AUGUST 23, 2010
This Little Piggy Went to Market
It's great to see one of our new clients, Kevin Ouzts of The Spotted Trotter, off to such a great start. We know getting a small business off the ground is a monumental task. There are all sorts of hurdles and surprises that come with every day you're open (or working up to it). But Kevin had the energy and determination to make it happen, and we're glad we could help with a logo, business cards, banners, labels, and advice.
So what is The Spotted Trotter Charcuterie? It's hand-made, cured and prepared meats made the right way.
They only use organic herbs and produce, and all natural, sustainable, humanely-raised and hormone-free meats. Their recipes are created in boutique batches, made with only seasonal ingredients, which allows The Spotted Trotter to provide nothing but the finest meats made with the freshest ingredients the planet has to offer.
Check out the store at the Peachtree Road Farmers Market on Saturdays from 8:30am-12:30pm. Click here for map.
Or visit their website at http://www.thespottedtrotter.com
AUGUST 19, 2010
Mathmatical: BAD Studio Adventure Time Fan Art
While working with Cartoon Network on the design for the first Adventure Time DVD Scott Banks, Creative Director at BAD Studio, came up with this fan art.
"I was totally inspired by the show's episode title art," says Banks. "It has an old pulp comic look that I love."
We're not sure if this is a poster or what, but it was so cool we didn't want it to go to waste. Enjoy!
You can see more of BAD Studio's musings at our tumblr site badstudio.tumblr.com
To see lots of the great art created for Cartoon Network's Adventure Time visit the Frederator Studio's Adventure Time blog at http://frederatorblogs.com/adventure_time/
JULY 15, 2010
When and How to Effectively Enter Design Competitions...
I Can't Watch
By Scott Banks, Creative Director at BAD Studio
I must be honest, I love giving design talks, but I hate watching myself afterward. But recently, when a friend of mine, Sherra Bell from Creative Know-Who, asked me to give talk about entering design competitions for the Atlanta Graphic Design Collective Meetup, I said yes before I knew it would be filmed. (I would have still said yes, but just been more nervous prior to the event)
The presentation took place July 15 at The Portfolio Center in Atlanta. Unfortunately, I was on auto-pilot and went to the Creative Circus first, where when I asked where the talk was being held they looked at me like I had two heads. After realizing my error, I jumped back in the car and zipped over to the Portfolio Center. Atlanta traffic, which is usually terrible during rush hour, wasn't bad and I made it to the venue with plenty of time to spare.
For the event there were 2 speakers, John Allsopp of Style Master, who went first, and myself. John comes from the tech-side, is quite the expert in CSS and just finished the book "Dao of Web Design". He was in Atlanta talking-up the Web Directions conference series which will come to Atlanta on September 21-25.
Like I said, I can't watch it, but if you have the time, sit back and enjoy the show.
JUNE 15, 2010
More DVD Packaging for Cartoon Network
We finished this up a few weeks ago and I haven’t had a chance to post it. It’s the first DVD for a cool new action show on Cartoon Network called Generator Rex (It’s creator is Man of Action, the same folks who made Ben 10). We did the cover, disc art, and DVD menus. Look for it in stores October 19, 2010.
We're on Tumblr! You can see more of BAD Studio's musings at our tumblr site badstudio.tumblr.com
MAY 19, 2010
Our Local Hero: Judith Winfrey
Congratulations to our friend and client, Judith Winfrey, who is featured in the June 2010 issue of Cooking Light Magazine. If you want to know about the local foods, she is the one to ask. Plus her tireless efforts in promoting safe, fair and sustainable food as convivium leader of Slow Food Atlanta, is helping grow the demand for local foods throughout the Atlanta area. We could go on-and-on about how great she is, but why not just go out and pick up a copy of Cooking Light to find out the whole story.
A few places you might run into Judith are:
The Local Farmstand | VISIT SITE
Small Farms CSA | VISIT SITE
Love Is Love Farm | VISIT SITE
Slow Food Atlanta | VISIT SITE
Peachtree Road Farmers Market | VISIT SITE
EAV Farmers Market | VISIT SITE
MAY 10, 2010
Left: This week's harvest. Center: Logo & banner designed by BAD Studio. Right: Joe Reynolds at the farm stand.
Better Food and Farming
For the past few years we have been donating design time and energy to many small local farms through our involvement with Small Farms CSA and Love is Love Farm. Investing in CSA's are one of the best ways to help local farmers and get the best in local vegetables, dairy and meat in return.
This week yeilded awesome strawberries, tons of greens and eggs. With your first bite you easily tell the difference between local fresh produce, and the stuff from the grocery store (even good ones like Whole Foods). The strawberries melt in your mouth. The eggs made an incredible Mother's Day brunch veggie scramble. And we'll have salad all week long.
CSA structures have myriad shapes and sizes, but all support the belief that a close farmer consumer relationship promotes freshness and quality of food and combats the environmental costs of the long distances typically traveled from field to plate.
To learn more about Small Farms CSA visit http://www.smallfarmscsa.com/ or click the link on the right to download a digital brochure and membership form.
APRIL 22, 2010
Set of four 3'x9' banners for Cartoon Network's Tooner Field at the Atlanta Braves Turner Field.
Take Me Out to the Ball Game
Now that we got that song stuck in your head, and you're craving hot dogs, peanuts and cracker jack, you might just want to call it a day and go to lunch. If not, read on.
It was a perfect Atlanta spring day, so my son and I made a headed to Turner Field to check out a game and the new banners we designed for Cartoon Network's interactive playground, Tooner Field (Get it?). The project consisted of designing four 3'x9' banners to promote their new 2010 programming lineup. For each banner we were supplied key character art and show logos. From there we illustrated four original backgrounds, one to fit each show, and composed the final art in Photoshop.
The deadline was tight, but the project was designed, approved, printed and installed in 2-weeks, just in time for opening day.
APRIL 19, 2010
A Do-It-Yourself Day at Riverview Farms
Riverview throws the farm gates open for a community creation of food, play, and entertainment, in gratitude for – and to build donations to – the Small farms Disaster Relief Fund administered by Slow Food Atlanta. 5 Seasons Brewing libations available. Bring your happy self and let’s kick off the 2010 growing season with some fun! It’s a potluck, do-it-yourself affair: bring the family, games, a dish to share, chairs/blankets to sit on, musical instruments if you’re inclined – but leave the dog at home. Donations are suggested for the day, made out to Slow Food Atlanta.
Slow Food Atlanta is one of the most rewarding groups we donate our services and contribute to. For this event we designed the logo and e-mail newsletter design. Check it out if you can or visit www.slowfoodatlanta.org to find out more.
APRIL 5, 2010
The Boys Are Back - Opening Day 2010
e-mail newsletter design, programming and distribution
Baseball season opens today and we've been busy helping our clients get ready.
For Comcast Sports New York we prepared their April affiliate newsletter, and emailed it out 9:30am of opening day.
For Cartoon Network we created banners featuring their new summer programming to be placed around the top of Turner Field's kids area, The Sandlot. The artwork is in final production, and should be up some time this week. I can't wait to go see a game and check it out. We will post photos of them as soon as we get them.
APRIL 3, 2010
Georgia Small Farms Disaster Relief Fund
logo design
Many of our clients and local small farmers are still suffering the effects of flooding and tornadoes in 2009. The severe weather caused a lot of heartbreak and damage to local, family farms. Some farms still have extensive damage. They lost all of their crops and suffered devastating livestock losses in the storms, and as we move into the spring and summer growing season they need help more than ever. Unfortunately, FEMA does not provide relief funds to farmers affected by the floods and severe weather; they will only offer loans. In order to assist our local farmers Slow Food Atlanta has created the Georgia Small Farms Disaster Relief Fund. Donations will be provided directly to local, Georgia farmers in need. Please make checks payable to "Georgia Small Farms Disaster Relief Fund" and mail checks to:
Georgia Small Farms Disaster Relief
FundP.O. Box 2641
Smyrna, GA 30081
To find out more about Slow Food Atlanta CLICK HERE
To find out more about BAD Studio CLICK HERE
MARCH 25, 2010
El Día de los Niños
event logo • illustration • invitation design • custom html evite • email template
For two years we’ve been helping Quality Care for Children with their annual fund raising event, El Día de los Niños. The key design piece we develop for this event is the invitation. Last year, we did an 8-page booklet with an embossed and die-cut cover (top photo). It was such a hit that it seemed like this year it would be hard to top.
So we hit the drawing board with the initial client direction of trying to create something with a “Spanish-Modern” feeling. I loved what was done for the Barcelona Olympics, but I thought that style would be too simple. We usually try to avoid anything that could be misinterpreted as childlike. So it was on to plan b.
For “Spanish” we thought tile and wrought-iron. For “modern” we combined clean, airy and bright colors. That was the easy part. After several days of sketches, web searches and combing our private archives we stumbled upon a stock photo that had a section with a beautiful, colorful, abstract tile mosaic.
We used the mosaic as a starting point, but the section was so small it didn’t create the impact we desired. It worked fine for borders, but we wanted it for an all over pattern for the cover of the invite. That’s where Photoshop took over. We took the section, repeated it once vertically, with a small gap between the two sections. Then, we bridged the gap with small individual sections of tile. Not difficult work, but tedious.
However, it needed something more. Something to tie the old-world and new together, which we ended up doing literally. Over the outside of the invitation we created a wrap with string and an actual wax seal to hold it together.