New Hobby Alert: Casting Resin

Aside from working full-time again, I recently picked up a new hobby that I briefly touched on while in college many years ago: casting resin.

I’ve only been doing it for a month or two and I’ve already poured hundreds of dollars into it. The chemicals themselves are very expensive, then you have the inclusions (glitter, dried flowers, gems, etc.), and things to help color your resin (mica powder, alcohol inks, paints, etc.). By the time you’re done, including the time put into it, you better be selling your pieces for DOLLARS.

While the act of casting the resin isn’t difficult, playing around with the inclusions and colors takes time and effort to learn. The first set of dominoes I cast were way too translucent, so they’re not playable unless I add paint or vinyl to the back.

All in all, though, it’s a healthy obsession. Eventually it’ll pitter out and I’ll find a new hobby. But for now, here’s a peek at what I’ve been making. All of these pieces at some point will be on my Etsy for purchase. (And yes, most of these are self-defense weapons.)

Logo: LAR Services

When you’re a graphic designer, everyone you know will usually come to you for any “creative work” they need. Sometimes it’s dumb, other times it’s fun. This is one of those times where it was fun.

My boyfriend, Luis, during the initial quarantine period last year, experienced a lay off from his job. While home, he decided he wanted to invest in something that would eventually pay for itself: a tractor.

One day, he says to me, “guess what I just bought!” and shows me a picture of what I call a “big, orange bug”. He bought this beautiful, bright pumpkin orange kubota (the actual color is “Kubota Orange”—so innovative, so creative) tractor as well as some accessories for it. That entire week, he rode around in it, built a new shed for his pieces, cleared a section of his yard so we could start a garden, and started telling his friends and family to spread the word. It was decided using this tractor would be a side hustle for him, which was good for some sort of income while unemployed, even if patchy.

With this decision, he wanted to make it a little more professional. Together, we worked on a logo, and put that logo on business cards, signs, and magnets he put on his truck.

His vision was to incorporate both his new toy and the color. He also made it clear that he did not want the tractor to be orange, because he was afraid it wouldn’t stand out enough.

We went through a few (read: several) ideas at first. None of them really spoke to him or how he felt his new venture should be portrayed to a tee, but he did have some partial feelings to a couple. He also insisted the word “backhoe” be used so people had a specific idea of what services he actually offered and that he was not just a handyman.

Although I no longer have these printouts we pinned up to show, I still have the digital version. He circled a couple from this initial round and we took it from there. What we came up with was kind of simple, but was exactly what Luis was looking for.

We kept the tractor black like the “LAR”, but added an orange ring behind it. The orange signified the color of the tractor, the roundness of a circle reflected upon Luis’ well-rounded nature in both his personality and work (despite specifically using the word “backhoe” to identify what he did) and drew attention to the tractor. The words “Backhoe Services” are in a beautiful charcoal gray to avoid too much black logo, and to let the “LAR” (Luis’ initials) and the tractor stand out, thus becoming the key identifiers in the logo.

Copy styles and choices in black and white.

Copy styles and choices in black and white.

Color version of the logo: vertical, horizontal, icon, and logotype.

Luis’ first time using the tractor to try and dig up the surface of the yard before tilling for us to start our garden.

Once Luis signed off on the logo, we went to work making other things for him to get started with: business cards (home-printed to see how it goes), a sign for his garage, and a set of magnets for his truck.

With the signs and the business card, Luis wanted to take it a step further and add on key words that let people know what he can do with his tractor: auger, backhoe, brush hog, and loader—attachments he has for the tractor to get different things done. Over the winter with each snowfall, he was able to go plow for different local businesses, as people began to refer him via WOM (word of mouth).

As things begin to pick up for him, and he feels like he can really make a living with it, he will start to look into making it into an LLC, get real business cards printed, and maybe even find an office space. But for now, we’re just working simply and enjoying his new toy.

I had asked Luis to let me take photos of him holding his business cards for months at this point; by time he was able to let me do it, he already handed out all the good copies of his cards and only had the mistakes left, hence the banding on the one card.

The sign hangs above the garage doors that house the bug.

One of the magnets seated on the door of Luis’ truck.

One of the magnets seated on the door of Luis’ truck.

For anyone in the South Jersey area (for now) looking for work to be done by Luis and his orange tractor, feel free to call the number on the sign, or email the address shown on his card.

50 Years of Chino: A Biographical Photo Book

My boyfriend turned 50 years old on January 1st.

While decade birthdays are usually special in my book, a half-century decade birthday is triple special! COVID-19 ruined all hope of being able to throw my handsome SO a surprise birthday bash—something I was really looking forward to. I came up with what ended up being the next best thing: a family gift.

His kids will tell you it was all my idea, but the truth is, I wouldn’t have been able to pull it off without their help. I also got his aunts and grandmother to contribute and in the end, a masterpiece was born.

The entirety of this book was handmade: the cover (binders board, book cloth, photo paper, PVA glue), the interior (invitation paper) and the text block (Epson Presentation Paper Matte). I collected images and messages from everyone and designed the layout in InDesign, printed everything out in-house (literally, in my house), and assembled the book on my own.

This project was the most emotionally invested project I’ve worked on in years.

IMG_7215.jpg

Special thanks goes to Titis Liz, Luz, and Penny, Grandma, Jocelin, Jasmine, and Ricky. Without you, this gift wouldn’t have been as special. <3

Short Blurb: Adobe MAX Day 1

I have never been to a design conference.

I’ve always wanted to go to one, but when you see how much they cost… <___<

Anyway, one COVID blessing, I guess, is Adobe MAX being FREE this year! Just need an Adobe ID, and the conference is your oyster!

I, so far, have watched the keynote. Conan O’Brian was hilarious (vice presidents of vice presidents), but the entire presentation was amazing and definitely got me yelling at my iMac the same way I did for one of the last PANTONE presentations I watched. (This is a positive.)

Some things to be aware of:

+ Illustrator for iPad

+ New Recolor Artwork panel

+ An improved way to create patterns

+ Photoshop updates including the Sky Replacement tool and Neuro Filters

I highly recommend watching the keynote, as it’s CHOCK full of information and excitement!

Also, Adobe understands the importance of coloring, so they put together a coloring book for all of us to enjoy.

So…enjoy!

Logo: Slayed By J

I was trying to wait before writing an official blog post introducing my latest logo design, as I wanted to take some hero shots of the collateral that comes with it, but the South Jersey-based makeup artist I designed it for debuted the logo and is using it on a lot of her things. I guess because it’s been out in the air for over a month now, I felt like now was a good time to show it off.

Currently, we’re working on some menu handouts for her to give her clients, and I plan on surprising her with some other unnamed things around Christmastime, namely business cards with some gold foil and spot gloss and mayyyybe some stickers.

Anyway, I present to you, Slayed by J:

Shown above are the logo in three of the four colorways. The fourth is an all white version that can be used on dark backgrounds, when appropriate. The one currently being used the most is the pink one I show large.

This design was one of the easier ones to accomplish, as Jocelin (“J”) was very vocal about what she liked, didn’t like, and wanted to see. It makes a design task more enjoyable when you have information and input from the client. After all, they’re paying for it, and there’s no need to drag on a job longer than you need to.

Her vision, she told me, was to use a script face, modern, on a layout that was simple, clean, pretty, and classy. The hardest part, I think, was having to find just the right typeface/font to use for both the “Slayed” and “By J” part. Did I want to use the same for both? Would that be too busy and tacky?

And although we weren’t into the color phase yet, we did talk about it in the beginning, just so I could try to design in my head. One thing that stood out was she asked for glitter in the words. I warned her about using glitter texture in her logo. Glitter looks great on screen, especially if you can animate it, but going to print, it’s not always going to translate well, especially when you’re working in grayscale. It will become too busy and distort whatever it’s on, and because most of the strokes are thin, it would look so weird.

I convinced her using this reasoning, but told her I’d figure something out; thus, the sparkles were designed, used, and were a hit.

I also threw in a version (seen in the screenshot above) that used no script, just sans serif, just to break it up and see if maybe her vision would sway. She didn’t, her wants were adamant.

The final design used an ever-so-slightly altered version of the free font, Andasia, for the script, and Avenir Next in Ultra Light for “by J”.

Moving on to color, we explored a few combinations using colors found on Jocelin’s booking page: dusty pinks and greys with accents of gold and deeper shades of a modest pink.

Originally, she told me during our kickoff meeting she wanted purples and golds, which if I can be honest, sort of fits her personality. After reviewing her own assets, however, she decided on more subtle and classy colors, thus adding that modern chic touch that tied in with what she was already using.

The color round of this project went smoothly and quickly, and we were able to build three palettes: B&W, Gray/Pink, and Gray/Pink with a gold added.

The beauty of this is her colors can change with her tastes while staying within the palettes, so as long as everything else she does stays the same or similar.

Because color is the last step, once this was finalized, I packaged everything and sent it on over to her. From here, we moved into collateral. As mentioned earlier, we’re working on some handout menus for her clients, current and potential.

With these, we’re ironing out final colors and textures. This seems to be the more difficult part, because the size of these is small, and too many things like lines of copy, photos, and backgrounds can really clutter the layout, and then it won’t work. Below is where we’re at, trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t.

I’ll be updating this post as more of the collateral gets finished.

Below are screenshots of where the logo can be seen. And of course, if you’re in the South Jersey/Philadelphia area, you can book with Jocelin to have her slay your look for any special occasion or just because. All services and pricing can be found on her booking site, linked above.