MS.

I thought I would share the process of creating my logo. When I first started making my logo, I researched other graphic designers logos. I started playing around with fonts and shapes and below are basically the various designs I went through to get to the final product. My logo is a vector tweaked to combine the "M" in a font called "Jane Austen" and the "S" in "Futura". I usually accompany other text with my logo in "Bell Gothic" or a similar sans-serif. You can see my logo and color choices on my website: www.meganschrier.com ! The image I tried to create was something "versatile" hard and soft, modern and classic etc. I think I acheived it with the two fonts I chose. Plus isn't the little upside-down heart it creates cute?? :)

Table of Contents.

How boring, right? Not necessarily... I usually overlook the table of contents in most magazines because when I look at magazines it is either to check out one specific thing or just to browse. While looking at the food network magazine recently I found this awesome table of contents:



I think it is very creative to have a photograph be the main subject for table of contents and in this case, each ornament has meaning for a recipe that is in each article of the TOC. Very cool.





Here are some other neat looking table contents I found in a google image search. It is difficult to get the full effect without seeing it up-close, but at least they look nifty from the size that you can see them!

let there be light.

Random. I decided to take some picture because I haven't in a while. They all came out pretty crappy because I didn't have great subjects, wasn't into it 100% and have been disappointed with my camera lately. However, some photos I took of a light bulb in one of my lamps came out kind of cool. Check it out:





So...it got me thinking about "light bulb art"...and these are some things I stumbled upon in my google image search:

Owl City.

Beyond the fact that I have been utterly obsessed with Owl City ever since I discovered them recently, I also am quite impressed with their website. I will admit, I haven't clicked around it much to make such a judgment. I have checked out the tour dates area...but it is really the "splash-page" that I think is the coolest. First of all "Fireflies" plays as you open the page - awesome song. Also, I love the airy feel and the little reindeer-like creatures floating across with things that fans have written in right from that page. I also think the little owl with the twitter status in the bubble are creative. All in all, I like it ;) Check it out:

Dirty Girl.

While in Barnes and Noble the other night to get some design inspirations, I picked up a book called 1,000 Bags, Tags, & Labels. In the book I found these cool package designs for a brand called "Dirty Girl", which are toiletry and makup products I have seen sold at places like Target and Ulta. I think the designs are fun and fantasy-like but have an eroticish, edgy feel with some of the imagery and phrases. However, it is PG enough to be on the shelves of any retail store and definitely stand out from the average makeup packaging. Take a look:

holADays.

I thought I would make a post about some holiday advertisements I have seen in magazines, or online from magazines. I think it is funny how we were always taught in graphic design classes not to use cliche imagery...ironically enough...many of the ads we see today that are strong ads DO use cliche imagery, at least here in some of these holiday ads. Here are a few I would like to share with you:


Here is one I found online for IKEA...I think it is creative how they used the furniture to spell out the holiday words.


Here is an ad for Neiman Marcus, it doesn't scream holiday to me but I like the colors and the drama...I put this in here more for the irony of the quote about not spending a lot of money, when my parents always called Neiman Marcus - "Needless Markup"...haha I got a chuckle.


I love reeses and think this one is colorful and holidayish ;)


This one for Bed Bath and Beyond is great. Everyone knows the BB&B 20% coupon, they are everywhere and they never change the look of it. Here they almost make a mockery of the fact in a very effective way for the holidays. Everyone loves coupons, so why wouldn't they want to kiss it under the mistletoe?


The following 2 are for Pama and Ugg brands. Funny how again we see a cliche image created out of the Christmas tree shape. I do think it is effective however. People can relate to the imagery and will be drawn to see what the product they are selling is all about.



Last but not least is an ad I found online from a magazine. I have seen many ads from Gap on TV for the holidays this season and this ads look goes right along with it. Here we see the shape of a snowflake created from the bodies of the girls laying in the Gap lounge-wear.