mandyfreshour.com

Logos, Logos, Logos

admin — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:41:35 +0000

I’m finally getting around to posting some more pieces to my portfolio. I have three logos here that I’ve had the opportunity to design. I was happy to offer my time to support a great cause and create a logo for a local charity event. A redesign was in order for the Fraternity Communications Association and I had a ton of fun creating a lovely logo for Pocketful of Pinwheels, a new etsy shop.

Check out these logos in my portfolio.

Blog to Book

admin — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 19:25:04 +0000

I recently ordered my personal blog to print through Blurb. It was so nice to have a copy of my blog on paper and something that can be saved for years to come.

The overall quality was nice, although it wasn’t quite as nice as the shutterfly photo books that I’ve ordered. The cover has a satin feel and I used premium paper to print the inside pages. The thickness of the pages seemed great, but the images seemed a little dull and dark. Overall I’m pleased and will probably order another book.

The program Blurb provides you to build the book is also very nice, although it’s no InDesign. On a mac, it links up with iphoto and I was able to access my whole library. I was also able to create a style sheet to keep consistency. Although I wish it was a bit intuitive when it comes to that style sheet and apply all changes throughout the book. It was a bit of a pain to go page by page when I changed the text style.

Off to create my 2008 book and get everything up to date.

About Time

admin — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 01:35:12 +0000

I know, I know, it was August when I said there would be more portfolio updates. But hey, cut me some slack, I did just have a baby. =)

Here are a few new pieces. All projects are from freelance clients now that I’m no longer employed by Pulse. I’m very grateful to have the work and I think they turned out great. There are a few more projects that need to be added and I hope it doesn’t take as long to get to those.

So check out my new projects from Alpha Sigma Phi and Miami University.

Photo Books

admin — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 01:33:24 +0000

I’ve discovered Shutterfly’s photo books recently. I had a free photo book code and finally decided to use it. What a great way to organize my photos and actually get it on paper. I’ve got countless photos on my computer and probably haven’t printed any in about a year. I think these photobooks just might be my answer.

Portfolio Updates

admin — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:47:03 +0000

I’ve made some recent updates to my portfolio . This first set consists mostly of projects created for Grace Assembly of God and one project for Smock Golf Course. Stay tuned for some more portfolio updates with projects from Overseas Council and Miami University coming soon.

Make a Monster

admin — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:08:41 +0000

How cool is this? Take a child’s doodle and make it into a stuffed version. I love it! Now if I just had $250 to spare. But hey, if you have the money, check it out

Yarn Monkey

admin — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 11:12:44 +0000

Some of my spare time is spent crocheting. It’s one of my many hobbies that has actually stuck. I’ve made a couple of these yarn monkeys as well as a few other animals.

I’m glad that my nephew has been enjoying his monkey. It has become his lovie at the moment. My daughter never really had much interest in hers, but maybe the next baby will like his.

When in doubt, cover it up!

admin — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 00:13:18 +0000

We recently finished my daughter’s big girl room. It turned out great, but in the beginning we were confronted with a big problem, wallpaper. There was a horrible IU Hoosiers border going around the room. This wouldn’t be so bad, but we have textured walls and from our experience in other rooms, we knew this would be no easy task. What were we to do?

The answer was to just simply cover it up. We went to Lowes and bought what was supposed to be base board and made a big ol’ chair rail. It came out beautifully. And to think that if we hadn’t been so lazy, we may have never come up with this idea in the first place.

Who says you can’t put a chandelier in the bathroom?

admin — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:24:44 +0000

A few months ago I was able to put my last finishing touch on my half bath that we just remodeled. I came across Blik’s site and just had to use one of their vinyl decals in a room. I was a little worried since we have a textured wall, but it seems to be holding up just fine.

Making Lemons into Lemonade

admin — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:43:17 +0000

Sometimes my job gives me some projects where I have to be creative in a whole new way. For 8 years I’ve done line art drawings for a major heating and air company. As boring as some may think they are, I almost find them therapeutic. It’s partly because it’s an easy job that doesn’t require that much thought and the fact that I just enjoy drawing in Illustrator.

Every now and then I’m presented with a project where the client has given me their drawing and it is my job to turn it into something clean, professional and presentable. I recently finished the above project and I personally think that I did a darn fine job. To some it may not look like much, but it’s such a drastic difference than what was handed to me. There is something so satisfying in handing back a client’s drawing when I know it looks 10x better.