I’m feeling so unmotivated and unproductive today and I really need to be!!! So hopefully some inpirational ads will help me and maybe you.
Last year The Bahamas launched a rebranded look, logo and advertising campaign that I really loved. The subway ads were all around NYC which were very funny and graphically pleasing. I finally found the ads on the web to show you. There logo is made up of little do dad circle elements to reflect all the islands in the Bahamas…so ingenious! These design elements are used through their ads in such a clever way. Love the use of them in the ads. Why can’t all subway ads be this pretty and amusing?
I put a bunch of the ads together in a pdf here if you want for inspiration and reference so check it out.
You can view the rest of the campaign at the Bahamas website, which also features tv spots and online banners.
I’ll try to post more later when I’m feeling productive…I hope!
Not feeling all that chatty today. I have a bad headache and just want to go to bed. So post will be quick today and I promise more tomorrow. I will even try to post some goodies & a freebie tomorrow.
One exciting thing though before I go…this morning I was looking for new new tunes on itunes since I got 4 free downloads when I bought concert tickets yesterday. So I was looking through music and I found new tunes from Dolores O’Riordan the lead singer from the band, The Cranberries. I was and am a huge Cranberries fan and have missed them since they haven’t been around in over 4 years! Nevertheless, I got the songs…there was only 3. I found the official website for The Cranberries and according to that Dolores has an album coming out in May, so I’m excited about! it’s funny because I wear my Cranberries t-shirts all the time..they are so old and holey but I love them and can’t get rid of them!
I also found this awesome site yesterday, Hable Construction and they have TONS of things with green dots on them! I mean TONS OF STUFF!! Thank god it’s totally expensive and out of my price range because otherwise I would have went crazy scooping up things. I mean I have a real probable when it comes to green dotty things…I need to get them! Seems I’m always buying green things. It’s even funnier to see me buy green things while I wear my green coat, with my green bag, sometimes green shoes and if I had my glasses on all the time well then my green glasses. I’m funny! LOL!
So more tomorrrow and hopefully goodies. Thank god tomorrow is Friday and I’m off from work too!! Woo hoo!
Toodles,
I’m really enjoying this Spring weather we are having and the extra daylight lately. Although my allergies are kicking my butt since it’s been warmer. My eyes are all itchy and red, my head is killing me from sinus pressure and I can’t stop scratching my eyes. Why isn’t my allergy meds working? Anyone else having bad allergies this Spring? Bugger!
I’m excited to tell you that I’m heading up the Creative Muses’ Challenges over at My Digital Muse. I volunteered to gather up everyone’s thoughts on challenges and will figure out who is doing what. For my friends and family who read this and aren’t familiar with what I’m talking about - I will be involved with figuring out creative scrapbook and photographer challenges to prompt people to create layouts and photos on certain subjects. I’ll even be hosting a challenge too! I think I’m going to organize the “Scrap Outside The Box” Challenge where you scrap hard challenging times and sensitive issues that we go through to help us remember and grow. I think it was a different concept then you would normally see which is refreshing and inspiring. Here’s a layout I recently did about my recent health troubles that gives you an idea of what I am talking.
How cool is this bag that I found online? Love the green dots but alas I don’t need anymore bags for goodness sake! =P
So I’m wearing my Red Inspired Shirt today that I got at The Gap. I really love this shirt..it’s so bold and graphic. The (RED) campaign was created by Bono of U2 and Bobby Shriver, Chairman of Data, to raise awareness and money for the global fund by teaming up with the world’s most iconic brands to produce red-branded products. A percentage of each RED products sold is given to The Global Fund, which helps women and children with HIV/AIDS in Africa. Check out there site and join. Love this ad that features my girl, Jennifer Garner - love her! =)
Speaking of inspired thanks for the comments from yesterday. I hope that my musings, postings and designs have been inspirational to you. I’ll try to keep up with it. Inspirational pieces help me keep designing and more forward. Lately though I feel like I’m stuck in a design rut. I know what is cool, graphic and awesome in design but sometimes have a hard time achieving that in my own work. You know what I mean? I can tell you what I think is a totally awesome design but to make one myself sometimes is somewhat tough but I keep plugging away which is all I can do, right?
Anyways, enough out of me…speak to you later.
Toodles,
Since I talked yesterday about “Found Type” I remember somethings about type that I wanted to share with you. I took a design type class last year called “Gourmet Type” with Ilene Strizver and it rocked. The teacher was very experienced, knowlegable and fun which made the class very enjoyable. Check out her site for articles on type, font selection, guides to True Type & Open Type. She even has a book out called Type Rules! The designer’s guide to professional typography which you can get through Amazon. The book covers everything that we went over in the class, which is very helpful to us designer types 
Speaking of designer types, check out this site for lots of fabulous books on graphic design, logos, type, packaging and a slew of other design inpiration. The site seems to be in German but all the book are American and in English. It’s a great comprehensive list of design books, some of which I have. Just wanted to share my finds with you.
I’ll be back later or tomorrow with more this and that. Before I leave you here is a family layout I did the other day. Enjoy!
Toodles,
Happy Monday. I’m behind today on blogging..so this is going to be short. Worked all day Saturday on a client book and I got half way done. I have the rest of the week to get it done and posted to Shutterfly by Saturday. I have a coupon that I need to use by April 1st, so I’m cutting it close! I have tons more to do this week…work, work & more work!
Yesterday I didn’t do much though. John and I took a walk and enjoyed the nice warm weather. We did swing by Urban Outfitters to check out the things I found online last week. John convinced me I didn’t need an owl lamp although I really liked it. I did however get this owl bank which is cute. I named him Ollie the Owl…he he he! We also picked up the chickie picture I showed you the other day. We saw and fall in love this this too and ending up ordering it online later last night. Not sure where it’s going to go but somewhere in the apartment eventually.
Rounded out the evening with awesome dinner at Veselka, a Ukrainian soul good place. I got the Beef Stroganoff and John got the Bigos - a savory stew of sauerkraut, cabbage and meat. It was so good…YUM-O!
Over at Designer Digitals Blog they have a cool scrap challenge. The challenge is to do a layout featuring your screen name or name. I thought it was a pretty cool name so I decided to do it. For this challenge I really liked the idea of using letters from the world for this. I found some cool pictures online but I want to start taking pictures of type around me to use. So my own challenge to myself is to collect as much “Found Type” as I can to use in layouts. Here’s another cool site that displays Found Type. If you find anything cool that inspires you send it my way and I can post for others. Sound good?
Anyways, I need to get going…more soon. I may not be able to blog every day this week since I have lots to do. So in case I don’t blog have a good week, enjoy the nice warm weather and speak to you soon!
Toodles,
I’m taking today off from blogging to do some work and deal with some bandwidth issues. Seems since I’m a print designer I need to get a lesson on web design and size limits..LOL! I’ll figure things out and reconfigure and see you next week! Before I go, in case my parents read this over the weekend - Happy Anniversary!
Blogging is tough on a regular basis. It’s very time consuming figuring out what to write about and then finding images to go with it. I’m trying to keep up but it’s hard everyday. We’ll see if I can keep it up.
Found these awesome ads the other day. One is for a Dine Out Brooklyn event. I love how they designed it with the fork to look like the Brooklyn Bridge…very clever and cool. The other one has cool colors and it has owls on it. He he he.
So my I’ve been some creative challenge with my layouts lately. I feel my layouts are starting to aIl look the same. I know I have a certain style but I want to try layering more elements. My layouts are very simple and clean which is good but I would love to get that layered look down like this layout here by d2vasquez at The Digi Chick. It looks so good and it all works together well but when I do something like this I feel it looks like a mess. I need to try to branch out and dabble in more layering. I’ll see what I come up with and post some soon I hope.
Been trying to figure out my vacation days for the next few months and the rest of the year. Hard to plan ahead that far in advance but I think I figured it out. I’m hoping to figure out where we are going to go for my birthday/Xmas. We are thinking maybe Spain but we’ll see. Anyone have any suggestions for December traveling?
A few months ago I found these cool ticket books that hold ticket stubs. I got a bunch for Xmas and I need to put all my ticket stubs that I’ve collected into it. I think it will be a fun project but I need to find the time to do it. If you are in need of books like this check them out here.
See ya tomorrow,
P.S. Happy Birthday, Keith!!! =)
Yesterday at work Alexa Ray Joel the daughter of music legend Billy Joel and model Christie Brinkley performed a mini concert for us. Work is pretty cool with having events like this every few months…keeps us entertained. Anyways, she was awesome and totally rocked! I got a free CD and she even signed it. Make sure to check her out at her My Space page for concert listings. I’m hoping to see her in May when she is suppose to perform in NYC.
Last night I went to the Container Store to get some things to contain my stuff..LOL! They have so many green things in there, it’s hard not to buy everything! Most of my purchases were green though. What a big surprise, right? NOT!
Came across some awesome stuff last night while surfing the web. Urban Outfitters has a cool lamp with owls on it!!! How cool is this??? Love it but don’t necessarily need it. I’m running out of places to put all my crap! Also saw this cute chickie painting. Love those boots..He he he.
That’s about it for now…too tired to type up more. It’s been a long week already and looking forward to the weekend.
Toodles,
P.S. Make sure to check out Gina Miller’s store for some good deals on some new alphabets and when you spend $5 or more you get some free Felt Labels. It’s well worth it!
Today’s post is going to be a short and quick one. Lots to do and no time to really chat. I’ve been working on a book for a client and playing around with some quotes and word art. Here’s a freebie quote for you…hope you enjoy.
I know it’s the first day of Spring today but I worked on a Fall layout yesterday that came out really good, so I thought I would share with you. Enjoy!
I’ll be back tomorrow with more to chat about…at least I’ll try.
Toodles,
Time is just flying by these days. You know time goes fast when your coffee guy who was on vacation for 2 months is back and it seemed to be only 3 weeks! I was pleasantly surprised to him back this morning. I didn’t feel like a “regular” to his temporary replacement so it’s back to normal now. Anything to make my mornings easier are fine by me. I crack myself up sometimes, LOL!
This weekend as I mentioned we went out to dinner with friends. So I thought I would post about the restaurant, Pipa which we went to. Pipa in Spanish slang means for to have a good time, serves tapas and much more. They have lots of great tapas to choose from, which is a great idea when you have a large group of people. It’s making me hungry now just thinking about it. LOL! In case you aren’t familiar with tapas they consist of a wide variety of appetizers in Spanish cuisine. It’s located in the ABC Home Carpet store which has a cool website - lots of bright colors. So while you are dining you can look at all the cool and expensive things you can buy, like the chandeliers. Ha! So if you are ever in NYC definitely try out Pipa. Good fun and good times. There have a cool logo as well.
I recently came across this group, Bitter:Sweet and I’m toally diggin them. Bitter: Sweet hass top-notch electronic-lounge sound as well as a retro feel to it. Very funky and their logo & cd artwork is cool too. I heard a song of theirs on a promo for Ugly Betty, which by the way is a great show and then I went on a search to find it. I checked out Adtunes to find it which is a brillant site to help people locate music featured in commercials, movies, trailers and promos. Adtunes always comes in handy to help me sang some great tunes. Love them!
Speaking of something funky here is a layout I did this weekend featuring the lovely design elements of Lo Lo Designs from My Digital Muse. I love this Love sculpture by Robert Indiana and I’m so glad we finally got a photo taken in front of it. Thank god it was when I was skinner..LOL!
For your viewing pleasure I have added a Tara Sroka Design banner on the side here for you to find my main site easier, so check it out. It’s just the TSD logo on the side..go ahead and click it, I dare you! =)
Working on some cool word art and quotes, so maybe I’ll post one or two tomorrow as a freebie. Check back, ya hear!
Until then..toodles,
