Friendship tokens, Flowery Logos and more…

A client of mine is working on a felted ornament line for the holidays and asked for an enclosure card design—a simple To and From affair with the company logo on it.

Okay, but was there another way to market her new line that would take it past the holidays? Who wouldn't love a sweet reminder from a new friend or a simple housewarming gift for a new home?

I restrung the bird sample on chocolate-colored ribbon, turned the enclosure card into a friendship tag and sent it back. The idea was a hit. Could an illustrated ready-to-mail package be next? Maybe yes! 

I drew a flock of birdies before choosing the one for the tag. A sharper-edged pair appeared in the early Blackthorn roughs. Remember those from the last post? Pictured below is the final Blackthorn mark in black and white. I've included the client's original visuals by way of a before and after. See, design can make a difference! We're both happy with the new direction, although I still love those blackbirds. Sigh…

Blackthorn's updated packaging is on its way to press and a banner ad is scheduled for posting to Ravelry, a fiberarts community site, on October 1st. I'm counting the days until everything is live.

This month I wrote several font reviews for PCWorld.com/Downloads. THe fonts are free to download, by the way. The added perk of these assignments is that I get to design my own type samples. The reviews include a dark warning in Predatoric 2 from Gene Buban (pictured below left)' Circus fun with Teatral from Tobias Sommer; the voice of an exasperated superhero in IronManic from Gene Buban and an update on Mexican Blackletter steps into the ring with Mister Pablo from Nicholas Gross (pictured below right).

These assignments have been a pleasure to write. Not that I have a favorite per se, but living on the edge of the Mission District makes me lean towards Mister Pablo. Is a Dia de Muerte mug design in my future? Could be…

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Comments

[Mandy]

Above the Blackthorn logos, there's an errant "the" before everything. Although, I kind of like it. It sounds like classic accent-speak - "the everything."

[Kate G]

I specialize in errant the's. I'm also hopeless with commas. What would I do without you?