Logo Inspiration & Resource

I recently submitted a few of my logo designs to both LogoPond and LogoGala, both of which are great sources of inspiration, showcasing professionally created logos. I often go there to get ideas on color combinations, illustration techniques, or interesting font choices that I can incorporate into my own logo designs (or to just browse through some great concepts in general). LogoPond has hundreds of logos showcased, and there is a great search field if you're looking for a particular style or industry. While LogoGala is relatively new, there are more logos added daily, so this will most likely become a great resource in just a few months time. Please be sure to visit LogoPond and vote for my logos (which will give them better site rankings and higher visibility):

Green Yet
Joy of Herbs
Character Bags

To vote, just click on the little life saver icon in the bottom left corner. More logos to be posted soon!

Designer People: Television Series

I happily stumbled across a great television program last night. For the remainder of January, Ovation TV is showing a series called "Designer People". It highlights leading designers in architecture, communication, industrial, interior, and fashion, from all over the world. Last night I watched the episode on Ed Fella, who was an emerging commercial designer (as they called it back then) in the 1960's and 70's. Of course, I thought it was extremely interesting, especially due to the fact that Ed did not use the computer to develop any of his designs, even into the 80's and 90's! He broke the conventions of graphic design — at the time dominated by the Swiss design approach, consisting a clean lines, minimal features and a grid system — by making text have a sense of movement on the page, often swirling and curving.

The Designer People series is part of Ovation TV's overall "Everything is Art" campaign. I highly recommend trying to catch a few of these episodes. For a list of upcoming shows, go to the schedule page on Ovation TV's website and click on "design".

Bittbox—Great Design Resources

I wanted to let everyone know about a great design resource site I've been going to for a while now — www.bittbox.com! Bittbox offers loads of free fonts, tutorials, textures, even some vector art. Bittbox is the brain child of Jay Hilgert who self characterizes himself as a "Designer, Blogger, Web Enthusiast, and an Apple Geek". Just wanted to say thanks to Jay and to Bittbox, they've been a great resource for my own designs, and I'll be sure to keep going back to them! I hope Bittbox might help you out as well—be sure to check them out!

Our New Site Goes Live

I've been working on it for months, and I'm excited to announce that Kalico's new website is now live! I feel it is a great way to start the 2009 year, and a way to celebrate our one year anniversary! The new site is complete with an updated look and enhanced features, an improved portfolio section, and a more defined process. Please check it out at www.kalicodesign.com and I look forward to your feedback!

DanceFest Poster to be Published!

Kalico Design's poster design for the 2008 DanceFest event has been selected to appear in Crescent Hill Books "Big Book of Self Promotion". The book will be available in stores February 2009. The DanceFest poster will be featured in a section dedicated to the promotion of arts events and organizations.

DanceFest is presented by the Frederick Arts Council, showcasing dance studios and companies in the Frederick region. Ticket proceeds go towards an annual dance scholarship. I was excited to work on the project this year, especially as a past performer.

Kalico Judges Awards Competition

I was honored to be one of the judges for the Greater Frederick Advertising Federation's (GFAF) Student ADDY competition.

"The ADDY® Awards is the advertising industry's largest and most representative competition, attracting the areas brightest and most talented creatives. The mission of the ADDY competition is to recognize and reward creative excellence in the art of advertising."

This year's student work was great, as usual, representing various regional schools including Susquehanna University, Salisbury University, Kaplan College, Frederick Community College and Shepherd College. I was especially impressed with the craftsmanship and attention to detail. I was also happy to see that most projects reflected real-world design, for instance a direct mail piece such as a Frequent Flyer Miles reward card promotion or a text-heavy annual report.

Real graphic design doesn't mean making something just look pretty. It means taking the content a client supplies and creating a layout or look that best communicates the client's overall message to their target audience base.

I look forward to seeing more student work in the future. Who knows, maybe I'll be hiring one of these talented designers one day in the future!

Happy New Year!

Kalico Design would like to wish everyone a happy and prosperous new year. Good things are coming for 2009, I can feel it!