Lauren Likes to Draw: The Work of Lauren Lopez

DESiGN for the Common Man - Make your Own Invites: Part 1

2012-02-14T17:07:00.000-05:00

Up until this point, this blog has been mostly me posting my work, with not too much talking. But I realize that this has a limited reach as far as helping people. So I have decided to start a (hopefully weekly) feature on my blog; DESiGN for the Common Man, in which I share simple design tips and tutorials, because I know so many crafty people that want to design something themselves, but don't quite know where to start.

So what's the #1 design request I get from my friends? (Jenner this is for you!)

Can you design a really cool invitation for my party/wedding?

Yes, I could, but so can you! But first, I want to ask you, are you designing this yourself only to save money? Because depending on how many cards you need and how much printer ink/paper/envelopes you are going to use, it might not be as cheap as you thought. There are so many online photo and card companies with reasonably priced cards (my personal favorite is tinyprints - they sell specialty cards designed by industry-leading designers & illustrators). Another budget-friendly option is searching etsy for "printable invitation". Most 5x7 cards sell for around $10- 15 and will be designed to fit your needs, then you can get some nice paper & envelopes and print yourself, or use a print-on-demand service like Staples or Kinkos.

But if you still really really really want to design it yourself, here's how:

TUTORIAL: HOW TO make a 5x7 flat Invitation -Part 1

1) GET A DESIGN PROGRAM:

I use Photoshop CS5, which is pricey to buy, but you can download a free 30 day trial on their website here. You might also want to check out the much cheaper Photoshop Elements (which may have come free with your printer purchase, or download a 30 day trial here), or a free design program like Gimp. For simplicity, this tutorial will show you how to make a card using regular Photoshop.

1) GET SOME ART:

JUST A NOTE: You are mostly likely making this for personal use, but I'm going to mention this anyway - some, but not all of the art on the sites I list below are for personal use only, if you are going to be making money from your design, you will may need to buy a commercial license, read the fine print to be sure.

There is a ton of FREE and almost free vector patterns and illustrations available on the internet. Some great sites to search are Vecteezy.com and 123freevectors.com. You may be able to find something you like there. This is a card I made for a coworker using a free background pattern from Vecteezy.

If you don't mind spending a few dollars, you can search through the super cheap and expansive selection of stock illustrations & patterns on a site like istock or shutterstock. Below is an example of a card I made using an illustration of a woman I purchased off istock for $2!

Almost all of the illustrations, patterns, and photos can be purchased off istock for less than $20, and can be used commercially (check licensing agreements for exact specs).

Another budget option, Etsy! Search for "digital clip art" or "digital paper pack"to get lots of cute art options. Most can be bought for around $5. One downside of buying off etsy is you may have to wait up to 24-48 hours to receive your purchase (based on the seller), while getting art from Vecteezy or istock is an instant download. If you like girly stuff, you may want to check out the etsy stores Dream like Magic and Print Candee.

3) GET SOME FONTS:

I love love love fonts, and here's my secret: I get *most* for free through Dafont. (As with the free vectors, MANY but not all are for personal use only, if you are going to use commercially you might need an additional license, usually under $50, I've also seen some that are only $5). One drawback, some of the fonts on the site are specialty "free" versions and may not have all the extra characters, like punctuation & symbols. If you don't want to mess with possibly needing a commercial license or trying to use a font without extra symbols, you can browse the selection at FontSquirrel. These are all high-quality, free commercial use fonts, but the selection is much smaller than dafont. Download a few that you like, some may work better than others for your design, but you won't know until you try.

Here is an invitation I made using the font Dirty Ego, a free personal and commercial use font from dafont.

Don't know how to install the fonts once you've downloaded them? Check out instructions here:

Install New Fonts Using Windows 7/Vista/XP

Install fonts using Mac OS X

Okay, I think that is enough information overload for now! Next post will be Part 2 of the tutorial, Actually designing your card......stay tuned :)

Shhhh......the secret to how I draw -REVEALED!!

2012-01-21T17:47:00.003-05:00

Now that the holidays are long gone, I wanted to talk about the Christmas Card I made for 2011.

yeah, this one.

(a HUGE improvement over my cards of Christmas Past, but I'm getting off topic).

More specifically, I want to talk about this guy.

.......and how he was created.

I'm not one of those "I draw everything perfect the first time, no need for revisions" people. I wish! I actually draw the same thing over and over, using tracing paper over my drawings to refine each step. Ah, there you have it, the secret of how I draw has already been revealed, dang, No need to read on.

But anyway, before he was that guy,

he was this, a face in a dust storm of crappity crap crap.

I focused in on this bunch of scribbles, because I thought it had potential.

So I traced over it using my tracing paper and a 2b pencil, added a body and got this:

Slightly better, but still needs work...let's try again.I should also add that I took some reference shots of a model (okay, my mom) wearing a hat and holding a dog leash so I could be sure I got the pose right.

Ohhhhh! I like where this is going, one more time! But this time using black markers...

Sweet, success!

Okay, now do that 10 other times with various other elements and piece everything together using our friend, Photoshop. Depending on the project, I might also turn the final into a vector drawing, though I didn't for this particular one.

Now, I really need to get started on a new drawing for the landing page of my website, oye!

A Catch Up Post.

2011-12-19T17:06:00.001-05:00

I just wanted to do a quick update with some projects I did in the last couple of months.

First, more work for my favorite friends at Fair Trade USA (love them!) - a poster to match the program book and trade banner I designed for them in August.

This is available on their website as part of their resource library, and users can customize all the text to fit their event and print at the location of their choice, pretty sweet!

Next, I got to have a photo shoot at the Riverton Yogawood location, and I was able to take some pictures of some amazing yoga teachers doing poses in front of the mural I painted.

After uploading all the photos to my computer, I was reminded that I am NOT a photographer and need to learn how to use the manual settings on my camera better, as some of my favorite photos came out a little blurry.

I took some it front of the mural, and some not......These are some of my favorites

There's something I like about black and white yoga photos, so classy!

You can also check out more yoga photos on my facebook page HERE.

My Pictures with Santa - Marketing Campaign

2011-12-13T10:50:00.001-05:00

Wow, I think that must has been my longest lapse between updates, ever. But it's not that I haven't been busy, in fact, just the opposite....which is why I haven't posted :)

Last month I got to work with ProsDigital on a HUGE project - a logo, website, flyer, and multiple email blasts for Cherry Hill Photo (If you live in the South Jersey area and have taken your child to see Santa at the mall, then you have probably seen my work!).

First, I designed a logo for their new website...

Next it was a brand new website, which enable customers to download a free digital version of their Santa photo. I can't take credit for the structure of the site or the variable data programing, that was done by ProsDigital :) However I used a new program, Adobe Muse, to make the site a lot prettier. This was my first time using Adobe Muse and I like it so much better than Dreamweaver. The site is live at mypicturewithsanta.net, but you won't be able to view all the pages without a photo code.

Next up, a flyer which is given out to all their customers when the get their Santa photos taken.

And finally, an email marketing campaign for when people order their online photos. There are several versions of this, depending if the customer has ordered their photos yet or not.

I have a few more projects I had also finished in the last month, but I will save them for the next post, I have some online Christmas shopping to do :)))

Halloween Party Invite

2011-10-25T14:23:00.001-04:00

I couldn't let October end without acknowledging Halloween, my absolute favorite holiday to design products for (and sadly, who's glory is short-lived, to be quickly overshadowed by Christmas). Black, orange, purple, creepy characters, black cats...love it!

This is the invite I made for my daughter's Birthday this month, it's not too scary for a 3 year old's party, right??

I made the front illustration in Illustrator, but wasn't happy with it, so I decided to try something new, and take the file into Photoshop to add some textures and effects.

here's my illustrator file:

(ahhhh! shield your eyes, it's hideous!)

And here it is, post-photoshop magic:

This is the original inside, scrapped because it was too hard to read and would waste way too much printer ink:

And the final inside:

To save time, I used a free, vector "frame" from Vecteezy for the inside. Sometimes, there is just not enough time to draw each and every element, that's when graphic designer Lauren takes over :) I loved this particular border and you can't argue with free.

Mural Painting

2011-10-11T16:40:00.004-04:00

Last week I finished up another project for my beloved Yogawood - a mural on a 36 foot long wall in their Riverton studio. This was in the planning stages for quite some time, and I am so excited to see it finally finished and up on the wall. It was so relaxing to go in to the studio, put on a cd from their yoga-music collection, zone out and just paint (sometimes till 1AM, opps where did the time go??).

But I'm getting ahead of myself....let's go back to the beginning.......

Here was the wall before.

Before I started working, I had a meeting with the owner and studio coordinator, to hear their ideas about the project, what colors they wanted, what design style they were looking for, drink coffee, etc., etc. I took some photos of the studio and started doing research - they wanted native plants, so I went out to some fields and took some photos of plants for reference.

(hey! that's not a plant! Just making sure you're still paying attention..)

From these photos I started making some quick drawings in my sketchbook, then I use tracing paper and ink it before scanning it in the computer.

(yes, I'm a tree hugger, not one inch of my tracing paper shall go unused!)

I drew around 15-20 individual plants, picked some complementary colors, then put them all together to create a few different comps to choose from.

They chose #3, then I was off to the paint store to match colors and buy supplies.

I took a ton of wall measurements, then used my computer to create a grid to help me paint faster and with great accuracy.

(don't ever try to work with your computer on the floor, ouch, my neck was in terrible pain for days)

(can we just pause a moment to acknowledge the fantastic-ness of this grid? It took a lot of brain power for this non-math person to figure out)

I made a separate grid for each color of the mural, then used a projector (awesome!) to show me exactly where to paint.......

(hey guys! it's THE GRID in action! look! look!)

and paint......

and paint.....

and stop.

to mix colors because I WAS NOT happy with the colors straight out of the can. of course.

then paint some more.....

so close!

.......

(45 minute break for frenzied clean up of a can of paint I accidentally spilled all over the floor, and the wall and my only good pair of yoga pants. do you know how expensive good yoga pants are???)

.......

(FYI - YES, I know painting is messy, i was only wearing the yoga pants because I went to a yoga class before painting, otherwise they remain in a locked case in my bedroom.)

.......

DONE!

(and yes, the yoga pants survived. whew.)

You can view an album with more photos of the studio at my (yeah, just got with the program and created a facebook fan page, welcome to 2007!) HERE :)

2012 Calendar

2011-09-22T13:16:00.000-04:00

It's a little scary to be thinking about 2012 already...when I just got used to writing 2011 on all my checks :)

It's also hard to believe that this is my 4th year designing a calendar for the Wissahickon Charter School (an eco-centered learning community here in Philadelphia). This calendar features art from the school's wonderfully talented students, ages kindergarten to 7th grade and is sold as a fundraiser for the school.

They as sell a notecard pack - with 10 different cards featuring more talented artists from the school.

Please click here to find out more ways you can support the wonderful school.

Fair Trade USA Program Book

2011-09-12T19:31:00.000-04:00

I got to work quite a bit in InDesign last month (InDesign is a cousin of Photoshop, but it is mostly for multi-page text layouts), and actually enjoyed myself. I'll admit it, if I had a choice between drawing some cute, happy animals and laying out a 24 page catalog, I would pick the cute animals :) BUT- there is also something nice about using simple, clean design to organize text so that it can be read easily, especially if it's for a cause near and dear to my heart, like Fair Trade.

I designed this program booklet for the Fair Trade USA conference held this past weekend in Philadelphia, which was sponsored by wonderful, forward thinking companies like Ben & Jerry's, Ten Thousand Villages and Green Mountain Coffee.

I also volunteered at the conference and had a great time! I got to meet Ben Cohen of Ben and Jerry (he says his favorite flavor is Cherry Garcia and is best eaten with Newman's Own Chocolate Alphabet cookies, hehe). Here's me and my sister working the registration table.

Baby Shower Invite

2011-08-14T15:47:00.000-04:00

Okay, here it is...the previous sneak peak....

....A baby shower invite for my lovely sister (who is due this week with a long-awaited little girl! ah, hurry up, lil' Sara Jr! I want to hold you!!).

I really loved the way this turned out and was so happy to finally show it to her 2 weeks ago (the party was a surprise).

In addition to the card, I also make a matching "shopping list" to include in card and matching candy bars as a shower favor.

The complete set is shown below (can you tell I love branding?? hehe).

The Logo Process

2011-08-09T16:35:00.002-04:00

Last week I finished a logo design for the fabulously talented photographer, Brittany Claire of 4littlemen& girlytwins fame (Okay, I admit it, I have been a huge fan & reader of her blog for nearly 3 years now, perhaps even obsessively checking for updates while I should be working, hehe).

Here is the process I went through before getting a final design that she liked (she's an artist too, so she was picky :))

1. Brittany sent me links to several other logos & photography websites that she liked. This helps me get a good feel for the typography, style & colors she was most interested in. She also made some suggestions she'd like to see: a cool camera, use of {brackets}, and/or a flower. From these I came up with the following comps.

2. Next, she picked #1 as her favorite, but wanted a few tweaks, like: change the font, change the color scheme, and add brackets around "photography". From these suggestions I came up with the next round of comps.

3. Again, #1 was her favorite, but she wanted the flower colors and connecting flower stem of #2. So from this, I came up with..............

..............The Final!!!

And here is what it looks like as a watermark on one of her photos:

Next up is working on her photography website, which she is updating in preparation for her Photography Road Trip tour this winter. Check out her site here to see the cities she will be appearing in and book your session!

Updates and a Sneak Peak

2011-07-30T14:34:00.003-04:00

Ahhh, summer. I'm enjoying you so much, even if you make me lazy with posting on the blog, or working on art in general, hehe. But I have been working on some freelance jobs which I hope to finishing up soon, and I have 2 BIG projects starting in August with I'm pretty excited about :)

One is for Fair Trade USA, and while it doesn't require too much creativity, I am incredibly happy because it is for a fabulous environmental sustainability company, which is a cause very near to my heart. (And I don't want to get off topic, but my design skills were recently featured in this article about the earth-friendly arts movement, check it out!)

I just finished a project which I am so very in love with, it pains me that I cannot share it before it goes "live". Argh!!! It's so darn cute, I can't stop staring at it (this is a rare thing, usually by the time I finish a illustration I have been starting at it so long that I hate it :)). So because I can't help myself, and because I don't think it's possible to post on a design blog without a picture, here's a sneak peak......

Translating Fine Art for a Commercial Market

2011-06-21T14:20:00.000-04:00

I recently had the pleasure of working on the cute stationery shown above, using art from the fabulously talented Tracy Nuskey-Dodson. I thought it might be fun to show you the steps I go through when designing products from new art.

Above is the original art created by Tracy. You might have noticed that it's a little bit different from the products at the top, this is where my design skills come in :) Ideally, when I design stationery products, I will use a "collection" that consists of a few different but MATCHING pieces of art and/or patterns. It's hard to create products from a single image or pattern. At minimum, I need one stand alone design and matching pattern to create a product, but I prefer more, 4 -6 pieces is better! Tracy is more of a fine artist and doesn't necessarily create her art for licensing, but she has a large body of work with a consistent feel, so in this case the art director chose 2 matching pieces and I started working :)

First, I got started by removing the background from the lady's head, little trees and house. Next I chose some coordinating colors - I thought the teal blue looked great with the pink, I used the same pink from the hair, and I chose a light beige to complement her skin. After I had the colors I wanted, I turned them into patterns - obviously a polka dot pattern goes perfect with this art, so I made 2 in varying sizes. The third pattern I made was the newspaper collage. Tracey uses collage in her art, so this pattern matches well.

After I have the matching patterns created, I started applying it to the products! It is INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT that you keep the style on multiple products consistent in size, font, etc. Years ago, as a new designer, this is one of the mistakes I made, but boy did I learn fast :) When my company creates products for a big retailer, often we will often have to follow very detailed style guides. I was the only designer working on this project, so I created a "style guide" in my head and applied it to every product I worked on. I created the simple one above just so you could get an idea of what I'm talking about. Real style guides are a bit more in depth and list pantone colors, several different label types, lots of rules etc. You can click on the photo above to enlarge it.

Here is a few more examples of how I keep consistent styling on different products and labels. All together, I applied Tracy's art to 30 different products, then placed all those products in a catalog. If these products are bought by a retailer, then I will get to do production work on them. But that is another post for another time. So how was my first teaching post? I hope you learned something, because I have lots more information to share for any young designers out there :) Also, if you haven't already, you can check out Tracy Nuskey-Dodson's site here.

FREE WEB DESIGN CONTEST!!!!!!

2011-06-09T19:07:00.002-04:00

I am super excited to announce an amazing opportunity for a small business owner to WIN FREE WEB DESIGN done by yours truly :))

For those who don't know me, I am a graphic designer & illustrator and received my BFA in Illustration from the University of the Arts. For the past 6+ years I have worked at a design company while also running a freelance business. I know firsthand how important it is to have a professional website, yet many starting businesses are unable to afford one. I am a HUGE supporter of local businesses and I want to help you!

The lucky winner will get a brand, spanking new website to fit their needs. Here's all the details:

1)Your website will be custom designed with your logo, photos, info, whatever you choose, and will include up to six pages of info (for an example of what a six-page website looks like, click here).

2) I will build this website using Wordpress, which is an amazing user-friendly software and the choice of many of my favorite sites, including MckMama and Just Eleanor. Best of all, Wordpress will allow you to easily post & make changes to your website in the future, no web designer necessary.

3) I will cover all installation & design of the web site, but the winner will be responsible for domain registry & purchasing a hosting package, from the provider of their choice (I use GoDaddy because they're a good deal, but there are plenty more). Domain registry runs about $12 a year, and hosting will cost around $60/year. If you need help with this process, I can assist you, no problem :)

To enter the contest, simply leave a comment below with your EMAIL ADDRESS, NAME OF BUSINESS, and link to your existing site (if you have one). One entry per business, duplicate entries will be deleted. The contest will end Friday, June 17 at 11:59pm EST and the winner will be chosen at random. I will announce the winner on my blog and show the final site once it's completed......whew.....that was a lot of info. Are you still with me?

GOOD LUCK!

********UPDATE 6/18******* Congratulations to Winners Jessica and Dan Taylor of Christian Uproar (comment #6 chosen by random.org)!!! I will be sending you an email with all the details shortly!

Art Nouveau Patterns

2011-06-09T17:26:00.002-04:00

Have I mentioned how OBSESSED I am with Art Nouveau?? In my opinion, it's by far the best art period ever (take that, Italian Renaissance!). For the last few days, I have had the extreme pleasure of browsing a large collection of vintage public domain art, then creating new patterns based on little bits and pieces of some, merging them with textures of others, changing colors....you get the picture.

These were done for my work, and will hopefully make it on some stationery products.

Here's an example of an original:

And here is the pattern I created with it:

Here are some more:

And here is one I made quickly using my own art, using some little doodles I scanned in:

(shhhhh, don't tell my boss, I was supposed to use public domain art , hehe:))

New Website! Yes!

2011-06-09T01:21:00.002-04:00

Well, a lot has happened in the, eh month or three since my last post.... I designed my own website, plus another, the hard drive on my not-quite-two-month-old-love-of-my-life iMac died and needed to be replaced -causing me to lose a little bit of faith in apple, summer came out of nowhere, and I won two fantastic awards for my snowboard designs...sweet!

I have been creating some fun new stationery products at my job, PLUS a nice freelance gig designing graduation cards for a photography studio specializing in high school senior portraits, which I will share later.

But enough about my own art, I am in love with these posters which I found on vintageprintable.com (a great resource for public domain art -check it out!)

Finished Logo!

2011-03-14T22:36:00.002-04:00

Isn't this much nicer than my last sketch? And I made some nice color versions too, viewable on my new site HERE

In progress.....

2011-03-10T21:50:00.001-05:00

Just a quick update because I hate it when my favorite blogs don't update frequently and if they went a month between posts, I would definitely stop reading, ha.

Rough pencil sketch for a logo....now in the process of cleaning up and converting to vector, ah fun!

.....In other news, I am in completely, obsessively in LOVE with my new iMac, my gift to myself using tax return money.

It's 72 hours old and my kids already scribbled on the key board with marker. Somebody needs to watch them better.

Okay, back to real work......

Dear Burton;

2011-02-16T13:18:00.001-05:00

I love you, I own all your gear, but your board design are a bit, uh...boring. You may think the graphic doesn't matter to people when they are buying a new board, but every snowboarder I've talked to has said otherwise. So here is my suggestion for some great art for your kid's line.

Love,

Lauren

I am working on......

2011-01-24T01:02:00.000-05:00

....something......

really, really FUN!

(to be continued after 2/9/11)

Be kind to the Earth.....Use Cloth Diapers!

2010-12-18T11:00:00.001-05:00

I'm a BIG cloth diaper supporter -it's the only load of laundry I LOVE washing & hanging out to dry :)) My second child has been cloth diapered from 3 months - 2 years, and we have used the same diapers the entire time and they are still going strong! Currently we've begun potty training and I'm a bit sad because the cloth diapers will soon be packed away, awww.

So here is my public service announcement poster - Use Cloth diapers!

Rush hour in Busytown

2010-12-14T20:46:00.000-05:00

I am still alive....just very busy

2010-11-21T14:59:00.000-05:00

I've been working on many things at once, which means nothing has gotten completely finished....and things I've finished need many many revisions :( so....

for no reason at all, here's a quick sketch of abe lincoln......

Figure in Nature

2010-10-16T10:28:00.001-04:00

Back on a steady diet of vector illustrations, not sure how I am feeling about it......

More SBN Work

2010-10-16T10:21:00.001-04:00

I Love SBN, they feed my kids....

Design of Brochure for their FREE Greening your Office Workshop, which runs in the Philly area November 2010-March 2011

Invitation Design for their Green for Green fundraising reception, an amazing event to showcase an amazing Solar-powered house.

Paws Farm Logo

2010-09-02T23:08:00.001-04:00

I am really loving the new logo I designed for Paws Farm, an amazingly fun and educational place for kids located in Mount Laurel, NJ (my kids could stay all day here :)). The director had two requests before I started this project: she liked ladybugs and owls. Done and done.

Back to School Products

2010-08-11T16:11:00.001-04:00

I know summer is almost over, because I have been working on the 2011 Back to School line all month. Good riddance summer, I will be glad when I am free of your oppressive heat and random gangs of roving teens.

Here are 2 of my favorite things I've designed for work so far....

Pop Up Card

2010-07-17T15:42:00.003-04:00

I am a bit of a card-making fanatic (see here and here and here), but this is my first ever pop up card :))

After browsing the cute but "ordinary" selection of birthday cards offered the big online photo companies, one of my favorite clients asked me if I could design something more unique and fun.

I hand cut 50 of these cards and paired them with brown kraft paper envelopes and matching sticker seals and address labels.

Bicycle Head Badge

2010-07-17T15:01:00.001-04:00

Recently I was asked by Jen Green of Revolution Cycle Jewelry to create a simple line drawing of a griffin, which was then carved out of sterling silver to make this awesome bicycle head badge for a customer in Japan. wow.

If you are a serious biker, you can check out her amazing gallery of custom head badges here.

TB Hagstoz Sign Update

2010-06-11T23:44:00.003-04:00

Three months ago, I shared with you a sign I had designed for the outside of the TB Hagstoz store on Jewelers Row in Philadelphia, PA. At the time, I had just finished the long, long process of finding a sign company to print the sign without going over the modest (as far as sign-making goes) budget. After meeting with owner of a particular sign shop, going over specs, choosing materials & uploading the design to their ftp site, I asked the owner if I could see a printed proof of the sign before they printed the full size one. This is when everything went downhill.... After acting confused as to why I might want to see how the colors would print before they made a huge 42 x 60 inch sign and bolted to the outside of a building, he said they didn't really print proofs, but okay fine, he would print it the next day and would call me to let me know when it was done....and that was the last I ever heard from him, ever.

So on to Plan B.... Completely fed up with with the entire local sign industry, most of which I had to BEG to give me a price estimate, I decided, fine, if you don't want my business, I will paint the darn thing myself. And so, with the help of Loews, Sherwin Williams, Sheffield Bronze (who made the ONLY commercial grade gold metallic exterior paint I could find) & fabulous custom made vinyl stencils...i did.

the end.

Abrakadoodle!!

2010-06-04T22:16:00.001-04:00

As I have mentioned 4,000 times before, i really really really like designing "cute" things. So it was a pleasure to design these flyers for the South Jersey branch of Abrakadoodle, (a super fun company that teaches art to little kids! check it out!) .

(the 1st flyer, in black & white, boo)

(2nd flyer in color, now, we're talkin'!)

(I just love saying that...Arty Party, arr de-ar-ar...)

Etsy Store Redesign

2010-06-04T21:52:00.004-04:00

I just realized that I haven't posted anything in 39 days...which is the blog-time equivalent of about 39 years. Not that I haven't been busy- designing, painting, and pondering such life-changing decisions like "Should I buy a bread maker?"...haha

Way up on the top of my list of favorite things to do is drawing cute little owls for the cutest etsy store ever... Ladybug Creations , which sells reusable cloth menstrual pads, and nursing & baby items in very cool patterns. I was very excited to create a new logo, etsy store banner and avatar for this amazing store.

^Logo Concepts

^ Re-designed store!

<---I am especially in love with the new avatar :))

Girls, Girls, Girls

2010-04-26T22:48:00.000-04:00

Looking back through my sketchbook, I am left wondering why I didn't get repetitive stress disorder from drawing so many half-naked girls....

now I just suffer from carpal tunnel from being a graphic designer.

Sticker #2 for Woodstock Trade Co.

2010-04-25T15:36:00.001-04:00

Have I mentioned how much I love the fabulous people at Woodstock Trading Company??? Not only are they some of the friendliest people you'll ever meet, they are also the best possible people an artist could work with....which leads to sticker design #2, featuring the owners and their much loved cats, Monstro & Mugsy (one of which you may remember from this sticker design).

Covers for Activity Pads

2010-04-19T16:08:00.001-04:00

I have to take pleasure in ANY small job at work where I get to design something completely by myself... like the covers of these activity pads that will be sold at Fred's Stores next month...who-ho!

Handbill Design for Yogawood

2010-04-13T21:52:00.004-04:00

Wow... I have been quite lucky this past month to be able to create designs for businesses near and dear to my heart.....like this handbill/coupon design for the newly opened Yogawood studio in Riverton, NJ.

If you are local to the area, you MUST check this place out! They have fabulous classes for new students and seasoned yogis alike. Plus, owners Beth & Lisa are two of the sweetest people in the world. Just send me an email at posterjunction dot gmail dot com and I can mail you out this coupon good for new students.

Sticker Design for Woodstock Trade Co.

2010-03-23T14:35:00.001-04:00

I had such a fun time designing this 4 x 4 inch sticker for the wonderfully friendly people at Woodstock Trading Company in Cherry Hill, NJ.

They wanted a design featuring their largest than life cat, Monstro, on the cover of this classic Pink Floyd Album.

I just got the proofs back from the printer, and these stickers will be available at the Woodstock store in the next few week

Business Sign Design

2010-03-23T14:23:00.003-04:00

I have ventured into new design territory and created....my first ever....sign for the outside of a business! After the logo, this is probably the most important design a business can have, so it was such an honor and a challenge to create something eye-catching (and appropriate) for a 112 year old jewelry supply business located on historic Jeweler's row in Philadelphia, PA. The owners wanted a design featuring their trademark crucible and I chose to make the sign in the style of art nouveau (not only because, I am so very obsessed with art nouveau, but also because it was the style movement way back when the business started in 1898).

(the old sign, obviously in need of replacing)

(preliminary sketches)

(final design!!)

Princess Illustration

2010-02-21T22:15:00.000-05:00

This is a quick 8 x 8 inch acrylic painting on panel I made for my wonderful cousin who blogs over at The Thrifty Mommy ( a must read blog for all you price-conscious shopaholics). It was her daughter's birthday this weekend, and she has somehow convinced/tricked me into thinking the only possible presents I could give for her kids are original paintings for their rooms (she has been spoiled because a couple years ago I painted these construction trucks for her son).

I have grand plans to make this into a princess series and start my licensing portfolio, which will include other sickeningly-cute, mainstream illustrations like ponies, kitties, & butterflies (my secret dream, to completely sellout ;). So that's 1 down, 200 more illustrations to go......

( I always like my rough sketches better for some reason)

Scrapbooking Paper Designs

2010-02-17T21:54:00.001-05:00

Because my last post was so corporate, I thought I'd switch things up a bit, and share some cutesy bird designs I created for scrapbook papers.

I almost never need to actually DRAW something thing at work (thank you, iStock for ruining it for all us illustrators out there), so when I came in one morning and my boss asked me to do exactly that, I figured he had forgotten to take his medication or something.

But no, he actually wanted me to spend the morning drawing little doodles of birds and flowers and......swirly lines!!! I was in heaven.

Then the next day, it was back to making sell sheets and catalogs and dollar store packaging. bah.

Logo Design and Promo Materials for Social Venture Institute

2010-02-03T21:41:00.005-05:00

I recently had the honor of working with the fabulous people at the Sustainable Business Network of Philadelphia again (remember theses niffy reusable shopping bags??) , designing a logo and promotional materials for their annual Social Venture Institute.

Promotional materials designed included an ad in the February 2010 issue of GRID magazine, tri-fold brochure, and a program booklet to be handed out at the SVI conference. This was a great project, it is always an honor to design a logo, especially for a green Philly company :))

(Preliminary SVI Logo Concepts)

(Final Logo)

(Trifold Brochure Front & Inside)

(SVI AD in Grid Magazine)

Lotus Painting

2010-01-22T16:20:00.084-05:00

At exactly this time three years ago, my water broke and I was hurrying off to the hospital to have my sweet little Selena Lotus. I would say the time flew so fast, but it feels even longer than three years, because I have changed so much since then.

In honor of my daughter's 3rd Birthday, I am sharing this painting I made for her room, completed a few days before she was born. I didn't go all crazy coming up with a "theme" or decorating her nursery (how un-artsy of me, I know), actually, this was the only thing on her wall. And while it isn't stereotypical baby room art, she loved staring at it when she was a newborn, the high contrasts made it a great infant-stimulation image :)

Acrylic on Canvas 16 x20 inches

Lauren likes to Design

2010-01-17T11:00:00.016-05:00

The title of this blog may be "Lauren likes to draw", but there hasn't been much actually drawing lately. Even though I went to school for illustration and would spend up to 8 hours a day drawing, over the years I have gradually become more of a graphic designer. Not only do the jobs pay better, but there is more of them.
(an old sketch book page, click to enlarge)

I spent a few years designing concert posters (see here), and made an attempt to be a portrait artist (see here), both of which were fun, but not very financially rewarding (and I have 14k of student loan debt!).

(Chalk drawing and charcoal drawing both from 2002!)

So in an effort to remember my drawing days, I signed up for a basic drawing class at a local art center. I've only had one class, and it was spent listening to the instructor talk and drawing different tones (from pure white to pure black) and basic shapes. I was disappointed, but I also remember in art school, we spent an entire YEAR drawing this stuff, before we were finally allowed to copy some master drawings and draw basic anatomy.

(anatomy drawing, done in pencil)

(copy of a master drawing, done in water color pencil)

So in the next few weeks, I plan to post some of my new drawings (which will be mostly still lifes (...yawn), though the teacher mentioned the last 2 classes will be drawing portraits (yeah!!!). Stay tuned.

Soccer Sports Book

2010-01-04T22:02:00.001-05:00

I have been a busy, busy bee designing these last few weeks, not just for gifts, or my regular (boring) job but also some fun freelance projects. Where do I find the time? Well, I certainly don't waste any precious moments of my day cleaning my house, hah hah.

One of my freelance jobs was designing a 12 page, personalized sports book for Pros Digital, a photography company that specializes in "Showcase publication for elite athletic teams personalized for individual athletes".

.....which means they photograph your child throughout their sport season & make these nifty, 8.5 x 11 inch personalized photo books.

If only this product existed back in my soccer days....I could have an entire book filled with various shots of me sitting on the bench to cherish for the rest of my life.....

Fun Tote Bag Gifts

2009-12-31T23:35:00.001-05:00

I am slightly obsessed with reusable bags (see here and here), and make sure to use one whenever I go shopping. If for some reason I go into a store without one and end up buying something, I still refuse the store's bags because I feel so darn guilty...all those little baby sea turtles......

So this year my gifts for all the grandparents and anyone with kids was personalized tote bags. I bought some plain canvas bags at a craft store and used iron-on inkjet transfer paper for the designs. After making 8 of these in various designs (some turning out nice, some looking only so-so), I figured out the trick to ironing them on is NOT to run the iron over the transfer 37 times while pressing down as hard as possible...you should actually only use as few strokes as you can to make the transfer stick (a hard concept for someone who can't use a crayon without breaking it, hah :)).

Overall, I was pretty happy with these, and hopefully they will save a few plastic bags from the landfills.

Personalized Photo Calendar

2009-12-31T23:08:00.003-05:00

Every year I decide I will make everyone's Christmas gifts, and every year I tell myself it will only take a couple hours (when it really takes 10), every year I freak out when I run out of time, ask why, oh why did I ever think this was a good idea, followed by the vow: I will never do this again....

Fast forward one year, repeat. :)

This was one of those nightmare gifts that took waay longer than anticipated, not only because of design time, but also because I was fighting with the printer for 90 minutes, and just could not figure out how to get it to print properly double sided on 11 x17 paper. I've designed & printed catalogs many times and never had a problem, but the printer techs at my work changed something on the machines and all my saving setting no longer work....also, the printer may hate me.

Of course you can always get a photo calendar made at Snapfish, etc, but you don't have the ability to customize dates and put monthly "Fun Facts" like I did on this calendar (Selena's 3rd Birthday, Ross & Bridget's Anniversary, etc.).

So it was a labor of love, but worth it, since this is one gift that will actually get some use.

Cards of Christmas Past

2009-12-13T14:03:00.002-05:00

For the past 6 years or so, I have illustrated or designed a holiday card to send out to family and friends. I have no time to create one this year (I just committed graphic design sin & ordered a photo card off an online site, shhhhh...) so here is a journey down memory lane:

2004

This was my first (and still my favorite). I am still laughing at the joke I came up with, because I realize I will never be that funny again. I used a photo from my trip to Japan and drew Santa in Photoshop. This is also the start of my postcard obsession.

2005

Another postcard design, I hand drew this and colored it in Illustrator. That's me in the front and my old roommate, Enbion, in the background. He's such a nice guy, he didn't even complain while I took 400 photos of him throwing "snowballs" (actually mismatched socks rolled into balls).

2006

I have nothing nice to say about this one except that it was obviously an afterthought, thrown together a few days before Christmas. This was a colored pen drawing, and the only thing saving it from complete mediocrity is I embellished all the gold parts with a glitter pen after printing, because people are impressed by shiny things. To my credit, I was 9 months pregnant at the time and the fact that I sent cards out at all is truly a Christmas miracle.

2007

As evident from the last 2 cards, having children made me "lose my edge". The grandparents loved this one of my daughter, but several friends made fun of me... one even called this "the cheesiest Christmas card of 2007"

2008

This was our family christmas card which came complete with a mix cd. I photoshoped our heads on the four "Beatles" in the front, and all our friends/favorite people in the background. The entire thing is a sort of parody/personal joke.

...Oh, and if you're wondering why you didn't receive your Christmas card/greatest hit CD last year....well......that's because I never sent them. I became so obsessed with choosing just the right songs for this cd, I was never able to finish it. opps!

New Custom Card Design

2009-12-13T11:43:00.001-05:00

So what do you do when your dream card design involves your twins as a muffin and a bagel dancing in a field of sunflowers?

Well obviously, this is not something you will find on Snapfish.....time to hire a graphic artist ;)

This card was so much fun to work on. My client had VERY specific ideas that evolved over the course of the project, so this card was challenging, but oh so much fun. And we both loved the result which is always a good thing. If you have a custom card idea forming in your head, I always welcome the opportunity to work on them .....and especially when they feature sweet little babies :))

Just send me an email at posterjunction at gmail dot com.

Thank You Card Design

2009-11-13T00:08:00.001-05:00

Another postcard featuring...my daughter! Yes, I know I am kind of obsessed. I just really love postcards. Before I had kids I would send some to my friends about once a month, now it's more like twice a year.

Plus I just came across some fantastic double sided cardstock which I really love using for projects.

Stay tuned....I'm currently working on a really fun & unique thank you card design for someone else - yes, someone BESIDES daughter :).

Spooky Wine Bottle Labels

2009-10-26T16:17:00.001-04:00

These are some fun wine bottle labels I designed at work for Halloween 2010. Text & Design Layouts done by me, illustrations from iStock.

Sadly, even though I am trained as an illustrator and would LOVE to draw my own illustrations for projects like this, I am rarely given the opportunity because of the amount of time it takes......I could spend a few hours making some vector art, or I could spend a few minutes and download some "good enough" art from iStock. Which do you think my boss prefers???

And if you are an illustrator, looking into submitting to iStock, please reconsider! They pay you a ridiculously low comission, like 10 cents (YES, 10 CENTS!) every time someone downloads your art, while charging the downloader $10- $20. Oh, It's a sad, sad time to be an illustrator with $16K of student loan debt

On that note, Happy Halloween!!

Custom 1st Birthday Invitation

2009-10-18T23:04:00.001-04:00

Yeah, yeah, I know my last posts have all been baby-related, my best client just happens to be my daughter :) Her birthday is close to Halloween, so I wanted a horror theme, and her nickname is "The Incredible Fatness", so Babezilla was born.

This is a parody of the 1950 movie poster "Tarantula", and was printed postcard size on double sided card stock.

Custom Baby Announcement Design

2009-10-18T22:45:00.001-04:00

We decided to go with a chocolate bar baby announcement for baby #2, but all the ones I found online were plain and boring. I designed this one using a sun since her name means "sun" in french, and had some fun writing the copy and choosing photos.

Children's Room Mural

2009-10-18T22:32:00.000-04:00

Here's the mural I designed & painted in my daughters room last October, about 24 hours before my due date (luckily she came 5 days late, much like her mother to every event she has ever been invited to, haha.) I had a lot of fun decorating her room trying to use found objects (a.k.a. trashpicking) & things I already owned. The only thing I bought was the paint.

Oh, wait, I just remembered I bought her rug at Pottery Barn, which pretty much cancels out any savings I achieved through trashpicking.

We have a ritual of saying goodnight to the owl before bedtime, where I would tell her to kiss him, say goodbye, etc....which is just my way of saying: LISTEN BABY, I PAINTED THIS OWL FOR YOU AND YOU'RE GONNA LIKE IT, OKAY??

So far, so good.

Gallery Show at Fithian House!!

2009-08-22T16:01:00.001-04:00

I'm really excited to have 10 of my concert posters exhibited at a show at The Fithian House

112 E. Pine Steet, Millville, NJ 08332.

The show runs from September - November and prints and wall hangings will be for sale. Here are a few of the included pieces.

Mother & Baby Illustration

2009-08-22T15:11:00.001-04:00

Above is a quick illustration I created for the thank you cards I gave out after my daughter was born. This is the type of thing I would draw in my sketchbook while waiting for all those boring OB appointments.

Ink Drawing, Colors Edited in Photoshop

Portrait Painting

2009-08-22T13:37:00.001-04:00

While much of my work is created or colored digitally, every once in awhile I dust off the old paint set and create something from start to finish by hand ;)....though in my head, I am constantly thinking: ctrl+z UNDO whenever I make a mistake, hehe. This a commissioned portrait I painted last summer.

Acrylic, measures 16 x 20 inches.

Shopping Bag Designs

2009-08-22T13:15:00.001-04:00

If you haven't gotten a reusable shopping bag yet.....what are you waiting for??? We only have one planet, you know. And there's no reason why you can't look cute while reducing the number of plastic trash bags thrown away each year :) Here's a few designs I created for reusable shopping bags. They are still in the color revision process, but I am an impatient person, and had to post a few :)

Digital, done in Illustrator

Logo design for Nature's Inspirations Jewelery

2009-08-22T13:00:00.001-04:00

I was honored to be able to design a new logo for Stacey Kennealy of Nature's Inspirations Jewelery. She wanted something that reflected nature and her time spent in Costa Rica rescuing sea turtles and after a doing quite a number of preliminary sketches and a few color revisions this is design created for her banner.

Digital, done in Illustrator

The Colorguardians and the Magic Books of Color - 2nd Edition

2009-08-22T12:45:00.002-04:00

This is a children's book I illustrated back in 2006, which is being republished as a hardcover edition this October by Joseph Publications. For the 2nd edition, I also redesigned the cover and all the text pages, adding some nice hand drawn embellishments. I'm really excited to see this republished with all the changes. Here's a sneak peak at the new cover and an inside page spread.

Illustrations drawn in pencil, colored in Photoshop.

Beatles VS. Stones

2009-08-22T12:23:00.001-04:00

Digital, done in Illustrator

The Beatles were my first love, then I got Rolling Stones Beggar's Banquet, and I was hooked !!! This is my homage to 2 of my favorite bands . Prints can be purchased at The Mew Gallery, 906 Christian Street Philadelphia, PA 19147. If you are in the Philly Area, you MUST check this place out - it's located in the Italian market and features thousands of handmade articles by local artists and crafters.

Bag Design for Sustainable Business Network of Philadelphia

2009-08-19T00:04:00.001-04:00

This is a new illustration I designed for the wonderful people at the Sustainable Business Network of Philadelphia, to be printed on reusable shopping bags and sold as part of their fundraiser. Digital piece, done in Illustrator

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