Peak Performance

I stopped volunteering last year because I was so burned out. Between my office job and freelance work, my schedule was already full. Still, I took on yet another non-profit fundraiser because I love to coordinate special events so much. When I started volunteering a few years ago, I got a lot of my girlfriends involved. With every meeting and every event, we grew closer and now, we all actually help each other out quite often. Which is the case with Peak Performance for Children.

Thanks to my good friend Della, I'm now helping her coordinate this event. In addition to leading all the committees, I usually end up on or am the only member of the design team. This is my logo for this year's event. I'll share other collateral pieces as they're developed. Event details coming soon too!

Wedding Shower Invitation

Some wedding shower invitations I designed last week.

UPDATE: Since Chris is harassing me for more information about my invites, here are some additional details. After trolling the blogosphere for inspiration, I was finally inspired by an oval. Yes indeed, the oval is where this all begins. Sometimes Often, I get creatively blocked and just looking at other people's work help jog my brain into action.

THE CLIENT

Kat, my friend and neighbor. She is hosting a wedding shower for Christine and Garrett and asked for something bluegrass theme. I went for the warm, casual, country feel of bluegrass music rather than anything musically related.

COLORS

Originally this piece was going to be black ink printed on color paper, but Kat didn't sound too enthused so I chose colors to match their Save-the-Date cards (PMS 173 and Black PMS 5)  and printed on cream stock. These were just color copies.

FONTS 

Cowboy Rhumbahut, Poplar Black, Viva la Rivoluzione, Yella Belly

PAPER

80# cover, Sundance Warm White by Neenah Paper Co.

Most of my friends are on a budget, thus they ask me to design things, and I help them save even more money by making some budget decisions. As a designer, I would love to get everything printed and matchy, but as someone who is always watching their dollars, I make certain adjustments.

++ Printed envelopes? Never. Yeah, it makes the whole package look great, but people spend seconds looking at envelope before it's torn open and thrown away. If you want to make it look special, use a stamp. Or choose a color envelope. 

++ Print versus Copy. Copiers are fast, easy and inexpensive for small jobs. With a nice paper, you get  instant quality for less money. I would love to be able to letterpress every single job I get, but the reality is that the money isn't always there.

++ Paper. Spend the money on paper, it makes everything feel better.

++ Do it yourself, but think of how much time you're saving and how big the job is. Sometimes, it's better to just pay someone.

pho

Styled by Linh Trieu / Photographed by Elizabeth Cook
for Cooking with an Accent: An Immigration Lawyer's Cookbook

My mom is making pho today. I can't wait to have some later! Pho brings to mind an intense, long and stressful project I worked on years ago with an immigration attorney. She was my husband's immigration lawyer, she was my client, and not only did we help produce the cookbook, we were even a part of it. Cooking with an Accent featured her immigration clients, favorite recipes from their homeland and each person's immigration story. I chose pho, which I had never made, but loved to eat. My mom made it for me and I just brought over all the ingredients, put it in a bowl, then styled and shot it. Totally cheated of course. But I have to say it was more effort than the other Vietnamese client who made grilled hot dogs. While neither of us cooked anything, I still felt superior. :)

I now know how to make pho, but I don't use the recipe in this cookbook. My mom gave me directions but she cooks from memory. Her directions were long, her measurements were eyeballed and I was thoroughly confused. I use this recipe instead and although not as good as my mom's (of course), it's still amazing.

The following images are from the cookbook Beth and I worked on for free. We were young, we were dumb and we almost blew our heads off working on this project. But we gained A LOT of experience and I'm still proud of working on it. I was the project planner, designer, art director, food stylist and editor. Beth was the photographer and we scheduled and styled the shoots together. George came up with the title and also did some major editing. Would I ever do something like this again? Yes, definitely, but for free? Never in a million years, not for all the experience in the world. You can buy one for yourself here but I cannot guarantee that all the recipes work (see above where I mentioned my mom's pho recipe). Click on the images for a better view.

Westport Cafe & Bar - Part 1

Westport Cafe & Bar went into the original Blanc location in Westport and had their grand opening last week. They did a fabulous job of transforming that space from the signature starkness of Blanc into a warm, sophisticated French café. The east wall is still the original brick but now it has a painted mural on it. Subway tile covers the rest of the space with red accents and traditional wainscoting.

Bathrooms rate high on my list of things to critique and WC&B did not dissapoint. They said goodbye to  the Orla Kiely wallpaper and replaced it with chicken wall paper, right on trend with all the animal imagery that I see popping up everywhere. Sorry, no pic, I'm not taking a camera into the water closet. :)

Each table is set with beautiful salt and pepper shakers, small water glasses and a paper napkin as a placemat of sorts. Very smart, functional and unfussy.

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A dad a the bar with baby. It's great to see how much more involved dads have become. The bar was quite beautiful with amber glass panels that reflected a warm, intimate glow to the whole space.

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As we waited for our lunch, an ominous storm rolled in (the weather has been so topsy turvy lately, we never know what to expect). Check out the wind blowing through the trees in this pic! The sky turned black and all the happy weekend shoppers scurried to their cars before they got soaked. It didn't last long, but what drama!

Huge thumbs up for the darling decor. I immediately felt at home and it makes me want to come back, sit with a cup of coffee by the window, and watch the world walk by.

Coming up next....a review of our lunch.

Manifesto

I enjoy my television waaaay too much, I would never ever kill it, ever. But this poster DOES inspire me. via Amanda Johnson and Black Eiffel.

Just Desserts

Apologies for the lag in posts the last few weeks! I can't seem to catch up and keep signing up for more. It's crazy but life is more interesting that way, don't you think? I am on full fundraiser mode of late, crafting, organizing last minute details, attending meetings, designing and trying to stay motivated! Urban Picnic is less than three weeks away and I can't wait to show you the final results. It's going to be fabulous.

In the meantime, I just wanted to share the event invitation I designed in for the Women Attorneys Association of Topeka. I'm sure we'll be editing the crap out of it as I changed their sponsorship level names and copy. I just wanted the initial work to reflect the sweet theme of desserts. They're still looking for donations if you're interested in supporting their scholarship programs geared for single mothers. Click on image for a more detailed view.