Pirate Alula

Customer Appreciation Photos are the Best!

2010-11-16T14:36:00.000-08:00

It's always nice when I get photos of designs I made for people in action. For instance, I just got this picture message on my phone from the bassist of the band Eurisko. I designed a logo for them not too long ago, and they made these great matchbooks as sort of a business card. They came out real nice...thanks to my logo (hehehe).

Check them out:

Critique My Design, Please!

2010-08-26T14:56:00.000-07:00

Things have been pretty busy lately, and I have some new designs that I have been working on to post here.

First, here's a flyer I designed for the New Haven based modern dance company Clark Dance Theatre's 2008 Reboud Concert. It's still one of my favorite designs:

Second, here is a business card I designed for Lorelie Mae Quilting. I am really psyched the way this came out, especially because I put so much detail into the stitching on the quilt images.

Lastly, here is a flyer I designed for my mom, who is working for herself as a Home Health Aid. I struggled with this one, as she wanted a lot of information on the flyer. Since her targeted audience is senior citizens, I tried to make the most important words and messages large enough to read from afar. I chose the bird image because the bird looked like he needed a little help. And yes, I am aware that the font looks a little like (eeeek!!!) Papyrus. If you have any suggestions on how I can make this design better, please let me know!

Would You Rather Email Than Pick Up the Phone?

2010-06-16T20:55:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to say congrats to the five lucky people who emailed me to win FREE Business Card Design from me (Pirate Alula). You can read more about the promo in my last blog post. I will be posting some of those business cards in the future!

As a designer, I consider myself to be a pretty good mix of geek and artist. Since my profession involves spending long hours on the computer, I tend to be more comfortable speaking to people through email. In fact, I think I would almost prefer it to communicating on the telephone in many cases.

When it comes to my business, I will most definitely pick up the phone, as not only is it a quicker way to get in touch with someone, but you can also leave a more personal message if the other person isn't around.

Emailing, on the other hand, gives you the ability to proofread your thoughts, send thoughts at all hours of the day and night, and you can save emails to re-read later, which is not something you can do with a phone conversation.

With all that being said, I am not much of a phone person. Recently, my best friend told me that she is getting tired of being the one to call me all the time. Come to think of it, she is not the only one who has said this to me before. It really made me stop and think of exactly how connected I am to the internet and how it has affected my personal life.

Or am I simply just not a phone person?

So what do you think? Are you a super geek who would rather speak through your fingers than through your mouth? And if so, is that really so bad?

Want Me to Design Some FREE Business Cards For Ya?

2010-06-10T21:07:00.000-07:00

So things have been pretty busy lately, which is a VERY good thing! I am working on about 4 different projects at the moment, and one of them is a design for my brother in law's upcoming wedding invitations!

Other than that, I designed the flyer for Connetic Dance's latest show, "Alice in Wonderland." I LOVE designing flyers for concerts and shows (especially dance), because I can be super creative! Check it out:

Another fun design project I got to work on is a new set of business cards for STOTT Pilates Instructor, Kelly Scallion who works at Evolution Pilates. I wanted the design to be simple and to match their website a bit...although Kelly preferred the card to be different shades of red instead of the peach color on the site. Here's how they came out:

After designing that last batch of business cards, I decided to run a promotion! The first 5 people to send me an email will get their business cards designed for FREE! (printing costs will be extra, but this is a $75.00 value, people! :)
Note...this promo will end June 26, 2010...so hurry!

I met Sargent Slaughter at the Pond House!

2010-04-09T15:21:00.000-07:00

Last night I had the privilege of attending "Dancing with the Connecticut Stars" at the The Pond House. It was a benefit event, sponsored by Ballet Theatre Company, and included performances by the Hartford based dance company, Connetic Dance, and special guests. The night included wine, food, a silent auction, and a dance competition between local CT stars paired off with dancers from Connetic Dance.

I was asked to create both flyers and the program for the event, and my husband DJ Originate was asked to DJ. Here's the super cool flyer I designed:

The night was a huge success, and it was fun to meet all the celebs...especially one of my favorites, Sargent Slaughter!!! I always get all awe-struck when I meet famous people, but I was able to contain myself long enough to get a photo with him:

All in all, it was a great event and I was happy to be a part of it!