buffalo sabres sign out of reclaimed boards and barn boards

I have been blessed with fine friends and interesting acquaintances. They may not look on me with the same sentiment, but I still feel blessed just the same. I may have said this similar thing in a previous post...sorry. I do feel it is necessary to preface this post with these thoughts. 

One such bunch of fine folks bought a new home a few months ago. Their pride in the purchase was obvious. I felt compelled to build them (though the design was leaning heavy toward the husband's taste) something cool for a future basement upgrade to a living space.

I love great logos (nothing out of the ordinary for graphic design folks). But, this logo, that of the Buffalo Sabres, was one that I found difficult to create something unique for these fine folks. I previously made a raised wooden Buffalo Bills sign and thought that the style might work with the original Buffalo Sabres logo (from 1970).

The extra outlines of the current logo would not be possible with my skill level when working with wood. Luckily, the older logo is better anyway (my opinion).

The background circle is approximately 42 inches in diameter and I used reclaimed wood to build it. It came off the roof of a local Elkland home that was recently torn down. The wood is about 90 years old or so and looks awesome!

I used aged barn boards as the raised elements. I acquired many splinters and had multiple fails with the wood. There are so many cracks from the weathering that a piece can split off at any point while cutting out the shapes.

Though a pile of work, way more than I predicted at the onset, the work was thoroughly enjoyable. The wood allows imperfections to be perfect. It allows my weaknesses and inexperience with wood to feel acceptable and, I think, look pretty good. My weakness is a strength! Boy, wish this concept worked for me each and every day!

The finished sign, at 42 inches wide, is something I hope will appear striking to folks entering their basement and add to a great finished space. Good folks deserve good things. I tried to deliver.

This picture was taken with a wide angle lens and the viewer looses the outer ring (you can see the dark outer ring in the image above). The dark outer ring helps to set off the light raised ring and give a bit of completion/frame to the work.

Glad to have delivered it safely to its new home and on to new stuff....tarpon stuff!!!!!!

new logo for the Northern Tioga School District

I was asked quite a while ago to redesign the logo for our school district. I tossed out multiple ideas and none were accepted. I sat on the project a while, as no deadline was given, until a concept popped into my mind a few months ago. I sat down at the computer and pushed it to its current state.

They decided that this was ready.

I wanted to represent the 3 communities in which we have buildings.....avoid looking to industrial or too elementary school as well as still remain simple and easily understood. School is the foundation of a quality life and the teachers I work with do an amazing job at giving students an Opportunity to succeed. Well, this is it. (there is also an upward arrow lurking in the general layout)

buffalo bills wooden sign

I work with some amazingly talented, kind and dedicated teachers. Two of them have become good friends of our family. They are terrific people with two fine children. Their kids have babysat our children on many occasions. As a gesture of gratitude for having us over to their home and the allowing of their children to take care of ours, I decided to build them something to hang in their basement. 

The basement in the home is a beautiful one and I set out to design something to add to the quality. Another teacher I work with just set me up with some well aged barn wood and I thought it would do the trick (Thanks JOE!!!!).

The man of the family is a big fan of the Buffalo Bills. I decided to build the logo out of the boards. After a bit of google searching wooden signs of that subject, I found nothing that looked anything like I had planned (always a good thing!). 

First, these barn boards are naturally striking and to paint them always feels wrong. My design was to stain them, if necessary, with new and used motor oil...nothing that would hide the beat up and weathered look of the wood. 

I have limited tools and limited skills when it comes to working with wood. The design has to be simple for both my taste and my talent with this material. 

The Bills logo has two colors and also a white outline that separates the colors and continues around the outside of the entire design. I decided to make it a dimensional piece with the white of the logo being a total background layer. The idea came together as I started the assembly of the background. A simple raised layer of lighter wood on top of a layer of darker wood. 

I wanted the piece to be large but not pompous. A bit of thought had to be put into the scale. Knowing the basement, I rested on 44" x 30". Too small and the design would waste the limited wood.

Below, the final resting place. 

local font find #23

It should be obvious that the spacing between letters (kerning) is horrible on this sign we drove by in New York state. Problems are everywhere. The reason that I have it as #23 is how poorly the 99 looks on the interstate logo. Why is it so far right?!?!??!?!??!!!!!!! The border of white is much smaller on the I-86 shield but at least the 86 is centered. WOW! is this horrible. I will get some shots of a good I-99 sign compared to this poor one in the near future. YIKES!

reel island charters logo and tee shirt image completed

I was contacted a few months ago by some fine folks down in Boca Grande, Florida (Chad and Penelope Lach) who were starting a fishing business similar to my brother's charter fishing business. They were looking for some artwork, specifically a logo that could be expanded out into a tee shirt design. Calling the business "Reel Island Charters", they had some ideas about the end result. It was to feature a snook (a popular game fish in southern Florida) and some rod and reels to set it all off. 

My initial response was to solidify a script lettering style to set it apart from whatever fish was going to be created. 

I figured that with this design they could easily letter a vehicle or scale it down to business card size and still have a solid look.

From this point, after they gave the thumbs up on the lettering, I moved on to sketching out a vintage looking layout using all the information that they supplied. I adjusted the "Reel Island" script to fit around the snook and used an oval as the general shape of the total image.

I did some minor adjustments to the title and set up an image that I believed would work as a smaller center chest design for the front of a tee. 

Looking forward to hearing from the Lach family and hope the design is met with a positive response in the local community and patrons and it helps them to get the word out. If you are near Boca Grande, Florida, give them a call and do some terrific fishing in one of the most beautiful spots in the U.S of A.

local font find #20 the disney edition 1

My family spent a few weeks in Florida visiting my parents and brother's family. My parents live in a great little gem of a spot off the coast of Cape Coral called Matlacha. The last 4 days of our vacation were spent at Disney World. I saw many amazing things. Too many to bore you with via this blog. But what I did find was this outstanding box with amazing lettering on the front in a play area deep in the heart of Disney's Animal Kingdom. Everything about this metal box was perfect. PERFECT!!!!! It was so beautiful that I still miss it. It had a magnetic pull to my eye and heart. Would love to have this in my living room for some quality staring every evening. 

mort's meat mafia

I am still not sure of the person I designed this for but it has to do with someone who knows my wife's best friend (his name might be Mort). He wanted a cow, pig and chicken designed into a logo for his new venture, Mort's Meat Mafia. I googled this idea and found that it had been done about a billion different ways. Three animals and the concept of meat, well done! It has been tweaked and twisted and designed over and over. The problem is that it is kinda necessary. You can't just show one of these animals or it gives the audience a much different perception about the product(s). I really didn't know how to bring my own spin on this universal concept. I decided to lead the design toward a more simple end by just giving a cleaver some type. 

I used some inked Styrofoam to get the cleaver and chopped out the hand drawn lettering via Photoshop. Love the natural texture that ya get from Styrofoam. Never gets old!!! 
This design was liked but still the client wanted those darn animals. "Less is more" was thrown out the window. I drew up some suited animals wearing shades and merged it all together and.....

As individual characters....I kind of like them. That chicken looks like a real killer!...an unflappable dude! I think I would still prefer the cleaver with about 40 variations of lettering to the one with the animals. It seems like a bit much. Then again, anything that takes away from type is something to rethink in my book. To be honest, I have not had time to ingest it all. Maybe weeks from now I might come around on the whole thing. Sure do like the chicken.

vintage higgins american india ink glass bottle

While organizing my classroom yesterday, I use the term organize very loosely, I found this box.

As I was walking to the trash with yet another out of date art supply I opened it. Wow!!!!! What a bottle! What a label! What awesome lettering! I hit the mini jackpot on cool old art room stuff. It is a beautiful example of taking pride in the presentation of your product from an era when that meant it still looks super cool.

I will definitely be showcasing this bottle and label in my home for visitors to question my sanity for having it in a place of honor (those of you who understand the beauty within type/product design/graphic design will instantly smile). I find it hard to believe that a time or era will come when this is not considered a quality piece of design. 

I am always looking for stuff like this. The rarity is the lure. It is the joy as well.

"keep your eyes wide the chance won't come again" -b dylan

a hunting logo for co-worker

I don't hunt. The reasons are the same as most people. Plus several others. I like to walk along and maybe push some deer toward the armed folks, but generally speaking, just too much cold to tolerate for meat I don't enjoy....though deer jerky is mighty fine! I come from a family of hunters. I like to shoot weapons. My brother had a wide range of powerful hand guns as well as assualt rifles before all the laws changed. I was into sports that required me to move. Sitting around was out. I struggled with fishing when I was very young as well. As I am typing this, I feel that this logo should be displayed with ZERO color around it. I love black and white for it is a proving ground of design. If your design holds up to being viewed without color, you've got solid work. Color, to me, is just fluff (not really cause I use a pile of it but that statement sounds good and tough for this post).  I am changing the look of angrystrongo.com as of this post. Minimalistic. 

This logo was straight forward with a hint of Harley Davidson as inspiration. Just a hint! I weathered it a bit using some texture I created printing from a Styrofoam sheet. Not sure what "Hard Times" means but it didn't need to be understood to get this design. I tossed around a dozen or so lettering styles before settling on something solid looking. I kept it hand drawn because I knew it was to be weathered. I like bolts, screws and rivets (I think I mentioned this in a previous post). The flatheads give it some elements that eat up some design space above as well as allowing me to form the word "hunting" around something other than the outside edge.

new project TERRAYN and Code Mushroom logo design

I received a call about two months ago...maybe an email...maybe a text to my wife (I don't text yet). Whatever, it was from some guy named Jason Gehman and he needed some artwork done for a game he was designing. The local grapevine told him to contact Ashley and I. I told him that I might not be the right character for this job and explained my skill set. He said that I was the right person and that we should get together and talk out his idea. Okay. I took him up on dinner at his house. Ashley and I joined his beautiful family for a wonderful meal and some great "gettin-ta-know-each-other" time. After dinner, we were met with the full force of Jason's excitement over this project. The project was this online game that he and several other computer geeks (i use this term with the utmost of respect for the level of knowledge this group possesses) were constructing. Jason told us that they could build the game but none of them could draw....thus....the dinner. Needless to say, Jason won us over. He wasn't asking for money, he was just asking for our time. The goal was to make this work without dishing out piles of everyone's cash. He explained that if we can't make this work on our wits, then it wasn't meant to be. It all sounded good and I wanted desperately to be a part of something. There were no big projects in my life and this had some quality potential. Ashley was swamped, and still is, with graduate work and other professional obligations and has only had time to critique my attempts to please the group. 

The evening of the dinner, Jason told us that the group of geeks was calling themselves Code Mushroom. Okay. My mind instantly started rolling on possibilities for a logo. I drew a pile of the standard mushroom ideas and all felt very blahhhh like the ones below....

   

I spent a few days on some dimensional ideas because the game was to be both above and below ground level.

I then began to think of more mathematical ideas. I took a square and began slicing it in half (upper left, below). It wasn't long before the chopping was getting me somewhere and I began to feel a connection with it. Soon, two triangles seemed to capture the feel of the mushroom. I knew that this was it. I kept sketching out lettering as well. I decided to work all the letters into the same size rectangle and to build them in photoshop to see if it would all work

Once in Photoshop, I manipulated the triangles in many ways. I knew I was close but it wasn't until I chopped the ends of the triangles that it really looked good (below). I chopped off the stem of the mushroom, the bottom triangle and it solidified the whole design with a cool shadow of negative space.

Then the lettering....it just kind of happened. Not much changing from my sketch and mental image. I did some redesign due to capitals and lowercase not looking quite right...but...this is what I presented to the squad. Jason showed it around and I was asked aboard. I am now a proud member of Code Mushroom.

Once I was brought on board, I set out to conquer the design of Terrayn. Terrayn is to be a Massive Multi player online game. It is set on this never ending, constantly evolving and growing landscape. The whole idea boggled my mind but I didn't have to build the game, just get some cool looking lettering. My initial idea, pictured below, had similar origins to the code mushroom lettering. Simple, box-shaped, modern looking letters. A mix of caps and lowers and minimalism. I wanted it to be wide and not reveal much of the game (that was easy since I knew very little of the game at that time). 

I also went with an above/below ground idea with the Terrayn logo. It wasn't long before I knew it just couldn't work for this project.

As I learned more about Terrayn, I knew that my design(s) were not going to fit. The game had taken on a feel of medieval times. Tools, weapons and structures would be from long ago. My lettering was wrong! So I scrapped it all and moved onto calligraphy and black letters. I drew countless versions of Terrayn. It was proving to be thousands of times more difficult than the code mushroom logo. Once I was getting close (the top version pictured below), it was just tweaking and tweaking and more tweaking. I drove Ashley nuts with calling her in for an opinion.

After solving the capital T in a way that proved to be interesting (not normal, but interesting), I had visions of it becoming riveted metal. I scanned in some well aged and distressed paper that I found at my job. Manipulated the look by adjusting the curves...and they liked it as well...

Below is how it looks on some fine 3-D rendering of another Code Mushroom teammate, Joel Tremblay. He was called in to help create many of the things I can't do, namely all things 3-dimensional on the computer. At this point, about three weeks ago,we all felt like we were on a roll.

The game is growing fast. Construction is only slowed by the day jobs we all work. As things come together and our web presence is ready, I'll be posting links up for all to see. The next two months are looking great for Code Mushroom. This geek has to get back to work.....later all.

Check us out on facebook.... https://www.facebook.com/TerraynOnline

beer boxes used to be really something

My father-in-law, Mr. Burrous, owns this spectacular box/font specimen. It is a beautiful display of lettering. Someone was throwing this box away when Mr. Burrous was a young man. Wise beyond his years, he scooped it up and never let it go. Smart, very smart!

The aged wood only adds to the striking look of these great and different lettering. It has some intense coloring and seems to have lost almost nothing considering its age. Buying a case of beer nowadays can't compete. Now you just get beer. Beer in a cardboard box. In the case of Blatz (no pun intended), the box sure did look better than the beer would taste.

Even the inside of the box had lettering applied to it. Yes!!!

Quality all around. I can see why you don't get one of these when buying a case of beer today. Even beer as lousy as Blatz would be beyond my price range.

spotted a unique logo #2

While trying to surprise one of Ashley's good friends down in Williamsport, Pa, I noticed these new metal plaques pinned into the sidewalk. They look cool. Very clean...nice fish design...minimal wording...great use of space.

I wonder how much these little gems cost the fine taxpayers of Williamsport? How many drains does Williamsport have that "drain into the river"? Did they have a problem with people dumping waste into the drains?

 

Well...as I was considering whether or not this post was finished I decided to do a quick search concerning these plaques. It turns out that a young eagle scout was behind the idea of the project and was also part of their installation. The funding came from a state grant of the Lycoming County Conservation District (so all Pennsylvanians paid for these). At least we are left with some fine design to trip over as we walk in and around the Williamsport area.

spotted a unique logo

I spotted this quality logo a few times on our family trips south to Wellsboro. This logo would have caught my eye in any setting, but traveling along that rural stretch made it leap. I finally had to stop and snap this shot. The photograph is lousy…sorry about the field goal posts. This thing has all the qualities I love. It is refined as much as possible and symmetrical. A thick line goes well with the subject (bulldog). It looks as though the “A” (the mouth) was central and nicely incorporated into the bulldog face. It’s supposed to symbolize strength & toughness and it delivers.

I did some generic Google searching and found out that APASCO is part of a larger company, Holcim. Holcim is a cement and gravel company that originated in Switzerland and is currently doing business all over the planet.  Leave it to the Swiss to be involved with a logo this cool. This is the kind of logo worthy of a freight car…very nice!

On a sad note...was unable to find t-shirts for sale.

....don't EVER smoke!!!!!!!....but check out this great lettering

In the remote town of Renovo, Pa., this wall still greets the locals and all that pass through. The railroad has left this town to somehow find its way with little around to help. This terrific piece of advertising history makes one feel as though the glory days are still at hand. Simple white and yellow sans serifs with a hefty black drop shadow. Thoroughly weathered and still beautiful. I have always loved the look of Mail Pouch barns and walls. Would make a great interior wall of my next home!

Why my father-in-law had this old snuff tin from back in '86 to give me is a bit odd, but I sure was pleased to see that great font that Copenhagen Snuff used along the sides. Thin white on solid black. A great "C" overtaking the "o" and that awkward "g" which is brilliant! The "SNUFF" font is modern and a good fit to the lower case above it.

Not sure how we acquired this ruler but it is evidence that tobacco companies had kids in mind. They attempted to look as though children were not the target but it would be perfectly wonderful if the people they admire most indulge! I'm sure these companies had no idea that kids copy their older siblings and parents. Love the two different fonts used on the front and back. Simple and classy. (Altoona was my old home town.)

Plough's vintage tin....great graphic design

A friend of the family, Bob Martin, gave Ashley and I a box filled with old tins and perfume containers about two weekends ago. Bob has become a third grandfather to our children and is a kind, gentle and generous man. Our children climb all over him...especially our daughter Clare. He, like many others around these parts, has a basement loaded with piles of items. Overhearing my endless conversations concerning how excited I get when seeing old advertising and classic lettering, he trekked down his basement stairs and rummaged around for me. I attempted to thank him enough but you never really feel as though it is sufficient. This post is both an enormous "thank you" to Bob Martin and also a way to let the rest of you see some beautiful packaging. Old things just look better to me.

With a quick google search I was able to see similar enamel tins (did not find an exact duplicate) and date this particular tin to the early 20's - early 30's. I was unable to find info about Plough's and whether this was some kind of snake oil scam or the stuff really did what it claimed.

I love the sides of this tin. There are very subtle changes to the font used with the second line being a taller, more condensed version. They also utilized some wider kerning along the bottom two lines to help fill some space. They achieved a great look while isolating the two product titles.

The best compliment I can give an item is to have it displayed in my home. If I want to look at something often, it finds a shelf or wall space.

Thanks Mr. Martin!

Trip into NY state

Ash and I took a few days over the summer to see the finger lakes region of NY state. We looped around and came south into Watkins Glen. A neat little town with some interesting folks milling about.  While there, we set out to walk the glen as I have never been thru. Around every turn is another beautiful scene. The weather was awesome and we decided to walk out via the northern trail. This took us near an amazing cemetery that drew us in and we, of course, lost the trail.  We had to follow the cemetery exit adding a substantial distance to our journey. My fault.
I had done some design work for some folks east of there so we headed over to the Ithaca/Cortland area that night for a room. The logos pictured above are from a great coffee shop in Homer, NY. If in the area of Cortland, we recommend Coffeemania and Origins! The people were incredibly friendly and the coffee was perfect. I designed this logo about two years ago (maybe one?) for the owners Craig and Michelle Brooks. The logo was based on a design that I sketched out about a decade ago for my cousin Mike and his wife Jamie who were batting around an idea for a coffee business. ****A note to all creative types out there: keep your sketch books!!! Not sure about that pose I'm in but it might be me stretching from the lengthy car ride.