Doyle Family Logo

I haven't posted in forever, hello world!
While I've been gone (from the online world), I've had two different full-time graphics jobs.. my current job being brand new! As well as doing some courses online for starting my own business, so I've had a busy time of it :)
I have been working on a few freelance things, but it's all going along very slowly.
What I'm working on now is a logo for my family reunion. My family is HUGE, each year we have a reunion with about 200 people.. this has been going on for 50 years!
This year, being our 50th anniversary, we're having a celebration with some souvenirs (mugs and other little items). So of course we needed a logo for it and I volunteered to do it.
The family weren't sure what kind of thing they were looking for yet, so I had to put together a few ideas before I started on the final. These are some of the "pre-designs" I came up with.

The family decided on using the crest, along with the family name, and a year (specifically for the 50th - this would be taken out later).

I had to contact some relatives in Ireland to find out what our ACTUAL family crest is, since there are a ton of different ones floating around on the internet. He got back to me with the proper one being this:

Of course, being straight off the internet, once this file was on my computer it was a tiny size and also extremely low resolution, entirely pixelated. So I had to recreate it!

I did this entirely in Illustrator - with a whole lot of layers I might add. Here is the final product:

Took me quite a long time, but it was worth it in my opinion! I might even get to do another project for the family, such as a cookbook.. but I will keep you posted.

On another note, my graphics have been published in a book (collaboration with my sister Jessica Peter and I)! It's an travel, info graphic book put out by Lonely Planet called "How to Land a Jumbo Jet", and it comes out tomorrow! 

Check it out if you can :).. I'm on page 80!

-Heather

Sister Haystack Vintage

My newest post is about SISTER HAYSTACK VINTAGE!
Sister Haystack is an online vintage clothing store that I am starting up with my sister Jessica. We both love everything to do with vintage and we're constantly at flea markets, antique stores and consignment shops so we thought, why not!
Want to know why we are called Sister Haystack? It was the name of our planned folk punk band that never got off the ground because, well, we couldn't play any of the right instruments. We had to use the name somewhere, and it seemed just right to sum up our vintage aesthetic. That's why!
I thought I'd share all that info with you as well as show you the graphics I've designed for it. I had to create a whole new brand (FUN) so I went with the "Sister" idea and used some country-esque style.


This is our main logo I created (Not including the barn wood background but that has become part of our brand as well. ) I used the mud flap girl idea (two of them for sisters) and added some cowboy hats for the country style.  

We each got personalized business cards, kinda neat I think.

Our banner for our etsy shop. Again with the barnwood

Our twitter background, which is also in the style of the business cards. 

And that's all I've created so far. I will probably have more graphics coming as our business expands!

SISTER HAYSTACK IS OPENING ON APRIL 20TH. GREAT GIVEAWAYS! BE SURE TO CHECK IT OUT!

You can find us at http://www.etsy.com/shop/sisterhaystack

                              http://twitter.com/sisterhaystack

                              http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sister-Haystack-Vintage/184865991560084 

- Heather

IAAG

Onto my newest project! IAAG!
IAAG stands for Interactive Alternative Art Gallery. If you check out the link I've posted you'll see what it's all about but I'll describe it in a few words. Basically this is started by a collective of alternative artists (alternative art being: graphic design, graffiti, music, tattoo art etc.). Each month we will have a different show with a different theme, put on at a venue. It will be a ticketed event with donations and lot's of fun! The basic idea is to get alternative artists some exposure, as there is not much of that going on for them. Alternative art wouldn't be found in a regular art gallery, so IAAG will help provide that exposure and really help out artists in the community! I've been working with Enigma Agency on this project. (Lexi's idea!)
I've been designing some things for IAAG, such as the logo, so I'll show that to you!
Lexi wanted something a bit futuristic and modern, and this is what we came up with together.

I really like how it turned out, any comments? :) 

Also if you haven't checked out IAAG yet.. you probably should! It's going to be the next big art event in Hamilton, ON!

-Heather 

Corset Top Recon

I haven't posted in a while, been workin' on graphics at ACTUAL work now. Haven't got the gumption to do more in my spare time.
BUT I have been creating clothes.
The past weekend I went to a Pimp N Ho costume party. Embarrassing, I know. Haha. I knew the perfect shirt I could use for it though. I had been working on the shirt for a long while and never got around to finishing it until now!
WOO
So check out what I've created. Here's the before pictures.

This is the horrible 80s dress it started out as, with my sister as the model. She actually got some use for this dress as well. (She went to a party that was themed 80s prom!)

This is the top of the shirt after I had cut the bottom skirt part off. A little easier to see. 

And here's the final product. The front of the corset.

The back of the corset. Created with elastics and buttons for extra hold and comfiness!

And finally the shirt on me! 

It fit real nice and I was able to wear this shirt (along with some more ho-ish items lol) to the party.

What do you think??

-Heather 

Logo & Branding

So whenever I get bored I've been working on those pretend businesses my sister, Jessica,  gave me. I was having an especially anxious day, wanting to get some things done but not sure at all what to do SO I worked on one of the logos to calm myself down.

The one I chose today was called Avocado Designs. Here's the logo I came up with for it.

I think it turned out really cool, I like the different styles between the lettering and the actual avocado picture. 

Anyways, after that I was still bored so I started working on a website for the avocado designs ( my fave) And this is the page I came up with.

Also may I just mention it's quite difficult to come up with a look for a business that doesn't exist! I'm not even sure what kind of design this place does :P Haha One day I'll get my sister to invent an entire business for me and I will create something off of that but for now I think I gave them quite a nice identity.

It'd also look a lot nicer with some photography in the spaces. Just picture it!

That's all for today everyone! Keep checkin ;)

-Heather 

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