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

palm springs glam

Design is about so much more than simply arranging elements on a page. I was reminded of this again this week when I picked up samples of an invitation I designed for the University of Oregon.

This particular event takes place in Palm Springs so it made perfect sense to use photography that mirrored the location. During my image search, I came across this image (from iStockPhoto) and thought it was perfect: a big tropical palm tree drenched in rays of sunshine. The lens glare was a nice bonus, adding a touch of realism.

To take that sense of realism even further, I suggested we print the invite on a metallic paper to really add depth and brightness to the image. And boy, was that ever the right call: the Petallics paper by Aspire really made the photo come to life – you can practically feel the sun blind your eyes!
Okay, so it's hard to show in these photos but trust me, if you want to add some glam and some depth to your next project, consider using this paper. The nice thing is that it's offered for both offset and digital applications (we printed the invite digitally while the envelope was a 2-color offset job).