I am super duper sorry for the pause in Ephemera. Cleis Design is growing (woohoo) and I have been neglecting my Ephemera/Blog posts. So like a good freelancer, I’ve started time managing the hell out of my week so that I don’t get behind here again. I hope I see y’all out and about this week.

Events
1. The Eiteljorg Museum: The Pistol packing exhibit. Dirty Harry has nothing on Annie Oakley.

2. The Dirty Dozen: IMA style. I’m bummed I didn’t get to see the Peter Bogdonovich/Touch of Evil viewing, but getting to see the Dirty Dozen on the big screen is a pretty awesome perk.

3. Do-it-Yourself Utopias by Jeff Eisenberg at the Christoper West Presents Gallery.

4. The Earth House presents: The End Of the Line. I saw the film, The Cove last year, and it convinced me to stop eating fish. The End of the Line, I’m told is an even more evocative tale about our fish-depleted seas and oceans.

5.A Squared Industries, Jookabox & more at the Vogue. There’s something local & hot cooking on Friday night.

Quick Links:

1. You have the right to remain obnoxious in some Po-Po stilettos.

2. Breaking down Color theory.

3. Some strategic food for thought on the marketing hot points for 2010.

4. It’s one part geek-design humor and one part hilaaaarious: Unhappy Hipsters.

5. These people are influencing the design around you, take note because their mark will not be fading away anytime soon.

{My back yard}

I bought the Hipstamatic app (along with several listed in an winter issue of Layers Magazine) back in December. I forgot about it until this past weekend when a friend of mine was playing with the app and it tweaked my curiosity more, so a few test shots have commenced.

For an iphone app, it rocks. It looks very similar to theHolga camera I used to play with when I still shot film. Not the most exciting content I’ve chosen to capture, but fun to play with, if you like retro film affects.

Film stock affects with the appropiate lens make it feel and look pretty damn cool.

{On the left, empty plate at the St. Al’s Sausage Feast.}

Events
1. Soup swap: I had no idea Indianapolis participated in this, but this sounds like a great way to get stocked up on soup for the next two months or so.

Saturday, January 23
(see website for more details)

2. Fiery Furnaces at Radio Radio: Indie Rock goodness, that’s all I need to say.

Friday, January 22
Radio Radio
1119 E. Prospect St.
$10 Adv / $12 Day of Show
21 +Doors @8 pm
Buy tickets

3. MOKB Presents..Local Music Git Down: My Old Kentucky Blog is one of the musical treasures of Indianapolis. On Saturday, MOKB will be hosting a hootenanny of who’s who of local music-it’s practically an all day event. Come on out as they celebrate local music at where else? Locals Only.

Saturday, January 23
Locals Only
2449 E. 56th St.
Starts: 12pm-who knows when it’s gonna end.
Admission: TBD/Free

4. Arsenic and Old Lace at the IMA. What fond memories I have of this Cary Grant film. I used to watch this movie over and over with my family growing up. If you have a dark/twisted sense of humor like I do, you will find the timelessness of this flick. If not, then well I guess you are just weird .

Friday, January 22
Indianapolis Museum of Art
4000 Michigan Rd.
Toby Theatre
7:00 pm
Admission: $9 public/ $5 members/ $7 students with ID
Buy Tickets

5. Reserve your tix while you can: Free Crazy Heart viewing from the wonderful IFF. This one is sure to be the Oscar clincher for Best Actor. Jeff Bridges already has won the golden globe for it, and T-Bone Burnett has made the soundtrack into a supporting role all by itself. (As of this posting the film has sold out…sorry.)

Quick Links:
1. Logorama: I want to see this soooooo bad.

2. Rapunzel: I want to live in this world, what a beautiful visionary collaboration between Polina Osherov and Nikki Sutton.

3. The man behind the “I’m with Coco,” campaign. Bravo sir, bravo.

4.bRaZiLiAn Design: they even screen print their leaves, that’s how eco friendly and design forward these cats are.

5. Crayon sculpted people: I want to color with this guy, his crayons are definitely cooler than mine.

6. Do’s and Don’ts of Online PR: I really agree with Lindsay Robertson that if marketers of bands and artists followed her outline, there would be less annoying email blasts in the world.

Holy Trinity Parish is one of the oldest Catholic parishes in Indianapolis. My Slovenian grandmother along with her parents and grandparents were members. For Slovenian American history it’s a wonderful landmark for the city.

Since Holy Trinity is like family to me and they do pay for my services normally, every once in a while they ask for me to help out when the budget just doesn’t have the stretch it needs for posters. The events that Holy Trinity have been putting on lately are used to raise money and awareness for the restoration of Bockhold Hall (the event hall used at Holy Trinity parish) and to keep the parish going throughout the year. In my eyes it’s a good cause.

This is an instance where as a designer I can give back to the community with a pro bono project.

I can’t afford to donate my services all the time, so deciding what are important community contributions I want to make, drive my choices for pro bono projects. What can make the deal worthwhile for me is negotiating with the client for the following four things (number four should be yours no matter what):

1. Credit for the work created. The logo of my company is branded onto the piece along with web site listing. Often the organization/client will have you listed as a sponsor so don’t forget to ask about sponsor listing on any other printed event materials (programs/tickets/t-shirts)  as well as on the client’s web site – especially if promotion will be occuring several months to a year before the date of the event.

2. Tax write off. I keep track of the time and place a dollar value to the project, then let my accountant know that I will be writing it off as a donation. (Donations = tax breaks)
NOTE: Beware of how much time you spend on a pro bono project and set expectations with the client that you cannot go over “x” amount of hours or revisions to finalize the project. Your time is still money, so if you need to push back and ask them to make a priority list or keep their revision changes to two rounds-be polite but communicate this in the beginning of the process.

3. Free admission to the event. In exchange for doing the poster I also get tickets to the event, which by the way has the most amazing sausage you will ever eat in your lifetime.

4. Portfolio work. You have a wonderful piece to show off in your portfolio.

So really giving back to the community can be a win/win situation if you have these four items.

So you start out thinking one way with a client’s identity, and usually you wind up somewhere else. It’s pretty rare when a designer can start with a logo design springing from one’s head like Athena, and then have the identity get approved as is by the client. Even before showing a client the final two or three logo options to choose from, I’ll work through several versions and then narrow those down to the best ones. It’s a good method of controlling the outcome, that way you have back up versions if the client doesn’t like what you have chosen, and you can keep what you view to be your best work in front of the client without giving the impression that you are indecisive. In my opinion, it’s better to not overwhelm the client with too many options or else you wind up doing more work than quoted originally for the job.

{Beginning logo idea for client.}

I almost had a first proof – approval happen with The Rhinestone Collar. TRC (as I like to call it) is a fantastic local pet grooming service. If you ever get a chance to use Jeff Campbell’s services, the first thing that you will notice is the orange painted house he works his magic out of. In our beginning discussions about his brand update, Jeff had mentioned he was in love with the colors: black, orange and pink. Bright fun colors that reflect such a fun and artistic man.

Only issue, is that as a designer, you have to have a little restraint with color. In previous posts I’ve mentioned how you should limit your colors for a logo to two at the most (more than two is do-able, but it gets complicated.) I need to add to that post that if the colors are orange and black, be careful how you position them or you might wind up with a Halloween themed brand rather than a brand that is reflective of the business’s personality and services. There is nothing wrong with using orange and black, plenty of brands in the consumer/business world use black and orange. TRC will be using an orange/black palette it’s ongoing brand identity development.

Originally I wanted to steer the client to a heather or charcoal gray (Pantone cool gray 10) but I had to be open to the requests of the client. Jeff likes orange and being the vibrant wonderful personality he is, he wanted orange. So after we discussed the pros and cons-the front cover of the business card displaying the logo went from cool gray 10 to Pantone orange 1665.

{Businesscard/logo setup in cool gray 10.}

Here’s where we ended up with. Not a bad compromise, and really I didn’t have to change the layout/design elements – only the color.

{Final business card and logo with diamond shape mock up in orange 1665.}