These days it’s rare to see nice, big infographics on any page of a paper, let alone on A1. So you can imagine my delight when I saw the Wall Street Journal this morning.
A1 and above the fold. There have been some nice infographics explaining the nuclear reactors in Japan. What are some of your favorites? Cuales han sido sus graficas favoritas de la situacion en Japon?
I’ve done a little be of business card design here and there, so I was excited when my friend Vance wanted to me get involved with the redesign of his.
This was the first time I was designing around an existing typeface, and I think it’s a bit more challenging (not a bad thing, really) than just starting out with a blank slate. It forces you to think creatively while still maintaining the client’s current business identity.
Vance wanted something different, yet still professional. I think the diagonal works with the concept and it’s not “too much”. Feel free to leave any feedback.
Also, how’s this for business card design inspiration? Some of those are beyond sweet.
I’m excited to be getting these freelance projects where I can spread my wings and do something different (and profitable, woohoo!).
Spread the word, babies, momma’s got a sailing trip to pay for. More on that later, at which time I hope you will be as excited as I am!
A while ago, the Daily Show did a hilarious segment about how the state of Arizona was going to sell its Capitol and other government buildings (and then lease them back) in order to crawl out of their enormous budget deficit.
Then a few weeks ago, we were presented with the idea of doing some sort of illustration about the topic, mainly emphasizing what a big mess Arizona lawmakers have on their hands. After several meetings in which a variety of ideas were tossed around, @jacysmith suggested doing a puzzle. After all, it’s literally puzzling how the state will ever figure out its budget. The idea just grew from there, and the whole package ended up having several components with the same ‘puzzle’ theme.
I did a puzzle box for the cover of the section while Jacy took the helm on the inside puzzle. Here’s what the front of the section looked like…
And here’s the inside puzzle. Click on the thumbnail below to see a larger version.
First update in some time. I haven’t had any concerts to shoot lately due to the fact that… well, we won’t get into that, but I assure you I will try my best to claw my way back to doing them, even if I have to offer a sacrificial medium-sized, porcelain Baby Jesus.
Speaking of Baby Jesus, Grandma Lapadula (keeper of all-sized Baby Jesuses), The Matriarch, Da Original, is coming to the the United States of America, and she has a scheduled visit to Phoenix (scheduled meaning, Stand-by tickets with my dad’s airline). What to do with a 70-year-old lady who doesn’t even want to be taken from her house, let alone sent to another country? Who, when asked if she wanted to come to Phoenix while she was visiting my dad in North Carolina, asked “can we drive there?”. No ma’am. My point being that she doesn’t even know what or where is Phoenix. So if you have any ideas, do pass them along. Are there any Church Tours, with an optional Salvation package?
Salvation or not, I think it’ll be interesting for her to see the Phoenix area. It being such a different landscape than anything she’s ever seen before (did you know that the ONLY place in the world with Saguaro Cacti is the Sonoran Desert?), particularly Sedona. It’s just breathtaking for anyone, let alone someone who has lived in the jungle all their lives.
“Abuela in the Desert: Why am I here?”. That should be an interesting photo story.
I finally got some of the Matt and Talat wedding photos printed out. Yes, it’s a slow process. I have to let them simmer in their own Photoshop juices for some time for maximum impact. I reluctantly took them to the local Ritz Camera. Reluctantly because I used to work for Ritz in NC for years, and let’s just say we weren’t the most conscientious when it came to printing. Come on, would you really want to go editing one by one, 500+ BAD digital photos from someone’s trip to Mexico? At least with film there usually was a limit to how many BAD photos a person could take. With digital cameras and inexpensive giant memory cards, people feel the need to take a photo of EVERYTHING… TWICE for good measure, that oughta show ‘em.
As an aside, during my days as a lab technician, I color corrected some of the most ridiculous photos. Yes, we see them. Keep that in mind next time you decide to drunkenly take photos of things best left unrecorded for posterity.
I really have to give props to the guys and gals at the Phoenix location (the only one that survived after they declared bankruptcy). Since my monitors at home or work are not calibrated to their printer, the photos were coming out somewhat dark. They went through each photo and even printed some three, four times, to make sure they came out looking great. I will definitely be returning there soon.
On a graphics note, here’s a Double Truck project I worked on for a special Good News section at work:
I’m particularly proud of the railroad tracks! Combination mad Illustrator and Photoshop skills! Although I sometimes feel like I overuse drop shadows. Thoughts?
I think this drought in concerts will give me a chance to catch up with re-editing and posting the photos from my photojournalism days. I’m excited to show you some of those and relive the good ol’ days. Like the photo of me hanging out with the long-bearded, one-toothed bikers at a redneck bar. God, I hope I can find that one. Good times!!
Meant to post these along with the Matt and Talat wedding photos, but then got caught up in other things and never got around to resizing and editing. It doesn’t help that my laptop at home is increasingly slow and useless when working with Photoshop. It won’t even open Photoshop and Illustrator at the same time without crashing one or the other.
After the wedding ceremonies in the cabin, we all headed to dinner and, obviously, to the local Wal-Mart. Because who wouldn’t do that on their wedding day? It was fun times roaming around the beer aisle with a party of dressed-up people and, oh, is that person wearing a WEDDING DRESS?!
Other projects— My dad asked me to design some business cards for him, and I thought it would be a good idea to use one of the many old family photos that he uses on his website. The font was meant to match the old/historical theme of the photos. The quote says “Memories are the only paradise from which we can never be expelled” or something like that, but again, we thought it fit perfectly with his theme and website, which does focus on “uncovering” these photos from past. The photo and quote are powerful enough to get people’s curiosity going, hopefully encouraging them to want to find out more.
For printing, I used this shop in Tempe called Think!, which I recommend to anyone needing printing services in the area. Great quality, price, and quick turn-around (even same day!), and awesome customer service. The only thing I was kinda ‘eh’ about was that the old paper, rustic effect on the text size didn’t print out too well. The color didn’t match and it was far more faded than I thought, so you can barely see it. I don’t think that’s their fault or anything. It’s just so tough to know what printers are calibrated to. I’ll have to look into that for next time.
For those of you on Twitter, I succumbed to the mob mentality, and @jacysmith’s bullying, really, so feel free to follow me. I’ve come to realize it’s true value for sharing links and updated info, so don’t expect it to be full of TMIs and details about what I ate for breakfast (no offense to anyone who does, ahem, Jacy…). Anyways, here goes nothing @patriciaelenie
© Copyright 2012 — Patricia Elenie Lapadula Villalobos
Powered by WordPress.
Classica Theme by Orman Clark
Recent Comments