The logo we ended up with is pretty classic/vintage. I’ll post that one at a later date when I finish some other stuff I’m designing along with it. For now I wanted to share the alternate logos that I kind of fell in love with. They were a little too stylistically out-of-the-box, but I think they are really fun and have a lot of personality. They are both completely hand done and probably would deserve some more tweaking if I was going to finish them. But you get the idea! The one below is my favorite.
 

Following the logo/branding process I’ll also be designing a new website for the boutique. It will be fun to get to apply the new look to their online presence as well.

Medium // Large // Iphone

Medium // Large // Iphone

Another musical thing I’ve been into lately is designers.mx It’s a site where designers create music mixes of stuff they are listening to/being inspired by. It’s also a great source to find new music. I posted my first mix and it was really fun to put together! It’s of course an all female vocalist mix. I’m so predictable. I’m thinking for my next one, doing a northwest specific mix…it will be a great way to promote lots of my friends’ music. Anyways, check out the site here.

SWISSMISS

Tina Roth Eisenberg
 
The very first speaker at the conference was definitely my favorite. I knew of her SwissMiss blog but I didn’t know all the amazing things Tina was behind. She began as a designer working for clients and slowly started all these smaller side projects that have grown so much, they have become her whole career. She started a temporary tattoo company, a ToDo app, a project that hosts free design talks in cities all over the world and many other things. She’s nonstop making new things and trying ideas and she’s very successful at all of them. My very favorite quote from her talk was “The best way to complain is to make things.” I think this is such a valuable concept for my generation of Americans. We are cynical and critical and pride ourselves on being able to differentiate cool from not cool. We like to diss stuff but most of the time we don’t do our part to come up with solutions to make things better. I know it isn’t always as easy for everyone else as it is for Tina, but this concept seemed to be a general theme at the conference. Being proactive with your career and doing projects and things that you find inspiring and that you are passionate about. Not just for yourself, but to benefit people around you and the greater design purpose of making the world more beautiful.
 

 

DESIGNERS ARE REALLY NERDY

I realized that I’m not actually very involved in the design culture. I don’t hang out with designers a ton and the ones that I do hang out with aren’t super obsessed with design. This conference was definitely full of the all-out obsessed kind of designers. I’ll be honest…it was a little much for me. I could nerd out about music gear and bands and songs all day with people, but design is just kind of boring to talk about. I would much rather just be designing than talking about it. The image above is of one of the things in our goodie bag. It was a little pamphlet put together by the Type Directors Club, who was one of the sponsors. And yes, it’s a typography horoscope. Haha.
 

 

Jason Munn & Parra

This talk was my second favorite. I love Jason Munn’s work and Parra was super interesting. They are both less corporate than a lot of the speakers, which I think is why I related to them so well. They just do what they do and kind of don’t really fit in the more broad industry. Even with some of their bigger projects, they are still somewhat obscure. So, they seem to have a more realistic view of the world and how to operate in it as a designer and artist. One of the interesting observations I ended up with at the end of the conference is that uniqueness is really only celebrated if you have a certain level of famousness. Until you are famous, you have to kind of conform into certain styles or ways of doing things. But if you are famous, people let you be who you are. I’ve definitely felt this in Spokane but I had hoped for better in the greater design industry. It’s obvious that to get famous you have to have a unique story to tell or a unique process or something, you can’t make a dent in the world if you are trying to conform. DUH. So, why isn’t being different more welcome in the design world? Let me know if you have an answer. I’m still trying to figure it out.
 

The Bay area is still awesome, just in case you were wondering.
 

 
This was Jessica Hische with her cute sparkly OMG rainbow talking about her dream job working with Wes Anderson on titles for his newest movie. She was bright, funny and very honest about her growth process and learning curve. I appreciated her transparency and ability to not take herself too seriously.

 

 
This was the campus the conference was held on. It was lovely and the sun shone bright every day I was there.
 

All in all I had a great time. My cynicism surfaced a bit here and there, but I was greatly inspired about the track I’m on and encouraged to continue with even more intensity. I think I have a great opportunity to make an impact on the community I live in and I’m ready to continue climbing this mountain that is a design career. I have so much to learn and so many insecurities to conquer.
 
Let me know if you have any questions, I would be happy to share more!

A few of the speakers are long-time design heros of mine, especially Jason Munn and Jessica Hische. There’s a Jason Munn poster hanging over my head as I write this. I often covet his minimal, conceptual poster style. It is a true gift.

Expect me to be live-tweeting, instagramming and facebooking like nobody’s business the next two days! And of course I will follow up with some blog posts next week to be sure.

(the video above is Jessica Hische in action working on some type with the width tool in illustrator. i love to watch someone else work like this and see how they choose to manipulate the line quality…so cool!)

My band, Cathedral Pearls also received quite a few votes and although we didn’t place in the top three we got a little write up along with a couple other awesome local bands.

A lot of people, myself included complain about how it’s hard to be an artist in this area, which sometimes it is. We don’t have an overwhelming amount of cool venues, hip art events or hip things in general. But it’s moments like this when I realize how many amazing people there are in this city that support me and my artistic endeavors. A lot of them are my friends and family, but some are just people who like to support art and music. So, as I sit here in my tiny home office and I raise my coffee mug to you guys! Please don’t stop loving Spokane and loving it’s artists. We need you!

And Congrats, Tiffany!! I voted for you.

I had some fun this morning messing around with different Illustrator brushes and made this wispy font. I loved the thick and thins of this particular brush.