Awhile ago, the talented Ashley of Ashley Nacke Photography came to me for new branding and a fresh blog for her thriving business. The branding is completed so check back soon for the newly designed blog!

I’m really drawn to photos that put things into perspective. How big is the sky? I don’t know but we’re pretty small.

The photo above taken by Clement Jolin. The photo below taken by Max Wanger.

- Fact: I would go camping if someone promised me that it would be like this.

- Here’s our perspective on our crazy car problems this past week. I love my husband.

- These business cards have inspired me to pass out all my old ones and re-design and print new ones.

- Awesome type via Vogue Living!

- This & That caught my eye recently. So did these light fixtures.

- It’s summer time and these photos are fabulous.

- Check out these dog crates. Prettiest crates I’ve ever seen.

- For my local readers: check out Cbusr! YOU can nominate someone who lives, breathes, and contributes to all things Columbus and promotes our fair city through Twitter and other social media platforms. Also if you missed the Columbus Pride Festival, check out this video by Mike Beaumont.

- Image taken on my trip with my iPhone. I swear I saw a sea monster. Don’t you see it?

This post has been a long time coming! With life, work and everything in between I was finally able to connect with MaKenzie and get these fabulous details about their wedding day! This couple is stunning and their wedding day was absolutely beautiful. After a 10 month engagement, MaKenzie and Ross said “I do” in downtown Cincinnati. Their colors, which were navy blue and fire engine red, definitely make their photographs pop. Enjoy this interview and the photography along with it. Seriously, the photography is lovely.

1. Now that you look back on your wedding day (almost 2 years ago), what do you remember most? I was so nervous that day. More nervous than I have ever been in my life – and EVERY feeling of anxiety/stress came from the fact that I was to walk down an aisle with hundreds of people looking at ME! I do not like being center of attention, but on my wedding day I realized how much I truly hate it! My dad even got a little concerned right before we started walking – trying to give me a little pep-talk because he thought I was going to pass out. I truly was not worried about the “new life change”, or becoming a wife, I was just scared to be the person who had to walk and not fall (while smiling at the same time). As cliche as this sounds though, the second that I turned down the aisle with my dad and looked at Ross – every single fear, anxiety and sick feeling diminished. I was almost shocked at how instantly I felt calm when I saw his face. Made me realize even more that it feels so good to have my best friend to lean on. That moment sticks out in my mind when I think back to my wedding because its easy to “think” you realize how much you love someone – or how much they mean to you – but at that second even my own emotion/body/fear recognized that Ross Dykstra was going to take care of me forever.

2. What was the vision for your wedding day before you started planning? I love the style of the 1930′s. I knew I wanted the look and feel of the wedding to be from that era. I also wanted it to be relaxed and casual – not an uptight gathering where everyone refused to cut loose! In our minds, we just wanted to have a huge party with our friends and family.

3. How did that vision change by the time you were finished with the planning? I’m not sure if it did? At least I hope not! The chaos of planning often got in the way, but I tried to hold true to the fact that I wanted this to be FUN and a true portrayal of me and Ross, and make everyone who attended feel special and enjoy themselves.

4. What difficulties did you face while planning a wedding in Cincinnati? Location, location, location – I knew I wanted a downtown city wedding but it was SO tough finding a place that afforded decent parking and was not ridiculously expensive! Thank God though, we were able to find a great church at a reasonable cost – that was a huge burden off when we booked the date!

5. What was your least favorite part of wedding planning? I hated, hated, hated making all the “little” decisions. Like – “What will be the order of events at the reception,” “Do you want ranch dressing or italian for the salads,” “What is the timeline for the actual wedding day?” – ARGH… I’m a more free spirited person so it was tough for me to make all the little decisions that although very important, were boring in my mind!

6. What was your favorite part of wedding planning? Making a guest list.

7. How did Ross (the groom) fit into the wedding planning process? He fit into a 34×36 tan Express suit for the ceremony… and that’s about all the “planning” he did. :)

8. If you could go back in time – what would “married MaKenzie” tell “engaged MaKenzie” before the wedding planning started? Girlfriend – just enjoy this and don’t worry about all the minor details. You’ve got Ross and before you know it it’ll be just you two – so SMILE!

I hope you loved taking a peek at Ross and MaKenzie’s wedding day. All of these photos were taken by Megan W Photography.

I’m currently working on the branding and site design for 8Morsels. 8 Morsels is a very limited collection of 8 head to toe looks sold only online. I’m excited to see everything come together in the next few months. Temporary site shown below along with the business card design.

Everyone is a graphic designer these days and sometimes our culture forgets that it takes a lot of work. Not every designer just live traces everything and slaps on some generic font. I’ve started and completed so many projects this past year and the process is difficult. I thought I’d share a few of my “draft” vs “final” snapshots so that you can see the process. Enjoy!

^ This project is a current one. It’s always interesting to see where a project goes when the designer and the client have two completely different visions. I actually really like both versions.

^ This project has been completed and it took me awhile, as the designer, to understand what the client was looking for. Sometimes communicating through email isn’t good enough and because of this project, we began using Skype to talk voice-to-voice.

^ This wedding invitation set has not even been revealed on my website, blog, or Facebook page yet! I’m excited to show you all the entire set because it’s one of my favorites. The couple really knew what they wanted but even the most detail oriented people have so many options to choose from.

Hopefully I’ll be able to share things like this more often. No Monday Link Love today. I posted a lot links via Twitter last week. Check them out here along with some of my other favorite tweets by others.

I’m not a banker but I have to say…I was overly excited when I logged into my online Huntington account and saw their new site design (pictured above)! As a designer, it wasn’t fun signing into their old site everyday. I thought I would include a screenshot of what their site USED to look like (pictured below) just so you can see the difference. Exciting, right? Just agree with me.

I had a wonderful time with family and friends this weekend at our friends’ wedding. Below are a handful of links to start off your work week!

- I’m planning on making this for dinner soon.

- Love this design. Peace Corps at 50 identity.

- These wedding invites are great. I’ve drawn an illustration the bride and groom before and it’s nerve racking!

- My upcoming freelance work will be influenced by this site and this site. Two very different projects!

The Charismatic Dogs book has a site now! The photographer, TOTSPUPS.com, emailed me yesterday informing me Blurb.com will be using the Charismatic Dogs book for marketing purposes! Very awesome. Volume II is in the works.

This week I’d like to introduce Elizabeth Schuppe. Elizabeth is fine artist living and working in Brooklyn, New York. I have always been a huge fan of her paintings and so when she agreed to participate in this series, I was floored. Here is an excerpt from her site :

“Color, line, shape, texture, and light are the media that express the emotion in my work. Rather than creating a recognizable object, I use the elements of painting itself to allow the story to unfold. There is no plan in my painting, yet there is process. I let a color, a line, a shadow dictate what comes next.

The purpose is to create expression and emotion strictly out of shape and color – completely abstract. My best works are the ones that just happen, when I allow myself to be surprised.”

1. How long have you been painting? I have been painting since I was a kid but I really didn’t learn how to paint seriously until I was in college. I’ve been professionally painting for about 5 years.

2. Have you always painted abstractly or have you ever painted realistically? I only painted realistically when I was in school. As soon as I was allowed to paint freely – I went abstract. Even my realistic pieces were on the abstract side – it as just in my nature.

3. You mention on your site that there is not a plan in your paintings but can you expand on what your process includes? I always start with a color that I’m into at the moment. Once I put down a color and shape, that tells me what to do next. I just keep building from there – more colors and more shapes, always responding to the mark I made before.

4. A lot of the work on your website was created on a larger surface. Do you ever work on smaller canvases or paper? I haven’t worked on paper, or small, in a long, long time. Up until now. I had to give up my studio and have been forced to work at home so I started to work on small blocks of wood. But mostly my style of painting works better larger.

5. How do you spend your time painting? How long can the process take from start to finish? It’s really hard to say how long the process can take. It depends on so many (primarily) internal factors. Sometimes I can finish a piece in a week, other times it will take a month or two. I usually get to the studio in the morning. I work much better then. I’ll often work for four or five hours without much of a break except for a coffee or lunch. Once I’m into something I don’t want to stop. Things outside are so distracting and I always listen to music. Always. It keeps me company in an otherwise lonely profession.

6. How is the process different when creating a mixed media piece (compared to a painting)? I tend to be more careful when doing a mixed media piece. Maybe it’s because of the reactions that different materials have to each other, or maybe it’s because I feel less free with different materials. Other than that the process is quite the same.

7. How influential was your time in school compared to your time after school? I learned so much in school about how to paint the “right” way. How to mix colors, to see proportions but it wasn’t until I got out of school that I found my own voice. It’s a hard question to answer but I think I’d have to say my time out of school shaped more of who I am as a painter.

8. Do you sell the work that has already been created or do you take custom commissions? I only sell work that I’ve already created. I’ve done commissions in the past and they never have turned out how I wanted them to. I hate to make paintings that I’m not proud of at some point. It’s really hard when you don’t have control over the decisions.

9. If you could give one piece of advice to a fine art student, what would it be? Sometimes you need to take what professors say with a grain of salt. I once had a painting teacher that told me “never use white.” I didn’t listen and that was the right choice.

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