. Comm 101). Stay tuned! Oh, and I hope you'll attend the event.

the proper way to eat a burrito

My coworkers are OBSESSED with the fast-food restaurant Chipotle, which I have yet learned how to pronounce correctly. We stopped in the other day to grab some burritos. I was instructed by my NAPKIN on how to flawlessly eat mine (burrito). What a great use of printing space! If you have to print legal/recycling info there anyway, why not look at it as a marketing opportunity. Well done, Chipotle, well done!

Little friends

love these guys. Check out their new posters.