I thought I’d post some recent work that is nearing the final stage. I post a lot of rough drafts and comps on my Facebook page but sometimes forget to post it here. I try to keep a balance between my blog and my Facebook page. I like to post similar content in case I have a different audience but also keep it different for variety.

Above: Graduation announcement.

Above: Church Youth Group Branding

Below: Web Design site for a freelance web developer

Below: Better Networks logo and business cards

Loving her work.

This week on One Day : Megumi and Ben! This wonderful couple was married in Granville, Ohio on October 17, 2009. After being engaged for 8 months (and dating for 7.5 years) the couple enjoyed a beautiful fall wedding and implemented their $10,000 budget wonderfully. For those brides in the process of planning their fall wedding, take notes! Megumi created many aspects of her wedding day herself and it made all the difference!

1. What wedding projects were DIY?

- Save the Dates: I had fun creating bird illustrations for this in Illustrator and InDesign.

- Invitations: I used a combination of my own design, with a boxed set I had bought from Target. It saved me a lot of money because the boxed set had most of the pieces I wanted for the invitation, but I was able to have some creative freedom in how I designed the text.

- Ceremony Programs: Taking my idea from the invitations, I used the same design and then from the save the dates, I used the bird illustration.

- Centerpieces: My wonderful sister-in-law owns a business with her mother where they sell dried flowers, she helped me to design the centerpieces. I never knew how many options there were with dried flowers! I used coffee beans as a filler, and made a mixed arrangement of browns, oranges, and greens in dried flowers. Plus, after the ceremony is over, I was able to take them all home.

- Cake topper: Using a Martha Stewart love birds cake topper I found for $2, I took off the cheesy looking flowers, and added a birdcage veil and top hat to the little birds.

- Bridesmaids gifts: Jewelry and hairpieces – Michael’s, Joann Fabrics and Hobby Lobby were my favorite stores during wedding planning. I made necklaces out of colored pearls and ribbon, and made flowers out of fabric that I attached to hair clips.

2. Now that you look back on your wedding, what do you remember most about the day? I remember the last 30 to 45 minutes of the reception, getting on the dance floor with Ben and our close friends and bridal party and just dancing like crazy. We didn’t get to dance much before that since we were talking to guests. It was awesome.

3. What was the vision for your wedding day before you started planning? I wanted something simple, but elegant, creative/vintage-ish, but not over the top. We wanted a location where we could have an outdoor ceremony and indoor reception.

4. How did that vision change by the time you were finished with the planning? The day of the wedding it was 40 degrees and almost snowing so needless to say we had to move the ceremony indoors. It wasn’t how I had imagined it all along, but that didn’t matter. It ended up working even better than we had planned.

5. What difficulties did you face while planning a wedding near Columbus? Finding catering that fit our budget. We ended up going with a caterer from outside of Columbus who was willing to drive to our location.

6. What was your least favorite part of wedding planning? Table and seating charts. Enough said.

7. What was your favorite part of wedding planning? I loved coordinating the colors with my theme. Also, I am an organizer…so I loved that whole aspect of coordinating everything and checking things off the list…weird, I know. Most of all, I love that how we arranged our ceremony and reception, it totally fit our personalities. I felt that we really were able to reflect who we are through the scripture, message, songs, etc. For example, the scripture was read in Japanese by my mom and in English by Ben’s mom to reflect our cultural backgrounds.

8. How did Ben (the groom) fit into the wedding planning process? He actually did a lot! I put him in charge of all music (ceremony and reception), marriage license and honeymoon details.

9. If you could go back in time – what would “married Megumi” tell “engaged Megumi” before the wedding planning started? Rest, rest, rest. Unfortunately, when I get stressed, I tend to loose my voice. On my wedding day, and the days leading up, I was extremely hoarse. Also, while I stressed over the littlest details, in the end it didn’t matter because at the end of the day, we were MARRIED!

This week on MEET, I’m featuring Karmen Low. Karmen is a twenty-three year old designer in Grand Rapids and is so incredibly talented. Besides talent and great design, she’s also hilarious so enjoy this interview and take a look at her site and blog!

1. At what point in your life did you know you’d be an artist? It was probably in 3rd grade when I came home from school with a note from my teacher informing my mom that on that day’s spelling test, I chose to illustrate the spelling words instead of spelling them. That summer she enrolled me in a summer art class, and I remain to this day, a horrible speller.

2. Do you have another talent/passion/hobby? I had trouble thinking of an answer to this question…I work way too much…so I’m open to suggestions as to what my new hobby should be. Just don’t say knitting. Been there, done that. It wasn’t pretty. I do enjoy photography quite a bit. It’s refreshing how you can take a picture and it’s either a good shot or a bad shot…it’s not so subjective. Here is a shot from a series I began my senior year in college. It’s been well over a year since I started it, and I really don’t know if I’ll ever feel like the series is complete…but here’s a sampling.

3. Who has been the most encouraging person in your life? It has the be the classic 3 Ps. My parents, peers and profs. My parents have really empowered me to do what I love. My peers have always been so encouraging to me, while still challenging me to grow and stretch myself.  I owe a lot to them. And my professors have spurred me on when I was doubting that I had any business being in this profession in the first place. Many many thanks to all.

4. What inspires you? Truth (with a capital T), new freelance clients, running wild, caffeine, meeting new people with unfamiliar perspectives, furniture/interior/product design, joyful collaboration with great people. There can’t be great design without great ideas.

5. What medium still intimidates you? Painting makes me shake in my boots. And wedding photography gives me cold sweats. I photographed my first (and last…) wedding this summer for a friend. Hats off to all you wedding photographers out there…you are far braver than I am. Here are some of my favorites from the weekend.

6. What artistic trend do you dislike? Grunge. Ack.

7. What has been your favorite piece of someone else’s art up until this point in your life? If I had to pick one…it would be Accession II by Eva Hesse.

8. Do you design full-time? If so- where and what has that experience been like? Right now I’m at Cornerstone University in GR as a designer. This job has challenged me in very unexpected ways. It’s broadened my knowledge base to include not only designing totally rad stuff, but also a fair amount of marketing, pre-press, strategy and branding — all in all, pretty useful stuff. I also volunteer on occasion as a masked super-villian whose sole purpose is to bring about the utter demise and annihilation of IE — one useless toolbar at a time. Or maybe that would make me a super-hero…

9. Do you think you have a specific style? What is that style and do you see yourself evolving out of that anytime soon? Well, first, I’m a serial dabbler. My job and degree are for graphic design, but I also do a lot of photography and web stuff on the side. When it comes to design, I’m completely gaga for design that makes you slap yourself in the forehead and say “why didn’t I think of that?” I don’t get to see/do that very much in my day-to-day groove, so when I do, it’s a treat.

My preference always seems to lean towards the simple, thoughtful, crafted, minimalistic, typography-driven. I truly believe in the mantra “form follows function”. Decoration can have function, but it can also detract. I always try to envision the setting in which my pieces will be experienced before I even put pen to paper. Good design is so logic-driven that if you don’t begin with the expectation of function and appropriateness, you’re kind of doomed. If you communicate what you need to say in the simplest way possible, then you’re off to a really good start.

I’m happy to announce that my stationery is now for sale in my Etsy shop! I currently have sets of 4 and 8 available as PRE-ORDER only. These sets will be shipped out May 4th in time for Mother’s Day!

I am also accepting PRE-ORDER custom sets so if you’re only interested in a certain card, send me a message on Etsy and let me know which card combination is your favorite! (No extra charge!)

PRE-ORDER stops this Wednesday (April 28th) and I can’t guarantee you’ll get your set by Mother’s Day if you order after April 28th (although rush delivery can be accommodated in your order). I will have sets in stock after Mother’s Day that will be shipped out next business day.

Congrats to Keri on winning the stationery giveaway! I had 18 comments and Keri’s was the 3rd fan to comment on my Facebook contest. As you can see the True Random Number Generator cannot be anything BUT random. I’ll be sending out her set of 8 cards and envelopes on May 4th.

The next giveaway will be held May 2nd for a special postcard design. There will be 10 winners so check back for more details on Thursday!

This is my new line of stationary. I’ve realized how much I’ve evolved throughout the past two years and I feel these first four cards really communicate my style.

Anyways, a set of these four cards will be given away for FREE this upcoming Monday (April 26, 2010) so if you leave a comment below, I’ll enter all the names into the drawing and choose a random fan! You can also enter by going to my Facebook page and leaving a comment on the giveaway status.

Sets of 4, 6, and 8 cards will be available to purchase in my Etsy shop Monday as well. Mother’s Day is coming up and the sets would make a wonderful gift.

This is the fourth post in our One Day series and I’m happy to introduce Mitch and Amy! After a 15 month engagement, they were married in Holland, Michigan and danced the night away on Windmill Island. Enjoy reading some of Amy’s thoughts and take a look at some of their beautiful photographs.

1. Now that it has been almost a year since your wedding day, what do you remember most about the day? What I remember the most is the way I felt. I’m not sure I prepared myself for how emotionally overwhelming a wedding is. Having all the people that you care about the most take so much time out of their lives to spend celebrating you was absolutely overwhelming and amazing. That’s what I remember the most, and what my husband and I talked about the most on our honeymoon was how loved we felt and how awesome the people in our lives are.

2. What was the vision for your wedding day before you started planning? I wanted it to be personal, original, and memorable. I was tired of seeing gerber daises and tooling and all of the other typical wedding trends (sorry). I wanted to do something different that fit Mitch and I.

3. How did that vision change by the time you were finished with the planning? Near the end of my planning I started to not care as much because I just wanted to be married! Honestly, I grew tired of spending so much money and started to “weed” out my ideas and only chose to do the ones I thought would be remembered and would show a personal touch. For example, I had a semi-elaborate picture in my mind of what I wanted the front of the church to look like for our ceremony, but decided to go with the more traditional flower arrangements that we could use at the reception. Since our ceremony lasted a whopping 20 minutes, I’m glad I didn’t waste time decorating the church.

4. What difficulties did you face while planning a wedding in Holland, MI? I didn’t face too many difficulties. Holland is a city built on Dutch traditional (meaning, we’re cheap!) so everything was pretty affordable, and there are a lot of options to choose from. We also know a lot of people who offered to help with things from sewing our table runners to decorating to lighting candles, cutting our cake, and cleaning up after wards.

5. What was your least favorite part of wedding planning? My least favorite part was feeling stressed about feeling like I had to please everyone. I know it’s supposed to be “your day,” but there are a lot of people involved, and all of their opinions, at times, need to be considered. Everything was so new to me as I had only attended a couple of weddings before my own, so I needed a lot of guidance and advice in everything from how to word invitations and programs to what to register for to names/seasons of flowers…etc. I had no clue!

6. What was your favorite part of wedding planning? I love being crafty, so it was a lot of fun for me to think of creative ways to do invitations, programs, seating cards…etc. I absolutely loved working with Allie Lehman on designing my invitations and programs, she does amazing work!! I also lived with 3 engaged friends at the time, too, so it was fun to bounce ideas off of each other and complain about certain aspects of planning.

7. How did Mitch (the groom) fit into the wedding planning process? I always bounced my ideas off of Mitch and he respectfully listened, but never really had an opinion. He just always said everything sounded great. When he could, he came to meeting with the photographer and caterer with me. He did help with all of the invitations and programs. He also made and painted some flower boxes that we put our seating cards in. He was fun to craft with, but I am sure he’s glad it’s over!

8. If you could go back in time – what would “married Amy” tell “engaged Amy” before the wedding planning started. First of all, I would tell her that marriage is the best thing that will ever happen to you, so whatever you do or plan for the wedding doesn’t really matter, at the end of it all, you’ll be married either way! I think that I would also say to do some research and figure out a budget so at the end, you’re comfortable with what you spent because it’s what you planned on!

Amy and Mitch’s wedding photography by Steven and Jessica Fox.

This week I’m honored to share some thoughts and work from designer Ben Tousley. Ben is an extraordinary artist and is someone that I truly admire. His style is phenomenal and I was so excited when he agreed to participate in this series and share his work. Ben is twenty-three and resides in Bloomington, Indiana. Some of his work includes album art for Grizzly Bear, Holiday Shores, Rogue Wave, and Sondre Lerche (images below). Enjoy this interview! It is one of my favorites.

1. How long have you been designing and what are some of the most important or influential moments that have occurred since you started? I started designing in high school as an editor of our school’s news magazine. When I  came to college for design I was lucky enough to have some great freelance opportunities early on which have all been really important experiences while I’ve still been in school.

2.  Are you currently designing full-time? Right now, I guess I am essentially. In addition to working on freelance projects most of the time, I’m also a designer at the Indiana University Alumni Association. However, aside from that, I’m still in school until August of this year.

3. When you’re working on a project, what does your process look like? Is it different for every situation or are there components that exist throughout most of your projects? At this point, it really changes from project to project and is almost always dependent on who I’m working with. Everyone is different and I think with the type of work I’ve done so far it’s been important to feel things out at first to make sure everyone’s happy as things progress. For example, most of the time I’ve been working with bands who might not have worked with a designer before but still have a strong feeling for what they’d like. So, I’ve found it’s best to be sensitive to that at all times. It’s also been good for me because I think it’s helped me learn how to be flexible not only with the way I work but also the kind of work I’m doing. It’s no fun to do the same thing each time, in my opinion.

4. How do you stay motivated and how do you keep inspiration a part of your day-to-day life? There are so many people doing so many amazing things out there. I never feel like I need to look very long before I get that ever so inspiring “Ben, you’re worthless” feeling yet again. And for this I am thankful.

5. Are there any design trends that you’re really excited to see emerging? Are there any design trends that you wish would disappear? I’m not necessarily into any one trend over another as much as I am into people doing solid work. If anything, I think the trends get a little boring. I have some favorite artists out there, though. I could list them for days. That said, there’s nothing I’m particularly wishing would go away, either. It’s a lot more fun to just pay attention to the good stuff.

6.  How do you integrate print and web design in your work? At this point most all of my projects have been for print. I’ve recently been getting more into web design with a couple projects, but print work has generally been what I’m interested in the most.

7.  How do you connect, network and collaborate with others? Aside from a couple of random connections, I’m not really that good at networking and wouldn’t say I know what I’m doing. Or at least I don’t feel like I’m as good as I’m supposed to be? It’s not really something that bothers me too much either. I’ve felt very lucky to work with some wonderful people that I’ve really grown to love — I just hope to continue that.

Thanks to Ben Tousley for providing all this lovely work! Check back tomorrow for a new post in the “One Day” series.
 
 

Still no Internet at our new place so my link love is rather short this week! I thought, while I’m searching out my favorite home decor, that I’d share with you! Enjoy and PLEASE comment with links to your favorite online shops when decorating your cozy casa. The image above is one of my favorite prints over at Urban Outfitter’s Print Shop!

- Loving this rug.

- These beds are amazing! I want one of each please.

- Of course you can’t go wrong with Etsy. It amazes me that some people still have never heard of it. Spread the love, people!

- If you’re in Chicago, check out Salvage One for me. And then share your finds!

- I love their books. They have great details to add to your office and home.

- A fellow Columbus tweeter sent me the link to this shop. And another tweeter sent me this link to Muji.

Sorry for the short link post! Still getting settled into our new place and the Internet is scarce!