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For those of you not familiar with the Taproot Foundation, it’s way to donate your professional services over 6 months (100 hours!). As account director, I assist in staffing and developing professional teams to deliver critical consulting services to local non-profits in our community.

Together, our wonderful team of 6 has worked diligently over the last several months to produce a 28-page publication celebrating Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust’s 20th anniversary.

As you can see from the above overview, this is generally a 5-stage process involving interviews with the client, research and analysis resulting in a 7-page report, on-site photo shoots, 28-pages of content development and design. To accomplish this each team member participates in several in-person meetings, weekly conference calls, and personalized tours through the Mountains to Sound Greenway itself.

I have been working on this project since January with a carefully chosen team of professionals. Our team includes:

Tracy, Copywriter for MSN Money
John, Photojournalist for MSNBC
Kathy, Graphic Designer for Hornell Anderson
Joanne, Marketing for AT&T Mobility / Filter Talent
Cindy, Project Manager formally for Eddie Bauer
Jennifer, Account Director (That’s me!)

Challenges: Our project has had very little challenges that we couldn’t handle. The project has taken slightly over our goal of 6 months  due to the sheer scale of photos to take spread out over approximately 100 miles (Thank goodness John is full of adventure!), research, copy and design needed. Since this is all done in our spare time… things like vacations, family emergencies, travel, etc naturally pop up! However, the extra time has allowed the team to give 100% to a perfect completed piece.

Things are coming together! For months, all our work has been fragmented into word documents and sketches. This week, we met up to see the comps! It is very rewarding to see the quality of the design, copy and photography and how it starts melding together into a finished piece. This top photo is a great example of John’s photography and how he seems to capture the essence of the moment. The grid you see is an inspiration of how the land was divided throughout the greenway long-ago. And the first page leads with a powerful opener “This is not a chance. This is a choice.”

This spread exhibits the “Unparalleled Playground” that the Mountains to Sound Greenway has helped build and preserve. John captured this kayaking photo in Bellevue… pretty amazing you don’t see any high rises! Also, did you know you can walk—almost entirely on a trail from Golden Gardens beach in Seattle all the way across the mountains to Ellensburg? These are just a few things you’ll find out when our final publication is done!

After our review meeting on Monday, we have all kinds of creative solutions for Kathy to implement. She’s doing a great job and I can’t wait to present to the client next Monday!

Overall, I can’t say enough good things about our teams reliability and professionalism as we have worked together to provide a comprehensive piece for Mountains to Sound Greenway to show what an impactful non-profit they truly are.

Time to change your monthly calendar, summer is here to stay!

Choose from one of our new custom desktop calendars to help brighten up your computer!

1. Click on the thumbnail image you would like to use
2. Double click on the picture in order to download the high resolution version

6 Reasons why a logo should cost more than your lunch!
~ EU Freelance Designer

I recently came across this article on the worth and value of good solid logo design. I think there is often a misconception about the work and effort that it takes to create an excellent, well researched and timeless logo. Yes, there are designers and online sites that put logo design up “for sale”, but I don’t believe that a logo should ever be “for sale.” Its not a seasonal item that will start to fade in a few months and no longer be in style. A good logo should be able to stand the test of time.

According to this online blog article there are 6 reasons why logo design should cost more than your lunch, and I happen to agree!

1. A logo is the very first impression people get of your company –
This is precisely accurate. If you have no previous knowledge or exposure of a company your acquaintance with their logo will be your first read on the “feel” of the organization. If the logo is outdated, pixelated, thrown together or just boring, this impression will translate to the product or company. It is essential to make the best first impression.

2. A logo needs longevity
Like any fashion or product based industry there will always be trends that come and go. I believe that it is important to be aware of those trends and perhaps even align your design within these unwritten rules. However your design needs to withstand the temporary phase that each trend brings.

3. A logo needs to be original
If everyone is sporting the same look how do you distinguish yourself? If your logo is generic then your company becomes generic. Proper research and brainstorming are critical in this step of the process. The mark should not be selected because it looks cool, there should be meaning behind its appearance.

4. A logo should look professional
If you want to come across as an amateur than by all means, your logo is the best place to start. For most, this is not the desired impression. Professionalism is the goal, this needs to be obtained through your logo.

5. A logo should reflect the time and thought gone in to designing it
This is one of the biggest reasons why a good logo should cost more than your lunch. Artists and designers do not simply “whip” out beautiful, well thought out logos. There is a design process, and necessary steps to take to achieve longevity, professionalism, and unique design.

6. A logo is the starting point of your whole corporate image
Your company logo should pave the way for the rest of your company image. This is the starting point, let everything stem from your logo and brand.

When to use a consultant:

The best time to consider a consultant is when your task at hand requires experience outside your realm of expertise. With the right consultant your company gains the highest level of experience and professionalism at an affordable price without having to hire a full time position.

Alternatively, if you are considering hiring a completely new role, a consultant can allow you to test the waters and see if you have the workload for a full time person.

How to choose a consultant:
In my opinion, a connection should happen at your first meeting. You should genuinely like to work with and speak to your consultant. If you get a bad feeling right off the bat— then move on. If not, do your homework and look at their website, their previous work, and ask for a couple of references. A strong consultant should be an excellent listener, if you find yourself being hit with a generic sales pitch, this may not be the best fit.

How to get started with a consultant:
A good place to start is to work with your consultant to clearly define the scope of work, your goals, and your expectations in writing. This step will help you and the consultant to prevent any miscommunications. Also, ask your consultant how they prefer to work… some bill hourly and some will do an estimate or a ‘not to exceed amount’.  A good consultant will outline their process and clearly indicate timeline and costs.

How to judge if it is worth it:
A consultant’s information is only worth what you make of it.

Adobe Kuler is a free web hosted application for generating color schemes! I stumbled upon this excellent resource and have found it to be quite useful. It is the perfect place to browse when you need color inspiration, new themes, popular trends, and specific color matching.

Create
Kuler also has an option to create a color scheme from a personal photo. I uploaded a photo and am able to manipulate the color selection and create the exact scheme that I want. There are also options to create color schemes using the color wheel. By simply moving the ruler bar you can change the theme using analogous colors, monochromatic, triad, complementary, compound, shades, and custom.

I personally love this feature, it is so easy to select a color and then change the layout according to the different rules. If you are starting a new project and need some inspiration check out Kuler! This is the perfect site to compile your visual ambitions and actually get to see them put together.

Here are a few samples taken from http://kuler.adobe.com/

1. Most popular: Olde Tyme

2. Personal upload: photo

3. Create: Custom colors/shades

Since 1963 Graphic Design USA has been the news magazine for graphic designers and other creative professionals. Enjoy some of the web design from this years gallery:

Champlin Architecture
http://www.thinkchamplin.com/

This web site is very clean and the viewer gets a strong sense of balance and symmetry which completely represents the essence of the firm. I really enjoy the picture navigation at the bottom of this page, it demonstrates their vast array of work as well as showcase their impressive design.

Aesthetic Answers
http://aesthetic-answers.com/

This web site has a strong visual layout that does not need very much to say that the design company is professional, elegant and talented. I love the color palette and the organic flow that the company logo has.

Agency Creative
http://agencycreative.com/index.php

Agency Creative may have more flare and design elements then I normally like, but this site really works. The colors are bright yet the design is not cluttered or confusing. The “See our work” section not only shows you some of their past work but you get to see a step by step process of how they transformed a company through branding.

Today, I am taking the time to work on my first custom invitations since my wedding! As I was brainstorming I remembered what a fabulous time I had designing my wedding invitations nearly 3 years ago. I designed everything from the flower, to the custom set of icons— that was the easy part! Putting the invitations together— boy, was that A LOT of manual labor, cutting, rivets, Xacto knife all the flowers you see on the front (see below). OH… and did i mention, hand made folders for the invitation to slide into. Yeah, that was fun.

Then, I printed and punched out the custom seal and labels on the envelope, along with my custom graphic of our wedding rings for a stamp (ordered from stamps.com).

The RSVP were non-traditional, I let my guests write or draw their response in. I remember looking forward to the mail EVERY DAY! They were so much fun and my guests were creative!

Ok, so who’s in for helping me with my next invitation adventure? I promise you… it won’t be so labor intensive. Really. I swear. Ok, I hope.

Take a moment to choose a new June calendar to brighten up your desktop!
(To ensure a high resolution desktop image, make your selection then click a second time until the picture fills your computer browser.)

Take a moment to explore a few inspirational design images that vary from advertisements, pictures, logos and typographic posters. Brilliant ideas sometimes stem from design found outside of the box.

FONTS.

When designing a new piece or beginning the early stages of rebranding a company, selecting an appropriate font can be a difficult task. I have found that searching and trying free fonts has been an excellent avenue to utilize.

1. Smashing Magazine delivers useful and innovative information to Web designers and developers. I recently stumbled upon a section dedicated to font selection and inspiration—take a look and download any that you like!

25 free font downloads from Smashing Magazine

2. Fonts.com provides its customers with access to the most recently released fonts, font packages and other font services. I have found quite a few free fonts from this site to incorporate into my design.

http://www.fonts.com/FindFonts/freefonts.htm?gclid=CO7iwcGOyKECFQtKgwodF1cv_A

3. 1001freefonts offers a unique blend of artistic interpretation and stream line fonts to choose from.  Here is an example from their collection:

http://www.1001freefonts.com/

4. Simplythebestfonts offers a wide array of free fonts to choose from. I have visited this site when looking for a famous font that i can pull inspiration from.

http://simplythebest.net/fonts/famous_fonts.html