happy accidents
Francis Ford Coppola said, “Art is partly being available to accidents that fall into your lap.” I agree. I have experienced some of these seemingly lucky accidents while printing, through something called make-readies. Make-ready sheets are something that are most likely as old as printing itself. When setting up a press and adjusting details like ...
color science
I recently updated our collection of Pantone Matching System (PMS) swatch books, and opening the package when it arrived was a bit like Christmas. Always elegantly packaged, it’s a delight to pull off the shrink wrap and thumb through crisp new books with their thousands of colors. This particular package was special because it also ...
white space – an exercise in brand consistency
Recently, towards the end of a branding phase for a client, we were finalizing page designs for their website. The site was essentially a reproduction of the paper materials. While they liked the design on paper, the same design on screen felt cool to the touch – overly so. We agreed with their perception. Adding ...
on the care and feeding of colors
Most people have experienced falling in love with a paint color only to be appalled by the same color when seeing it covering an entire wall or room. Color is not just a tricky thing, it is the trickest thing. Everyone views color differently to varying degrees. I seem to remember a dispute my parents ...
variations on a theme
The combination of new location, a daily bike commute, and quick daily walks have made Becca and I much more sensitive to the changing seasons this year. Readers of previous posts will remember that leaves are of particular interest to us this fall. We were especially struck with the incredible richness and range of colors, ...
colors of late summer
As Becca and I establish new routines in our new downtown office space, we’ve been enjoying short walks we complete several times daily. This summer we were reminded how delightful the change of seasons are in Bellingham – particularly the leaves and sky. As part of our thinking about local color, we’ve been photographing a ...
positive reflections of an ugly subject
Developing an identity for the Bellingham/Whatcom County Commission Against Domestic Violence raised some challenging questions about design and marketing that we hadn’t encountered before. The Commission works with a variety of community partners to detect, prevent, and help people recover from domestic violence issues. Their identity needed to reflect the organization’s role of understanding domestic ...
building credibility
Thinking about structure in your marketing materials is about how you decide to use visual relationships to reinforce your message. It means thinking beyond what is being said, and exploring the how. As always, the process begins with focusing on your message, ideally your one message. Deciding on a core message is often the biggest ...
creating cohesion
A holiday card commissioned by the Port of Bellingham became a little object lesson in design. The assignment was simple enough: use a series of historical photos to convey a message of holiday wishes without using symbolism related to any one religious tradition. The tricky thing about the project was that there was no clear relationship between ...
colorful language
Color is the place where our brain and the universe meet. – Paul Klee Though our eyes can distinguish millions of different shades of colors, our color vocabulary is limited in comparison – about thirty words in all. As a species, those words enter vocabulary at a snail’s pace, using a sequence that remains much ...
