Coco Dolce experience signage

A few months back I started working with a client who was launching a specialty restaurant. Coco Dolce provides a unique chocolate and wine dining experience, featuring hand crafted artisan chocolates perfectly paired with unique wines and beers. Since I love all of these things, it goes without saying that I was stoked to be a part of bringing Coco Dolce to life.

Part of the whole process was making sure that new diners knew what to do upon entering the restaurant. Since the space is very small and there is minimum signage ability, I developed this sort of instructional welcome sign placed in the entryway. I love how it turned out!

I’m getting using House Industry’s beautiful Eames typefaces for most of the collateral, which is fantastic. Such a gorgeously versatile font so full of character. And those treatments behind each of the sections (swirls for chocolates, lines for wines, dots for explore – or foods-) I’m incorporating throughout other pieces in the store, like the menus. It’s a lot of fun!

I’ll try to post a picture of the signage in place once I actually get back to Carson City..

Logo : Acorns to Oaks

So, Valerie and I were out looking for places to live the other day. We went to go check out this little 1-bedroom free-standing place out in Santa Ana. Super awesome place but simply way too small for 2 people. At any rate, we were talking with the couple renting it out and got along famously. Turns out they’re believers and into a lot of the same stuff we’re into. As we were talking further, turns out the husband is starting this business consulting firm and needs a logo! How cool is God and His sovereignty, right? So here is the logo for the brand I developed for him.

All Of My Journals

Have looked just like this blog!

A few entries right at the beginning… so full of promise! Typically the first entry would read something like, “This is the time I’m really going to keep a journal consistently”

But the remaining pages were always left blank.

So my apologies for falling behind with this! I promise I have a good reason. And that reason is simply that life got ridiculous.

I have been in the process of relocating to Southern California for quite some time now. My last day at the wonderful Cube art department was in February; took a trip to Orange Country to help Quinn Ivory with their debut show (which was awesome!); came back to Nevada, took care of appointments… and then headed back down to sunny California in the beginning of March. I’ve been here for about a month, playing the perpetual house guest to my many gracious friends who have opened their homes to me.

I’ve been busy trying to survive on freelance work while helping Quinn Ivory keep the ball rolling on their stuff. It’s sort of exciting and sort of terrifying. I miss home a lot and I haven’t even moved yet! Luckily I’ve been making some cool friends down here, and have been going to Moment Church which is a great body of folks. Nothin like being home at Freedom though! Crazy awesome church family that we are.

Valerie and I have been lightly apartment hunting. We found an awesome place in Garden Grove… meaning every storefront within a 5 block radius is written in Korean… but it’s such a cool apartment! At least for what we can afford! Haha. Waiting to hear back from the property manager on our applications. We gave him a move-in date of May 1st, so things could get quite real, quite fast! Kills me to think of only being back home for a little over a week before having to turn around and move away…

If there is a conclusion to be had here, it’s that I plan on blogging (at least) more of my work. Gotta get it out there! And since a move is in the near future, I figure this is better way to keep everyone updated on my stories once I’m not home.

loves!

Work in Action: Jentry Aileen!

One of my colleagues here in the Cube art department recently launched her new wedding photography website! Her work is beautiful and I think the site is very cool! I think the style they designed it in totally fits the vibe of the logo I designed, so that’s always fun. Check it out!

Jentry Aileen Photography

What A Stupid, Stupid Idea

You think YOU’RE tired of me talking about my hurting teeth? Believe me, I can’t wait to have something else worth blogging about.

Anyway, here is the first little doodle I’ve done with my new stylus. It’s definitely fun to have… makes drawing on the iPad more approachable and fun than using your finger, that’s for sure. I did this in iDraw, which I realize everyone ELSE has known about forever, but I just discovered it. For those few in the dark like me, iDraw for iPad is a very Illustrator comparable vector drawing app. Same pen, brush, pencil features… It’s a nice solid middle ground between just a doodle program and actually running Illustrator on your computer. Sure, you’ll miss some of Illustrator’s functionality, but you can export your creation as a PDF, open it in Illustrator, and finish up how you want! It’s really quite awesome.

And yes, I DO feel like a slightly pretentious a-hole when I have to write out so many “i” prefixed words in one sentence.

In conclusion: iPad with a stylus to help boost creativity-yes.

And no, I didn’t (and never intend to) rollerblade nude… I just wasn’t sure what other color to portray my stick-self in. Suggestions welcome.

Sarah

the Zodiac Identity

So, apparently the Zodiac signs have changed. Or they haven’t changed. It seems to be a rather touchy issue. The point is, I’m noticing that a lot of people are legitimately distressed about their Zodiac sign changing. And I completely understand. For a lot of people, their Zodiac sign is their identity. How terrible it must feel to have the very thing you identify yourself with just change, overnight. How thankful I am that my identity lies in an everlasting God, who never shifts or changes, like the stars seem to be in the habit of doing.

Quinn Ivory pre-release art

Alrighty, here it is! It’s all packed and shipped out to the band so they can assemble for handout at NAMM. I wanted to take actual pictures of the inserts… because stuff always looks cooler in stacks and with a shallow depth of field… but I don’t yet have a camera with such capabilities.

So here it is for your viewing and my archiving pleasure. I’m super happy with the way it turned out, thanks muchly to my friend Matt who encouraged me to make it increasingly more like a true 2-color print. Huge credit to the extraordinary Brian Hall who took the amazing pictures I got to work with.

Quinn Ivory Preview

Some dear friends of mine are in a totally killing new band called Quinn Ivory. They laid down some tracks recently for their debut EP, and it’s coming together quite nicely.

At the last minute, my Sis (drummer) was able to get a pass for NAMM next week… so we rushed into action, putting together some early release demo packs for her to spread around to all the big-wigs at the event. The fun thing is that I was given complete creative freedom with this project, and I’m pumped at how they’re turning out.

I’ll be sure to post pictures of this completed 60s-Chem-Textbook meets Bond-Girl packaging, but here’s a preview for now.

Currently looking at translating this design onto metal cd cases for the promotional EPs that go out to radio stations and magazines. THAT will be SOOOOOO cool.

High Sensitivity

Seeing as how I am committing to acting more on any and all creative impulses that come into my brain, it seemed like a good idea to track down a sweet stylus for my iPad. Thus encouraging me to more utilize various drawing applications, thus encouraging me to create more wherever I am, without keeping track of countless scrap paper or bar napkins ::cough cough Matt cough::

And who am I kidding? Like it’s all that hard to convince me I need cool new accessories for my existing cool stuff.

So I found this stylus from Griffin

For WAY AWESOME CHEAP on Amazon. Like $6. Can’t wait to play with it!

What It’s Like to Get Your Wisdom Teeth Extracted

Last week I got my wisdom teeth broken up and dug out of my head. I miss food. and it feels like I eat in a succession of colors.