Graphics
Self Bribery, Updated
Sweet fancy everything.
Not only did I complete all my tasks, I did it in a lot less time than I expected.
I saw Benedict’s Friday night for dinner, and set up the meeting for 2 PM today. I was worried about that, in retrospect, it’s perfect. I can get even more taken care of in that direction by meeting today instead of later in the week.
The MCCC site was a good three hours’ work on Saturday morning, but man, it was worthwhile. Lots of WordPress noodling that will help with a number of other sites and opens a lot of possibilities.
The Raue Center took two hours Sunday morning, with a bit still left to do – but the tools I need to complete that are back at the office, so they’ll have to wait until Monday end of day. The part I thought would be trickiest was actually the easiest with a simple Google search. Funny how often that happens.
Glorious Hands was done already, just needed polishing and submittal. That was settled in a half hour this morning, while Solstice took an hour in the afternoon to complete and refine. I’ll still need to edit it, of course, but it’s far ahead of where I would be otherwise.
The Triskele Moon poster was the most difficult. I wrestled for two hours yesterday but nothing was working right. This morning after the Raue work it took just an hour and a half to go from concept to completion, with L giving her thumbs up around lunchtime today.
So … wow. What a great weekend.
Now for the hard part, following through and reaping my reward to myself.
Self Bribery
So okay. I’m desperately unmotivated right now, partly because I know how much crap I have sitting around that really needs to get done. The long-term planning thing is not so much my bag.
I’m going to appeal to my basest, most childike nature.
By Sunday night, if I have:
- Completed the MCCC work for pro-choice site work (edit: done!),
- Completed the Raue Center work for theatre site work (edit: holy crap, essentially done!),
- Set up my meeting with Benedict’s for restaurant site work (edit: done!),
- Done final edits and submitted the short story, Glorious Hands (edit: done!),
- Completed the drafts for May’s Solstice story (edit: done!), and
- Finished the poster designs for Triskele Moon Studio’s mother’s day show (edit: done!),…
Then I get this and I don’t let myself talk myself out of it the way I always do when I try to buy myself something fun that is not food or alcohol-based.
Which basically means if you see me fucking around on Facebook, for the love of god, slap me.
TMS Spring Poster
The new poster is ready to go! We’re running a little behind, between the site launch and some question in the artist’s mind about whether a Spring Show was a good idea this time around … but with a little sweat and re-creation this morning, I’ve got it ready to go. This design uses the background from Shlomit Wolf, a wonderful artist in Jerusalem. As always, I’ve used his background to overlay the information and photo necessary.
With this one, I felt it was time to break away from the three-image design and put up a single striking image. This was necessary given the amount of detail at the bottom of the illustration, and the amount of block-text taking the right-hand upper quadrant. The greens pop even more nicely on the actual posters.
Notes from Canada: Graphic Design
One of the things I’ve noticed in Canada is a surprising – to me – amount of nationalism. This isn’t necessarily obvious in speaking with people, but it is when you look around at some of the cherished institutions of the United States which have crept into Canadian culture like Canuckudzu.
I am referring, of course, to fast food.
Canada is not alone in its alteration of the McDonald’s logo, according to logoblink.com, but it’s the first time I’ve noticed it personally. Their ads have also included the phrase “c’est ca que j’m,” which is Canadian French for “I’m lovin’ it.”
I’ve also seen on television that the Taco Bell logo has a silver maple leaf appearing, apostrophe-like, alongside the “Think Outside the Bun” tagline on their late night commercials. I haven’t been able to find photographic proof of that, though, and as I’m flying out tonight it looks unlikely that I will.
It doesn’t bother me in the least – in fact, I rather enjoy seeing how local culture influences corporate culture. However, I’ve got a feeling that slapping a white star or red stripes over a Tim Horton’s logo in Detroit would result in considerably different press from designers and Canadians alike.
Triskele Moon Studios – V-Day Show
Leanne’s next show will take place on February 5 & 6 at Evolve. That’s 54 N Williams Street in Crystal Lake, IL, from 10-5 each day.
The posters will be going up this morning around breakfast time. I’ve designed them around the excellent imagery of Italian designer Gabriella Fabri of the Stock XChange, who has been kind enough to create a number of excellent stock vector graphics for use in our projects.
The only thing we disagreed with on this poster was the use of the Samhain Tree necklace (upper left) – while it’s more of an autumnal piece that doesn’t suit itself to Valentine’s Day, I felt the color choices matched so well that we had to use it. We’ll be taking more photos this week to make sure we have a wider selection next time ; )
Hope to see you at the show!