From the Sketchbooks of The TreeSpace Studio » charette, design

Design Charette: Sweet Pickin’s!

thetreespacestudio — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 05:26:40 +0000

Back-to-back charettes today and tomorrow, a special treat to my followers to make up for a quiet last week! This first design charette challenge comes from Erin of Sweet Pickin’s, a brand-new line of cute hand-made and up-cycled goodies which include babywear, jewelry and other fun hand-sewn gifts. Erin lives on a farm and her brand name is a play on words of her (and her husband’s) last name as well as the home-grown inspirations from her beloved garden. Erin wants her brand to be organic, vintage, rustic and hand-made but fun enough for new mommies, babies and craft fans.

Freshly picked from the hand-made 'garden'!

The challenge for me was to present a logo and identity that was distinctively reflective of the Sweet Pickin’s hand-made line, but still sophisticated enough to grow with Erin as her line expands beyond babywear. It should also be easy enough to brand on packaging, stationery and fabric items and be bold and eye-catching. Because of Erin’s farm, berries and garden inspirations, and her taste for the rustic and vintage, texture thus becomes very important in both the graphics and the material it is finally printed/reproduced on.

A rustic, natural textured line

The final graphic that I have chosen from the exercise is a simple pencil-drawn spring green basket with distinct textures and a hand-written script in a lovely berry color. If digitally printed, the graphic itself is simple and bold enough to show up on the most rustic of textures-canvas, burlap, seeded handmade papers, and the like. And if Erin prefers, it can also be reproduced as a 2-color screen print, which would be lovely for fabric labels and other highly textured packaging and materials.

I envision it on natural unbleached muslin baggies for small hand-made goods like wallets, mini purses; on unbleached frayed-edge muslin ribbon for wrapping her goodies, printed on handmade fabric-backed earring-namecards and seeded hand-made paper hangtags that double as notecards. An Etsy banner idea of the Sweet Pickin’s Shop will perhaps feature the logo/basket on a hand-drawn garden against a linen cloth scan.

I’m so excited for Erin and her new venture and wish her all the best!

In case anyone missed out on the announcement first time around, Design Charette winners will receive 30% off the Etsy listed price for their kick-start branding package- the studio’s way of showing support for emerging creative businesses! Visit the TreeSpace Studio Etsy Shop here.

Unveiling the New Design Charette for Illustrated Friday!

thetreespacestudio — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 07:30:17 +0000

Hello everyone! Those of you who have been following my Illustrated Friday Wedding Charette will have a little surprise today, I am unveiling a spin-off charette that I am launching especially for small, creative, artisan or handmade businesses! This is great news for those of you who have been wanting to brand, remake or redesign a new or existing image for your wonderful little biz but have limited funds.

These are the services I am offering in my regular design studio:

The concept is similar to the wedding charette, submit a branding or design challenge you’ve been wanting to tackle for your existing or emerging business and if you win the entry, I will work on some full-color concept sketches to help you kickstart your planning!

While the original sketches itself are protected under this Creative Commons license and may not be used directly for official commercial printed or online use, they are yours to build upon and expand. And here’s the great news, if entry winners decide that they would like The TreeSpace Studio to take the initial idea to the next level, they will receive a special 30% off the listed Etsy price! That is real kickstart savings there! So definitely try for a submission if funds are limited!

The new Design Charette page

All you have to do is click on the Design Charette tab on the nav menu above (or click on the screenshot to your left) and follow the instructions. Look for a submit button at the bottom of the page. Be sure to familiarize yourself with the charette policies and always feel free to drop us a line if you have any questions!

Kickstart your Biz Design Submission page

Currently, the Design Charette will alternate Fridays with the Wedding Charette, so follow us on Twitter or Facebook for upcoming charette call-for-entries!

Atelier Tuesday: Sabaki Go Club

thetreespacestudio — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 22:33:53 +0000

You might remember an Illustrated Friday feature sometime back about a Go Club logo, if not see the sketch idea here. I was requested to take the design further for an official club logo to be used for official events, branding items and stationery. Here is how it has progressed. I wanted to keep the original black and white, clean design intact, and incorporate the club name. I thought for club merchandise, that a Japanese style headband or hachimaki would be great and loads of fun for the members! We’ll see if they bite into that

loGO

Sabaki Go Club

Go Hachimaki

A Game of Infinite Depth

Illustrated Friday: GO

thetreespacestudio — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 03:15:32 +0000

A few moments to learn, a lifetime to master. - Ancient Proverb

“Go uses the most elemental materials and concepts — line and circle, wood and stone, black and white — combining them with simple rules to generate subtle strategies and complex tactics that stagger the imagination. ”
- Iwamoto Kaoru, 9-dan professional Go player and former Honinbo title holder

This submission comes from Alan, a huge GO fan who is on the committee of his GO club in his university. Some quick concept sketches, no colors, all about the lines, the simple and the black and white.

Illustrated Friday: Bite Me from Gula-Gula

thetreespacestudio — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 02:58:46 +0000

Handmade Chocolate Liqueur Truffles-yum!

For Illustrated Friday today, I received some one-liner submissions and picked one I liked. My favorite phrase is from the fabulous Adelene of Gula-gula, a luscious line of handmade chocolate liqueur truffles in Australia! Check out her facebook page here, you’ll want to order them all. Adelene is no ordinary chocolatier and wants her line of truffles to someday reflect that.

” I think it’s the chocolate. You want to be good but you can’t. ” -gula-gula

She is a self-acknowledged walking contradiction-a hopeless romantic with a unique touch of sassy and edgy thrown in. In her vision, Gula-gula is fun, almost fantasy and carnival-like, luxurious yet not inaccessible, naughty AND nice, vintage but twisted. These are a bunch of quick conceptual sketches that I drew up for a logo that would capture its spirit.