sad for swee swee

I'm sad to report that Swee Swee Paperie in West Seattle is closing it's brick-n-mortar doors. I've always admired Ann Conway's style, especially her fashion sense – just take a (last) look at some of her window displays:

TOP PHOTO: via bdstudio.com BOTTOM PHOTO: via Swee Swee Paperie

They're going to revamp and reopen their online store in September so at least we'll still have access to some of the great paper products Ann discovers.

SWEE SWEE PAPERIE • www.sweesweepaperie.com

summery stationery

It never ceases to amaze me how excited I get to see the final printed product of something I designed. It doesn't matter whether it's a personal or a Defteling Design project – I can hardly wait to tear open the box and see how it turned out.

Today I was utterly delighted to reveal the finished stationery for Distinctive Beach Lodgings. The logo colors and design elements are so summery, just looking at the stationery makes me long to be on the coast...

We went a little unconventional for the letterhead: a narrow third-size sheet that neatly tucks into a standard business envelope. The front has the logo and contact info while the back repeats the website and the main logo element, a silver dollar, which also creates the wallpaper background.

The double-sided business cards take advantage of the extra real estate by boldly displaying the logo and website, using a black background to really pop the colors and the design.

The front of the card ties in with the back of the letterhead by using the sand dollar subtly in the background while the blue bars and cream background nicely reference the logo.

And in case this summery palette tempts you to book a weekend getaway, do check out the website for a listing of all their wonderful properties. I've been to several cottages and absolutely love them!

studio visit

I just had to post a link to one of Poppytalk's blog postings today – it features a studio tour of Hello! Lucky, a fabulous line of letterpress papers (and my neighbors at the National Stationery Show).


I absolutely love their space – it's such a great mix of vintage finds and clean lines! I just recently created additional space for an expanded shipping room but still yearn for a separate office like theirs, sigh...

PHOTOS COURTESY OF POPPYTALK/HELLO!LUCKY

wow factor

A couple of days ago, I received a phone call from one of my Defteling Design clients, Blackstone Inc. We had been working on redesigning his company's business cards and he had just picked up the project from the printer. Without any preliminaries, he said "Alex, I have just one word for you: Wow!"

Naturally, I was pleased to have a happy client on the phone, but I was especially thrilled because that's exactly what we set out to do in his redesign project: he wanted a wow factor. And with this unique 4-panel, folding card, I was able to deliver just that!

Goosey Press

As I'm approaching my one-year anniversary with Cecily Ink, I find myself thinking back over last year with much gratitude and satisfaction. Launching my line of paper goods has been an amazing roller coaster ride of emotions and excitement – and my good friend Amy has been there to share it with me every step of the way.


Part of what made this journey fun was knowing someone who was going through all the same discoveries as I was because Amy launched her paper company called Goosey Press right around the same time! After helping Amy come up with a logo and stationery package, she was off to the races designing her line of Mother Goose-inspired papers.

All her products use vintage-style silhouettes that are just too cute! She keeps her color palette very clean – rick black on luxuriously textured cream paper – while bringing in accents of aquamarine, pink and chartreuse with the envelopes.


And she's made it very easy to put a perfect package together: just look at the darling gift wrap, tags and ribbon combinations. Last fall, I wrapped a baby shower gift for my husband's cousin and you should have heard the oohs and aahs that presentation received!


Plus, there's an educational element to her line: all the greeting cards have a historical reference on the back explaining exactly how a particular rhyme came into being. For example, did you know that the old woman in the shoe came about because of an old tradition of casting a shoe after the bride as she leaves on her honeymoon? Supposedly this was to symbolize fertility.


And I'm not the only one enthralled with Amy's line. This month, Romantic Homes magazine featured Goosey Press gift wrap, tags and ribbon in a multi-page Valentine's special. Way to go, Amy!

Business card vavoom

I'm currently working on some business card designs for several clients through Defteling Design. While each client is quite different, they all have one thing in common: they want a business card with a strong visual impact. As they should!

Often your business card is the first impression a potential new customer has of your company or organization. You may not even have a chance to talk to a person beyond giving him or her your 30-second elevator pitch so having a memorable business card will increase the likelihood of this person remembering who you are.

So I thought I'd pull some examples of effective business cards that I've designed over the last year or two. I won't show you the cards for Neighborhood Notes again (check my earlier post here) but needless to say, their unusual shape, double-sided printing, and single rounded corner definitely leave a positive impression.


This card that I designed for Scott Lochard has served him extremely well. I used the back of the card as a little billboard to reinforce his logo and tagline. The flood of black makes the viewer really take note of his logo. On the content-side of the card, I decided to go vertical to make Scott's card stand out from many of his competitors' cards. And again, I reinforced his image by using the icon (illustration) portion of his logo and printing it very faintly in the background, covering the entire card.


Here are two more examples that use a flood of black on one side of the card. In both cases, I've screened back a portion of their logo for visual interest and brand continuity while adding a tagline to give the reader a better sense of what the company is about. The other side holds all the contact information as well as the official version of their logo. Each card also has an additional element to make it stand out: the left card is skinnier than standard size while the right card has four rounded corners, softening the sharp effect of the logo.


These two cards are both standard size but make use of both sides of the card very differently. The left card uses one side with a photographic image and large logo to convey a sense of the owner's services (interior decorating). The right card leaves the back mostly blank with just a lightly tinted logo; they discovered that their clients like to write notes on the back regarding certain spa products they've tried.


Lastly, my own cards for Cecily Ink reflect my color palette and a range of patterns. When I meet someone, I may not always have greeting card samples with me, so having an array of different business cards gives that person a sense of my design style.

You may not be able to tell from the photo, but the logo on the front and the contact info on the back are actually on a narrow sticker that I wrap around both sides of the card. Yes, it's more work for me to hand-apply the stickers to my business cards, but it does give me a sense of connectedness while I'm doing it – plus, I saved on printing costs since I was able to print the business cards on the same sheet with my greeting cards and the stickers with my packaging labels. Hey, who doesn't like saving a few pennies?

Neighborhood Notes

A few days ago I picked up my print samples from the printer on this stationery package I recently designed through Defteling Design and I was just tickled when I saw how nicely it all came together!


Lynnette and Ken have worked very hard to create Neighborhood Notes, a wonderful community tool for the Pearl District here in Portland. Now they're ready to expand into other neighborhoods within our city and even beyond! So they approached me about designing their logo and letterhead package (with newsletter and website overhaul to follow very soon!).


The logo design process went super smoothly and I'm so pleased with how nicely it turned out. It totally fits what they do – connecting people within a community and providing them an online place to interact.

Because the logo had to look good on their newsletter and website masthead , it took a distinctly horizontal form. To take advantage of that, I designed their business card to be longer and narrower than a standard card. Plus the double-sided design meant that I could allow the logo to breathe on one side of the card while all the contact information fit neatly on the other.


I'm a big proponent of maximizing your sheet size on press, so I recommended they print note cards along with their business cards. A little hard to discern in the photo, but the front of the note card is cut short to reveal the orange bar that's actually printed on the inside of the card.


I also often suggest, especially to smaller organizations, that clients consider printing mailing labels instead of envelopes. This way, they have more flexibility at less cost - the same label can be applied to a plain white #10 envelope, a colorful A2 envelope to match the note card, or even a large 9x12 to hold presentations.

And if the color palette looks familiar, it should! When it came time to assign colors, Lynnette and Ken asked if they could just use my Cecily Ink color palette since they loved it so much!