Graph It & Grocery List's

I have been thinking a lot about making things that could help me in my day to day life and that would help others too and I came up with a few ideas... some better then others.  One is still a work in progress and probably my best idea yet, but that will have to be posted on another day (hopefully soon!).

I have been on the hunt for a good grocery list that I can put on my fridge and not hate, but everyone I have come across I am not a big fan of.  So I decided to make my own!  Check it out.

I have also been trying to slowly add content to my Etsy site (http://www.etsy.com/shop/abroderick) and here are a few newer "graph it" notepads I have made.

More to come...

Logo's!

I have been trying to get into the graphic design world lately.  I am really thinking I may go back to school for it because I love it so much! But anyways since moving to Philly I have been working at a store in Rittenhouse Square called "Hello World".  It is a great little gift boutique that pretty much everyone in Philly knows about and loves it.  It is a really fun store to work in and I have met some great people who work there!  The owner, Jay, is great.  He definitely knows what he is doing and has a great eye and energy about himself.

Jay is very creative himself, but also is really good at motivating and pushing creative people to create and do what they love.  I am not sure if he hires mostly artists or if it just worked out that way, but there are three of us that I know of that are very artistic and creative.  Once he learned that I am interested in graphics and photography he started project talk.  I was really excited to have a project to work on!  

Anyways... The project was to re-do the logo for the home store to be the same as the "Hello World" logo, but with a stamp like graphic that goes over the original saying "The Home Store".  He wants both stores to have the same brand, but different specialties. I have not finished the final logo, but I wanted to share what I have been doing and the process I have been going through.

This is the original logo that I am working with (the file is not the best).

And Jay wants some kind of stamp looking graphic to go over that.

This is what I had worked on at first that did NOT work...

We decided we did like the idea of the round passport type of stamp.  Soooo I have been working on different ideas using the round stamp idea.  We also liked the idea of adding in a classic furniture piece to add a little more to the logo.  This is what I have so far that I think works best... BUT still not done. (And I know the bottom text is unreadable..working on that).

Again it is just a screen shot, but this is sort of what we are working with as of now.  I am excited about it!  I will upload a final logo idea when it is done, but it is fun to work in this way and also awesome that I am making something for someone other then myself!  Let me know if anyone has any ideas or suggestions.

More to come..

so i made a Etsy account..

A few weeks ago I created a Etsy account. I have been told by many people to make one so I finally did! And yesterday I sold my first book! I was very excited.  I really need to update this blog much more often, but for now I am going to show some of the little books I have been making to sell on Etsy.

 

  

If you are interested in checking out my Etsy account it is called "The Button Jar Shop". Or go to http://www.etsy.com/shop/abroderick

I just recently got an amazing color laser printer thanks to my mom :) So I am already hard at work coming up with some great book ideas to put up here! Keep an eye out for more soon.

Provenance Architechturals LLC Book Project

In June when we first moved to Philadelphia I responded to a craigslist post about photographing at a place called The Provenance. I was really interested in the job because of what they do. They are basically a source for historic architectural salvage items. So they go salvage awesome architectural item from old houses or places that were torn down. It is really interesting. I would recommend checking them out! Their website is:

http://www.phillyprovenance.com

Anyways Nova, a woman who works there, emailed me back and was really interested in my book work. So I met with her and we came up with an idea for a guest book so that the people who come into the place can leave their information, questions or even things they would love to see Provenance find for them. I was excited because Nova is all about re purposing materials. We walked all around the warehouse and found a few things she wanted to use and ended up with this really old pull down map that had pretty bad water stains. It was great.

So we talked about ideas and this is what we came up with!

We also tried using just brown paper on the inside cover and also the map as seen above.

Let me know what you think! And if anyone has any book ideas I am up for anything! Contact me if you would like to work on a project together.