Things Are Bloomin'

Things are really taking off around here lately. Around every corner is something new to work on and I couldn't be happier or more appreciative. It's so fulfilling to be doing the work you love. I thought I should start getting back in the habit of blogging and putting up shots of what I'm working on...

I've been working with Bloomin' Delights to finally give them a web presence. They have a farm and nursery in Woodburn and sell flower baskets, live wreaths, fresh cut flowers, herb pots and other bits of eye candy at farmer's markets and places like New Seasons. They had a logo they wanted to stick with, but had me recreate it so that we could actually do something with it. The tiny little .gif was a mess to use at anything bigger than a half-inch. While doing so I changed up their typeface and gave them something more reminiscent of what you'd find on the chalkboards of the very farmer's markets they sell at.

I took all of the photos used on the site. On the right is a slideshow of various things they grow from year to year and on the left are smaller shots that simply show a few bits of what they currently have available. I'll be going back to take photos often and switch those up for them. In addition there is a link to contact them and check out a list of what they have available (which changes biweekly it seems).

I launched the site a few days ago and am moving on to other projects. I'm nearly done with a logo for Steel Mountain Electric and will post the result soon.

Virtual Design

After graduation I stumbled across something that, for the sake of time and sanity, we'll call a big giant virtual chat room. Instead of only being represented by text on a screen like, say, Yahoo...you are also represented by an avatar that you create. I'm not a gamer by any stretch of the imagination so you will have to make sense of all that on your own. What I know is that people spend a lot of time and money making their avatars look as realistic as possible (not realistically "them" because everyone is flawless, just realistically human).

Here is where I come in...there are businesses that want logos and character/avatars/whatevers that want photos to put in their profiles or whatever they intend to do with them. I have no desire to explain all the silliness that is this new way of designing so I will just show some things I've done in the way of virtual photography and then leave you to wrap your heads around it.

Master of my domain

I've had a lot of web domains in my short time as a web designer. Either because I didn't know what my business name should be or I just thought it would be a funny one to add to the repertoire. Most have long ago expired, but now I've added another one to the mix.

www.designinspiredlife.com

I haven't done much with it and I'm not entirely sure what I will do with it, but the possibilities are endless doncha know. It was the result of a wicked 10th anniversary sale with the host I use and allows me enough bells and whistles to start experimenting with Wordpress.

In other news...

My Pixel Dust site has a slideshow...finally. It still needs some fine tuning, but voila.

A custom + handmade jewelry designer asked me to do a logo for her and requested that I somehow incorporate the cherry blossom illustration I did for the wedding invitation project. Since it was only a school project and not for a client I happily agreed. This is the version she chose. I will be making some simple hang tags for her pieces as well as business cards and doing her website + photography.