idea hamster

I can’t believe that the holiday season is almost upon us!! I thought I’d pause and post some things that I’ve been working on lately.

Currently, one of our bigger clients at CRT/tanaka is B&N College Booksellers. This is not the Barnes & Noble you find in shopping centers across America - but rather the Barnes and Noble college bookstores you can find on almost any campus. We’ve been working hard on some new corporate branding and other promotional materials. Here’s a peek at some items that I’ve been working on with my creative director, Al Davis:

I got to take a look at their corporate trade show booth in Orlando, FL - and took a quick pick at one of the small display signs that I had worked on:

Here’s a sneak peek at the new Barnes and Noble College Booksellers website that I’ve been working on with my awesome co-worker and web developer rock star, Dave Hess:

YardBirds at Gayton Crossing Shopping Center, here in Richmond, VA also asked me to create a fun Holiday promotional postcard for their customer base:

Isaac Harrell of Richmond Bride Magazine also asked me to create another 2-page spread illio for an upcoming article on couples that write their own wedding vows. I’ve been heavily influenced lately by traditional american folk art, especially colonial fraktur paintings, so see if you can spot the influence:

I just realized my last post was May!! That is pretty bad - so I thought I’d share a sample of some of the freelance projects that I worked on over this summer.

Sara Layne and I used to work together at Oliver Creative. She was our project manager and now runs her own business, Ethan Assistance. She also does some marketing for her parent’s shop, YardBirds (awesome Bird and Garden shop in Gayton Crossing). I developed the shop logo about a year ago or so and I often get a chance to collaborate with Sara to develop promotional sale postcards. This was the last one: 

I also got to collaborate with Wendy Martin, who owns her own speech writing and marketing firm here in Richmond, VA. Wendy needed a quick logo for some self promo materials - so we came up with this together:

Next, I had the pleasure of designing some logo concepts for Chris Hull, at Helium Studio (an interactive and design shop in historic Shockoe Slip). His manufacturing client wanted to update their brand, starting with a spin of their current logo. Together, we explored multiple typefaces and symbols. Here is a taste of what we sent the client:

Last but not least - I had a wonderful lunch with Bryan Jones and Catherine Roby of CWD Kids about how I could possibly help them with some of their marketing needs. This wonderful family owned and operated company is based here in Richmond, VA, and its clothing catalogue reaches shoppers around the country. Catherine needed some help developing some quick html emails to announce upcoming sales to it’s current customer base. This is what we came up with: