3....2.....1

its been round about 321 days since my last post. the one that described how happy and excited i was about getting this blog together. 321 days since chaos, fun, laughter, work and some of the best experiences i could ever have wished for have taken my time away from this blog. 321 days (i repeat it because i have that stupid thing for numbers!) since i felt the need to sit, write and share with whoever you are! 

what can have been so important to have taken me away from a blog that i felt i just HAD to update as often as possible...a hell of a lot of things! im actually stumped at where to begin. time and fate play funny roles in our lives and i have not only come to cherish the twist of fate, but to love it and to see such amazing-ness even in the bad things that fate and life do tend to throw. 

in short...this is my past 321 days

finished up 2 lovely wedding invites and stationary, as a freelance designer when you don't know where your next job is coming from you start to worry and start thinking maybe, just maybe i should have taken out that ad on gumtree a while ago. 

but alas

an evening of fun wining and dining with a friend of mine (mr chaos) led me to randomly meeting a woman, who knew of mr.s who was looking for a freelancer...

and therefore

i met and kept meeting up with this mr.s who not only wanted a freelancer, but wanted someone to work full-time

but...

i am me. i love my freedom of being able to take up jobs as they come, to have my few days a week to sit at my little studio space and get lost with no-one around me, to pick up and go if i choose to...to move my 'studio' into a neighbourhood coffee shop and get inspired by the comings and goings of said neighbourhood folk.

so

a big decision and lots of persuading from mr.s meant i was keen on possibly giving it a go. when a feeling is a good feeling, and your gut tells you this is good...i believe go with it! 

therefore

i started on a contractual basis with a branding and private label cosmetics company. 3 days a week for a few months turned into me loving the companionship and laughter that work colleges bring and that helped me make the right decision to add a 4th day into my 'real work life' 

but

on the side, as jobs for my freelance clients were ending, so were they beginning. me design studio's only advertisement has been word of mouth. the best form of advertising i believe one can have. i was juggling and juggling well...and this was still in 2011!

many more changes came about personally and work wise for me in 2012. 

i not only moved out of living with my best friend who in turn can be and is a sister in all aspects of the word, who for a year put up with me constantly looking for a place while taking over her own. who knows me better than anyone around me can ever know me, and who has a heart as golden as can be...

as sad as i was to move away from her...i moved a whole 400m away

 ... into 

what can only be described as a kaotic and life bonding apartment with 2 krazy (kle-ftiKo aka hear-no evil) krazy (tiko-stiKo aka eat-no evil) girls. Sometimes i realise the genetics we are born with really do make us, yet we can never deny family traits. the tiKo girls happen to be cousins who grew up many miles away from where i did, yet the similarity's that are sometimes revealed between us is shocking. we have moved into a place that has a power to it we cannot understand. because for all of us at this point in time magiKal happenings have begun to take shape and form. 

work wise for me 

on an ordinary day i received an email from someone whom i have never met saying they recommended me for a job...a big fun exciting job. later that evening i found out more as the author contacted me directly to set up a meeting. a few days later, and boom. i was working on Babel, a cookbook inspired by the restaurant on the unbelievable soul touching and inspiring Babylonstoren farm of which Maranda Engelbrecht is the genius behind the conception of this restaurant, and I would be working on the design layouts for this new book alongside her! I was blown away. (www.babylonstoren.com) 

therefore

I packed my diary away for 2 months...brought my days at the cosmetics company down back to 3 again...and put my nose to the grindstone. 2 months led to 3...which led to 4 as this amazing farm has got so much to offer and the photographers had so many inspiring images that we landed up with more pages than what we had originally aimed for...but all was good, as a few more weeks of sitting and tweaking have taken the book to an amazing place. 

reflecting on this experience

being a freelancer in cape town, means i work alone a lot of the times. i didn't study here, i don't have many peers i can turn to and when i meet someone from the industry who is great at what they do, i value them so much. i have had the most amazing time working on this book alongside maranda, who constantly blows me away with her ideas and vision. i have gotten to know a new group of people who i guess i can say have bonded with temporarily over the most unbelievable dishes served to us when we had group gatherings. i have a smile on my face knowing that going to bed at 3 or sometimes 4am and waking up at 6am for 2 months has not been a negative but such a positive on my life and my attitude and respect towards it! 

yes...

living on less than 4hours sleep was a pretty constant in my life for a while. but as tired as my body was when i got into bed, the thought of waking up and going at it again made me smile. i also set forth a very rigid challenge for myself at this time. i had started doing a few classes of yoga and a month into these few classes...and many many hours of focusing on the book, i decided to take a 30day challenge. 

this is 

30 yoga sessions in 30 days. so missing a day meant doubling up the next day. i found this to be my 'out' for the day. where waking up at 6am was easy because i knew where i was going...i was going to a room which would be heated to above 30'c and loosing myself in the flow of poses. running/walking/gyming etc....none of them could and can clear my mind the way the yoga does. i completed the challenge during my hardest and longest work month, and i did it.

in the mean time

i haven't turned away any prospective future clients for me design studio. i have had so much come my way. branding/weddings/packaging/boardgames/charts/childrens invites/logos/business cards.... i cannot wait to share it all in upcoming made by me mondays! there have been over 321 amazing days that i wish i had diarised...but i didn't...a little backwards into looking at where i was will show you where i have been.

made by me mondays will be constants...they might not be completed mondays but they are inspired mondays...and drawing from inspirations around my beautiful life, well just wait and see. i think im back. and i think i am ready. 

this is me for me by me

information generation

Considering that I posted last weeks made by me-monday blog on a Tuesday, and that today's title is not made by me, you would probably think I don't know how to look at a calendar. But in all honesty as fun as it is updating the made by me's because it gives me a chance too look back on work I have packed away, I have just had a 'oh let me blog about it moment' and decided to run with it.

I have recently started admitting to people that I have a very bad 'rainmain-ish' habit. I don't know what it is or when it started, and in all honesty it scared me at first and then I just realised it must be one of my quirks, because everyone I have spoken to about it (including the magiKal-psychologist) tells me they do not have the same problem as me. They proceed to give me a very funny look afterwards. What I mean by 'rainman-ish' is directly taken from the movie starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman, you will remember Dustin Hoffman played the role of Tom's older autistic savant mumbling brother. Well since this isn't a movie blog I will get straight to the point. I count. I count everything. If I am walking up or down stairs, I count the stairs. If I am out jogging, I count my steps. When out driving I take note of number plates (so not only are the numbers in my damn head they are also all around me) I will see a number plate and it will stick in my mind, and then I see the number plate again and I realise "hey I know that numberplate. How you doing car 46440". It's like this little itty bitty sick fascination with numbers. I move them around in my mind so that they make more sense and be remembered. Like my security code to get into the gate at home...lets say it is 2702, I don't see it as 2702. I see it as 27 February. I seriously just thought everyone did this! Now I'm not bragging about this special talent of mine, or saying I am special or a savant. If anything I can almost hear my sisters laughter over the phone when she calls after reading this update (or her shock at not realising how special I am indeed). I am the first to admit I don't even like numbers! Who fails accounting in the first week they teach it to you in highschool? It takes me 3 times longer to figure out mathematical equations than my 13yr old nephew, actually I think by this stage he has surpassed me by more than a longshot. But, yet these damn numbers haunt me. I opened up a magazine article last week that was saying how an average person has to walk something like 8000 steps to burn their average intake of food -obviously the only thing that stuck out at me was the 8000 odd steps. I even attempted to see how many steps I take but then realised I only count every second step of mine and when I get to 100 I automatically seem to revert back to 1, and I do tend to get side-tracked by a song that then enters my head, or a non-related number thought, and well-yeah I still haven't managed to count all my steps. Phone numbers are the worst, I see a phone number and then I think to myself-oh its like my phone number but just replace the 3 with the 5 and the 9 with the 1 and swop the two last digits around.

Considering that I have now opened a full can of worms here, I will tell you what made me want to have this 'oprah-style' sharing moment with you. I finally just figured out I can see the stats on my blog. It's fun. I now know how many times my blog is being read (616) and this does not include me checking it. Which country my 'reader' is in (1: South Africa, 2: United Kingdom, 3:USA....) What platform (for non-technical speakers this just means with what type of device) is being used. I have started feeling like I am on Wall Street with how often I just need to check the numbers. Has readership increased/decreased. Should I sell(update)/buy(not bother). And each time I see an increase I feel a little bit of joy, because I then realise it is not JUST my family reading my blog and I shall therefore keep selling. 

19.09.11

I took a class in my varsity days that was called "Information Design". We basically were set challenges to design/arrange information in such a way that it was pleasing to look at, as well as being informative and getting the message across. By keeping a concept of what information needs to be conveyed by making it pleasant to look at, one's eye and memory click together and 'take a picture' that lasts them longer. Looking at facts and figures in a different way we tend to then remember them better than having them all layed out in front of us excel sheet style. This is how I work. I am more of a visual person when it comes to itty bitty information. If there isn't a pretty picture in front of me I conjure one up in my head. But looking at information layed out (such as the stats on my blog) excites me, and makes things a bit more real. Below I have posted some images of beautiful layed out information design. It's filtering into our lives more often now hidden in beautiful layouts!

http://myhome.spu.edu/kgz/4207/eyecandy.html

http://designingforinteraction.wordpress.com

http://mootee.typepad.com

http://www.stephengates.com

http://www.uwdesign2010.com

By the way did you know me has got 2 letters in it. When ME are together those are my fathers initials. When reversed and EM are together those are my mother...and my brothers initials! I'm just a double MM. I think I have just realised it's not only numbers that are haunting me...have a great week everyone, and count your blessings! 

x 

me


update: the sister mentioned above eventually read the blog and genes seem to be a lot stronger and wierder in my family than just how alike we all look...my sister happens to have the same number issues as me.Thanks to the wonders of opening myself and my savant-ish like issues up we have eventually revealed this oddity to each other. I shall now look into this matter further and see if the brand of wine we drink has anything to do with it!

made by me

I realise I'm a day late...but better late than never!

Sometimes there comes a time when as a designer I have been faced with a challenge. Where I sit back and have many images flashing through my mind. Images that have been stored and photographed in my memory that are from design magazines, blogs, my surroundings, my life. I like a challenge, I like sitting there thinking of how to put what has been asked of me together. How to create it and make it unique. How to add personality and spunk and a touch of me as well as a touch of my client into the job. My challenge was the following-create a wedding invite (easy peasy) but use skulls! 

I happen to have had a stage in my life where I too was a very big fan of skulls. Not in the horrible death type of style, but in the way that something that has always been associated with death/tradgedy/a symbol of 'fear' can be presented sometimes in a very beautiful way. During this stage (and admittedly I do still somewhat have a tad fetish for them) everything that had a skull on it landed up being purchased by me or given to me as a gift from friends. Jewl encrusted skull keychains, skull t-shirts, skull rings etc etc. So when Ashleigh came into my studio and we started talking about her wedding invites, I wasn't put off by the fact that she wanted skulls on her wedding invite. I understood her, and like I said-I like a challenge. Ashleigh and Gren's words were the following: Vintage, quirky, modern with a twist of retro and..skulls!

Ashleigh & Gren design moodboard 2010 copyright me.design.studio

The designs started out without a set format of what the final invite would look like. Because they are both into music, design and fashion, I had originally started off with an idea of the invite being a poster.

Ashleigh & Gren design stage1 2010 copyright me.design.studio

While sitting down with Ash and going through my own design samples, she loved the idea of the booklet (as done for Liesl & Pete) so that is the format we landed up going with. The quirky-ness came about where at the back of the book we had the 'synopsis' of their relationship, the skulls were presented in a very soft manner by creating them into the heart shape, and the colours completed the whole look by  adding that delicate vintage aesthetic. 

Ashleigh & Gren design cover/back cover  2010 copyright me.design.studio

Gren met Ash in 2004. He was a DJ. She organised events. They became friends and started working together. He taught her how to DJ. He played House. She played Hip Hop. She loved fashion. He wore earrings. They spent all of their time together. They fell in love. They started businesses together. 6 years later he asked her to marry him. She said yes.

 

More personal touches came about and for all of the hand delivered invites, personalized badges were made. Working with a variety of fonts and focusing on the typography for this invite was a bonus for me as I love typography. And those skulls....they're not scary at all now are they!

* Ash & Gren...thank you for the challenge! I am constantly using your invite as an example to future clients of how anything they want is possible! wishing you both lots of happiness in your marriage. 

x 

me

made by me

Everything has a beginning. Everyone has a start or a spark that starts their beginning, and no I am not about to give a 'how you were made' life lesson here. I'm about to go back in time, to the beginning of me.design.studio's wedding invitation design beginning. Because, no graphic designer (that I know of) wakes up and says-I want to design wedding cards for people. It just sort of happens along the way and this was how it happened for me. 

A good friend of mine was getting married. That's it, thats my story. He asked, she said yes, and I figured out a great way to give a very personalised engagement gift was to offer my services of helping with the full wedding stationary. And what a full stationary set it was. This was pre-'give me five words to sum up what you want your wedding to look like' stage that is now stage1 requirement with all brides. All I knew was the future bride (FB) wanted a wedding card that did not look too weddingy. I guess looking back on the design, thinking about our many hours together in front of the computer screen (FB was very involved as she has a great eye for all things beautiful herself) I can sum up her words as these, rustic, personalised, earthy and unique. 

Almost 2years ago to the day my good friend 'miss-fantastic-shoes' came into my then office with a pack of cigs for me, a pack of cigs for her, a Red Hot Chili Peppers cd and if I remember correctly, dog treats for our brother dogs. We started on her invite 'look' and by the time we each finished our boxes of cigs, we had a rough skeleton idea of what her invite would look like, what format it would take, and how the rest of the wedding stationary would take shape. What proved to be not only a fantastic cd, also happened to be the 'glue' that tied all the wedding bits and pieces together. In the invitation there was a quote from a RHCP song "Hard to concentrate", the dancefloor at the wedding was vinyl'd with the same quote, and the happy couple also danced along to this song as their first dance as man and wife. Needless to say... the Red Hot Chili Peppers are one of the ultimate favourites. 

Aimee & Marco Invite design copyright me.design.studio 2009

The wedding invite itself was 3 seperate cards, all printed on recycled cardstock, and slipped into a self contained envelope. 'miss-fantastic-shoes' has a very creative mother who actually made the little hearts that tied around the invites and these were also used on the day of the wedding as extra design accents. 

Vinyl got itself everywhere into this wedding, from the above mentioned dance floor, to the 5 life size chandelier illustrations that were in various shades of grey to look like shadows cast against the wall to the seating chart 'carpet'. Guests had an interactive time searching for their names on the vinyl'd carpet which flowed from the courtyard into the reception hall. It has been a 'landmark' wedding for me because to this day I still have people coming to me asking me to design their guestlist seating chart 'carpets' as well as dance floor vinyls and wall vinyls in various themes to match their weddings style. 

This wedding could not have been complete without 'miss-fantastic-shoes' who is the type of friend who is always giving, gave to her guests wonderful gifts of 'slip-slops' (party shoes for party feet) wooden fans (thank you to all our fans) as well as-a cd mix of the bride and grooms favourite songs, and the cd actually looked like a mini record (vinyl much!)

The wedding itself was beautiful. Actually more than beautiful, and I not only say that as a friend, designer or guest but because it did set a landmark for all other weddings I have worked on as well as for all other FB's out there. Even though the Aleit wedding team, was involved, this bride with the fantastic design eye, was just as involved with every aspect of her (and the grooms) big day. I am currently working on their wedding album (its never too late) and am constantly reminded by how gorgeous all the details, as well as the bride were!

* Mrs & Mr Fantastic shoes, may you have an AMAZING time at the RHCP concert in London later this year!

* This is a disclaimer to say- me.design.studio does not promote smoking! just cos I have to work with a pack of cigs doesnt mean you have to.

x 

me

made by me

Every design has to start somewhere. I have these FB's (future brides) who come to me with their wedding tid-bit collection albums and this is generally where we start from. There are pictures of colours, of cakes, of decor...dresses...everything that has caught the FB's attention makes it into her little collection of images and she therefore brings it along with her to our first meeting. We sit and discuss the look and feel of the wedding day that she envisions in her mind, we talk about her 5 words and where and how they have influenced the style she wants to go with, and we go through my library of images where I sit back and see what her reaction is to a folder full of images that I have set aside for our first meeting. I pick up on the little 'ooh's' and the 'aah's' and trust me there are even quite a few 'eeews' thrown in there that I take note of. 

For this particular invite, Tina came to me with an image of an invite that she had in her album. This is what she wanted, and then when we started going through the albums, a different vision filled her head and she let me in on the fact that her fiance, Drew, is a keen cyclist. Inspiration hit, and I opened up another folder of illustrations that I have in a collection and we started looking at vintage bicycle illustrations. Along with her words rustic, vintage, timeless and elegance and her colours apple green, black and white, this is where the bicycle inspiration took over and a much more personalised invitation was created.

Tina & Drew Moodboard (copyright Me Design Studio 2011)

Tina & Drew Stage 1 Designs (copyright Me Design Studio 2011)

Stage 2 Design - refinement (copyright Me Design Studio 2011)

By Stage2 a set look was already established. The illustration style was chosen and minor refinements on type was taking place. The format of the invitation was also established, there would be 2 A5 size cards with the information and map to the venue. Brainwave idea's come along as I am designing, and I had the bride and groom send me side profile pictures of themselves. I re-illustrated the illustration so that it was them on the bicycle. A nice personal ingenious touch-if I may say so myself.

Stationary extra's. Thank you card series, order of service and menu. (copyright Me Design Studio 2011

The whole process of designing the invite was pleasant, and also set the standard for what the rest of their wedding stationary would look like. Menu's, order of service, table seating numbers as well as table seating cards and thank you cards were designed and carried through with the same style. A wedding invitation is therefore NOT just a wedding invitation, but it is the start of what the guests full experience will entail up until the end of the wedding.  

* Tina & Drew, it was great meeting you both. I enjoyed working on your full stationary set and smile each time I look at them, especially knowing how happy you both were with the end results. 

x 

me

today i was inspired by...

There is a quote in one of the compartments in my head since my art history class days back at varsity that I recalled today.  "Art is not what you see, but what you make others see".- Edgar Degas
Today I saw colours. I woke up just as the sun was rising, very unbelievable, yet true. Walked into the kitchen in my half dazed state to turn my friend the kettle on and get my other friend coffee into me very quickly, and while I was slumped over the kitchen counter attempting to not fall asleep my eyes caught the view outside. Its not yet summer, we are reminded of that in the evenings here in Cape Town. But it is getting lighter earlier these days and I caught the beautiful pink hue's of morning light sweeping across the neighbourhood. I grabbed my camera and attempted a pic, or two, but my camera also acts as my phone more than it does my camera, because my real camera was sleeping due to flat batteries(and the cold!) 


It seemed as if colour followed me the whole day though as my fellow design friend (i shall refer to him as the-guru) introduced me to a wonderful blog that he follows. And THIS...was my day's inspiration. www.kristinaklarin.blogspot.com

To see colour is to smile for me. To see many different colours placed with each other in such an aesthetically pleasing manner actually makes me show teeth when I smile! I have been too excited about this new blog to have much of a chance to do my research about who she is, what she does and 'get to know her' but I do know that very soon when there is more than a spare moment in the day, I will be drowning myself in this website and catching up on all her previous bloggings. Kristina's use of photography - and colour, makes me see many things and is one very inspirational 'look-see' into her world of colour. ps-she makes all those necklaces too!

(...Kristina if you happen to read this, please update your about page-or mail me back :) I would love to know where in the world you are with all these beautiful inspiring settings)

x 

me

made by me

I have mentioned before that I create quite a few wedding invites. I enjoy this direction of design as each Future Bride (aka FB) who comes to me has such a unique idea in her head of what she wants for her wedding day to look like and feel like. Sometimes this vision has been with FB since she was a little girl,  or from when she attended a friends wedding and decided on all the things she would never want happening at her own wedding. My job is a simple one, to create and help expand on the vision that is in FB's head into a reality. I always start off with asking FB to give me 5 words to sum up the look/feel/style of the vision she has in her head. From there I create a moodboard, just so that we are both visually on the same page, because purple to you means purple, but purple to me means lilac, violet, mulberry, lavender and a whole lot more! 

It was about a year ago this time that I started working on Liesl & Pete's invites. Liesl's words were, whimsical, gatsby, colourful, fun and rustic. Besides for these words there wasn't a clear indication of where the invite design would start from. All Liesl brought me was a single quote that she wanted incorporated into the design. 

Liesl & Pete Moodboard (copyright Me Design Studio 2010)

Stage 1 Design - incorporates wording from moodboard

At our first meeting, a single image stood out and became one of the options that I presented to her in Stage 1 design.

Stage 2 Design - refinement

What started out as a flat double sided invite, became a unique booklet, with library card insert (that held further information about the wedding) they even got their own personalised barcode at the back of the book. Hand-delivered invites got personalised with each persons name-tag, and each postal invite had the recipients name and address printed on. 

Stage 3 - Final digital invite design

Final Invite, printed and ready for delivery!

Working on this invite I realised one thing that I wanted me.design.studio to strive for, and that is to create beautiful, unique and inspiring invitations. To push the boundaries slightly away from the conventional white, scripty font invitations that have dominated the wedding industry for so many years. And most important of all, to incorporate the bride and groom into the whole process, for their 'stamp' to be visible, because at the end of the day, it is not my invite, it is their invite and they have to be happy when they send them off to each of their guests. 

In the span of 1 year, me.design.studio has created over a dozen unique personalized wedding invitations. I can't wait to share them all over the next up-coming made by me mondays! Many exciting things are continually happening in-studio, and soon there will be a 'ready-made' collection for future brides (and grooms) which will still have a touch of uniqueness but pre-set look to the design. 

* Liesl & Pete, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to create your invite, I had a great time capturing your idea's and creating them into the final product. And...thank you for becoming such good friends too!

x 

me