I ordered our business cards with a couple different options. I can’t imagine not ordering more, as I’ve always thought business cards or calling cards are cool. These are the first of, I’m sure, many to come.

Sad Bird Design StandardIssue/1

Its all printed with the bird, our physical location in the world, and our footprint on the web.

Sad Bird Design SpecialIssue/1 (also seen in first image)

I also got a bunch of blank cards to stamp the bird and name on. It makes for a cool look. The bird, alone, sitting in the empty void of the card, is showing us his sadness. Then, on the reverse is the name and locale.

The blank cards actually came from the idea of hand writing each card as I gave it out. I still think it is a cool idea.

-Rich

Updated on 07/10/2010 with final design.

Front:

Back:

Might put another contact lens case design into the pattern. We’ll see. The website currently has a callout for ordering contacts in the left column below the main navigation (see www.harmonyeyecare.com). After approval of this concept the callout will need to match the postcard for a proper connection between the two. And probably needs to be moved to the header. Gotta keep things consistent.

Another postcard will go out soon reminding patients of their next check-up. I’ll be using a similar pattern as this one but with other elements dealing with eye exams. Update coming soon after feedback from client. Updated with images below.

Front:

Back:

- Randy

Lately I’ve been working on a few color palette ideas and looking for inspiration. Obvs, I turned to those who knew color well. The masters, if you will. In the first issue, Color Palettes vol. 1, I look at paintings by Magritte, van Gogh, and Lautrec.

I broke down what I saw as eight key colors from the paintings into their RGB and CMYK values with the latter being in their respective percentages.

Hey, I don’t know why I made them, but the idea is that if you, a designer, like an artist or painting, well, then here is a little palette to make incorporating them in to your design easy and not obvious.

Does that sound cool at all? Are there other artists you would like to see? Or, is there other information you would like to see included? How would you use it? I would absolutely love to read your comments. There is nothing I would love more.

-Rich

P.S. It was a big decision on color vs. colour. In the end I tried to not be pretentious.

Click to view larger.

There’s a couple things I’m working on right now. One of them will soon be a post that I hope will be cool and helpful or interesting for other designers. This one however is just for me… and I guess Ariane, my girlfriend/travel companion. Kidding, and you, the reader. Earlier I made the itineraries for my trip over to Europe and found them kinda cool to have. So now, since Im going to the east coast soon I’m working on that itinerary.

Above is the footer for the cards, as of now. At the bottom of every 3.5×5 in card would be that, the car were driving on the left and the unofficial official Richard and Ariane logo. Is that weird? a little? whatever, I did it.

Please, I invite you to share your thoughts in the comments. Sad Bird Design is most appreciative of all of you readers out there. We would be nothing without you. Id like to take this time to thank you for reading and say that I look forward to making many more memories with you.

-Rich

Here is rough version 2:

A few of the many changes include:
1. 20% wider
2. Thin strokes were thickened
3. Serifs extend left and right on most glyphs
4. Height of crossbars were lowered
5. Any round letter sits just below baseline

Sample words:

Sample header/body text:

Lowercase coming soon.

- Randy

Book details:
1. 6×9 Portrait.
2. 48 pages.
3. Saddle stitched.
4. 14pt baseline.
5. 9pt Gotham Light for body copy.
6. 36pt Gotham Bold for section titles.
7. Pantone 295 C for cover/title pages.
8. Printed on 80# matte paper.
9. Cover on 100# matte paper.
10. Written by Sam Paasch.

Download the PDF here. Also available is the grid system used.

Photos of book:

Printing this book was a pretty good battle. We saw a company online that will print books for cheap. Gave it a try. Round 1: came back purple instead of blue (my fault) and glossy cover, yuck. Round 2: came back missing half the pages and terrible dark lines in the blue title pages. Round 3: switched to matte cover, fixed color issues, and all is well. Just for giggles we went to Kinkos and was quoted $60 for a 48 page book. Ha!

I need to invest in a toner printer.

- Randy

Font Details:
1. 77 glyphs in total.
2. Extreme thick/thin lines.
3. Technically a slab serif, though they are nearly hairline thin.
4. Created using Adobe Illustrator and FontLab as a working TrueType font file.
5. Manually kerned each glyph, admittedly with many mistakes.

Poster:

Glyphs:

Close up of x-height:

So what do I plan on tweaking?
1. There’s actually too much consistency between each letter. Giving more character to certain letters will help.
2. Each glyph needs to be a bit wider.
3. The transition between thick and thin is harsh and will be softened with curves for a more natural look.
4. I was never happy with the uppercase Y, needs a completely different style.
5. The x-height will be the biggest change. Needs to be lowered.
6. Lastly, I need to work on proper kerning. Lots of research will be required.

I’d like to use this font for headings in future projects. Paired with a sans-serif body text sounds like a good idea. Stay tuned for updates!

- Randy

This is something I’ve been wanting to try for a while – the blurry tree. It also has the desaturated border that I used on a thanksgiving invitation (below) which I’ve been liking lately.

-Rich

A lot has been said about great iconic logos; IBM, American Airlines, Coca-Cola, ect. One of the logos with the most nostalgia for me is the National Geographic magazine cover. It’s a weird one, as it’s not really a logo. Now, they have the official logo with the yellow rectangle and text to the right, which is alright. But the real icon for the brand is the magazine itself. And that’s what I think is great about it.

The first issue had a very non-descript brown cover with thin dark line border. It looked like a very serious scientific journal. Sometime thereafter, before 1910 as far as I can tell, they added the yellow border. That has remained a constant ever since. It’s wonderful. It is something that makes the magazine cross many generations. That yellow border makes an issue from 1930 seem just as informative and interesting as one today. So much of the magazine is about constants. Places that haven’t changed. Mountains. Canyons. People. The cover of National Geographic. The yellow border remains, just as wonder remains.

-Rich

Anyway, here are the details:
1. No computers! Couldn’t touch em during the semester.
2. Use two different magazines to combine an image with text.
3. 6 square panels including cover.
4. Black and white only.
5. Only tools were photocopier, xacto knife, and rubber cement.

My best guess is that each individual panel needs to convey the message (in this case, love) as well as when all six are combined. I’ll be the first to admit my craftsmanship needed improvement. I was a freshman, give me a break!

The 6 panel book:

- Randy