inspired by | for the market | for your closet | on your walls
Blog post inspiration: Smitten Studio
Do you have any fun weekend plans? I am going to stay at a cabin in Seeley Lake with a few girlfriends. A year ago we stayed at the same cabin, click here for the post about our adventures last year! This weekend we are hoping to do a few different hikes and relax around the fire. If it’s sunny maybe we’ll have canoe and paddle board races on the lake!
A friend came to me looking for a vintage, postage stamp inspired logo. These are a few of the designs I came up with. We are both pleased with the final result! The vintage doesn’t feel too forced, the font is kind of modern and it mixes well with the shape and texture of the logo. I’ve actually been obsessed with this font lately, it’s called Bebas Neue and I think it looks good with everything. I have to restrain myself. It was fun to play around with different distressing methods. Previously I had only made vintag-ey grunge effects in Photoshop, but with this design I wanted to do the distressing in Illustrator.
A couple different designs that didn’t quite make the cut
The method that I ended up using is the Opacity Mask. It is really easy to use because your object is still editable, you don’t have to flatten it to texturize. If you look online, the tutorials are mostly using gradients for the opacity mask. To use a texture photo for the opacity mask, open the Transparency panel, select your object (make sure it is Grouped), to the right of the thumbnail of your object there is a gray space (see photo below), double click there.
A black box will appear as another thumbnail and your object will disappear on the art board. Click File > Place, select your texture photo, and click Place. You will probably have to re-size your photo. I’ve found that the more contrast in the photo the more interesting the effect.
I also had fun placing photos behind the logo with texture in them to create even more grungy effect. The text that is arched isn’t important, it’s just a design element, so we liked that the grunge texture and the photo background took away from those and made the focus more on what is important, the POST 701 text. She is planning to make a stamp with the logo so it is super easy for her to put her logo she loves everywhere! I can’t wait to make business cards for her!
What is your favorite distressing method?
1. Mountain Print 2. Woven Rug 3. Mountain Leggings 4. Mountain Pillows
Blog Post Inspiration: Smitten Studio
To continue with yesterdays post theme, i created this repeating pattern in illustrator. Wrapping Paper artist?! I’m thinking that could be my next occupation… Its quite simple, I followed this tutorial, and drew these nautical baubles. Lately I’ve been obsessed with the blog brush tool in Illustrator. Its so much fun, especially with my pen tablet! The pirates are still ransacking the neighborhood! Hide your kids!! (or not, its up to you) 
I recently designed this wedding announcement for a friend. Originally we wanted to use a design that was a little more outside of the box, but it was nixed, because it was a little too crazy. I really like how both of the announcements turned out. She ended up using the announcement above and has received many compliments on it! It is always a good feeling when a client is pleased with the outcome of a project! 
the dream catcher I created with paper, embroidery thread & beads. I think it’s beautiful, and hope that it catches all my little brothers dreams.
