Rococo Cocoa

I'm changing my blogger theme. It's not this one, don't worry, but will be a fantastic reflection of www.joelamour.com . Now, if to figure this all out...

I kept forgetting to post this, so, instead of being asleep like I should be at this hour, I'm finally putting it up. Do click on the image to see detail.

This was a hand drawn character taken into Illustrator and traced. Then, I added texture and some other stuff (like her shadow) and ta-da! There she is. I love her dress.

For Liberator Magazine 7.2.

Remember this? If you don't (you don't) let me refresh: I'm designing wedding invitations for my friend Amelia and her fiancee Joe (not me) and we have gone through months of edits, text changes, mother's changes, more mother's changes, more more mother's changes- and now we're here!

They are inviting around 170 people (all with at least 1 "plus one"- that's a lot of people!) and thusly, I'm hand making around 170 invitations. See, that sounds tough doesn't it. But get this- Each invite has 4 separately cut printed components, printed labels, backing sheets that need to be cut, ribbons that need to be cut, wrists that need to be cut...

It turns out that when I'm done with them I will have cut 170 x 6 components to = 1,020 components in all, 4,080 (or therearounds) slices of the exacto. Crazy!

Anyway, I'm keeping track of how long it takes me so that when I charge another wedding invite client, I know I'm getting my money's worth. So, its really a good thing in the end. And think of the ice breaker I have at the wedding! "Hey, you know the invite you got in the mail that was absolutely gorgeous? Yeah, all me baby. Here's my card."

I recently gave a friend a really good wedding present: I offered to design her wedding invitations for free. It's a great portfolio builder and it helps keep me sane cause the jobs at work right now are boring. Here are the three ideas I presented to the happy couple:



1. Basic Folded
In case you didn't notice, her wedding is going to be in the fall. The wedding is fall themed, so I tried to reflect this in the coloring and decorative flourishes.


2. Swash and Leaf- 've always wanted to use a swash font for something, and since I work in museums, they frown on them case they're not readible to younger folk, disabled folk, and the elderly. But for weddings you can be foofy foofy, so I went with Caslon Swash. I love these envelopes, and if anyone can find them on the cheap I'd really like to know where I could get a bunch. The envelope is binded with a wrinkled paper ribbon that I found really nice. The paper is this really awesome watercolor paper with ripped edges which gave it a natural look.


3. 12 Leaf
12 leaves, and their wedding is in October. Do you get it?

This is the one they went for. There will be some color changes, and like a reply card, directions, all that good stuff. So when I get the final thing together there will be a delightful post on that. I like how the line on the actual invite mirrors the ribbon on the envelope. I'm trying to figure out how to mail all that with the ribbon on the envelope. More on that later.
Cheers!

I didn't design this beautiful brochure, but I did design the logo on the front of it! Look, My logo and the Smithsonian logo are BFFs. Owwwww!

For more information at the show, visit the Smithsonian Latino Center's Show website. There's music in the intro, so mute it if you're at work. My sister nearly had a coronary when she opened it up. :)

Update: Apparently the picture was removed for some wierd legal purpose ... so I cropped out logos that I didnt create. The logo right there I did create and therefore it IS my property. Huff huff huff.

So I've come up with a new design challenge for myself.

I really love chuckles, like really love Chuckles- the texture, the size, the sugar coating; what's not to love? They're so much better than gummy bears, mike and ikes, and theyre right up there with swedish fish (unt yah!) in my heart. Anyhow, as much as I love Chuckles, I hate black licorice as much I would hate seeing Perez Hilton and Stephen Cojacaru making out. So! instead of throwing that Farleys and Sathers mistake away, I give it to my good pal, coworker and roomate Jessie, cause for some reason she loves them as much as I would love seeing Daniel Craig and Anderson Cooper making out. So! I give it to her.


But not only would I simply give it to her- how boring would that be?!


I usually present that 1" x 1.75" beauty up the way it deserves to be presented.

I used a pattern for the wrapping paper from a old drawing of Spanish Licorice.

The ribbon is made from vinyl I cut on a vinyl machine.

And there you go. I rather like this exercize.

I promise to do this at least once a week, if not more, every time I buy Chuckles, or... someone sends me some :)

SO... I designed the graphics for WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution at the Women's Museum. It was a lot of fun to be part of such a large show. And the opening was some kind of magnificent. The lobby was lit with romance lighting, There were h'ors d'oerves a plenty and people in nice clothes (I always dig seeing my coworkers dress up all pretty since we have no dress code at work. It's usually jeans and t-shirt city.) Oh, and an open bar. That makes us all happy.

The art in the show was amazing and extensive, covering the more known feminist artists, and providing black women artists as well for context, as most black artists around there were concentrated on the civil rights movement.

Afterward, my coworkers, roomates and a couple of other friends went to Capitol City Brewery. Here are some highlights of that evening:

Each person had to add to the drawing for these first two and...


...this was an exquisite corpse. Each collaborator adds to a composition in sequence by being allowed to see the end of what the previous person contributed. Fun, no? Especially since most of us were soused... :-D

WACK! is on display at the National Museum of Women in the Arts through December 16, 2007. Located at 1250 New York Ave, NW, the Museum is open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 12 to 5 p.m. General admission is $10.

This is an invite that was approved, its at a kitsch-y bar in Chinatown. It's themed like rockets were drawn in 1950. Cute, no?

These were invitation proposals for the New York office of my job. It was for a fall cocktail party. I guess these do come off kind of creepy. I still like them. I want the red wine one on a t-shirt. I can see it being the cover of some rock album, or a horror-sequel to Sidways. Eh?