Hey friends! Just testing out the new blog. Here’s a thing I drew:
Freelance Graphic Design from Edmonton, Alberta
Hey friends! Just testing out the new blog. Here’s a thing I drew:
Logo Design · Graphic Design · Film & TV Titles ·
Productions Loft is an Edmonton-based production company. I recently helped them with two very beautiful projects.
One project was involved a logo, box art, and supporting graphics for a documentary called The Secret Life of Pianos. This film is a gorgeous, emotional, and quirky look into the world of Edmonton’s piano tuners. With the logo, I went for a balance between elegance and quirk; this was important because the film highlights the eccentricities of a very niche industry. The result is genteel but not perfectly polished. I was absolutely spoiled for this one: producers Marie-France and Steve provided me with stunning interior shots of pianos to work with. If you’ve never seen the inside of a piano, it’s mesmerizing.
Another project was How to be French en Alberta. How to be French is a series that highlights Francophone Albertans and their stories from growing up French in the West. The film is currently in production, and once again, my role was to make a title logo:
Marie and Steve wanted a modern-looking logo that they could use to market the series while it was in production. It needed to be minimal enough to overlay on various photo and footage backgrounds.
How to Be French is about connection and communities/cultures intertwining. I reflected that in the logo by having the words overlap (bit of a pun with “en” being inside of the other words). The tight layout is also meant to convey a sense of intimacy, as the series is showcasing real individuals and revealing a bit of their day-to-day lives.
A little fleur-de-lis inside a wild rose adds some interesting contrast to all the straight lines and letters. We figured it could also be used on its own here and there as a signature icon. Another little visual pun: the fleur is inside the wild rose, ie, French in Alberta.
Logo Design · Branding ·
When the family business was coming on its 12th year in business, we decided it was time for a rebrand. The previous served us for 10 years, but didn’t really reflect the vision and values of the company anymore.
We decided that the new look should more accurately reflect our regard for the swing era, vernacular jazz, and live entertainment. Our main inspiration was Harlem’s Savoy ballroom — somewhat upscale, but at the same time lively and welcoming. The new look is a nod to the roots of swing. (We also did a slight name change to reflect the wide variety of art forms that happen in the space.)
The “S” is an art deco letterform with a pattern resembling floor boards. The floor boards are meant to emphasize Sugar Swing as a ballroom — and the dance, music, and theatre activities that a ballroom implies. A candy-coloured red injects some excitement and helps balance the otherwise minimal presentation. Vintage-style fonts maintain the swing-era look.
As a brand isn’t just a logo, I made a basic style guide to help capture our overall visual style:
I’ve made a multitude of designs over Sugar Swing’s long history! If you’d like to see some more work, check out New Year’s Promo Designs and Gig Posters.
Logo Design · Print Design · Content Writing & Strategy ·
Curitus is a consulting company that helps NGOs become more effective and more efficient in their important and challenging work. It began as a one-time trip (or so they thought) to Southern Iraq to help an NGO get its new school off the ground. This trip had a profound impact on the founders, who now offer strategic reviews, professional development, and creative support to non-profits all over the world.
My task was to make a logo for this company that captured the care, innovation, and international perspective of the team. Curitus also wanted a more modern look that reflected a reinvigorated approach to this field of consulting.
Out of a few concepts, this was the winner: a lantern resting on a stand, which carries the positive connotations of hope and progress. The style of the lamp is meant to look like a globe, referencing internationalism and travel; it’s also meant to look more like a lamp you’d see outside of Western culture. The red colour is symbolic of aid, and the lamp stand also makes a C shape which was a subtle nod to company name. This approach was meant to reassure audiences with a recognizable symbol while still looking modern. (Side note: If you’d like to see more logo design work, check out this logos-only page.)
Working with Curitus was a unique experience for me. I had a glimpse into the world of those who live to help others — and a look at the kind of warm, wise folks who ensure that those who care don’t burn out.
Later on, the Curitus team and I worked together to create some designs for Sprouts, a non-profit that that sells and trades used children’s supplies. The client wanted a more modern look that appealed to young parents, and something that would suggest that Sprouts was looking for high-quality items. I used bright colours and paint splatters to keep the look fun and kid-like, but the composition is more stylish and organized; this is meant to frame Sprouts as up-to-date and credible, and ideally attract those higher-end donations.
I addition to design, I developed content and a tagline for the work. Other donation appeals I looked at used a “clear your clutter” message — but I felt audiences would be more inspired by the idea of making a difference. It feels gratifying to think of your stuff being enjoyed again or helping someone, so the headline “preloved to beloved” is a fun visual rhyme to engage those feelings.
Strategy · Copywriting · Graphic Design ·
Twice a year, Beaumont Credit Union sends newsletters to its members. I wrote and designed the 2017 run of newsletters, which included articles about company happenings plus banking tips.
Like many community-oriented businesses, Beaumont credit union runs social media campaigns to keep customers informed. Below are a couple of projects where I’ve designed social media graphics and in some cases developed content to get the message across. BCU has a presence on many social media platforms, so each design must be reformatted for different outlets; I rework each design to look good on Instagram, Facebook, digital display monitors, mobile banners, and more.
This Christmas we made a campaign to talk about BCU’s common shares. I wrote some concise copy that celebrated the shared profits as well as BCU’s sponsorship achievements that year. Design-wise, the idea here was to look festive for the season without making it a Christmas-centric ad. The branches off to the side reflect the logo design, but have berries to support the idea of profit or returns.
Graphic Design · Illustration · Publication Design & Layout · Copywriting ·
I’ve had the pleasure of working with the Town of Devon for a number of years now! A couple of my favourite projects of late have been their seasonal program guides and illustrations.
The Devon summer program guide goes out to town residents so they can start registering for programs and be informed about town events. As for one’s heartstrings, the guide is meant to inspire summer nostalgia. Residents are encouraged to remember the sprinklers, popsicles, and sidewalk chalk of childhood — and create new memories by being active and outside. The 2016 guide was a little extra special to me because I got to make some hand-drawn doodles for the cover and inside. When winter rolled around I used the same hand-drawn approach, but tweaked the colours scheme to evoke a “magical” winter feel. The goal was to inspire readers to get out of the house for a snowy adventure!
That summer I made a fun typographic illustration. It was printed on some swag items and used to promote active living in the town. Devon proposed the typographic approach, based on the style of the summer guide. They provided me with the activities and places, and my little doodles helped show off these amenities. It was a collaborative development!
The Grab Life campaign later had me write and design a tourism ad that went on the back of Edmonton’s summer guide. It looks like a typical magazine ad — but it was a major design challenge! Four different organizations had a stake in this ad, and my task was to promote them all in a unified way while balancing the interests of each one. They each had their own brand guidelines and preferred photos to boot. I’m extremely happy (and, if I’m honest, a tiny bit surprised) with how nicely it came together.
If print and publication design is something you’re looking for right now, check out this page of publication designs, or these pages of brochures and mailouts.
Logo Design · Print Design ·
I teamed with Curitus International to make a logo for the The Salvation Army, which runs the Time to be Holy youth event. This design is meant to remind you of pilot wings or an army division patch, but in a more modern style.
The idea was to play off the army theme and create the feel of being part of a unit or sharing a mission. A rough patina helps bring the logo down to earth; I was aiming for a vintage t-shirt look. Maybe we can convince them to make a sweet lapel pin! For now we made a promo poster and a PowerPoint template, and they even had some messenger bags made.
The Salvation Army has a long history of music and marching bands, and continues to provide music training to young people. Our job was to make a logo for their day camp, Micro Music Camp.
As S.A.’s music camps are rooted in brass bands, the overall design is meant mimic a band uniform: bold contrast and crisp lines. I used a horn because it’s an attention-getting instrument; it signals/precedes an important happening, which fits the history of S.A. parading towns and drawing crowds. Navy and gold helps to suggest instruments and uniform colours, but muted to create a more modern palette.
We also made a poster; a fun little Easter egg was including a silhouette of a S.A. headquarters, which is a distinctive building.
Print Design · Social Media Advertising ·
Midwest Property Management is one of Alberta’s largest property management companies. I’ve teamed with them on a few occasions to create promo materials that help grow the business.
Midwest advertised their career fair both in print and on Facebook. I designed the poster such that it could be printed at the office and still look professional; this saves the team a print order while maintaining the high-end brand.
Graphic Design · Illustration · T-Shirt Design · Copywriting ·
Lindy Harvest is a yearly swing dance event run by Sugar Swing. It gathers instructors, musicians, and dancers from all over the world to celebrate vernacular jazz. I’ve given Lindy Harvest it’s own slot in my portfolio because this event requires a lot of design work, and it’s brought out a lot of unique pieces.
Lindy Harvest has a rustic, Albertan theme. The most recent design featured a Scandinavian-style illustration with an Alberta twist. It started out in my sketchbook and was coloured digitally. The design was translated into various marketing collateral including postcards, a poster, and social media graphics. My favourite piece, however, was the t-shirt. I went with a long-sleeve, flow/slouchy style that complemented the cascading patterns in the illustration. I think my audience like it too, because these ones sold out right away!
In the dance scene, event t-shirts are a very tough sell. Dancers accumulate t-shirts at an alarming rate, and it takes a lot for them to buy one after regular event costs. So I have my work cut out for me when it comes to event t-shirts! With every t-shirt I produce, my goal is to make it unique and stylish enough so that people hopefully want to wear it day-to-day, not just to celebrate the event.
The Lindy Harvest prior to this year also featured some fun illustration work. It started when I drew a picture for a dancer friend and mailed it to his home in Sweden as a postcard. This picture was of a stylized rabbit that doubled as prairie landscape — a very Albertan subject he might find interesting:
I later decided to use this illustration to help promote that year’s Lindy Harvest. To my delight, I discovered my dance friend was hired to teach at this dance camp — and found it pretty funny that he’d arrive and see his rabbit everywhere!
And the rabbit popped up quite a lot, landing on web banners, posters, postcards etc. But once again, my favourite iteration of all was the event t-shirt.
The shirt featured prairie rabbit, but in a wrap-around design. The front half of the rabbit was on the front of the shirt, and the back half on the back. Initially I wasn’t sure how doable this was print-wise, but my printer did an excellent job making the vision happen. For the garment itself I picked a soft tri-blend material with a modern cut. The shirts were available in heather red and grey. I’d say the project was a success because we managed to mostly sell out!
Graphic Design · Illustration · T-Shirt Design · Printmaking ·
These are some projects that were either commissions or just something I really wanted to try. I love keeping busy and trying different media!
I’ve illustrated a few pairs of shoes, and I think these are my favourite. These were commissioned for Natasha, a med student who spent some time in Edmonton for school. The goal with this design was to capture her time in Edmonton. There were a lot of ideas and images to include, and I felt that the best way to unite all these elements was to use an overall style. In this case, art deco was the style. Not only having a vintage dance appeal, art deco has a very clean and precise look, which I felt supported the idea of medicine!
On the left toe we have the Edmonton skyline, and a dancer on the right to represent Natasha’s dance involvement. The heels show off her nickname “Dr. Jazz”, with the Dr. shoe including a Caduceus staff to represent her medical studies. On the Jazz shoe I used art deco patterns that have a musical vibe, with a more orderly pattern on the Dr. side.
The art was penciled in first, then inked with permanent fineliners of varying widths. I added some red accents throughout, but kept the colour palette minimal to preserve the clean art deco look. You can see a couple more photos here, and you can also check out two more commissioned pairs of shoes: feminine flowers and a cat that gets around.
Amidst my freelance work I took a little time for myself to do some vanity projects. I like to make detailed black and white sketches as a kind of meditation; a couple of my favourites became t-shirts! This involved setting up a Society 6 online store, uploading the work and designing the shirts, and then buying them from myself.
One shirt is the infinite sushi platter:
And the other is a gothic-style cat skull flower garden: