Hey Fellow Classmates,

Kinda late, but I just want everyone to know that their will be a very cool craft fair this Sunday at Chelsea Ballroom (1510 SE 9th and Hawthorne).

http://www.handmadenw.com/

Come check out the handcrafted goodies for yourself or someone else. I’m promoting this because I will have a vendor booth selling may hand-painted magnets under the name bend rivers. If anybody is still checking out this blog, please do stop by and say hello. Constructive criticism of my work is very much appreciated!

I will also be at the big bad-ass Crafty Wonderland next Sunday (14th) at the Oregon Convention Center. If you have nerves of steel and can face a huge crowd please come by and see all the great stuff people are selling.

http://www.craftywonderland.com/index.htm

Okay that is all…

-ian (aka bend rivers)

(the one with the black hair)

Ok, you’ve all now gone through 10 weeks of hearing us talk about type crimes. But how well do you know your font families? Find out here.

Thanks for a great class everyone. We really enjoyed seeing the work you created. Your final projects will be in the CE department office, room #132. We are also emailing everyone their grades for the last two projects along with a short evaluation of your progress. If you are a certificate student, final grades will be mailed to you soon.

We’d love to see you again in our Context and Meaning class. We also highly recommend Kat Topaz’ typography class then too.

-J & S

hi all –

i did some work on my branding for muddy’s and i’m hoping to get some online feed back if you have time to take a peek. i worked some on the boot, but i also did a completely new direction that i’m happier with (those pdfs are identified by the type faces used). the shape and colors of the new direction are derived from some of my very first sketches with bubbles. overall i think the new design indicates muddy’s more effectively through color, shape and juxtiposition.  i also kept some of the type in all lowercase because i thought it was more playful, like muddy’s.

i labeled all the cards A, B, C… if  you have any comments.

if you have the time, i’d love to know what you think.

thanks!

jennifer.

boot.pdf

filosofia.pdf

clarendon.pdf

Hi everyone-

I just wanted to write an update on what you should have ready for crit next week since I know we have asked you all to do a lot at once. Like Shawn said, it’s great practice for real-world project management. You can do it!

- initial CD designs & mock up of package design if you are not using a jewel case. remember to try and bring a conceptual component to your overall design. This will be our only chance to crit before the final so design as much as you can to get the most from the class critiques.

Good luck, just post any questions you may have.

hi all:

i’ve been enjoying past posts that point us towards design case studies, so i thought i’d add a recent find to the blog. check out this posting at typesites.com that examines aiga’s website. i think most people have checked out aiga already, so it’s an interesting case to re-look at something you’re already familiar with.

see you all tomorrow night,

jennifer maples.

This flickr photoset is a great resource for business card design inspiration.

Drew Dernavich makes some really cool woodcut (I think) cartoons for the New Yorker.  Unfortunately, I don’t think any of them are particularly funny, but the images are really good.  And speaking of logos, I think he’s made a pretty good one of his initials, which is an effective way of signing his cartoons in the same format as the artwork.I also love Edward Hopper’s art, especially in how he uses light and shadow: and bright landscapes:    In other news, the Obama campaign has failed a little bit in the design realm with the bizarre choice of this unreadable font on some of their webpages:http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/joinourmovement 

I was out of town last week — here is my business research.

The Meadow | 3731 N. Mississippi AvenuePortland | OR 97227

http://www.atthemeadow.com

Summary

The Meadow is a high-end shop that sells chocolate, wine, flowers and finishing salts.  It is on Mississippi Avenue: a quirky, up-and-coming neighborhood in North Portland.

Products & Services

Gourmet salts (especially finishing salts) — Salt is what makes their business special.  Finishing salts are used at the table on various dishes, many of which are not traditionally served with salt.  Different salts enhance different foods.  The Meadow sells salts from around the world.  The smallest size is 16g.  Their “starter” salt is a flaky salt from England called Maldon.  This salt was recommended by the salesperson as the first step to experience finishing salt.  The 16g Maldon jar is $4.50 and the 32g jar $5.50; other salts are more expensive.  Larger sizes are available.  One can purchase a starter set of 6 salts in various sizes in a ready-made gift bags. 

Chocolates — high-end from around the world, most bars are $5 and up.  Many are in the $8.50-10.00 range.

Wine — in the $20-100 range.  Selection includes whites, reds, champagne and sake as well as bitters and vermouth.

Flowers — purchase in the shop, flower delivery (available online) and flower arrangement service for weddings

Associated products — salt and pepper mills, vases, decorative salt blocks

Other services — knowledgeable staff and good service are part of the product; private events and classes for $15/person are available; wholesale services (salt) 

Clientele

• Mostly women (assumed by the choice of products and ambience/decoration)
• High-end clientele with expensive tastes and disposal income
• Middle-income clientele looking for unique gifts
• In the half-hour I was there, only 2 other people came into the shop (Saturday afternoon).

Business type

• Specialty shop
• Good service ethic
• Owned by two women
• Salts are main business

Ambience

• Products are main decoration: blocks of salt; flowers are in the center of the room and greet you as you walk in — they are minimally arranged and beautiful; salts are arranged so that they remind one of an apothecary, salt samples are available; chocolate is spaced in a way to seem like the shelves are full, but there is enough space between them to look orderly and special
• Art, baskets, and picket fence are used as decorations
• Chairs arranged to make it feel like a comfortable living room/parlor
• Mixture of homemade and professionally printed signage
• Cracked concrete floor gives it a trendy feel and reduces the “fussy factor”
• Norah Jones and other similar music played over the sound system
• Your home, but nicer

Identity/signage

• Logo is minimal and monochrome; looks like salt crystals or baby’s breath, generally printed on golden-yellow paper for signs and blue stickers for salt products.
• Their signage doesn’t always include the logo and the fonts are not consistent across all designs

Website

www.atthemeadow.com

• Beautiful photography, own their own domain, obviously professionally created.  As within the store, the products are used as beautiful decoration via photographs
• Doesn’t use the “logo” just the store name font treatment
• Online store and information center — an extension of the physical store, with extensive information about salts and reasons for using gourmet salts; listing and purchasing of the other products they sell
• Email updates available

Conclusion

Their main business is specialty salts; it is what makes them special.  The chocolate, wine and flowers supplement their business, especially since they work with the salt flavors and the target clientele. The business depends on high-end clientele that has disposable income and expensive tastes as well as middle-income clients looking for special gifts and something special for a dinner party, etc.

Hi everyone,

Here is my posting of inspiration+.

The ‘+’ part is that both of these examples are also resources that you can sign up for to receive ongoing inspiration and instruction in design.

First, this cool little newsletter on fonts that shows up periodically in my gmail: http://www.myfonts.com/newsletters/cc/200810.html

They often include interesting information on new fonts, but also (bonus!) they often include in-depth interviews with type designers.

Secondly, one of my favorite e-publications on design is BeforeAfter magazine. They boil down design concepts into very practical terms, often featuring a design project in each issue (such as a logo re-design, or a brochure folded 8 ways as a clever design solution).

You’ve gotta see them in action though to really appreciate B/A. Here’s a link to their site. The subscription rate is super reasonable and most articles are limited to subscribers. However, the site is also peppered with several example articles, gratis! (Just scroll through to find the free ones.) http://www.bamagazine.com/

Enjoy!