Hot Sauce Label Design

Hot sauce label design is a design style onto itself. These labels have come from simple, food label design such as Tabasco and Franks Red Hot to a whole variety of collectible designs. Many of the hot sauces are just a version of Louisiana Hot sauce - which you can get for about a dollar. The label makes it desirable and even collectible and raises the price to 5 dollars or more. There are a lot of great label designs and it must be fun to come up with a design for this. Just going to the home page of hotsauceworld.com you can see that these sauces are not cheap. Yes you are paying for the sauce but no one would pay that much unless the label had a cool design. Many people do not even ever open the bottles so the design is most important.

Word Clouds

The first time I saw a word cloud, I thought it was really cool. At first I thought they were great and i have used them. After this class I am thinking more about my designs and have decided these are no longer for me. Unfortunately, I think that word clouds are starting to become over used because it is so easy to do that anyone can easily create one. A problem that I see with them is that they really don't mean anything. Why not create a useful graphic for the project or find a nice photo? They are so easy to create that people who are not designers create them and ask for them. If you really need a word cloud why not make it yourself so that you can create some meaning in it?

Click and Mail Greetings: Media Campaign Set To Launch

Click and Mail Greetings: Media Campaign Set To Launch:

I just fond this great blog/website

http://www.clickandmailgreetings.com

This will make card shopping a lot easier!

Halloween Design

Halloween design is a lot of fun. Using only a few colors - orange, black, green and purple and a few subjects like - pumpkin, moon, cat, witch - a designer can create a  wide variety of feelings. It is simple and fantastic at the same time.

Designers have been using these colors and subjects for years and are still creating new and interesting designs.

Sidewalk Chalk art

On July 30th, the Syracuse NewTimes is hosting a street painting festival. Anyone can enter and I think that I might give it a try. I have not drawn on the sidewalk with chalk since I was a little kid. I think this is a bit of a challenge even for a painter - to try a new medium in front of a crowd. I don't think my landlord would like it if I practiced in our driveway so I'll be starting fresh at the event.

This got me thinking about the professional chalk artists who make the giant forced perspective images. I can't imagine someone spending so much time to create something that might not last as long as it took to create. I know that mine will not come close to theirs but it will be fun anyway.

Here are a few that I like. Beyond creating a beautifuul design these piecces are site specific and really fit into their surroundings.

the art of camping

This time of year I usually start a search for a nice campsite or cabin to rent for a long weekend. We like to go to different places every year so it is a new search each time. There is nothing more frustrating than to try to find a good cabin on line. Ninety percent of the websites are a disaster. They are usually unorganized, ugly and make it difficult to find or contact the business. Often the photos don't really show what the cabin or site is like and a lot of the photos are of things not related to or specific to what the campsite has to offer.

I did a quick search and easily found some ugly sites. I have not been to any of these places so I'm not saying they are good or bad - I just don't think their websites are as good as they could or should be. I cut out their names and  contact info to be fair.

Countryside Cottage.
I would expect a beautiful, open, relaxing feeling in a countryside cottage. Unfortunately, their website makes me feel cramped and confused. Their chaotic design is not making me want to stay there and their color combination is dull and boring.

The campground is a little nicer but they could have done better. They have some great shots of the place but don't use them to their fullest potential. What I thought was a search box under their name is just a white bar. The text is in a lighter shade green box than the rest of the site and there is too much information in lines that are too long. At least the green is brighter than the last site!

The Park Marina - I'm already in the site why do I have to click to enter? I do like that all of the basic information is on the home page. Why would I email them when I have to call to make a reservation? They have a great shot of their Marina but why is it so small?

Treasure Isle. Ok they decided to go with piratey themes but its more clipart piratey than anything. What pirate would use that blue outlined font on a treasure map? None that I know of. The sand colored background is putting me to sleep.

You might be thinking that these sites are made by the camp owners. Thats what I thought to but I found the company that has claimed to have made hundreds of sites for campsites including treasure isle's! Their site isn't much better. At first it looks cool but is not great either. Their buttons are dated, the sample images run into eachother and the blue text on black is hard to read. If I had a web design business I would want my contact onformation on the first page! I wouldn't want people to have to click to another page and scroll to the bottom to find it!

First Post

I’m in a transition right now. I recently moved from Brooklyn to Syracuse and have been really turned upside down. My regular schedule of drawing and creating has disappeared and I have not had time or place to wander the streets taking photos of interesting things like I used to do in Brooklyn or Manhattan. My new position is a lot more creative and I love it but my personal design time has suffered. I hop that within a week everything will be set up in our apartment and I’ll be able to get back to doing my thing. The pictures below are images I took on my last walk through Williamsburg, Brooklyn about a month ago. 

Russ