Today, My grandmother Elizabeth turned 90… Happy Birthday Grandma Liz!

This weekend, her surprise party was themed with the above cupcake graphic and ‘This Birthday is Powered by Cupcakes”.

I have been working on the graphic, the theme, invitations, custom stamps, buttons, magnets, banners, and of course bingo (aka ‘LIZ90′) cards for awhile now. Of course— it was a surprise so we had to be top secret until now, so I haven’t been able to blog about the progress!

We ordered 90 cupcakes from my friend Jody at Cupcake Royale in Bellevue and everyone held a cupcake and made a wish for my grandmother.

More photos (taken by Jen and Jody Photography) later…

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.

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.

At Immix Design we have recently worked with a new up and coming company that we have mentioned before called, Lifelens Coaching. The logo and final business cards have been discussed and shown on our blog and now we have moved into somewhat of a transitional period before printing letterhead. Often times clients will need to put the printing process on hold at this point while they weigh out their budget options. A great alternative to the printed letterhead is the Word document letterhead. The full design work is initially created in a design platform such as Adobe Illustrator.  However we have found that creating jpgs for the header and footer of a Word document as well as setting up margins and formating the text allow for a complete letterhead look. The company or individual can simply print in-house or send emails that are already formated and branded. There are obvious downsides to this method, the printing is not as high quality and generally the paper stock is less than professional. The Word letterhead may always be second best to the printed letterhead, however it is a highly functioning option that is extremely cost effective.

As a design firm that strongly believes in finding the best option for our clients we highly recommend this option even if you proceed with the printed letterhead. Take a look at the letterhead that was created for LifeLens to be used as a Word document…

The Lifelens Coaching logo has been finalized and now it is time to explore the world of business card layout. Business cards are an important aspect of who you are and what you stand for as a company. Your business card is often your first impression and the only reference potential clients have for the future. When someone picks up your card how does it feel? Do they notice a paper weight or texture? Do you want them to notice these things? What about the information on the card, is it cluttered or hard to read? These are all things to consider when designing a business card. At Immix Design we believe that when you pick up a business card it should say something even before you begin to read what is actually on the card. A thick and sturdy paper weight suggests that a company has a solid foundation. Carefully selecting a specific paper weight and stock gives that company a custom representation, rather than a generic blend. When we design business cards the first thing we do is establish what information the client finds necessary. Once the information has been confirmed we begin to create a layout that best represents the company.

LifeLens Coaching is a truly passionate company that really desires to know their clients and provide them with the best fit for their life and career. We took this idea into the drawing room and began to transform it into a visual representation. LifeLens primary clientele are female professionals searching for their next career move or step in life. Our color palette and design was selected to best appeal to this demographic. We are in the early stages of the design process but look forward to seeing what paper stock they choose as well as how the final product turns out. Take a look at the current business card design.

My favorite aspect about working with a new client is that we get the opportunity to hear what they are all about and then begin to formulate their vision into a unique design. LifeLens is a truly passionate company that really desires to know their clients and provide them with the best fit for their life and career. It really provides a clear vision for the design once you grasp what the client stands for and how they want to be represented. A big part of creating a mark is finding that balance of what the company does, and who they are as individuals. As a designer its important to take the whole process into consideration and let the design speak for itself in the end.

The final logo design for LifeLens captures the essence of who they are and what they do. We love to design and have the client be completely satisfied with the end result.

The next step is business cards! We will post updates of the design along the way.

When we began our brainstorming and logo comps we incorporated all of these factors into our design. The first set of logos demonstrate a strong, clean mark that has an elegant yet sophisticated look. Check out the first set of logos…

The final logo that was chosen was a combination of fonts and ornate design taken from the first set of logo options. Jamie Michelle has selected a deep purple and silver color pallet to represent the modern and elegant bride that she will be working with. Take a look at the final logo and be sure to look for Jamie Michelle projects in the future!