hello 2012!

Hi everyone! We apologize for the silence over here on the blog lately...we've been busy working on client and studio projects and we forgot to come up for air!

We are currently preparing to launch our new improved and web site! Thought we'd share a very early sneak peek with you...can't wait till it's completed and launched with some help from our friends over at Tandem Web Solutions!

Hope 2012 has found you off to a great start!

sunflower natural foods market-advertisments

A couple months ago, Yuba City's oldest and most loved health food store, Sunflower Natural Foods Market, contacted us about vectorizing a new logo concept by Dr. Afato (Sunflower is owned by the Afato Family).

After cleaning up and vectorizing the two designs, we took the initial concept of Dr. Afato and simplified it further. The end result ended up being the chosen concept, and with minor edits, is now the new face of Sunflower Natural Food Markets!

Needles to say, we were thrilled when they came back and asked us to design some advertisements for some free community events they offer.

We created text boxes playing off the organic feel of the letterforms Billy created for the new logo and found a way to cleanly present all the needed information.

These two ads will soon be published in our local newspaper. We also designed handbills and posters to further promote these awesome, free events! Thanks for thinking Different By Design, Sunflower!

new brochures

We recently designed these new brochures for the City of Yuba City's Electronic Funds Transfer program.

We enjoyed working with Katrina on this project and we can't wait to see these in circulation soon!

We are moving forward with the color palette and current branding efforts of the City, which is slowly bringing everything to a more cohesive look, and that is so important in branding! Anytime you release marketing materials or collateral that doesn't fit with your brand image or message, you dilute your message and weaken your brand. We are so happy to be working with this great City we call home in strengthening their branding with great design.

We also designed the City's current business cards! You can view them right here.

rejuvenated

Can't believe Monday has already come and (basically) gone! Did you have a peaceful weekend? We spent the weekend rejuvenating with lots of walks, loading up on art supplies, and working on personal projects.

We came back to the studio today refreshed and ready to help make our clients their absolute best!

We also had a short visit with our friends over at Tandem Web Solutions and brought a little gift over to their son for his birthday. Billy illustrated Spiderman on the wrapping paper to make the kraft paper more "boy like".

How do you spend your time when you want to refresh?

Heads Together Salon & Day Spa

Yesterday Linda Lomeli, owner and hair stylist of Heads Together Salon & Day Spa, emailed us saying that her sign was officially installed at the salon.

Needless to say we were giddy with excitement and we drove by the salon 3 times yesterday to admire it!

Great job, Linda! It looks amazing and I can't tell you how thrilled we are to see you reinforcing your brand image on the salon signage!

You can see that even in one color the logo still holds its impact...that's the power of good, clean design!

Inner Visions Consulting & Management Group, LLC

Because who doesn't love a good "before and after"?

When Larry Johns was in the process of developing a web site for his consulting business for nonprofit organizations, Inner Visions Consulting & Management Group, LLC, he had his web site designer throw together a logo for him based off of some of Larry's personal preferences. Here is the logo he was provided (see below) and before using it Larry decided to ask several people their opinion on it, one of them being his daughter Lindsay Warren.

Thankfully Lindsay honestly told him that she didn't think this logo worked well. She knew that a logo should be clean and simple and recommended that her father give us a call (thanks Lindsay!).

After hearing about us from Lindsay, Larry asked Karon Pate, an employee and client of ours through Randy Meyer Investment Management, LLC about her experiences with us. I must say it makes us feel extremely proud and humbled all at the same time when a client gives us a rave review (thanks Karon!).

With these two referrals in hand, Larry contacted us and after a wonderful meeting getting to know Larry and his goals for Inner Visions, we were off designing a new logo for him that would reflect his professionalism, strong ethics, and innovative attitude.

Below is the end result-final logo from our collaboration with Larry. One of the main characteristics of a great logo design is timelessness. Paul Rand, perhaps the most iconic identity designer to ever live, said, "One quickly realizes that simplicity and geometry are the language of timelessness and universality."

With over 25 years experience in business development and management and over 30 years of involvement with many high profile wildlife organizations, Larry brings an unbeatable inside knowledge and expertise with him to Inner Visions Consulting & Management Group, LLC.

While Larry and his team are more than qualified to consult any nonprofit group, their focus is on outdoors, conservation, and hunting organizations.

We decided to play off of the outdoor elements by using the Gestalt Theory to create mountains that also resemble a graph. We had the last "mountain" peak bleed off the logo to represent that Larry and his team can lead your organization and/or revenues as high as you will let them take you.

The mountains can also serve to represent the "mountain of problems" or burden that nonprofit organizations can feel when left to orchestrate everything without the proper knowledge of a strategic plan. That's where Inner Visions Consulting & Management Group, LLC can step in and execute a plan for you and work with you step by step to eliminate unneeded stress so your organization can focus on their mission and growing their sponsors and group awareness.

We decided on 4 mountain peaks because Inner Visions' initials (IV) make the roman numeral for the number 4 which reminded us of the 4 elements and the 4 corners of the Earth which relate back to the focus of Larry's clientele being that they are mainly outdoors, conservation, and hunting organizations.

We chose a clean font that is also condensed because of the length of the business name and we liked how the ampersand played off of the overall look of the design. Calming earth tones were selected for the logo to keep in line with the nature of his work.

Larry, thank you so much for your time and your trust. We look forward to watching the growth of Inner Visions Consulting & Management, LLC and building a long lasting relationship with you! Once again, the pleasure was all ours! Thank you!

leave it to google

I was pleasantly surprised when I clicked onto Google last week, on June 21st (the fist day of summer!), to be specific and instantly recognized the art work of Japanese artist Takashi Murakami.

It reminded me of the Murakami Louis Vuitton pieces commissioned by Marc Jacobs a few seasons back.

Not exactly my personal taste (though I was obsessed with the panda he drew for Louis Vuitton), but you have to admit those cherry, bright colors make you smile! Very fitting to kick off one of our favorite seasons, Summer!

*top image taken from Google, bottom image is a result from a Google search

Moments To Remember-Michelle Chandler

Usually when we post about Moments To Remember Photography Studio we are sharing design work we've done for them.

So it's a fun twist to post some work MTR founder Michelle Chandler did for us!

Yesterday when we were out for lunch we received a text saying she had stopped over at the studio with her lovely sister. They are an incredible team!

How amazing are these exterior photos Michelle got of our studio? Thank you Michelle and Amy. What a blessing you are to us!

We will have to share the rest of them with you later! They are all just perfect!

what is and what should never be

So I totally ripped the blog post title from Led Zeppelin but the line seemed fitting.

I guess what I'm REALLY trying to say is that we are officially announcing our BIG news. Is it annoying to write "BIG" in all uppercase letters? Hmm...I haven't made up my mind yet.

But back to the news! For many of you that know of us personally, you know that Different By Design is a business we have ran on the side. As a salary manager at Sam's Club, Billy puts in 50 plus hours a week running all of his departments and his "leftover" time is devoted to design.

Our goal has always been to move to designing full time and that is a lifelong dream we can now cross off our list! As of May 2011, Different By Design will be a full time creative studio dedicated to serving the print design needs of the Yuba Sutter area.

We couldn't be more excited or more scared. Or more grateful for that matter. We want to thank God and thank every single one of you from the bottom of our hearts. This dream would have never became a reality if it weren't for the grace of God and the encouragement (and even the obstacles) we have faced along the journey thus far.

So what is? Say hello to the new home of Different By Design.

photo credit:Erik Jens owner of the building


And what should never be. We have had our eye on this spot for YEARS. It's in downtown Yuba City. Corner spot, windows all around. We made a million phone calls but the owner was NOT interested in leasing it. But it's all good. Because God had our back and we couldn't be happier about our new location!

photo credit: me via my lovely cell phone. yeah that's my awesome reflection you see.

We're throwing a huge party in May to celebrate our grand opening and one year in business as Different By Design. We'll keep you posted! And thank you to all the kind words you've left for us on our facebook page. You guys rock!