The program for OK Mozart’s L’Amore d’Italia Ball is a smaller, 4-page, 1-fold piece. I love the interior and it printed nicely on a heavy linen stock thanks to Bartlesville’s best print shop. It turned out just lovely! Osage Casinos sponsored the event and the mask picure on the cover was taken by local artist Gary Gibson.
I’m loving the interesting flow of work coming from Bartlesville’s local print shop. There is, however, the problem of recreating things to print EXACTLY as a client requests — but that is ugly as all get-out. It nearly killed me the other day to save a print-ready file using the Hobo font. The project here called for Rage Italic and a graphic with lines that I absolutely do not understand (It’s so abstract, it could mean anything!). Kill me now. But, such is the life of a print shop — the client’s requests always come first! And if you are the client and you happen to read this: take it from an experienced designer — it’s time for an update on your logo and materials. You don’t even have to hire me. Just, for the love of all that’s holy, refresh your brand.
Exhibit A: Rage Italic in all its horrific 1980s glory — letterhead and envelopes. Because a small town rec center is nothing if not thorough.
There’s a great little print shop here in Bartlesville, aptly named Bartlesville Print Shop. The owner is a smart man. He hired a talented young girl who is his right-hand-woman most days. The girl is on a sabbatical for school or something (I forget; let’s face it, I can barely keep track of my own life) and even though I swore off taking additional work for the summer, I decided I could spare a month or so and help out the print shop on an as-needed, contract basis. It’s kind of fun having a print shop as a client — which is actually a first for me. It’s a never-ending stream of varied work! It definitely keeps me on my toes. This poster was designed a few days ago and by the next time I stopped into the shop, he had them printed and ready to go — such a great printer. Seriously, if you don’t have a favorite local printer like ours in Bartlesville, go find one! A good printer makes ALL the difference…
So, these are quite simple but since they’re only 2″ wide and they pack a lot of info, it is important to make them readable but still stand out on the entire huge newspaper print page full of black and white! Enter the diagonally cropped picture. It really works! It adds just enough visual “movement” to help the ad stand out on the static page and draw the eye of the reader. Take a look and see which is your favorite. These 8 ads are being printed in a series in the Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise newspaper, based on which performer is coming up next chronologically.
These are similar to the Fun Run poster and t-shirt because it should have the same look but be independent. The Fun Run T-Shirt is going to be printed on sapphire blue so the t-shirt I’m suggesting here is to be printed on neon yellow. If it’s not in the budget this year, perhaps next. Bright colors are so much fun for t-shirts, especially for kids!
Poster design:
T-Shirt design:
I designed this stake conference invitation for the first semiannual conference of the Bartlesville, Oklahoma Stake! So nice of the stake presidency to put out an official invitation like this. I hope it helps boost attendance and clarifies meeting times, attendance and info for all involved. I tried to make it match the ward mission plan and the stake mission plan that I had created earlier. I’d better watch out or the stake will have inadvertently created its own press kit and style guide soon! Kidding…
I really need to do better at publishing daily so I don’t have to keep backtracking! But I’ve been working way too much and there’s no way I can post it all. That’s good, right?!
I used the floral artwork from lenlis at BigStock for the flowers and then added the “Put on the Armor of God” text and made a few changes to use for a themed presentation at auxiliary training. It was so cute, I left it up at home for a week after the event! I’m including pics of the wonderful cookies with labels and chocolate covered strawberries served. I don’t know if anybody else liked it but the strawberries alone were worth it for me!
So our local newspaper is notorious for poorly printed ads. It seems OK Mozart gets the brunt of the poorly printed ads — even though they’ve checked and asked for proofs which always turn out fine! Black only can be so tricky. The grays look so washed out and since most of OK Mozart’s ads are black-intensive (using Rich Black in 4/c), I had to redesign some newspaper versions of their ads to hopefully boost contrast and not worry as much about printing striations. Frustrating! Anyway, here are some of the redesigns.
The 2015 Ward Mission Plan was such a success, I got roped into creating a Stake Mission Plan. The text wasn’t as conducive to a great layout but I think it’s nice enough, anyway.
So one of my very favoritest sources of income is revising previously created ads in different sizes for different publications. It takes time, but you just have to adjust things without re-creating the wheel, so to speak. It probably takes more time than my client would think it does but it’s relatively painless and a good source of income — I want to say residual income but that’s not entirely correct because I’m still eating up the clock and sitting at the computer. They’re worth it even though I generally charge quite a bit less for them. These ads were for GTR Newspapers, an independent free papers association for Tulsa, Oklahoma Magazine, and Tulsa’s Currentland publication.
I’m writing an article about the Riverside Park, Ralph Mitchell Zoo & Riverside Aquatic Center for the upcoming Visitor’s Guide & Travel Edition of Bartlesville Magazine. It is one of our family’s favorite places, so we took a quick trip up on Saturday to get some great photographs and finish up the article. I’m including a few fave photos here, but the entire set can be viewed in our Zoo & Park Set on Flickr.
This table card is part of the March Madness set for OK Mozart’s upcoming event in Bartlesville. If you’re in the area, take a look at the lovely food and auction items — it will be a wonderful event!
