Rococo Cocoa

So my blog now fits thematically with my website, and my twitter. Excellence in motion. Now on to business card designs. And actually finishing my website and getting collateral together and taking my bio picture and...


picture from awkwardfamilyphotos.com

This must be some record! I blogged not once, but two times in a row.

I, again, have resigned my logo. I'm glad I didn't order those business cards! For this redesign, I refer to one of my favorite design blogs, BrandNew for an image-and-explain format:

So, the reason I switched logos is that the first logo I designed was made from one of my favorite fonts, and the thing is just that... it was a font. It was pretty, yes, but my hand just wasn't in it. So, I took the original letterforms as a illustration and I actually hand drew my initials.

I feel as if my logo says this: that my work is elegant, but still has aesthetically pleasing imperfections that make my work so endearing. Also it shows I know both vector design (graphic design) and hand drawing (illustration), which are the two main services I provide.

Redesign of this blog (and its header) and identity to follow soon. Hurray for change!

I know guys. The three of you who read my blog have been asking: where in the world have the posts been? Well all I can say is I apologize. Just know, as long as I still do art, and blogger is still in business, this blog will be updated... eventually.

I've been designing my new website for a while, and I've even had the web space for a full two months without even loading a coming soon splash page. Silly me. But all that is fixed! I have a theme, and consistent branding, et.cetera.

So this is what my site will look like eventually. A little more variety in the way of thumbnails, though. Stay tuned!

I am, admittedly, going through a bit of job stress lately. Hopefully no one with a big mouth who works at my 9-5 will read this and go blabbing, but I'm sort of at the point where I don't rightfully care anymore I guess... As Wanda Sykes would say,

“I love getting older, because the older I get, the less I care. The words ‘I don’t give a fuck’ just fly out of my mouth. And if I’m not saying it, I’m thinking it.”

Naturally, this has affected my drive to post as often as I would like. And for the (one, two?) readers of my blog, I apologize. Now on to bigger, happier things...

Above you see a couple of screenshots from book cover designer Darren Haggar's website. So simple, yet to the point. He really lets the work shine with a simple drop shadow on white. Check out his other work too, it's all so good.

So a new contender for logo has arrived. It's two swashy "JL"s interlocked. I like it for it's symmetry, its simplicity of concept. It really has some great design potential too. Look at some business card designs I came up with in like 3 minutes:



And a back to the card too...

Fancy look, better clients... right?

So, I do some graphic design on the side. As my main job is as a graphic designer for museums doesn't cover logo design, invitations, posters, et cetera, I need to keep up a website showing some of my personal work. Thusly, I'm spending $2000+ on a new fancy laptop and programs that will look all graphic designer-y at meetings and I'm constantly updating this blog with my cool looking shit.

That said I need to brand myself. In the coming months you will see business card designs, letterhead, website proposals interspersed with work I'm doing for clients, and so on.

My point. I've decided that one of these will be my logo. (They're my initials) Do you like one in particular? This will be an integral part of everything JFL Design. Simple and clean. Thoughts? Let's see if I can hit a comment record.