New Work: Veranda on Highland

It was such a privilege to get to redesign the logo for one of Birmingham's best and most popular restaurants, Veranda on Highland. Veranda welcomed Chef Jeffrey Hansell in the spring and has been focusing on what it does best--"southern + seasonal" cuisine--while its image and interior have been updated to be fresher and less formal. The intent for the logo was to represent these changes, creating a fresher impression while maintaining a strong sense of history, elegance, and southern culture.

It was important to the client to include an image of the building because of the history that it has. So we decided on a pared-down drawing of the restaurant within a hand-drawn circle that referenced the shape of a plate or platter. I chose the "Veranda" typeface because of its elegance and organic quality--love those swashes on the "V" and "A"--and because it's not as stoic as other didot typefaces. We looked at several colors for the logo, including a yellow-gold and a darker slate blue, but in the end the client chose this grey because of its warmth and vintage sensibility.

Now all I have to do is make a reservation at the restaurant!

See more of my design work at sarahrobinsdesign.com

New Work

I've updated my portfolio to include some recent work as well as photography of some old work. I've been doing a little identity design lately, but primarily stationery and invitations. Right now I'm working on a wedding invitation for my brother-in-law and his fiance, as well as a personal project: our baby's birth announcement! (Stay tuned for a post all about little Charlotte.)

Check out some of the latest:

Full calligraphy 5x7" wedding invitation and outer envelope. Letterpressed in one color on Crane Lettra fluorescent white. Printing: Patrick Masterson / The Rest Press

Handlettered monogram influenced by the "organic geometry" of the Vienna Secessionists. Letterpressed on Crane Lettra fluorescent white 2.5 x 2.5" enclosure cards and white monarch-sized flat cards with coordinating envelopes. Printing: Patrick Masterson / The Rest Press

Logo and business card for a small business specializing in handmade eco-friendly jewelry made out of paper beads. See more of her work here. Printed on Mohawk Options Vellum crystal white. Printing: Communication Arts, Birmingham

Oversized postcard design and copywriting for a honeymoon shower. Handlettered with a calligraphy pen. 

Logo and label design for a homebrewed beer.

Handlettered design for a group of apartments at University Corner: The "UniCorn." Inspired by 60s psychedelic posters.

I'm live! I'm really live!

Well, my portfolio is FINALLY live, and I'm so excited, and I'm so glad to have it wrapped up. Many thanks to Jeff Williams for awesome photography and to Warren Moore and Tony Legrone for transforming my site design into something fluid and functional. 

Check it out, and tell all your friends! I'd love to talk to you about a potential project or need you might have, or what it is that I do. sarahrobinsmpowell.com

Avoca

Mom and Dad brought me back some great things from their trip to Ireland--two wonderful cookbooks and some local pottery! I love these Avoca cookbooks (or go to the Avoca store). Mom said that Avoca reminds her of an Irish Anthropologie. They sell home goods, food, accessories, etc. The cookbooks have beautiful one-color illustrations and expressive type as image throughout. I wish I could find some photos of the spreads on the web---either that, or a working scanner--so I could show you the inside.

Antique Factory Cart Coffee Tables

Identity and biz card for Michael Gamotis/Antique Factory Cart Coffee Tables based here in Birmingham.

Design Project Throwback: Vienna Secession

With all this nostalgia I've been experiencing lately for the Vienna Secessionists' work, I started looking back at my old school project that I did on them. Part of the project was a book. I featured a lot of the work of the movement and wanted to complement it with handlettering and some other hand drawn supporting elements that fit the aesthetic. I'm posting the spreads here for reference for the project I'm currently doing for mom. It would probably be better to post the great photos that Jeff WIlliams shot, so I'll try to do that later.

Beautiful work from the Vienna Secession

So I think I'm going to go with a monogram for mom's stationery. I have been working on one that I really love... it has a similar aesthetic to these that were done by the VS, but it's a little more organic... but not flowery. I'm considering doing some kind of stylized trees/pond in a similar aesthetic. Then I want to get in touch with a friend and letterpress genius, Patrick Masterson, who is here in town, and see about getting them letterpressed on some kind of robin's egg blue paper.

UPDATE: check out the monogram I did here! We printed a pale blue Pantone on Crane Lettra fluorescent white.

I can't remember where I got all this! If you are interested, I could probably track it down.












































Here are some more monograms, not by the Secessionists.

Josef Reyes: One of Print Magazine's New Visual Artist for 2009 Shares a New Favorite

I found this commentary on SPD. What a cleverly illustrated book! I love the facing windows in the snow day spread.

Remy Charlip's "Arm In Arm" is a children's book I picked up at the Antiques Garage flea market on 25th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues. The illustrations in "Arm in Arm" are delightful and intelligent, but what I find most remarkable about this book is the way in which the illustrations acknowledge and exploit the physical properties of the page.




In "Arm In Arm," Remy Charlip tells stories not only through his illustrations but also through his placement of the illustrations on the book pages. In the spread pictured below, Charlip narrates a snow day scene:




Here, Charlip talks about the two opposite ways that kids spend snow day -- some kids see it as the perfect reason to run outside and play, other kids see it as the perfect excuse to stay in bed the whole day. In depicting this scene, Charlip capitalizes on the format of a book spread to great effect. Since the two groups of kids are basically mirror images of one another and the two facing pages of a book spread are also basically mirror images of one another, Charlip simply places one group of kids on one page of the spread and the other group of kids on the facing page. To establish this mirroring scheme, Charlip draws windows on each page, with each window facing the window on the opposite page. Each window looks out to the scene illustrated opposite to it, thereby clarifying the link between the two pages.

In illustrating this snow day scene, Charlip clearly had the format of the book spread in mind -- he acknowledged the symmetry created by two facing pages along with the gutter that creates this symmetry, and incorporated these elements into the illustration. He treated these elements not as constraints but as tools for illuminating the story. In doing so, Charlip tells stories not only through the content of the book but also through the physical properties of the book itself.

To my limited knowledge, Remy Charlip is not a graphic designer, but I regard "Arm In Arm" as one of the most inspiring examples of book design I've ever seen. Charlip demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of the page through his clever use of negative space, gutters, and fore-edges. His pages don't merely feel like dry receptacles for content, they feel like entire worlds you can jump into.







Josef Reyes is a graphic designer at Buchanan-Smith LLC. He was previously a freelancer at The New York Times where he worked on the various Sunday magazines published by the newspaper (Sunday NYT Magazine, Key, and Play). Josef has a BFA in Graphic Design from the School of Visual Arts. He hails from Manila, Philippines.