3D Books

Hi everyone!

I haven't posted in a long time, and I promise I've been workin' on new stuff.. :P I've just been really busy. Haven't had time to show everyone my new stuff.

Lately, I've been doing some work for Chris Luckhardt of Motionblur Studios. Chris is a Drupal website designer and is getting me to design some graphic art for the websites he creates.
We've worked on two projects together so far and I'm going to share one of them with you!

The one project Chris asked me to do was a vector version of a book icon cover. This was for a website for Dan Falk (journalist and published writer).
Chris wanted the books to look quite real. This is what I created for him at first.

Chris and I talked over this illustration and decided that the perspective was a bit off for what Chris was hoping to achieve. I changed around the perspective a little and added the covers, a bit of a drop shadow and shading and here's what I came up with.

Here's the first book I created in white.

And the second in black.

This was actually a pretty fun project. I'm sure Chris and I will be working together on some more projects in the future, which I will definitely post here! Check for new updates :)

-Heather 

Dudley Smith Metalworks Logo

Hi everyone!

This post is another one of the "pretend" businesses that my sister Jessica invented for me. I wanted to work on one of the new logos, but as I don't have my tablet pen or cord (STOLEN! :O) I had to do one of the logos that would be straight.. and my tablet pen would not be needed. 

The business I chose today was Dudley Smith metalworks. I forgot to mention before I have sketches drawn up for pretty much all the logos so I already know the basics of how they will look. This one I wanted the words to look like they were made of metal. I tried adding some metal shine but it looked pretty cheesy and I like how it turned out.

My first logo.

I added the blue edges to make it a bit more manly,

 but I'm not sure if I like this one as much as the first.

What's your favourite? With blue or without? I'd love your opinion on it! 

-Heather

Blog Header- Jess Gets Creative

This is my newest project, a blog header done for Jessica Peter's blog Jess Gets Creative.

She didn't give me many specifications for this project other than she liked the curly pirate type font as well as the quill pen.

I know she likes vintage maps, so I added that as a background overlay/gradient. She has a published article about Van Gogh, and he is one of her heros so I thought that would be appropriate for her header.

She is also looking to publish a YA fiction novel about the Wild Hunt so I also added that to the header. 

She really liked how it turned out, and probably will soon be putting it up on her blog. What do you think?

-Heather

Creative Allies

I was recently referred to the website Creative Allies by my boyfriend Dan Auld and thought it was a really cool idea. Basically the whole idea around it is people post design contests, such as a logo, a poster and whatnot and get designers to compete for the winning design.
If you win you get prize money and sometimes a prize pack, depending on the contest, if you don't.. oh well at least you have some new experience and a new portfolio piece!
The contest I decided on was a static webpage design for Quannum Projects. I haven't posted it online yet, still have a full month, but I decided to show it off on here and see what others think of it.
That way I can still make changes and whatnot. For the project they asked for a static homepage as well as one template for the inner pages, they mentioned keeping the wordpress themes in mind.

This is the homepage of the website.

This is the inner page template of the website.

I'm not sure if I kept the wordpress theme in mind enough but I still really like how it's turned out so far. What do you think?

-Heather

The Newest Business Card

Lately, I've found myself in the position where I'll be talking to someone about my freelance projects and it would be the perfect opportunity to give them my business card, but unfortunately I haven't got any printed lately.

I've made several different business cards for myself but for some reason can never decide on what I actually want. I find it's a lot easier to create things for other people than for myself. 

Anyways, I came up with a brand new business card to get printed and I think this is the one! At least for now. :P

Front of the business card

Back of the business card

What do you think? Any changes I should make or should I go ahead and get it printed! Let me know, I'd love to hear what other people think. 

-Heather :)

Logo Projects

I recently decided I'm going to make a few new different logos for my portfolio and also for practice. My sister, Jessica, a creative writer gave me help with coming up with some pretend businesses.
The first one she came up with was Carol's Flowers. I drew up a few logo sketches and then after creating it using Photoshop and Illustrator, this is the logo I decided on.

My first all-black design

I changed it up a little with a lower opacity, I like this version better than the all-black.

And finally here's what it looks like in colour, though all the colours could be easily changed, keeping the same shades.

I figure this new logo project will also give me something to use as examples if I ever decide to start selling graphics on Etsy. 

Keep watching for new logos! I have a lot of sketches (and pretend businesses) to create logos from.

-Heather

Presents for the Boyfriend

Today is my One year anniversary with my boyfriend!

I decided he deserved a really good present, for being such a good boyfriend :P, so I made him some crafty items.
Dan is starting his own T-shirt company. He's recently bought himself a screen printing machine and has started drawing designs and printing some shirts. The present I made him was to help him really get into the business, and also for some inspiration!
This idea was somewhat like the Recipe Binder but instead of Recipe template pages each page would have a blank t-shirt for him to draw his ideas onto.

He would circle the "Front" or "Back" depending which it was, draw his design in, and write in what colours the t-shirt is as well as the print. Good idea? 

I padded a binder from the dollar store and went to Fabricland to get man-ly type fabric. I found this stretch corduroy that looks like a mix between animal print and woodgrain. Pretty cool in my opinion and it feels VERY nice!

Outer Binder

I went out to Michael's craft store to get some felt for the innards. I found this dark brown snakeskin type felt that looked pretty manly-esque. This covered up all the rough edges from the fabric.

The binder all put together.

As well as the binder, I got him two shirts to print on, and a few arty items from Mixed Media on James St. N in Hamilton, ON. He loves that store and I figured it would help make the ultimate present for him!

I picked out a Hemp sketchbook (so he could draw up his pre-sketches for designs) a Juxtapoz art magazine for inspiration and finally a neat little notebook that says "Business" on it. (Dan has a print he's drawn with a cowboy-styled gun, I thought this would be appropriate.)

And that's it for today everyone! Keep checking for new updates, as I'm working on new projects all the time.

Comments are always welcome.

-Heather