I’m hoping to take a trip down there in the next couple of weeks to get some pictures of the products in action, and to get Tobie and I some ice cream. Currently Scooptacular is flashing flags, sidewalk signs, business cards, punch cards, flyers, mailers, tablecloths, banners, t-shirts and contour cut graphics all sporting my branding and color scheme, and there’s more orders to come! If you’re in the phoenix area go get some homemade ice cream and check out my hard work!

Chosen Logo:

Color Scheme:

Font:

Alternate Color Schemes:

Printed Materials:

Photos from the store:

Here’s a recent logo I did for Little Red’s Basket Boutique. This was one of three options, and it was not the chosen option, however it’s the one I want to show off. I would normally put up a case study on why I created the layout, but this customer was pretty specific with what they were looking for, so I can’t really thank my creativity. I may post the chosen logo once they put it into action.

Here are the fonts I chose for this layout. The first is made by the wonderful miss Teagan White:

And last but not least, Lane, one of the greatest sans serifs on dafont.

Here’s my most recent illustration for origivation magazine for the band Hot Chip.

Welcome to part 2 of the Beaverwoods logo design process. I’m not going to give much of an introduction, considering it has all been said in the first post. This post focuses on the additions that were requested after the first proof was received.

The children’s ministry at Beaverdam loved the illustration style of the first proof, and we’re happy with all that had been done thus far. BUT, they wanted to add another big element. What would Beaverwoods be without a beaver?

The children’s ministry requested that I add a beaver at the base of the tree, illustrated in the same cartoon style as the tree, as well as adding their church logo to the tree trunk. So, I got to work.

Concept/Sketching

I sketched up my beaver friend in Photoshop using my Wacom tablet. I don’t normally use my Wacom for sketches, I’m a big fan of the pencil and paper duo. But, I needed a quick way to do initial sketches, as cartoon illustration is not my natural style and I knew I’d be doing a lot of erasing. Once I had created a sketch I was happy with I printed it out and inked the lines that I’d later add in Illustrator.

Vector Time!

I imported my sketch into illustrator and put together a new color palette. One that mixed well with the current logo colors, but I also added in some colorful attributes to make the logo more vibrant and kid friendly.

I lowered the opacity of the sketch, as I did in the part 1, and got to work with the pen tool. I just went through and followed my ink lines, which makes this process go much quicker and easier.

Once my outline is finished I created color layers below it and begin to fill them in. I did each color layer at a time until I had used each color from the palette.

Voila! Again!

Once my color layers have been set I dropped out the original sketch and looked at my finished beaver.

Merging Illustrations

I then added the beaver to the tree illustration, but needed to play around with sizing to see what worked the best. Since it’s a kid’s logo the beaver doesn’t need to be proportional to the tree, it’s more important that it’s easily seen and recognized.

Once I have the beaver in I extend some of the grass shading underneath the beaver to make him seem more apart of his background.

Dropping In the Logo

Once my beaver and tree are set it’s time to drop in the church’s logo onto the tree trunk. I wanted to make the logo look like it was actually a part of the tree and not just pasted on. In order to do that I lowered the transparency of the logo making the tree shadows apparent, making the logo look like it was on the actual tree.

Final Proof

Once I had everything in place I sent the final proof. The church was extremely happy with the end result and I can’t wait to work with them again in the future!

Thanks for taking the time to read, please comment! If you like what you’ve read or seen subscribe to my RSS feeds!

I recently illustrated a children’s cartoon style logo for Beaverdam Baptist Church. Beaverdam has been a great customer to work with, as they keep bringing me awesome projects to push my style and creativity. You can check out my last project for Beaverdam here.

I’ve broken down the logo into a step by step tutorial so you can see my process. I’m splitting the post in to two parts because of the size, so check out part 1 after the jump.

Concept/Sketch

The people at Beaverdam were pleased with my past logo/vector projects, so when the children’s ministry was in need of a new logo they came to me. They already had a concept for the logo based on previous artwork, and sent me a hand-drawn concept sketch of how they wanted the new one to layout. I used it as a reference and sketched a new tree designating the highlights and lowlights.

Vector Time!

I imported my sketch into illustrator and put together a color palette. I had known when I created the sketch exactly how many colors I’d be using, now I just needed to find the right colors to make it all mix.

Once I have my palette chosen I drop the transparency of my sketch down so I can work underneath, being able to see both the sketch and vector layers at the same time.

I start with the base color first and add each color in different layers to ensure they’re easy to sift through if any changes do come. I DID NOT put my grass layers and tree layers together, though they are the same color, the grass needs to be on it’s own layer below the tree top to drop the tree trunk over.

Once my tree top and grass were completed I continued the same technique to create the tree trunk and dirt below the grass. I also added in the tree top highlights, using the lightest color from my palette.

Voila!

Once your tree is put together you can drop the sketch layer and see how it looks.

Adding Text

I then typed the title on a path and converted the text to outlines. I then duplicated it several times applying different strokes to give it more depth and color.

I then did the same for the subtitle, and added highlights to the main title using the pen tool.

After my text is applied, I’m ready for the first proof!

Stay tuned for the second part of the post tomorrow. The customer had a few additions, but they were awesome additions.

So I took a much needed pause from my blog to focus on work and personal stuff. BUT… I’m back with a vegance. Before I start posting anything I need to thank the people at Phoenix Design Week for chosing me as a featured designer, and Santy for hosting an awesome gallery showing. That place is incredible, I felt honored just stepping foot in the building after looking at all of their Addy awards.

Now it’s all said and done I want to post up a couple photos to recap the event and to thank everyone for coming out AND…… give away some free posters. It was awesome to have friends, family and fellow designers coming out to support me, as well as meeting A BUNCH of new people. Thank you all for taking an interest in my work and taking the time to support me, I love you!

Here are some images from the Santy Gallery, and the poster giveaway is at the bottom of the post.

Poster Giveaway!

There have been people that enjoy my artwork and style, and then there are those that really connect with certain pieces. I’ve spoken to a couple people at the gallery and through e-mail that have been taken back by some of the pieces or that have really connected with one of the quotes I’ve chosen. MSCED was created as an extremely personal project for me to focus on love in my own life and increase my creativity at the same time. All of the quotes chosen are extremely close to my heart and the artwork was created to reflect the quotes.

So, with that being said, I’m giving away my prints from the gallery showing. How do you get a print? Simple, email me why the piece speaks to you, why you want it, why you deserve it more than someone else. The poster will go to the person that appreciates it the best. I’ll even pay for shipping, all you have to do is hang it in your house and freaking love it. I will be putting certain MSCED posters up for sale, these however will not be for sale. Only I and the people selected will own these prints. So… get to typing. Email me at hello(at)dunlapstudios.com, and poor your heart out!

This is an illustration I did last night of the band Buckcherry for Origivation Magazine. It is the feature review of the November issue, which also features my editorial illustration for the band Breathe Carolina. The tutorial I did on that illustration can be seen here.

Origivation is a fantastic magazine to do work for, they’re open to anything and really let me push my creativity. I asked them if they had anything specific they wanted me to do for the illustration and they just said “go nuts”.

Check out the illustration after the jump…

Check out the high res version by clicking the image or clicking here.

So I did this mockup a couple weeks ago and didn’t know if it would go anywhere. My contact at NPA liked it but had to run it through all of the loops to make sure it was kosher before giving it the ok. I just got word today that we’re a go and I’m so stoked about it! I love the site layout and color scheme, and I think it represents NPA’s quality and professionalism very well. I’ve been doing work for NPA for over 4 years now, and I’m happy to say it just keeps getting better!

Take a look at the transformation after the jump….

Current NPA Site

Preview of the New Layout!!!

I can’t wait to see this thing in action!

Hey guys, here’s a poster I did for Phoenix Design Week. It’s actually in a competition to be the poster that’s mass printed to advertise and promote the Phoenix Design Week. Check it out after the jump, and please vote for it here.Click on image to view full size.

Vote Now!

I’m alive! The blog has came to a dead stop because of my current workflow, though I’m bringing it back to life. Instead of trying to take the time to write and gather up my best work, I’m just going to post my recent projects. 1. To share what I’m working on and 2. to give the blog some much needed attention. With that being said, if readers want to write a couple design related posts on here hit me up, I’d love to keep it current and interesting.

Check out the shirt design after the jump…

Justin from Beaverdam Baptist Church asked me to design a logo for his upcoming sermon series for his youth group. He imagery that depicted rebellion, and the idea of being in and not of the world. That got my wheels turning and I instantly sent back two images. 1 of the classic Che piece and 2 some old Russian propaganda lettering. He said go for it, so I did.

I did some custom illustration and type treatment building together the classic red/black Che stencil style and the vintage propaganda style. I sent him the first proof and he approved it immediately… ahhh, the perfect job. I love it when everything falls into place, it makes up for the millions of times that things just fall apart.