Daily Post – Craigslist ad

Click here to see the final ad

I posted my second ever craigslist ad today. My first attempt was really very boring. Just text, no images, nothing fancy. Today, I decided that I needed to try to do something to differentiate myself from all of the other people that post their design services on craigslist. So, I sketched out some stick figures in an attempt to do a short comic strip-type ad. As you can see from the sketch, I was going to do a strip where the steps to a great website were numbered and step 4 would be to get Brian Hanson Design to do the site, but I changed it at the last minute. I like the idea, though, and I think I’m going to go back to it in a future ad. Also, I sometimes have a difficult time translating the energy in my pencil sketches into the illustrations I do on the computer. This ad is definitely a case of that. The end product didn’t exactly have the fun energy that the sketches had, but ultimately, I do like the way it came out.

What do you think? Would you click on this ad if you needed a website?

Daily Post – More 99designs Entries

Entries for 99designs logo contests

So, I’ve been getting feedback from the contest holder for the Bag4U logo design contest at 99designs and you can see how the logos have evolved in today’s picture. Personally, I like the two in the middle row the best, but their last request for changes was to do more of a handbag and to use the colors, pink, white, black, and gray. Now they’ve responded asking for me to “punch up” the look of the bag a bit. They feel it’s too simple. The contest isn’t over for five days, so I have some time to get working on that. The last logo in the picture is for another contest for a company that calls itself Icon. The only requirements they had in their brief was to “free your mind and be creative” and to use red and white with dark grey being an acceptable secondary color. This contest only has about two hours remaining so I didn’t have a whole lot of time to be too creative. I do like the logo I came up with, but if I’m being totally honest, there are a few logos that were submitted that are much better than mine. We’ll see, I guess. I’m going to go check out some more contests and I’ll keep you posted on my entries.

Daily Post – A Day Late

The final card images

Well, I forgot to get my post up yesterday, so here it is. I’ve finalized the images for the birthday card. I added a few more details to the cover with the banner and the cake. Not much changed on the inside, just some of the text. Today’s actual post probably won’t go up until later tonight. I’m hoping to take some pictures of a printed card and post them up so you can see how it works. I hope you’ve liked watching the process I’ve gone through to create this card. Hopefully I will have a new project soon that I can do the same thing with.

Daily Post – Invitation Illustration-Phase 1

I've illustrated the sketch. Next step, shading.

Okay, so I took my rough pencil sketch, scanned it in, brought it into Illustrator, and used the pen and pencil tool to finalize the line work. I’m pretty happy with the way the illustration came out, but it’s not quite there yet. I still need to finalize the colors and try to add some shading. I’m not a pro with shading, so if it ends up not looking great, that’s okay because I do like the flat look of it right now. The colors on the monkey are going to be tough, I think. They look okay on screen, but the manila-ish color of the hands, feet, face, ears, and belly look very yellow when printed. I’m going to try scanning in a printed version tonight that I will post up tomorrow so you can see what the working invitation will look like. I also need to brainstorm some ideas about the text and if I want any other secondary artwork on the cover or the inside. Still so much to do.