Amazing (and Slightly Creepy) Photo Project

 

We found this project via Slate and had to share. Dutch Photographer Ari Versluis and his creative partner Ellie Uyttenbroek have been categorizing different styles of dress for the past 15 years in a photo project they have dubbed Exactitudes (a combination of "exact" and attitudes"). They identify generally unintentional but nonetheless rigid subcultures/identity systems amongst different populations and then photograph the members of said subcultures. The results are both startling and intriguing. Check out the Exactitudes site to see the full breadth of their work. 

Working with a Prodigy Illustrator

One great thing about living in Music City is all the fabulous creative talent you find everywhere you look. Ben Shive, a local producer, singer/song writer and personal pal asked us if we would help him create the packaging for his upcoming independent CD. But he had a special request: Ben had been impressed by the crazy illustrative work of an amateur 14-year-old artist whose work Ben spotted on Facebook. Turns out the child prodigy was none other than Benji Anderson, the son of Joel Anderson (founder of Anderson Design Group!) Ben asked Benji to listen to his music and then draw whatever came to mind. Anderson Design Group was to use Benji’s art to create the CD package and then layout an 80-page hard-bound book of lyrics and prose.

Joel Anderson served as the creative director (and fatherly task master) to make sure that Benji’s art would be easily adapted to the project’s dimensions and printing limitations. Benji’s art work was deep, quirky, creative, and brilliant beyond his years. It virtually allowed the CD package and book design themselves.

original pen and ink drawing

finished CD cover art

Below are several samples of the art. The CD and book, both titled “The cymbal Crashing Clouds” will soon be available at concerts where Ben Shive is performing and at the Rabbit Room web site. The projected publication date for the book is mid-November, but the CD is available now!

It’s always a delicate dance to allow an illustrator the freedom to be expressive, while guiding him to produce art that meets creative and marketing objectives. It’s even trickier when the artist is a family member. And it is almost unheard of for a teen age kid to perform in the professional realm under the pressure of deadlines and the expectations of clients who have contracted with a well-respected design firm to produce a winning piece on time and within the set budget. Fortunately, Joel and Benji figured out a way to pull it off. (And they are still on speaking terms!)

People are already asking where they can buy prints of Benji Anderson’s artwork. Since he is still only 15 years old, we are being rather protective of his privacy. But we plan to create a few of his prints and sell them on our Nashville Artisan Gallery site some time in the near future. If you are interested in hiring Benji Anderson for custom illustration work, you can contact Joel Anderson at 615-327-9894.

Sweet Magnolia Ice Cream Co. Branding Sneak Peek

Not long ago, we presented with a very delicious opportunity; branding for Sweet Magnolia Ice Cream Co. The new venture envisioned by Hugh Balthrop, would be a vintage ice cream parlor with a fresh, clean, friendly, welcoming environment that sells artisan, handmade, local ingredients, grass fed/organic diary, fresh ice cream, frozen yogurt, gelato, sorbet, etc. With unique, Southern flavors like sweet potato pie ice cream, figs and strawberries frozen yogurt, sweet tea sorbet, pecan pie ice cream, drizzled chocolate gelato, tea cake vanilla ice cream and lemon straw frozen yogurt, we just couldn't wait to sink our teeth (or spoons) into this project.

For our initial logo sketches, we pursued a wide range of concepts. We wanted to use typography that felt old and charming with illustrative touches. Our client Hugh felt drawn most to the bottom center sketch, one created by Ligia Teodosiu, one of our staff designers.

Ligia got to work on the second round by using parts and pieces of the original sketch as an inspiration and platform to explore all possible logo options. In the end, Hugh went back to his original favorite (as well as ours). The logo was polished up and finished out with colors that reminded us of warm Southern hospitality, with rich vanilla and butterscotch flavors, and a dollop of old world charm.

Now that the logo is complete, we are in the process of applying this same look to business cards, store signs, labels and other goodies as a cherry on top! Stay tuned for more to come!

Our New T-shirt Designs For Farm Boy Brands

Farm Boy / Farm Girl makes very cool t-shirts for folks who love life on the farm. Their target audience is teens and young adults, which is right up our alley, style-wise. Recently, they asked us to create 5 new shirt designs—3 for Farm Girl and 2 for Farm Boy.

We always start out with research before we begin sketching. Inspired by WWII-era poster and advertising art, we sketched out rough ideas for each design.

Once the Farm Boy team approved our sketches, we rendered our designs in color using Adobe Illustrator. They gave us several options for shirt colors, and we put together color palettes that popped off of our favorite shirts. Once the color art was approved, we used Photoshop to add a classic, aged effect. The new shirts are going to be featured in the Fall 2011 line up in their catalog and on their web site.

 

The Pharmacy Logo: From Concept to Completion

Recently, we were asked to create a logo for a new restaurant opening in East Nashville called The Pharmacy. The co-owner, Terry Raley (who also happens to be co-owner of Holland House Bar & Refuge), envisioned a turn-of-the-century pharmacy theme — when drug stores were more than just drug stores and you could get sodas, alcohol and burgers. Throw into the mix a Southwestern/German beer garden and voila! — you have The Pharmacy. Staff designer/illustrator Andy Gregg took a crack at it and below is his process from start to finish.

First, we started with late nineteenth century/early 20th century packaging. We produced a style board with multiple examples (like the ones above) to show to the client, and then got their feedback on which ones they preferred. The owners of the Pharmacy liked the colors from the Mucilage packaging and the angled typography of the Medford logo, among several other reference images.

 

Next, we produced several tight logo sketches. Each logo variant tried to include some aspect of what the clients liked in the style board.

 

The clients selected the sweeping, diagonal lettering used in a few of the versions. This was inked and scanned into the computer for tighter rendering.

After a little more development (actually a lot more) we arrived at a final black and white logo. Having already incorporated angled lettering into the design, we went with a seal motif for the tagline, as we really liked this in some of our reference images. This was also a bit more space-efficient (plus it allowed us to render a wicked-cool ampersand!)

Finally, taking color cues from the mucilage packaging above, we assembled a color version. All typography was hand-rendered, and the clients seem to be very happy with the overall result. 

The Pharmacy will be opening this fall, and in the interim we will be working on even more designs for them, including a style guide, mugs, shirts, secondary logos, and much much more. Stay tuned.

Paper Vs. Digital

We are excited about all the advances in e-books and the iPad. As designers, it is a little scary to think how it will change the graphic design biz, along with the printing and paper industry. Fortunately, there are some paper products that just cannot be replaced by digital media. See what we mean?

New Wine Revolution Posters

It’s fun to create a new brand and watch it develop over time. Last year, we started with a logo design for our client the Wine Shoppe. Next, we helped create the look of their web site and store graphics. Then we designed a few ads and even created 5 wine prints to include in our Spirit of Nashville Collection. As the brand evolved, we made sure to keep a lush, rustic, inviting, European vibe in every piece we created.

This year, the owners of the Wine Shoppe wanted to launch a campaign called the Wine Revolution. The goal is to give the common man (or woman) access and knowledge about rare and fine wines from around the world. To create a revolutionary vibe, we designed a series of 3 posters to use during the campaign. They produced very nice video and posted it to their web site to kick off the campaign. The video does a very good job at promoting the brand by featuring brand elements we created—poster art, biz cards, their logo and views of their store interior (which features paint colors we helped them choose.) Click here to see the video.

 

Above are the 3 Wine Revolution posters we created. We took our visual inspiration from old Communist propaganda posters like the ones below. Then we infused the Wine Shoppe color palette and logo into our designs to tie them into the brand look we’ve established. Folks liked the Wine Revolution prints so much that we decided to print up a few extras to sell. They are available in our Studio Store for $30 each.

Next, we will help the Wine Shoppe incite a Wine Revolution by using our art on a few promotional items such as tote bags, bottle sleeves, or kitchen magnets.