Naughty or Nice Report card | Harry Canary co
- From the North Pole
It’s back for 2014! Print and leave under the tree on Christmas Eve for Santa to fill out… complete with ‘indecent report’ for any mishaps that might have almost tipped them over the edge, and just to prove that Santa is always watching.
Download the PDF here — santa report card_2014
When you have a graphic designer/artist best friend, wedding planning just goes differently. Everything seems like an option.
From the brides perspective – You want that custom lettered 8 foot chalk sign. Coming up. Hand painted window panes resting in all the trees, no problem. Custom head-table backdrop fit for an anthropologie store window. Sure, add it to the list. For a bride with a ‘the sky’s the limit’ attitude, this is a fantastic spot to be in. For the graphic designer friend, the challenge became how to reign my friend in and find the focus without stepping on her wedding planning dreams, all while maintaining her benchmark of ‘must fit into Martha Stewart Weddings’.
As Lindsey, the bride, would frantically shuffle through magazines and blogs… an enormous list of ’ideas to do’ grew. Father of the Bride (in her mind) or Nancy Meyers (in mine) quickly became the epitome of what perfection was in regards to her wedding. With an arsenal of suppliers and industry insight in my back pocket, we created her and her lawyer husband’s ideal invitation.
Texture was the name of the game. It, and a colour palette, would make sense of the growing task list cohesive.
Tagged: design, invitation, Letterpress, paper, wedding, wedding invitation
So this just happened.
Rock ‘n’ Roll Pirate Wedding, a project developed by Heather Cranston, was chosen as a Merit winner in the most recent HOW Promotion Design Awards. This highly selective and well-regarded competition sponsored by HOW magazine recognizes outstanding creative work produced by individuals and creative agencies from around the world.
HOW’s editorial and design team evaluated 1,000 entries and selected winning projects that demonstrated an ideal mix of concept, strategy and execution. Entries were judged by type of work (i.e., Designer Promotions, Client Promotions, Personal Promotions) and also by how effectively the design achieved the stated business goals. – HOW
Every once in a while I take a wedding invitation. I used to take a lot, but there is a story there. Now the invitations I take on are generally reserved for friends getting married or people who I know that together we can make something really cool, or in this case, both. ‘Special’ projects… for very special people only.
On to the invite – She works in fashion, he is in a band. They told me they were having a Rock’n'Roll Pirate themed wedding but didn’t know what that meant, and that they wanted skulls. So, naturally, when the bride says skulls, the bride gets skulls!
The whole thing together has an on the road, backstage pass, playbill feel. There is no blank folder here, every part has a purpose…
Each piece is like a little ephemeral token picked up along a road trip and folded into one package.
One of the perks of designing wedding invitations for friends is being able to say things like, let’s use any of the budget you were going to spend on design and add it to the print budget for letterpress. And they say ok, and then that’s when Everlovin’ Press comes in and we make awesome stuff like this.
These two couldn’t have been better clients. We are in the process of working up a list of the next (wedding day related) pieces to create. I’ll be sure to share when the time comes.
Tagged: invitation, Letterpress, wedding, wedding invitation
We might be bias, but so far this little pair as got a lot of love. Here is a glimpse into how it all went down.
It is only March, but we’ve got our eyes set on May and June (and how could we not with this LONG winter). Check out out newest release.
Tagged: Father's Day, greeting card, Mother's day
Wanna play Superbowl Bingo?? I put this together last year and it was a hit. Who doesn’t love a bingo dabber?
Here it is (8 different cards), updated to 2014 specs… Sorry Scarlet, you’ve been removed.
Tagged: bingo, free download, printable, super bowl
Me, elseware…
Thank you Katie
In 1966 Stuart Ash of Gottschalk + Ash designed the keen Canadian Confederation Centennial logomark, a maple leaf comprised of 11 equilateral triangles to represent the 10 Canadian provinces and the territories.
It was used to celebrate Canada’s big birthday across all collateral and commemorative pieces in 1967. 
With Canada’s 150′s approaching, the government, showing zero faith or appreciation for Canadian designers (or design in general for that matter), held a contest, spent $40,000 testing, and later presented the following five (completely embarrassing) logos.
Canadians, usually polite, have not been so much. Media including CBC and Huffington Post have all chimed in. As well as design blog Brand New.
Then this happened. Halifax-born graphic designer Ibraheem Youssef saw the angry response to the proposed logos he decided he could do better. He got in touch with other designers and put together a website with an alternate slate of designs. – Huffington Post
As cries of protest and disgust started to fill the digital airwaves via Facebook and twitter, and after a discussion with my colleague Dave Watson (CD Design North America, TAXI), I decided to do something about it. I built this website and went forth and contacted a group of esteemed, professional and award winning Canadian Graphic Designers and Art Directors including Dave, who in-turn went ahead and rallied the Designers at TAXI to the cause. We then challenged them all to create something better than what is currently being circulated in the media, and the response was very positive and supportive.
After the site launched on the 10th of December, There was an impressive amount of requests from Designers, Professional and Junior from all across the country to contribute and be a part of this project. - ibraheemyoussef.com
Maybe it has something to do with the great response and coverage that the Vancouver’s Olympic branding got. Or maybe Obama’s Change – Ground breaking or not, professionals were hired, thought and effort was contributed (graphically speaking anyway). But the 5 logos presented look more like they should be on a flyer for a Community Centre Canada Day Pie Sale, than on anything actually representing our country.
So, Canadian designer, Youssef, launched a website and gathered the support of 30+ award winning and well known designers. They are just examples and will not actually be used, but really, he and all designers that submitted just wanted to show ‘em what we’re made of, and that if it weren’t for the their flawed and lazy process, what they could have had. What these designers have produced FAR exceeds any and all of the government’s clipart and word art logos. Round of applause for them.
Tagged: canada, Canadian, design, graphic design
Potato prints are something most people have done as a child. Cheap and easy, hard to mess up. For this year’s tree, I made stars and bows.
If you are nervous about just diving in and cutting, you can scrore your design with a toothpick first.
Make sure you are cutting towards the outside and not through the middle of your design (or star in this case). Any cut lines that you put through the middle of your stamp will hold more paint and show up in your print.
Next mix a small amount of water with which ever colour paint you are using. I stamped my first few prints on a paper towel to make sure the consistency was right. Then stamp away! I eye-balled where to put each stamp, but if you want to be more precise you could always measure and put a little pencil mark.
Tagged: Christmas, DIY, potato, Prints, wrapping paper
My Dec 4th gift to you all is a free print of Santa’s very official report card from the North Pole.
Print, fill out and place under the tree on Christmas morning to let your children know if the’ve made the Nice or Naughty list… complete with ‘indecent report’ for any mishaps that might have almost tipped them over the edge, and just to prove that Santa is always watching.
Tagged: Christmas, download, free, printable, report card