Dutcher Design Blog

Noozhawk, an online newspaper here in Santa Barbara is doing a series on MVP - most valuable parents. I was nominated by Bob and was chosen to represent my boys’ school. The article is here.

No excuse for new postings other than I’ve been so busy. I haven’t updated my portfolio in a few months either so there are lots of cool new designs that aren’t posted yet. I’ve done

• several print pieces for Amertec
• several emails and postcards for Center for Discovery
• a postcard/invitation for New Directions Intensive Outpatient Treatment Program
• a new ad for Architectural Millworks to be seen in the SB Magazine
• success story layouts for HP
• an on-line newsletter for Santa Barbara Athletic Club
• new logos, postcards, business cards for a Parent Click franchise
• newsletter for ITFMA
• Hotel Mar Monte ads

Then I’ve done the usual maintenance on websites and taken care of anything else that was needed. Lots to do!

Momentum 4 Life has a new look. Their theme for the year is “Go Green” so the site was updated with a new color and new graphics.

Here’s the previous site:

And here’s the new theme:

Here’s some news about me: In February, graphic-design.com (a design and publishing site at http://www.graphic-design.com) contacted me to ask if they could spotlight me in their annual “Designing Women” feature in April. I accepted their invitation and the article can be viewed at http://www.graphic-design.com/Gallery/dutcher/index.html. I was thrilled to be chosen by this organization for their article.

For 3 years, I’ve been working with Christy Haynes on her new business, zenpuse inc. She developed a shaving gel and after-shave lotion for women. There was the whole formula phase, the finding the right bottles, the right pumps to pump out the formula. Along with that phase was finalizing the logo, cementing the colors, designing the labels, designing the travel size labels, and the travel size wrappers.

The company itself needed a identity package so I developed the business card, letterhead, envelope, and mailing labels.

For the Point of Purchase display, I created the sales graphics,"razor tips” cards, and retail sheet for wholesalers.

I created the website look-and-feel. Bob developed the product database and made it work with a merchant account and UPS tracking options.

Christy launched the product and website last Friday, March 21, 2008. I created the launch invitation both for mailing and for emailing.

And voila, a product is born.

Here is a fun place - you can put your picture on a magazine cover.

Create Fake Magazine Covers with your own picture at MagMyPic.com

Following on the heels of the Center for Discovery postcard, I did a little web maintenance/massaging of The IAEDP social website. They had the invitation on the web so I added navigation and some articles to the page. I also had to resize and massage the contents to a larger width.

Sent to the printer yesterday is a postcard for the Center for Discovery. They are an adolescent treatment facility with multiple locations in Southern California. They are sponsoring a lecture for professionals who work with clients with eating disorders. They wanted an advertisement in a postcard form which kept the brand from their website. Here is the result:

The flyer turned into an invitation. The cover now looks like this:

I was given the task of making a flyer with the Chinese New Year theme. I have never done this theme before. I am pretty excited about it.

First I read up on traditions and looked for appropriate imagery. I found the symbol for luck and for rat, since this is the year of the rat.

I wanted to draw a clever rat. Well, I’m not sure this guy is clever, but it made my son laugh when he saw it. Works for me.
Next I need to work on the page composition and message.

It’s time for the yearly school auction. Last year the theme was Margaritaville. It was held at the Greek Orthodox church so this year, since it will be at the Greek church again, the theme will be “My Big Fat Greek Auction” taking off from the “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” motif.

I actually started working on the design last summer when I was just messing around with ideas about this.

The whole package will include invitation, rsvp, raffle tickets, program, party book, thank yous, and whatever else is needed. We’re talking about a mural sized poster for advertising purposes.

It’s time to design ITFMA conference brochures - this one will be for the conference in Riverside.

I like doing conference materials: brochures, invitations, programs, any kind of collateral. I like the theme element. I like the logic and order needed to convey large amounts of information.

I visited my hometown of Riverside this weekend. UCRiverside (my undergrad university) has a photography museum which had some very interesting exhibits.

I enjoyed the “Jay Wolke: Architecture of Resignation” The write up from Inland Arts.com describes the work: “Chicago based artist Jay Wolke has been photographing in southern Italy, specifically the Mezzogiorno region, for the past eight years. The resulting large-format, lush color images describe an elaborate set of physical, social and political structures, manifesting in an extraordinary folding together of visual information embedded in the landscape. On one level these photographs are referential and documentary but on another they are about what cannot be explicitly seen, what is hidden and implied.”

This quarried hill was my favorite:

Here is something completely un-related to graphic design. It is related to great design of the yummy kind though.

Hot Buttered Rum
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter, softened
6 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses or dark corn syrup
Rum
Boiling Water

With a fork, mash the butter, brown sugar and molasses in a small bowl until thoroughly mixed.
Place 2 rounded teaspoons of the mixture in a mug. Add 1 ounce of rum. Fill with boiling water stirring until the butter mixture has melted.

Options: I always use 2 ounces of rum instead of 1.
You can also top with whipped cream, but I figure there’s enough calories so I never do that.

Servings vary depending on the amount of mixture used for each cup.
Enjoy!

In May, we were just beginning the musings of a site re-design for TEAM Hair and Makeup Services. The re-design ended up being more of a color make-over from dark to light but is now complete. Included in the re-design is the debut of their Bridal Boutique. This is a straight-forward paypal shopping cart e-commerce solution. The merchandise is gorgeous.

Before:

After:

I have worked with Momentum 4 Life since the organization began in 2003. I have had the opportunity to design their logo, website, t-shirts, banners, ads, etc.

Dawn Schroeder, founder of M4L asked for a thank you collage for the sponsors - individualized for each sponsor e.g. PRstore, Fess Parker Doubletree Resort, etc.

She sent a dozen pictures and asked that they somehow be integrated with this year’s t-shirt design. Here is the result:

The architectural firm needed a holiday card which did not have a religious affiliation. They wanted me to reproduce a card they had used from 1993 but once I reproduced it, the card’s evergreen tree was axed. It was decided that green would not work either.

Cranberry was the new color but then we could not have gradients because cranberry turns into pink, which was not the color the clients wanted.
We had to steer clear of ornaments, trees, anything else of religious symbology. After several drafts of ideas and layouts, they agreed on this:

Photojojo is a fun site for DIY photo projects.
Lots of ideas, tricks and gadgets.
What caught my eye was making a mural out of a photo.

I’ve always liked pumpkins that were carved with real faces in them. I was inspired to do my boys’ faces on pumpkins. I took photos of them

Then I drew them out as a template. Something like you would see at pumpkinmasters.com

Then I carved the pumpkins

It was fun and the final product was joyful.

My cub scout den (yes, I’m a den leader) visited the Daily Sound Newspaper as a requirement for the Communicator Pin.
Jeremy Gordon, the publisher, talked with us about how they acquired their news and about careers in communications.
It was a very thorough tour through the newspaper process. It’s amazing how much they do there!
They took a photo and put us in their paper on page 5. The boys were tickled pink to see themselves in the newspaper.