the new big book of layouts

My goal as a designer is to make sure my clients are happy and my designs are effective.

That said, I'm always thrilled when I get some validation from my design peers, as happened last week, when I found out several of my designs were included in The New Big Book of Layouts (produced by Crescent Hill Books and published by Harper Collins).

I immediately ordered a copy and while I haven't had a chance to look through the book at my leisure, I did flip to the pages that included my work. All the greeting card designs shown below were done when I still had my paper goods company, Cecily Ink:

And this fun invitation was done for a style lounge at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival:

It was a bit awe-inspiring to realize that these invites were sent out to major stars like Dennis Quaid, John Legend, and Felicity Huffman (all of whom I had the pleasure of meeting at the event)! You can read more about it here and here.

happy new year!

I hope 2011 is off to a great start for everyone! Did you put all the decorations away yet?

One of my clients is keeping the holiday spirit going a little longer by sending out a happy new year card to all their business associates. For years now, Peterson Sullivan has avoided the traditional "season's greetings" card and instead sends out their best wishes in the new year. This a great marketing strategy since it avoids getting lost in the piles of holiday cards and instead kicks off the new year on a great note.

After showing Peterson Sullivan several concepts, I designed a horizontal card to fit in a standard #10 envelope (yes, I've done a lot of those lately!). Ideally, I would create custom art for all of my clients' projects but often, due to time and budget constraints, we end up including some stock imagery instead.

The card uses stock illustration for the snowy landscape and I then added red and green ornaments, with the largest ornament including the Peterson Sullivan logo.

I typeset the message on the inside of the card to follow the rolling hills, using different fonts and colors for the list of adjectives. To keep the printing costs down, I designed the envelope to be two-color (black and green) and repeated the tree image faintly in the background for continuity.

So here's to a healthy, happy, prosperous 2011 for all of you!