Mara-mi : Production Work

I went down to Pulp Fashion in Stillwater to visit with Jen and Danie a few days ago. It was so good to see them after 8 months. Wow I can't believe it's been that long. With every one's life changes it's like 25 years flew by.

Two summers ago Danie and I helped out the Mara-mi gals finish their January 2009 line and did the mock-up and production work.  We worked on a ton of boxed cards and invitations. One of my favorite projects were these die cut, fold out cards. There was 4 different pattens/artwork from outside artists that we pieced together to create a seamless look.  Let me tell you they were a pain to cut each letter to see how they would look but they turned out wonderful. Jen said they even added some new pattern (the L and R have the polka dots and stripes that were added later).  It was great to see these in the store!

CaringBridge : January Themes

Three new styles I complete over the summer have just been deployed for CaringBridge themes

http://www.caringbridge.org/stylegallery

Packaging : NOON Wine

NOON is a brand which offers two different types of wine: a chardonnay which is labeled "before" and a merlot which is labeled "after". NOON was chosen as the brand name because the word movement works well when the bottle is in use, since NOON appears the same when viewed upside down, rotated, and backwards.

Here is how my wine bottle turned out.
The sandblaster at school is out of sand and since it's so close to the end of semester they are holding off until next year to buy more sand. (bummer, but I'll live
I have every intention to sand blast these bottles like my plan in the previous posts below but until then... vinyl stickers it is.

Who in your life needs a CaringBridge

I was having a rough day today until I received an e-mail from my old pod mate at CaringBridge that absolutely turned my frown upside down! 

Caryn informed me that 9,883 CaringBridge users are currently using the themes I designed this summer.
THAT'S ALMOST 10,000 people!!! 

I miss so many things about CaringBridge - the people, the story behind it, helping families, friends and strangers, the designing, the food :)  I miss working for a place where everyone had a heart and cared.

CaringBridge has been in my life since high school when two classmates had pages. I cannot image going through a difficult health crisis without CaringBridge.

Which brings me to my next point: Who in your life needs a CaringBridge?
If you don't already know, CaringBridge is a website that helps keep loved ones informed during difficult times. In return, family and friends give patients and caregivers support through guestbook messages. It reduces time and emotional energy spent on repeated phone calls and emails and keeps everyone informed with the same, accurate information. www.caringbridge.org

CaringBridge : Featured Template

Very excited to share this with you -

My friend and old CaringBridge pod mate Caryn sent me this link earlier about one of my CaringBridge templates being a feature on a news story   Click the little video camera to watch the video. Here is a direct link to Shelia Davis's CaringBridge site: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/sheilatdavis/journal

 

Freelance : AIGA UW-Stout Student Group

Posters designed to promote the design abilities of Stout's AIGA student group

This year I am the Marketing Director of UW-Stout's AIGA Student Group. Mainly I'm in charge promoting our events by seeking out members to design posters and to promote AIGA membership.

Packaging : Desi Delights

Package design for a ready-to-make Bengali dessert. The package provides a culturally interested individual with an introduction to Indian cooking and the spices and ingredients involved. Mulberry bark and banana leaf papers were used to relate to the project culturally. Each individually wrapped item is shaped in such a way as to be stacked nicely inside the main package.

My absolute favorite Indian food Abhrajeet's family makes is Payesh, which is similar to rice pudding. I like mine with noodles instead of rice, and thicker rather than thinner.  This idea sprang to mind when Abhrajeet suggested I start learning how to cook Indian food from his Grandmother. Coming from a mid-western family where my mom thinks that Ketchup and Salt is the only spice needed, it's taken me a bit of time to get use to the Indian dishes made at Abhrajeet's house every night. When I first had Payesh I was so thrilled that it wasn't spicy I asked for seconds. 

This package ideally would be used for as a gift to give to culturally interested individuals so they can start learning how to cook Indian food and as an introduction to Indian spices. The paper I chose is Mulburry Bark and Banana Leaf paper to relate it culturally in both colors and in resources. The shape of each individualy wrapped package is taken from incents containers and allows everything to be stacked nicely in the box. 

Lots of different ideas with this project and I'm very happy with how it turned out. 

Can't wait for the second packaging assignment.

Freelance : Robyn

Aimee's friend and recent Faces graduate Robyn Voges ask for business cards to start off her career as a makeup artist.

Freelance : Aimee

My friend Aimee's last day of school was today! CONGRATULATIONS!

Here are some business cards I designed to get her started. If you every need you makeup done for any occasion go to her. (She also does hair)

Freelance : Legacy Glass

My friend Josh and his cousin started a hand blown glass business and asked me to do all the promotional material including the logo, business cards, stickers and banners. They are making some amazing looking high quality products and I can't wait to get invited to see them blow. (hint hint... can that be soon please?)

Check out the website that Jared worked on: LegacyGlassWorks.com

Website is LIVE!

My Website is up! Go to KaydDesign.com to check it out for yourself!

I'm so excited and so relieved to finally check this off my to-do list. Isn't the coding great? Yep that would be my amazing boyfriend's work. (Who knew we would just be able to figure all this out?) You should have seen us this summer -we both just sat on the couch working on different elements of the website with either a glass of wine, a beer or a bowl of ice cream. I definitely miss those nights now that he's gone for the summer.



Check it out in Firefox or Safari please. There's still a few tweaks that I need to figure out when viewed in IE
Comments and Suggestions are greatly appreciated as well so shoot me a note.

Freelance : Ronald McDonald House Logo

Back in the spring when I was looking for a summer internship I ran into Josh, the Marketing Communications Manager at Ronald McDonald House Charities, and set up a meeting to learn more about the organization and to see if he could steer me towards the right career path. I was very impressed by the work they do for families with sick children and how close they get to the families staying with them. They had an awesome set up and even a dog running around the place. After the meeting I knew nonprofit was a path I wanted to try out.

As you can imagine, I was thrilled beyond belief when Josh asked m e 2 days later to create a logo for a new summer fundraiser. The idea is that kids can set up their own lemonade stand (with the help from Ronald McDonald House printed materials) and then donate all their proceeds to the Charity. It's a great way to foster philanthropy among the children. What a great way for kids to help other kids in need!

Here's the final logo:

Here are some elements used on the printed materials

Photo via: RMHC

Visit the website: http://www.rmhtwincities.org/lemonaid_stand.html to learn more!

Photos : The Pustovars

Last weekend I went to Stillwater to visit my aunt, uncle, cousins and the little boys for some family photos.
Here are some of my favorites. The view we were shooting at was great... but the stairs to get up to the park made my calves hurt for 2 days after. (maybe I need to take up running like my cousin Leah)
The condo has a great view of the river and was a perfect spot for Lumber Jack Days
I never knew just how challenging it would be to get 2 young boys to smile at the same time. It was fun to watch Logan play on the playground with his daddy

At one point Logan wouldn't take any more photos unless he had a stick in his hand.


Thanks Mike for letting me use your camera... I love it and promise I'll return it soon :)

Workshop : Studio On Fire

As soon as I heard that Studio on Fire was hosting a workshop I jumped on the opportunity! Good thing I did too because the it was sold out in a mere 2 hours. I cannot thank Ben, Salina, Eric, David (and two other workers) enough for allowing a group from AIGA MN to tour the studio, pick your brain and give the press a try.

I've known about this studio for a few years and they are constantly being featured on blogs all around the US, so I just thought they would have some huge luxury space. However, their space is pretty small in comparison to their reputation and gives it a feels that a lot of heart and sweat went into make it what it is today. They are very proud of what they do and absolutely love letterpress. Ben used to work a 40 hour work week at a firm and went home and did 40 more hours a week on his hobby, letterpress. He soon figured out that he could create a business out of this and Studio on Fire has been going strong for 10 years. (man, I hope that happens to me someday!)

Letterpress machines are pretty much ancient. It took a great deal of muscle to get one page, I could never imagine doing a thousand sheets without going to the gym to train first.

I cannot wait to letterpress something... so if you're looking to get something designed and printed this way let me know!

Studio on Fire Website, Blog
More photos on Flickr

CaringBridge :: Themes

It's been an month since I've started interning at CaringBridge and they have definitely kept me busy! Today 7 of my personal page themes were deployed and can be used with anyone with a CaringBridge site.

You can check out more of their themes here: http://www.caringbridge.org/stylegallery

Remember when I decorated my desk? Well I've been pinning up my designs (all 25 of them) and it definitely gives the space a lot of color!