Design It Pretty

And the Belly Series has come to a close...

2011-01-14T09:35:00.000-08:00

because Wyatt Lowe Brown has arrived!

Welcome to the world little one!

Belly Series - Week 40

2011-01-11T13:51:00.000-08:00

And the last of the big belly in Week 40!

Belly Series - Week 39

2010-12-16T09:19:00.000-08:00

This is it, the last Belly Series pic for Jess with a belly! She had her baby on December 13th, a beautiful little boy name Wyatt Lowe Brown. A last Belly Series photo for Week 40 will be up soon with a pic of the new family of 3. Congrats Jess and Case!

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Belly Series - Week 38

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Belly Series - Week 37

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Belly Series - Week 36

2010-12-08T12:53:00.000-08:00

Oh my gosh, I am so sorry it has been so long since the last post! Things have been hectic around here and I know I have some very antsy Belly Series followers curious to see how Jess has been coming along this past month, so without further ado...here is Jess at Week 36!

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Belly Series - Week 35

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The beautiful Jess at Week 35...photos taken by Case Brown.

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Belly Series - Week 34

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Belly Series - Week 33

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Belly Series - Week 32

2010-10-26T22:11:00.000-07:00

Jess is now in Denver, so she had a friend take the pics this week and I edited from afar. She still looks wonderful and I am loving putting this Belly Series together to see her transformation...the only bad thing? I miss her!

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Belly Series - Week 31

2010-10-25T10:05:00.000-07:00

This week marked the end of Jess's 3-month stay in Jackson, so we figured we needed to do an iconic background that really embodies Jackson Hole, what better than the Mormon Row homestead and the Tetons! I will miss you Jess! (Don't worry, we are going to continue the Belly Series! From now on, there will be "guest" photographers, taking pics of Jess in Denver and I will still be editing and finalizing the photos.)

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Belly Series - Week 30

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Belly Series - Week 29

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We decided why not show off some of Jackson's night life even if Jess can't participate in the fun! Here is Jess looking radiant in front of Jackson's iconic Cowboy Bar.

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Belly Series - Week 28

2010-09-30T23:00:00.000-07:00

So I had a little catching up to do! We had all the photos, but I was having trouble finding time to edit them, so now you get a little treat...Week 28 and Week 29 photos back to back. Here we decided to take advantage of the changing fall colors...Jess looking more gorgeous than ever!

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Belly Series - Week 27

2010-09-21T14:26:00.000-07:00

To give a little background into how this weekly photo process works, at the very beginning of this series, Jess and I sat down and decided on one day each week we would take the photos. Shortly, after that we realized we were going to have to give ourselves a little flexibility to fit both our schedules, so we decided on two days (say Thursday and Friday) that we could shoot and then we would decide which day worked better for us each week.

This last week for the Week 27 photos the only time we could get together was at the Jackson Hole Fall Art Festival - Art Walk, so we got into the spirit of things and went for an indoor shot while we were making our rounds around town.

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Belly Series - Week 26

2010-09-15T15:42:00.000-07:00

Jess wanted at least one pic with the whole fam in it and this is what we got. Definitely a tough one trying to fit everyone in!

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DESIGN :: Book Club Poster for Library

2010-09-08T15:06:00.000-07:00

If you live in Jackson, you know we have a great library already, but now they have Book Club Starter Kits too, which I think are pretty cool (I definitely just pegged myself as a dork here : )

Last week, I was asked by the library to help them try to get the word out about their new program. Apparently, they were having trouble with promoting it, so they decided an email blast with a catchy flyer might do the trick. This is what we came up with...

Basically for designing a piece like this, I had to take into account who would be interested in this program. I thought, most likely, the target audience would be groups of well-read women (sorry all you male book clubbers!), so I when with a fuschia background and an elegant feel with the reverse rounded corners. The rest of the design, is somewhat simple, allowing the fabulous book cover artwork to shine through.

Some tips to think about before starting a design project:

1. Figure out your target audience
- A lot of design decisions can be made just by narrowing this down (color, the feel you want your piece to portray, etc.)

2. Gather all the elements that need to be used in the design
- For this project, I was given the text, the Teton County Library logo and the option to use
the book covers of the featured books

3. Size and where this design will be used
- I knew this was just being sent out in an email, so I may have designed it differently than
I would have a printed piece. For an email I typically do a less detailed design.

4. Now sketch/brainstorm away until something catches your eye!

I think we came up with a great solution, let me know your thoughts.

Belly Series - Week 25

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Belly Series - Week 24

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Belly Series - Week 23

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This week we wanted to do something with an overview of town and get some shots that showed Jess's "sporty" side and love of nature. I think these shots captured that perfectly!

And the culmination of the Belly Series so far.

Belly Series - Week 22

2010-08-13T07:09:00.000-07:00

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Here is a the culmination of the weeks so far, you can already see the baby belly growing! It is going to be so fun to see the changes in the weeks and months to come!

DESIGN :: Tahoe Mountain Weddings Biz Card Creation

2010-08-11T13:32:00.000-07:00

I was asked to design a business card for my friend Liz who has been officiating a bunch of weddings lately (she officiated mine too and she is amazing!) After she does a wedding, she keeps getting asked for her card so we had to come up with something quickly for her to start handing out! Here is a little bit of the process we went through...

Round 1 | Proofs 1-7 We were going for something that had some outdoor elements given that she named her business "Tahoe Mountain Weddings" and we also wanted to play up the love.

Round 2 | Proofs 1-4Proofs 2, 3 and 4 of the first round were favorites, so we expanded on those a bit.

Round 3 | Proofs 1-4Now for some different color options. Green and berry were the final colors we chose.

The Final Card!

And this is what we ended up with!
Now if you are getting married in Tahoe, she can pronounce you too!

Belly Series - Week 21

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Belly Series - Week 20

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Awhile back, I was inspired by a belly series that some of you may have seen. Photographer Ryan Marshall, of the blog Pacing the Panic Room, did a maternity series of his beautiful wife Cole and her journey to 40 weeks and then followed it up with another series, titled a Walk to 40 Weeks. Both are super inspiring you should go and check them out!

Anyway, needless to say when my good friend Jess moved to town and told me she was pregnant, I immediately decided I needed to do a series for her too to help her document her journey. So here we are at the beginning...can't wait to see how it progresses!

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DESIGN :: Poster for Library

2010-07-23T13:00:00.000-07:00

So I have been doing some volunteer work for the Teton County Library and this is what I just created for them to advertise that they are the featured non-profit at the Farmers' Market next week. Bright, fun, eye-catching? Check. I think it will draw some attention for sure! What do you think?

Don't Forget...

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Words to live by, everyone needs a little reminder every once in awhile!
Poster design by The Heads of State.

Color Crush 1

2010-07-20T10:31:00.001-07:00

Loving the colors of this beautiful painting by Emilia Garcia of Burnt Tortilla Creations. Check out some of her other works, they are all incredible! She is soon to be one of the talented artists to be featured in Polu Manu Production's Annual Dia de los Muertos Show in San Francisco. If any of you are in the area, go check her out!

DESIGN FAVORITE: Jessica Hische

2010-07-19T13:19:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite talented designers is Jessica Hische, an amazing illustrator, designer and typographer. She creates continuously inspiring work including her Daily Drop Cap (for the few of you who have not heard of this project! ; ) where she comes up with a new unique and beautiful initial cap each day. Above are some of my favorites! But that's not all she is good at, some of her typography and design work below...

Seriously a little jealous of this talented girl! Beautiful work Jessica!

DESIGN :: ReStore Logo Creation

2010-07-16T09:51:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it is interesting to get a little background and insight on how a logo was created, so I am going to take you through some of the steps of the latest logo that I designed for our local Habitat for Humanity ReStore. This is not a typical logo, but more as a detailed branding piece that they could use in animation and with the videos they produce.

After they had a group brainstorming session, here is what they felt their organization represented and the ideas they wanted to convey. Their was a lot of information that I felt needed to be paired down to a simpler format, but still showed the building blocks of their foundation and what they stood for.

After some sketching I played with three basic concepts; the building blocks of a home (proofs 1-4), the support circles coming together (proofs 5-7, 9-11), and a family or community standing behind the organization and supporting the buiding of the homes (proofs 8 and 12).

The client chose proofs #2, #4 and #7 to elaborate on. This is the stage where minor changes are made, moving text, moving graphics or changing colors around until the client sees the one that they connect with.

This is the final logo that they are going to be using in mostly video promotion and each circle is going to "fly" in from the sides and blend together as a representation of the ReStore's values and efforts in building these individual pieces for the community.

I am happy with the outcome and think it is a great representation of the organization as a whole. Thoughts?

PHOTO :: Carry your camera

2010-07-15T16:37:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to keep my camera with me lately as much as possible to increase the chance of getting some great unexpected shots or at least to document some cuteness! Take a normal situation, running into a friend and her son in a parking lot...now add a camera to the mix and look what I came up with just as he ran away from her, smelled the "flowers" and got hoisted back onto her shoulders!

Now I have shots to add to a photo portfolio or to just to use as little gifts to brighten a friends day! Think if you printed one of these, wrote on the back and sent it as a postcard to the unexpecting mom, just to say hello. Or made a small storyboard...do you love giving thoughtful gifts as much as I do? Remember how you can see the world through more observant eyes when you have your camera with you, so turn an everyday moment into a keeper!

Welcome!

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I am Chelsea...owner, graphic designer and creative dreamer behind Eleven30 Design, a Jackson Hole-based creative studio. We specialize in graphic design, branding, photography, documentary videos and all things beautiful!

I am starting this blog as a place to share creative inspiration, design love and some of my various artistic endeavors.

Enjoy!