Resistance is Futile

Girl Scout Cookies are a yearly tradition as we transition from winter to spring. This year, as I was munching my way through a box of Thin Mints, I had a brainstorm: why not do a poster that celebrates the awesomeness of these addictive little cookies with the tagline, "Resistance is futile."

I chatted with my friends about their favorite cookie and it was almost unanimous: Thin Mints were the penultimate Girl Scout Cookie. I had a few boxes of different varieties, so I  photographed them all outside on my patio for reference. (The best part about this photo shoot was that when it was over, I got to eat the models. :)

I was going to work up several variant posters, but after seeing the Thin Mints, I decided this was the only version needed.

Food & Wine Show Poster 2011

After spending time in Chicago and working on this year's Cheese Show Poster for my day job, I was in a retro deco sort of mood. Which was good because it was time to work on the poster for our annual Food & Wine Show. I've been designing the posters since this show's inception in 1998. It is always a fun challenge to design this poster since it is our biggest event of the year.

One night, shortly after completing the Cheese Show Poster, I was laying in bed drifting off to sleep and the idea for this poster just popped into my head. I quickly sketched it down on some post it notes I keep by my bed and went to sleep. I woke up the next morning and roughed out the idea for our Wine Director to see. He liked the idea, but wasn't 100% sold on it. I refined the idea a bit and he okayed the idea.

We started ticket sales in mid-September for this year's show. Exactly one week later, we sold out. The fastest sell-out in our event's history. While I'm sure other factors were involved, I'd like to think this poster helped. :)

In 2012, Give Peas A Chance

I originally had the idea for this poster in late 2010. I envisioned a can of peas with the peace symbol on it. However, after some experimentation, I dropped the can idea and just went for the peas making up the peace symbol.

I bought a couple of bags of frozen peas and on one sunny summer afternoon this year, I took pics of the peas on a white sheet of paper out on my patio. I had to work quickly because it was hot and the peas were melting fairly quickly.

After I cleaned up the mess, I sorted through my photos and chose 5 peas to be the "ones". I then began the arduous task of hand placing each pea in its place along the peace symbol template.

Next I added some text with a faux watercolor effect and a light green background for a serene finish.

If you like what you see, you can purchase the Give Peas A Chance Poster, Card, Mug, and T-Shirt over at my Zazzle shop.

DLM Cheese Show Poster 2011

While I was in Chicago this summer for HOWDesign Live, I went to Willis Tower for the Skydeck tour. While in the gift shop, I shot a pic of the Chicago World’s Fair poster.

In July, while discussing the cheese show poster for my day job at Dorothy Lane Market with our Cheese Director, he mentioned the theme this year was “Cheeses of the World”. I immediately thought of this poster and how it could be a great reference for our poster.

A challenge in creating this poster is what image to use. How to convey cheeses from different countries? Cheeses that might be of different sizes and shapes would be difficult to manage. However, I worked with our Cheese Director and came up with the idea of picking out wedges of our most popular cheeses that would be at the show. I then shot a photo of them:

Then began the long process of tracing them in Illustrator keeping true to the Art Deco colors of the world's fair poster. It took a bit of work, but it did work out:

I then added it to my poster composition and it was a perfect match. I decided to shy away from a straight Art Deco typeface and chose Junction from The League of Moveable Type to give it a hint of the past, but with a modern touches:

Company 7 BBQ Sauce Labels

I was approached late in 2010 with the project of designing a line of barbecue sauce labels for a new local restaurant concept. The restaurant, Company 7 BBQ, wanted to have their proprietary line of sauces and one rub ready to go on opening day. The only problem was the timeline: about 2 weeks total to design and get labels printed. I initially wanted to decline the project because of the tight timeline so near the holidays.

I spoke with the folks and learned they are a family of firefighters and seemed like good people, so I accepted the project. It was the least I could do for those who have put their lives on the line to help others. 

I knew concepting would be intense and stressful. I did my standard steps of research and thumbnailing, however, I put myself on a strict timer for each stage and really just cranked out whatever came to mind. 

I developed four initial concepts, mocking up the mildest and hottest sauce to show the progression of "heat". Version A was to gradually up the flames in the background against a dark blue background:

Version B was simple, bold solid colors in the background from "uniform blue" to "fire engine red" and the heat scale was numerical starting with 1 and going up to 6 within the firefighter maltese cross symbol:

Version C was based on the very cool Peter Pirsch fire truck that is the centerpiece of the Company 7 BBQ bar area:

Version D based on the idea of fire damage, the hotter the sauce, the more the beat up and textured the label would become:

In the end, the client chose version B, the bold solid colors. I worked up retail and in-store versions as quickly as I could and they were able to open with some labels on sauces. Response to the restaurant has been fantastic from what I've heard. If you're in the area, be sure to check 'em out!

Bunkers Sauce Labels

Wow, it's been a busy year for me. So busy that I forgot to post several cool projects that I completed this year. Here's one of them...

I completed this label design for Bunker's Bar & Grill, a local sports bar earlier this year.

The client had a couple of requests: they'd like a sports theme if possible and they really wanted to do a pepper that showed a heat scale for each of their sauces.

I started out with the sports theme, but it just wasn't giving off the right vibe. Plus the addition of a pepper graphic was not working out well...

So I worked on a simpler version that focused more on the pepper heat scale...

The client preferred this direction much better, but wanted a cleaner look to the label. After the client's suggestion of using white, I needed to figure out how to make the flavor name stand out more. I tried several variations and decided to give each flavor its own style of brushstroke along with a unique color that related to the heat scale imagery.

The client loved it and these are the final labels...

Theory Thursday: Urban Farming

National Geographic had an interesting article in a recent issue talking about how some urban centers are transforming their rooftops into green rooftops and the positive environmental impact this might have. You can read the article here.

While reading this article, a thought occurred to me regarding farming and how I had also recently read that we might not be able to grow enough food if the world population keep growing at its current rate. And with all the recent issues with food-borne illnesses, how eating local might become more important now. But where would we get enough farmland to tackle these issues? I have a theory: Urban Farming.

I don't know about you, but in my town I have quite a few developed areas (shopping centers and the like) that have been abandoned for one reason or another. Why not reclaim this land and turn it back into farms? This would do 3 things: 1) employ people and 2) green up otherwise wasted and ugly space, and 3) would also allow more folks to eat locally grown food.

Is this solution perfect? Probably not, but it's a start and I think it would be beneficial to everyone while helping Mother Earth out a bit too.