Country Girl Roundup is a site that I have been brainstorming on, over the last few months. My current vision sees it as a website for all women – Queer and Straight, to discuss Country-life. Whether it’s cooking, decorating, gardening, music, art – whichever. My temporary tag-line is “Country Living For the Self-Proclaimed Country Girl”.

The site will consist of a forum, occasional articles, photography & artwork, though the majority of the focus will be on discussion.

The Logo

I figure most people will “get” the logo. When I first began conceiving of the site, I imagined a group of cowgirls sitting around a campfire, telling stories & heating up food in a soup pot, so after a few stabs at campfire and cowgirl hat based designs, I decided to try one with a pot. I sketched out an idea, pulled it into Illustrator and finished it off. The result is the image you’re seeing to the left.

The font used for “Roundup” is a free font called Scriptina. I am not a fan of script fonts, in general, but when I saw Scriptina, I kind of wanted to kiss it. It also works well for a sort of “lasso” look.

Because of economic concerns, the client decided to keep the companies old logo –  but I will still be designing the website, so when that is finally underway, I will post another update here!

The Business:

CK Designs is a landscaping business in Southern California that provides sustainable, “green” landscape designs.

While the logo and website are not yet finalized, I wanted to use this project to highlight my logo design process. I will be sure to share updates when the project is complete.

The Design:

The client expressed the need for an attractive, aesthetically pleasing logo, invoking a sense of serenity. Also desired was a simple design, easily recognizable by current and potential clients. Before I began to sketch out ideas, I decided on a style and a few choice colors. Many of those initial concepts are shown in the mock-ups below and, as you can see, the options I chose for the final six mock-ups are more or less true to their analog counterparts, shown left.

While in the sketching stage, a few more ideas came to mind based on the client’s description as well as a general understanding of vegetation and sustainable living. The fact that I have been a strict vegetarian for many years also been a contributed to my more eco-focused approach.

Inspired by the client’s mention of serene design, the word harmony also began to float around in my head. That word lead me to thoughts of Zen and Eastern symbolism. I attempted to draw upon some of those base elements while providing a more streamlined, balanced design.

As harmony is a key component in many genres of music (particularly in more calming compositions), my first idea (top left) was based on a musical half-note.

My fourth design embodied not only the idea of newly sprung petals, but also of sun rays – a very important factor for most forms of vegetation and something that is particularly abundant in the state of California.

SoCal Crawfish Connection is a new seafood restaurant located in Irvine California. The business, owned by the Tran family, was originally a coffee shop that has since morphed into a whole new venture in need of a fresh web presence.

The Site Design:

I was pretty much allowed free artistic rein with this site, while adhering to the clients’ need for a site that was simple, low-cost and easy to navigate.

There was a bit of back and forth on the font choices and placement for the restaurant title within the logo. One of the initial mock-ups had a stamped look that circled the Crawfish, but the clients had come across another seafood restaurant with a similar layout and wanted something a bit different. We finally decided on a font from the Helvetica family and a layout that kept the company’s title off to the side of the main logo design.

Additionally, the use of orange and blue tones really helped to balance the site while catching the eye of viewers.

The Logo Design:

The Crawfish logo was sketched out a number of times and the final design is true to my last sketch. The logo incorporates a subtle cartoon element that I feel gives it a unique, original look without making it appear childish.

I researched a large number of pictures of actual crawfish, and while the logo is not strictly anatomically correct, I tried to remain true to the more memorable charactersistics of the species.

Additional Work:

Outside of the logo and site, I also designed the company’s menu and their first double-sided advertisement/coupon card. The idea behind both was attractive simplicity with striking colors and a more elegant typography.

You can visit the website at www.socalcrawfishconnection.com. The menu can be viewd in PDF format here, and the coupon card here.

The Business:

Red Door Wellness is a holistic wellness practice run by Aimee Jo Davis.

The Design:

Aimee had wanted a warm, cozy look that was striking, yet easy on the eyes. After some brainstorming I came up with an Autumnal design that I felt portrayed the image she wanted to give her business.

As a logo we didn’t feel the banner text with the opaque leaves was a solid enough design, so I hit the sketch pad and sketched out a few ideas based on various door styles and key holes. The design she decided upon incorporated the obvious door theme but with a subtle corner effect to help it stand aside from other door logos we had seen.

As a personal touch, the window panes in the logo were inspired by Darren and Samantha Steven’s front door in the 1960s televisiton sitcom Bewitched.