Exciting things are happening to the Sad Bird family. Soon there will be a little happy bird flying around the St. Louis headquarters. This brings a ton of joy, but also a ton of headache. I’m not worried about 4 a.m. feedings or anything like that. I’m worried about having my house overrun by primary colors. I imagine Einstein was raised among muted drab colors without the annoyance of Baby Einstein videos. And look at him; he turned out to be Einstein! Lack of inexpensive cool baby items may be a post for another day. This is about great baby design. Baby clothes!

My ideal brands to wear are Brooks Brothers and Gant. My Favorite runway shows are Prada men’s. Coats I want and can never pull the trigger on are Burberry. (See the Chicago fiasco of 2009*.) I don’t even come close to buying Burberry for me. But for my daughter, I have to talk myself out of it when I see them.

Their lil raincoats are the craziest things I’ve ever seen. It’s got the little tiny epaulettes, the gun flap, and the back rain shield. It’s all fitted and tailored. Imagine my little kid walkin’ around, going to Racs for lunch, wearing that yellow jacket with the collar up. If that’s not the coolest most adorable thing you’ve ever imagined, then I don’t know, get out of town.

In reality, it’s ridiculous and I can’t imagine spending $250 on a jacket that will get worn for 3 months. But, if you know anyone that is going to be having a kid soon, I’ll go halfsies on it.

-Rich

*I tried one on. Went back the next day and tried it on again. I couldn’t do it.  I was not married, didn’t own a home**, had disposable income, wouldn’t have missed the money too bad back then. I didn’t buy it and 3 years later can’t stop thinking about.

**Look at how young, fresh, and handsome I was back then. Can you believe the picture on the right is just 3 years later? Marriage, a house, and kid on the way take its toll man.

Now thats something. I guess that detail is why Volkswagen is das unofficial automobile of Sad Bird Design.

Everytime then refrence one of their producs or movies I immediately want to create something for it. Once I found a company that had made some fake posters for Seinfelds fake movies I thought, I have to make my favorite.

Another one I really want to do is Sack Lunch.

While not my favorite character on the show, Kramer has had his moments. Drinking scotch and making a jingle for Hennigans was Kramer at his best.

If you really like, you can get the shirt, too!

-Rich

Full size portion of header:

Each quarter they’ll be able to feature a main article at the top (In this case, an introduction from the Optometrist). A number of secondary articles may appear below accompanied by an image (vector graphics by me, or real photography) to the left.

We decided MailChimp was the best service for their needs. They’ll be able to analyze the basics, like how many people opened the newsletter and how many links were clicked. A big plus for me, though, is that MailChimp automatically writes CSS inline to make sure their newsletter looks similar in any mail client (Gmail being the toughest to design for).

Width: 650px
Font: Helvetica (or Arial, sorry Windows users) with Georgia Italic for the tagline
First Issue: January 2011
Newsletter Service: MailChimp

Here is more of the newsletter:

Sill working on the layout a bit and proper graphics to match the text.

- Randy

Having a cool fiancée means I get a lot of say in the overall look of pretty much all of the wedding related things. For the most part it’s me saying “no” to a lot of ornamentation and yes to simple and traditional. Honestly, I’m pretty lucky that she has a similar aesthetic. Or, at least, also enjoys mine. Which means I get to use a lot of Futura!

I think I enjoyed making these directions the most. The goal for the invitation packet was to try and capture the feeling of the ’60s but keep it updated and modern – not to look like a prop from Mad Men. The invitations, reply cards, and directions are all printed on ivory colored paper or cardstock which adds to the old effect but is still in the tradition of wedding invitations created today. I’m happy with the results.

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