one more for my shelf

Last week I practically tripped over a super heavy box delivered to my door step. After hauling it inside and wondering what I might have purchased online that slipped my mind, I discovered it was a winner's trophy from the Summit Awards for the design of my day planner!

This is the fourth year that my collaboration with printer and paper companies has resulted in winning a design award, and every year I've been honored and thrilled to receive this symbol of recognition.

This time the award was for the 2012 day planner I designed. Instead of creating a series of illustrations in my usual style, I decided to use my photography and enhance it with thematic doodles, if you will.  

 

The French fold cover was printed on kraft-colored stock with a double hit of white ink while the rest of the pages were bright white paper. The monthly tabs provided functionality as well as a punch of color.

The planner was well received among my clients last December, and I personally love using it every day! Believe it or not, it's already time to start working on the next one...

Collaborators:
Brown Printing • Neenah Paper • WCP Solutions

online printing woes – or wins!

When designing projects for my clients, I try to source a local printer for a variety of reasons, including quality control (ability to attend press checks), community (stimulating the local economy) and environment (smaller carbon footprint).

But sometimes budget constraints force me to look at using online printers, and I've often been left wanting. Lack of control, less than optimal customer service, and a tendency for billing errors have taught me to select my online printer very carefully. After many tries, I finally found one that met my high standards and I've been recommending them to my clients as the need arises.

Today, I'm happy to share that I've found another online printer who, at least on this first project, has done an excellent job in all areas. NextDayFlyers just delivered an order of 250 postcards and I'm so pleased with the results! The colors are very close to what I was expecting, the paper and coating are nice, customer service was prompt and friendly, and turn-around was astonishingly fast (ordered Tuesday, received Friday).

Full disclosure: I won this print order during a giveaway on Illustration Pages, a wonderful blog that features great artists and inspirational work. But given that this project was such a great experience (and that their prices are lower than my other go-to online printer), I definitely plan to use them again – and will pay full price :)

sneak peek: day planner

For the last few years, I've collaborated with Brown Printing, WCP Solutions and Neenah Paper to produce a calendar that we could distribute among our clients as a promotional tool and thank you gift.

After working on this project since May, I was super excited to finally see my designs in print during yesterday's press checks.

I'm thrilled with the way everything is coming together:

Stay tuned for pix of the final product later this month!

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!

happy holidays!

Every year I like to thank my wonderful clients for all the work they've sent my way, so I present them with a small gift that I designed myself. For the past six years, I've been able to team up with Brown Printing and West Coast Paper (now WCP Solutions) to create something fun AND functional.

This year's collaboration resulted in another day planner, a collection of whimsical illustrations with weekly and monthly pages to help my clients stay organized in 2011.

The cover and monthly divider pages are printed on a heavy textured stock that are folded double for added heft. A nice bonus of this method: tabs for easy access to each month!

If you're not (yet?) one of my clients or would like to gift someone with one of my planners, I do have a few extras for sale in my Etsy shop.

Happy holidays, everyone!

doin' good in the world

I absolutely love what I do for a living. I suppose I'm lucky that way. I feel even luckier when I can do what I love and know that I make a difference in the world, even if it's just a small difference.

That's why I'm always thrilled when it's time to design the next issue of the Oregon Humane Society magazine (read more here). Officially a newsletter, this publication is distributed to roughly 27,000 readers and is filled with interesting news and heartbreaking stories that often have a happy ending thanks to OHS.

A sample of the fall issue I designed recently hit my mailbox and I was reminded again of all the great work OHS does around the state. The rescue that hits closest to home is, of course, the one where OHS drove all the way out to Harney County to pick up our little Tucker (a golden retriever mix) along with 125+ other dogs that had been grossly neglected by the owner.

I'm currently working on new illustrations for this year's holiday gift (shh... can't say any more!) and have decided that I will donate a portion of the sale of one particular illustration to the Oregon Humane Society:

Yes, this little cutie pie will do his part to give back to the Oregon Humane Society: $5 of every 8x10 and $7 of every 11x14 matted print will be donated to OHS (who, btw, doesn't receive any federal or state dollars but is supported 100% through private donations).

Want to help, too? You can buy the print here or just email me (alex [at] defteling [dot] com).

holiday cards

Every fall I look forward to designing my very favorite project of the year: Defteling Design's client holiday gift! I've already started busily sketching new ideas, and it made me think back with pride and pleasure to last year's project, a weekly day planner (click here for more info).

That, in turn, reminded me that I created a fun illustration for the month of December. Wheels started churning in my head and I decided to reuse that image to create a holiday card.

It's available for purchase here but if you want a more customized look for your business or personal use, feel free to give me a jingle!