The BIG reveal!

A while back I posted a logo project that I was working on with my friend Christina. At the time, we were trying to develop an identity for her bakery start-up, Cheesecake. While she liked the original concepts a lot, she still didn't feel like anything about the brand name was "her". A little too cutesy, a little too specific...many of the things that we had originally discussed. After much contemplation, she decided to switch direction with the name and thoughts of what she wanted her business to be. Christina's new vision couldn't have been more perfect for her, personally and professionally, so with renewed excitement of knowing exactly what she was going for, I got to work.

I am extremely pleased to share her new name and identity. With that, I give you...

First off, I think her choice of name couldn't be more clever! Much like Christina's personality AND the amazingly clever creations she bakes up! It's playful and original, and speaks to the quality of her desserts....which are wicked good!

Originally, Christina was drawn to the dark purple and emerald green of one of her favorite plays, Wicked. While that color palette works great for that purpose, it really wasn't going to work in this instance, and after seeing a few other concepts of logos in that combo, she agreed. I chose a more updated and modern version of a similar color combo. It's bright and unexpected, which I think will make her stand out in a sea of the typical pastel frosting color palettes.

The oval card was Christina's idea...and at first I was a little unsure with that request, thinking it was going to be WAY out of her budget. Then something in my brain went "oval=halo!!!" Brilliant. Then there was no question about oval, it needed to be done at any cost. Fortunately, I found an online printer LeCards, out of L.A., who offered super reasonable prices! As an added bonus, we were able to do spot varnish. Giving a little 'shine' to the front of the card on the halo above the O, and the one that circles the card. On the flip side, we have a little bit of 'wicked', also with a hit of spot varnish on the tail that snakes itself her contact information. She used the same artwork from the card front to do oval labels for her cake boxes, and I created a banner for her to use on her table. She plans on setting up at comic book, monster, tattoo and other fun conventions along with her boyfriend who is often there to sell comics and collectibles.

So keep an eye out for Christina and her Wicked Good desserts next time you're out and about! She also does parties, weddings, showers...whatever you need.

You can email her at christina@wickedgooddesserts.com if you're in the Metro Detroit area and need some deliciousness! Tell her I sent ya!

Leopard Lovebirds

My friend Lori asked me to do her invite with little idea of what she wanted for her big day. My direction was pretty much that she wanted gold, dark green and leopard. *sigh*. I guess that means anything goes, right?

I knew all of us gals (I was in the wedding party) were wearing leopard shoes with our vintage repro dresses and we would be in period appropriate hair and makeup. Lori has a love for all things vintage...clothing, furniture, hair, makeup...etc., so I wanted to come up with a design that had a little bit of retro to it—but didn't scream out kitschy and tacky. Despite our love for the music and it's vintage scene, I didn't want the invite to be too "rockabilly" for a traditional ceremony and reception. It also had to reflect the groom, who has absolutely no ties or interest in it whatsoever. I also wanted to bring the element of their mutually shared passion of animals and animal rescue.

The bride and groom both had "Z" last names. How weird is that? So, it was easy to come up with a little logo for them to use on the envelopes, thank you cards, seating charts, stamps, return address labels...whatever they wanted to put it on from that day forward. Little love birds sitting on their initial was perfection! I limited the color pallet down to the black and gold, as the green just didn't have the same energy I wanted the design to have, plus there was more gold being used in her wedding decorations than green.

Incorporating the leopard into the design had to be approached delicately. It's a strong pattern to begin with, and using it along with the gold she had in mind meant that the combo could be a little more band flyer than wedding invite. The logo gave me a good place to use a splash of the pattern without it being too overwhelming, but it wasn't enough to really create the look that I think she wanted the invites to have. (More leopard! Make my logo bigger!!!)

These were also going to be another DIY project, with the only costs being buying paper and envelopes, so I had to come up with a unique solution to getting the vision I had pictured in my head. I wanted something different, something with sparkle and a little pop! Glitter? No...didn't work. Metallic paper is calling! I got Aspire Petallics in two colors, Black Ore and Beargrass, a gorgeous gold metallic from Curious Papers, and nice green from Royal Metallics. After repeated attempts to do something with the gold, I gave up and realized I wasn't going in the right direction with it and thought I would try a tone on tone printing with the black.

By printing a four color black out of my Phaser, the ink sits on top of the paper so it looks like two different blacks (yeah, I know you're thinking...isn't black, just, black?). So, I created a background by allowing the ink to mask out the leopard print from the metallic (Black Ore) paper, giving it the illusion of it being glittery ink on a black sheet. The effect was far more impressive in real life than my attempt to fake it here in Photoshop—but you get the idea. The body of the invite, envelopes, thank you cards and table numbers were all printed on the shimmery warm white paper (Beargrass).

Everything was hand cut, folded and assembled. The envelopes were run through the Phaser as well. Thankfully it was a small batch of about 100. It was a fun project, I was extremely happy with the result as were the bride and groom.

Wrasslin' with a Die Cutter

So I have been wanting a die cutter for some time. I've done a number of custom invitations and I tend to do quite a bit of hand-cutting. I kind of enjoy doing it and consider myself quite the master of the Xacto, until I get to the 20-something invite when my hand is cramping and the cuts start getting bad. It never works out that I get paid for the time it takes either, so I figured a die-cutter would speed up my production time as well.

As Mac user, my options are limited, so I went with the one that *claims* to be compatible with a simple plug in. Simple? Right....I won't' get into all of that. Let me just say, when it works, it works great. :)

Anyway, my mom had asked me to design some cards for my aunt. An avid knitter, my Aunt Maryann goes to a variety of craft shows and sells her creations. Mom thought it would be nice for her to have something to hand out. The second my mom asked, this idea popped into my head.

Good excuse to buy myself a die cutter, right?

I printed these out with my inkjet on some nice white card stock. Ganged them 8 up on a letter size sheet, then ran them through the die cutter. 5 minutes later....a perfect stack of custom cut cards!