Hey there..Long time, no talk. I was realy busy, still am but i wanted to show you what i’ve been doing. I started working on a blog for the firm i’m working and i want your advice and feedback…it’s in romanian but i hope this will not stop you to take a look.

We’ve started a visibility campain and for this i’ve made a poster/banner…The firm is making a catalog with the local firms/ name of business and info about their location and contact. With this poster we have also a Radio Campain with the same idea.

The slogan is translated: Don’t buy a ticket! (written on the exterior side of a bus) Search on the Business Index The shortest way from office to office.

robcubbon is a freelance designer in london who’s just got incorporated. and is now looking to recreate it’s corporate visual elements.
he’s started with his logo. and has presented his first logo proposal here.

i too have decided o create one logo proposal for him:

and this is a short argument for this logo proposal:
- i think rob is right when deciding to focus it’s logo on presenting his name.
- i tried to enhance and strengthen the focus on the name by different fonts and colours.
- rob cubbon’s name: i’ve used brisk, font with rounded corners which is (in my opinion) easier to read.
- “ltd”: written with 2tech, gives sobriety (through the font used) and dinamism (through colour) while still letting the name to gain the most visibility.

btw: here’s a good collection of free fonts.

what do you think?
- should rob consider another strategy when designing his logo?
- what do you think about the composition?
- what do you think about the colours and/or fonts?

thanks again for the comments!

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so… the other day i’ve desided use a “portrait picture” for a layout.

the thing is that the subject in the picture looked… well… let’s just say… unprepared!
so i needed to do a facelift for the picture.

here is what i’ve started from:

and here’s what i’ve done:
- remove face impurities
- increase face luminosity
- change eye colour
- remove wrilnkles

and here’s the result:

and here’s a 2 min quite amusing video on how i’ve done it:
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cRClJEHXMc[/video]

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here’s another great webdesign insight from my 2nd bee:

i’ve got a new project this week. i’m to create a new site for a software development company.
in this post, i want to share to you my first steps for creating this new website.

1. i’m gathering all the information about the company the people, the ideeas of the firm, the target group, the preferences (like colors, style etc) of the man in charge .

2. if the company’s corporate identity manual is good i can use that guidelines to start my website layout. i try to stay on the same direction of the corporate identity (dooh ).

if that is not the case, then i recommend to the client to start from there. usually he agrees :). not always though .

here’s some examples of corporate visual elements i used before i started sketching this one.

this is a presentation folder

and this is a bussiness card.

3. after i get the general idea, i make sketches for the layout. first i create the big areas, then i add buttons, and other elements (like logos, banners etc)

4. in this case i translate the sketch design on a vectorial software (like illustrator or corel). in this case vectorial layouts are more suitable for me because i intend to develop the site in flash (also vectorial based).

… and this is my webpage layout proposal: tadaaaa

only after this is over i proceed with:
- i make sketches of the intro animation, preloader, and the photo albums if any…
- i prepare all the images after i decided what size they will be.
- only after these steps i start working in flash.

what do you think? do you like it?
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yesterday i had to create a 3 parts folded brochure for a “credit for house” product of a bank. (see it below).

and while i was editing, it got me thinking that you too might be interested in the techniques i use to create it.

soo… here are the steps for creating a folding brochure (3 parts folding).

1. (i already created a post on ) sources for pictures, get the text (from client).
2. when you create the layout (i use indesign for this) split it into 3 parts

- the frontpage of the brochure should be divided into: 97 mm/ 100mm/100mm.
- divide also the backpage into: 100 mm/ 100 mm/ 97 mm.
doing this you will create a brochure that will fold (the backpage and frontpage) perfectly together.

3. to prepair it for print just use the common steps for indesign (these are the steps for digital and offset print):

- click file- preflight
- check for missing links (images)
- make sure there are no missing fonts, no rgb color space, no spot colors (using the digital print you can’t use any special colors).

4. don’t forget you have to set a 3mm bleed for the cutting losses ;).

that’s all. and here is the brochure i made.

later edit: details on options for folding an indesign brochure

what do you think? should i present it? thanks for feedback!
click on the pictures to view it full size.

(keep in mind that i’ve covered the bank’s logo for the momment) . and the interiour:

sooo do you remember my blog guest?
she wrote you a tutorial for how to prepare on how to work with actions in photoshop.

well… she’s been working! here’s her first site developed in flash.
and now… off course she’ll share her experience with us.

but please… don’t forget to give feedback

so… i’ve promised to give you the final result of the teahouse design for print project.

it seems that it is a quite known local in bucharest so the ad’s comes only like a reminder for customers. that’s why the text is only related to the name, the adress and tehouse’s tagline.

the teahouse is mainly targeted to bucharest’s expats so the text is english.

following this post, i will give you details regarding the “making of” (where to find pictures, how to process pictures, how to prepare your ad for print).

to ease ur wating for the result of the teahouse print i share with you my latest finding:
emory’s got a cool blog with some nice black and white fotos.

that’s got me thinking that a cool black’n'white design can be sometimes much more expressive than a colourfull one. in fact in black’n'white is quite suited when transmitting a simple and direct message.

here’s 2 examples i did just for the fun of it:

today, i’ve told you aboud my new task. it’s about creating a visual ad for a teahouse. this is what i’ve achieved so far. but i’m not yet satisfied:
- i’m not yet happy about the steam effect i’ve created.
- i haven’t yet received the text to include in the ad. so the text there is just some suppositions of mines.

anyway, tomorow i will tell you about the stages that i have to complete in order to create this ad.
i will tell you about where i find my pictures, how i “play” with them and how i’m getting them ready for print.