united states of animals

i was doing some research for one of my classes this semester for another campaign we have to do...ugh. can i just say i really wish teachers would come up with more creative projects that telling us to promote a campaign for something because i have just about had enough with all of these stupid campaigns. anyway, i am working on a project for animal adoption and i was on the humane society of the united states website. i had seen their logo before, but forgot how much i really liked it.

i think it is great how they use all of the animals to create the outline of the u.s. and also that these animals are not detailed, but just silhouettes. that makes the logo so easy to read from far away - it is so clear s to what it is. as you probably know by now, i am a big fan of simplicity...and i love the outcome of this! i actually found a website that was talking about the redesign that they did recently - which resulted in the making of this!

i find the original one extremely boring and in no way relates to what the society is all about. someone left a comment on the website i mentioned saying the original one looked like a government type logo and i totally agree.

break.

this week has been super busy...next week is spring break and i am sooooo ready for it...but i didn't get a chance to make any new cards this week. but i have some on reserve that i made a couple weeks ago so even if i didn't have time i would still have something to share!

this is a card i made for my friends who lost their cat a couple weeks ago :( it is very simple, but sometimes i like having ones that are pretty much blank but can be used for any occasion! (they are definitely good to keep a stash of to always have on hand - i need to make some more to do that).

since i will be at home this upcoming week...i might be a little sparse on the new posts. even though it is break i have a lot of work to do and a lot of things planned! but i will try to get some in hopefully!

flamenco chef.

this is such a great commercial. the idea is great, the animation and design is amazing, and the music is fun! i especially like that her fan is a blade - such a good idea! love it!

you can view it in better quality here...plus there is an interview with the design team!

medals.

so again...i have been watching a lot of the olympics hahaha which is why this post will again be about the olympics! when i first saw the medals for this year i wasn't sure how i felt. i thought they were honestly kind of weird looking from the pictures i saw. but when i saw them "in person" and by that i mean on tv i actually thought they were pretty neat...i like how they are curved very distinctive! i read somewhere that the curves and design are supposed to represent the waves of the ocean...i don't know but i still like them. hahaha

it is always interesting to see what medal designs they come up with...one medal design in recent years that i really didn't like was the beijing medal...the main reason being that i felt the blobs of color on them made it hard to distinguish between gold, silver, and bronze because they didn't look like those colors:

my absolute favorite medal design is from the 2006 torino winter games. i also loved the overall look of the games...their ads and logos i thought were beautiful. but i loved that the medals were donut shaped with the ribbon being knotted around the medal - something very different and unusual for medals. i also LOVED how each medal was also customized with the sport that they won in...i thought that was a nice extra touch!

i hate this last image...but it was the only one that i could find that clearly showed the distinct sport on the back - my favorite part! again i really like the overall design of the torino games...i might be a little biased because i visited torino while i was studying abroad and thought it was the most beautiful city...i would love to live there! but anyway...you should definitely check out more of the designs from the torino olympics - click here! LOVE IT!

birthday.

today is my father's birthday! happy birthday padre!!!! i won't tell you how old he is...he is just old and we will leave it at that! hehehe just kidding!
so i of course have another birthday card to share with you today:

i have been trying to use more patterned paper as well as trying to combine more colors and shapes! just to help me create more designs! so i had fun with this card!
anyway...happy birthday padre! i hope you have a wonderful day :)

team great britain.

i have been watching a lot of the olympics - i find that it is the perfect thing to have on in the background while i work on design stuff! the one sport i really got into during this olympics is curling! haha who knew it was so addicting??? for some reason i thought it was played really differently than it actually is so it isn't boring like i thought. hahaha but anyway, i was watching the u.s. women play great britain the the other day (the u.s. won!!) and i really really liked the great britain's jackets. i wasn't able to find an image of this online anywhere - but i have been a fan of their logo for a long time so i thought i would share that with you.

i love how the british flag has been incorporated into the lion's head! i feel like it is a very "fierce" logo and i love the way it has been stylized. it actually took me awhile to find a good image of this online, so i unfortunately have no idea who designed this. i just wish they had created something as nice as this for the upcoming london olympics...hahaha but that is a completely different story.

party time.

just a couple new cards that i have to share...birthday inspired ones! i love this patterned paper -it is one of my favorites - and i had fun adding some glitter!

this second card was one i made for my friends birthday...i love this color combo!

ultra grip.

i thought these were pretty good ads. very clear. very simple. i like it.

blockbusters.

i saw these ads on the ads of the world website and thought they were a funny idea. i think the imagery is great...but the message is kinda dumb. i understand that they don't want people pirating their movies...but when you make the tag line about blockbusters, it doesn't make me feel real sympathetic towards the movies that make millions of dollars in an opening weekend. but anyways...i still think the overall idea is pretty cool.

animal rights.

so today marks six years since i decided to become a vegetarian - i can't believe it has actually been that long! so i thought i would share some work that i did a few years ago for one of my graphic design classes that was about animal rights.

when i look back at some of my design work from my early years at college there are quite a few things that i absolutely hate, but this is a project that i still really like and am using in my portfolio. this piece is actually on my school's design website (i had posted this link when i first started my blog...but its been awhile so i thought i would post it again) and if you search around you can find a few of my other pieces on the website as well!

unfortunately jpeg versions of these don't do the colors justice, but you at least can get the idea!

valentines.

happy valentine's day!!

grace kelly.

for my film studies class, we had to watch alfed hitchcock's rear window with grace kelly and james stewart (i really like him) from 1954. so far i really like it, i am not quite done yet though, but in it grace kelly wears the most beautiful dress:

i just think that it is absolutely beautiful! i have always liked a lot of the dresses from that time period and this definitely isn't an exception!

these pictures are alright, but they don't really do it justice...so i actually found some opening clips from the movie, so you can actually see the dress!

marc johns.

i saw some of these watercolors the other day and thought they were funny! these are by marc johns - he does a lot of watercolor illustrations that are really fun. i really like his style of drawing and also the humor he uses in his illustrations.

i especially like the mock designer illustrations...they are done on post-its...and there are a few more on his website that i listed below.

this is a link to his site...he has a ton of drawings on there...some i thought were great, others were just weird.

slanted notebook.

i totally do this when i write in notebooks:

these are slant ruled notebooks that with 45 degree ruled lines so that you can write on an angle without turning your notebook! though i think i might do this out of habit and not so much that i actually need the lines slanted...but still a neat idea!

hey there.