April - What I've been working on

I think April may have been the fastest month in history. I thought I would give a quick recap of what I've been working on recently.

•  Greeting cards, I've been sending out so many of these that  I jammed up the post box one day.
• Wedding invites, I've had some great clients that really wanted to go above and beyond in April. I've been playing with foiling, white inks on black paper, die cuts... you name it. It's been a great month for weddings. 
• Branding, in the next month or so when this is all complete I'll have an awesome display of a rebrand for a jewelry company. It's so much fun working on this project! 
• Bkind lip balm, new packaging for a new product. This stuff is amazing and all natural. Click HERE and buy some!
• Type illustrations, I've had my share of signage, tshirts and displays for both hand and regular ol' type concoctions in April.
• Life drawing - so much life drawing. I've been so out of practice but hopefully my images won't look like the elephant man soon.

So it was a really busy month but so much fun. So to all my fabulous clients, keep all the great ideas rolling in, it's been a great month! 

Behind the scenes: Tools of my trade

I took this snapshot of my desk for an honest look at what I use in my day to day design process. 

From my mac and wacom to my cow bone folder and ink pens, nothing would get done without this stuff... my desk would also be a whole lot clearer too...

My whole process is based around sketching everything. First in thumbnails then more detailed drawings, this is all before I ever even touch the computer. Computers can be a massive idea suck-hole, where too many fandangled filters and other peoples work examples are available to stop creative juices from developing. In the words of one of my uni instructors "you can't polish a poo". So make sure the idea is worth spending the time on before you commit.

How to talk the talk when working with printers

Last week I gave you the reasons why it’s worth the extra moolah to go to the high grade printers. Now I’ll give you some easy tips for making sure you get what you want when work with your printer. By explaining some of the techy terms that can send people cross eyed, you'll know the terms to use to get what you want so you don't end up with something unexpected.

Offset: Perfect for high volume printing and large sizes. It involves ‘plates’ of your image being made and inked before the image is transferred ( "offset") from a plate to a rubber blanket, then on to the paper. This is when you need to know your pantone colours.

Digital: CMYK printing through a machine, great for shorter runs and photo heavy designs. Digital printing has come a long way and you can now print with white and clear varnish inks at some printers.

Letterpress: A type of relief printing where type or image is arranged and then inked before being pressed onto the paper. This can be a lot more crisp than offset as it presses into the paper. This uses spot colour not CMYK.

Screen printing / silk screen: Mesh screens go through chemical and light treatment to create a single colour ‘stencil’. This is then used to press ink through onto the print surface, you can only print on colour at a time with this but has great effects for posters and fabric.

Foiling: Where a foil colour of your choice is stamped onto your image from a heated plate and leaves a slight embossed texture.

Embossing: A raised or relief texture to your design created by using a ‘female’ & ‘male’ roller with your design on them. As the paper rolls through it pushes the paper into the shape of the pattern on the rollers.

Stock: A fancy name for paper or card.

GSM: The weight of paper. For example 80gsm is very thin 320gsm is thicker.

Pixels Per Inch: When you print you need a minimum of 300 pixels per inch. This means if you print an image that is grabbed from a website it is usually about 72 pixels per inch and will not print well.

Diecut: When a shape is cut from the print surface. A series of sharp blades are bent to create the desired shape and is then stamped into the paper cutting away the desired pattern.

Colour trends: Orange & grey

It's always great to see what colours are making the rounds in the design world and this months colour inspirations are so bright and eye catching it's hard not to pay attention.

As orange & grey really seems to be my flavor of the month I thought I would show you my favorites.

Anyone keen on new stationery designs after seeing this?

Image sourced from interest; image links clockwise below:
Image One
Image Two
Image Three
Image Four

HOW TO GET MORE BANG FOR YOUR BUCK WITH PRINTERS

If there is one thing print designers can unite in force over, it is the benefit of using a good professional printer. I promise we graphic designers don’t purposefully find the most expensive printer available just to screw with you, it’s actually that you do get what you pay for when it comes to printers.

So while I won’t go into the different types of printing here today (check back in next week for that post) I will explain some of the major differences you get from your designer recommended printers vs. the majority of the online services and stationery store options.

The online stores and “instant” print shops (where a youthful employee uploads your file & prints while you wait) often have glorified photocopiers, this means the inks will come out murky as the heads can't be manually set nor is it amazing quality inks. You are limited to digital printing - no offset, foiling etc. A very small selection of papers is on offer which can alter the entire look of your design and you are left to do the trimming yourself if it is not a standard size. They also can have a lot of trouble lining up double sided prints perfectly which isn’t great for if you want a professional looking job BUT they are great for quick cheap promo material or your kids birthday invites.

The reputable / professional print houses have more ranges of paper stocks than you can shake a stick at - if it exists they can get it for you, the machines are programmed to perfection for clear & concise colours so you will never have mismatched brand colours. They can arrange for foiling, embossing, laminate, diecuts, white on black printing etc - so there is a HUGE range of printing options. No size is too weird for them to trim and you get to work with someone who is trained to get your work looking perfect.

So the things to check before you decide on which printer to go ahead with:

• Do I really need this work to look super clean and polished?
• Will I be wanting a speciality paper choice?
• Will this just be a cheap flyer, where quality doesn't matter?
• Is this a double sided print and does alignment matter?
• Am I relying on the colours matching my brand perfectly?

So now you are armed with a list of question to ask yourself next time you need printing done.

Any designy questions? Let me know in the comments and I'll do a big ol' Q & A session.

New Mother's day card

Thanks for not leaving me to be raised by wolves

I’ve just put this card in my shop as it’s mothers day soon and you need to be a good offspring and remember to buy her a card and 6 boxes of chocolate ... maybe even a puppy? 

We all know how revolting we were as teenagers and should probably be repentant enough to treat her like the special lady she is on her special day especially since she didn't leave us to be raised by wolves.

Thunderbirds Are Go

I have neglected the blog it's true... if it were a child, it would be severely undernourished, wearing a rice sack and most likely living in the dog kennel. Bad ownership I tell you, I own up to this grievous behavior and will offer my heart felt excuses just as any owner with little remorse would.

Recently life has simply been too much fun to sit in a corner and write about it... If I did sit down and talk about what I've been doing then it would be almost as bad as those people that take photos of their dinner while out with friends just so they can post on facebook about how awesome a time they are having. Yeah those people.

I signed up for Bschool through Marie Forleo and so far it's a ton of brain draining work but also so incredibly useful and the women I'm meeting through it ... mind-blowingly awesome ladies from all around the world. I've even found a little surf crew!!!

I've had an amazing meeting with Michelle Ward, who pretty much made all my big nasty excuses for not getting on with some new projects seem like piddly little cop-outs. So now I'm working on some really exciting ideas but I won't tell you just yet. Only because I like secrets.

My work schedule has been great too and I believe there may be custom wedding invites coming out of my nose soon if I'm not careful. Now that's a pretty picture and just think of the paper cuts!

So now that I'm a little more on top of things and half way to the weekend I thought I would take a moment to show another board design that I have concocted and will hopefully be painting next week if all goes to plan. Enjoy.

Skateboards that don't have boobs on them

I LOVE LOVE LOVE coming up with designs for skate boards and snowboards. It becomes like an obsession where I can sit (or in my case, curl into a semi feotal position on the comfy rug) and draw for hours.

I'm in the process of getting some blank boards to print on, I think I'll print these 2 first.