Vote for my design on Threadless!!

Hey all! I have a design up on Threadless for a Threadless Loves Patterns competition...



I'd be super happy if you went to the site and gave it a 5! :)

Things I Like #1: Handwritten Elements

Loving the use of handwritten typography in everything from packaging to stationary and illustration...

Father's Day Cards by Rifle Paper Co.

Men's Skincare Packaging by Michael K Chapman

Everything is Great/Everything Sucks by Jim Tierney

Thesis Progress

Today (in hopefully the next 45 minutes or so) I will be presenting some initial concept work for my thesis. I am still looking at the growing rate of cremation and how funeral homes can still make the same amount of money as they did on burials. I am looking specifically now at the future of the cemetery and making it a place that people might actually WANT to go to (I mean, to visit. Well, I guess to be buried there as well! But not immediately..) So here are some initial concepts and thoughts...

Becoming a young professional...

Its Monday...
Originally uploaded by kennymatic

Tomorrow is my first ever full time job interview! And while I will not be wearing a Storm Trooper outfit, I will be wearing some sweet new threads I got last week.

I have spent the day readying all of my materials, reading up on Kids II, and doing overall research... and I have to say, I am pretty excited!

Atlanta, here I come! Wish me luck!

Canada's graphic identity

I have been visiting Canada the past few days with some of my best girlfriends, and it has been a great time! One of the things that always strikes me about Canada is the overwhelming presence of the maple leaf...

At first I thought that this was due to the extreme national pride that most Canadians seem to embody. Don't get me wrong, I think that this is definitely part of it. But when I look at the actual ways that the maple leaf symbol is used, I think that it is just a much easier symbol to integrate into a graphic identity. Red white and blue stripes and stars are a lot more to handle...probably the best recent use of the American flag is the Obama logo.

Do you think if America had a symbol closer in comparison to the maple leaf that it would be seen more often in branding?

Best of 2009 CD

The past couple of years I have made a "Best of" mix CD for my friends. Here are the spreads from the booklet I did for the CD this year.

Intro and Goals

I have had this blog for a little while, and much to my delight, my DesComm teacher is having us create a design blog as a class assignment! Now this blog will be updated more often...

So a little about myself as a designer! I guess you could say that my first foray into product design happened waaaaay back when I was 12. As a child, I was always encouraged to enter contests, especially ones that involved creativity and drawing. One day, Mom shows me that Amazon.com is sponsoring a "Design a Toy" contest. Why the hey not? The Hula Hat was born. It consisted of a brightly colored stocking cap, surrounded by a clear plastic tube about an inch in diameter, with colored balls inside. The idea was to get the balls to spin around inside the tube by moving your head in a "hula" motion. I sketched up the concept and sent it in.

A couple of weeks later, I recieved an email that said "Congratulations! You are one of 30 finalists invited to show a prototype of your toy to a panel of judges in New York City!" Naturally I was estatic! It was a fantastic experience, and though I didn't win the grand prize, (Mr. Itchy Pants won, and he was manufactured and sold on Amazon.com) I can't help but think that maybe that experience influenced me to become the designer I am today.

So enough about the past! Who am I today? My classmates would really find it as no suprise that my passion lies in designing for children. My first internship at Fisher-Price really helped me realize this, as I had an amazing time there, and I really liked the work I did there. After my internships with Nottingham-Spirk, I truly realized that children's products is where I want to end up. I enjoyed my time at NS, don't get me wrong...I am very glad I worked there because I met a lot of great people and learned a lot...it just helped me really admit to myself that designing for kids is my niche. I just can't resist designing fun, cute, humorous things! It gets me excited about a project and keeps me interested.

My three goals for this quarter:

1) Get myself excited about this computer project, and get my personal style into the final design without going over the top. I didn't really love the last computer project, so naturally I am kind of dissappointed to be doing another one. I want my design style to resonate in the project somehow, maybe by inserting some sort of humor, metphor, or graphic element that evokes a little bit of fun and playfulness.

2) Relax! Try not to worry so much! Anyone who knows me very well will say that this is a lofty goal! I am the queen of worrying.

3)Get a job at a children's products company. Now that I have experienced a consultancy, I want to go to a company that does childrens products (whether that is toys, strollers, bottles, etc).

That's all for now, guess I should start researching a little for the computer!