New Work: Prime book and SL sell shirt

Well, it's officially wedding season around here, and I literally can't even remember what year it is, because in addition to wrapping up some invitations for this fall, I'm also working on next year's season: invitations for 2012! But before posting images of work from upcoming nuptials, "I do" want to share some work I did in the spring. I had the opportunity to work with some friends from my old stomping grounds, Student Life. This year I designed the summer sell shirt and a 42-page section in Prime, the last Bible study book in a series of six.

The sell shirt was Andy-Warhol inspired and featured the "heart, soul, strength" concept found in Deuteronomy 6:5. I wanted to streamline those three ideas into a working icon which could be used for each--hands shown in three different positions. We used hot colors, halftones to simulate overprinting, and a grid to reference pop art screen printing. 

Art Direction: Dana Humphreville, Events Resource Manager


Student Life Bible Study books hold a unique place in the market in that they are fully graphic. I had the chance to design a 42-page section on "misfits"--people in the Bible who walked by faith and were thus treated as outcasts. The art direction for this section called for a vintage circus/freak show look. We hit the jackpot and found high-resolution royalty-free vintage circus posters, many of which I was able to edit to show our section headers rather than existing headlines. This was such a fun section because I got to use great display typefaces, rich imagery, lots of overlays, and bold color. Each page represented a day's Bible study and thus had to work as a single page as well as part of a spread.

Project Editor: Jeremy Maxfield
Creative Direction: Drew Francis


Want to see more of my design work? Check out my portfolio!

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Baby Bookworm

The other week I got really into finding the perfect baby book for our little girl. I searched high and low and found some great books, but in the end I really wanted one with vintage illustrations, and I bought THREE! Two of them were only a few bucks on E-bay, and the third I got for $20 from SophieHardy on Etsy. And that one isn't even a girl book--it's a book for a baby boy, but I loved it so much I thought that I'd still love it even if I never have a boy.


Anyway, I saw a lot of wonderfully illustrated books when I was searching, so I decided to feature several of them here.

The books above are the ones I bought. (Click image to enlarge):

I'm A Boy :: Vintage baby book from Etsy

Baby's First Diary :: Sweet little vintage book from Ebay. Shaped like a cradle!

Our Baby's Book :: I wish I had more images of this. It's got the best illustrations. 

Above (click image to enlarge):

1. Tony Sarg's Baby's Book :: This book is out of print and I've found a couple of copies of this online. The illustrations are great and the copy is clever, too.

2. Baby Book by Sara Midda :: Charming watercolor illustrations, modern book.

3. All About Baby Journal :: Cute little book with flat color illustrations. 

Above (click image to enlarge):

4. Petit Collage Deluxe baby BOok and Memory Box :: Cute book that comes in a neat box, too. Lots of pattern and lots of pockets and envelopes for storing little things.

5. My First Year by Beatrix Potter :: I've always loved Beatrix Potter's beautiful watercolors and the characters she creates. The baby book mom got for me was by Beatrix Potter, and I was very close to getting this one for our girl.
6. The Big Book of Me :: Contains lots of vintage-style illustrations.

Images from top: Etsy (3); Ebay (5); Flickr (4); Ohdeeoh (2); babble.com (2); amazon.com (7).

Poster Cabaret, cont'd

Here are a few goodies from Poster Cabaret.

Simple Pleasures

This looked like a cool event. Showcased "independent publishing and experimentation in zine making from Los Angeles and behind" with discussion "exploring topics such as the role of accessible art, modern book design and means of content development."