Portfolio Update: PARATVS Cigars

I was recently commissioned by Thomas Kim of Thomas Capitol Partners, Inc. of Washington DC to design the branding for his PARATVS cigars, including logo, and box & cigar label designs. PARATVS currently consists of 3 varietals: Veni, Vidi and Vici.

Portfolio Update: Wildlife Commission and Flavorstitch

My husband, Jeff, has served on the Sonoma County Fish & Wildlife Commission for close to 5 years now. So when the board recently discussed the idea of having a logo created for the F&WC, guess who raised their hand.
Being sure to illustrate the deer silhouette with the correct antler style of those native to our region, I also designed a mirroring fish and duck as well. This logo will be used on various signs for grant recipients, apparel and more.

Good friend and popular blogger, Selena Cate (aka Apron Thrift Girl) has a wonderful new food blog, Flavorstitch. Selena shares everything from product and store reviews to shopping and serving ideas as well as great recipes. You can’t help but appreciate her authentic mid-century modern style. And, if you have a gluten-free household, you’re going to especially love her new blog.

FREE CLIP ART: Typographic Elements- “The” and Ampersands

Vintage typographic elements taken from a 1920s-1930s advertising art source to add to your clip art files for future design projects- Enjoy.

Header/Banner Designs

A couple of new blog and website header designs to share-

TidyMom.net, a wonderful resource for food, family, photography and fun. Logo, branding, website banner, social network button designs and website design elements. And a header design for Paper Friendly, a craft resource blog.

Design Recognition & Resource

What designer doesn’t love being recognized by the design industry for their work? When I ran the design firm, Holden & Co. in the 90s, many of my design pieces were chosen for inclusion in trade books ranging from Business Card Design & Eco design, to Package & Label design. My work has also been published in a few trade publications such as HOW, Print, and Communication Arts. I entered my work locally as well and won several Sonoma County Ad Club awards in the form of beautiful bronze trophies, referred to as Sadie’s. There are a few other award certificates around here in boxes from print shows or other competitions, but one of my favorites came directly from French Paper Co. for my Holden & Company holiday wrapping paper & gift tag self-promotion mailer. French Paper was by far the most exciting thing to happen to paper in that day and still to this day, thanks in part to Charles Anderson Design, one of my all-time design heroes.

Since scaling down my design work and working from my home studio while raising my children, I haven’t submitted my pieces on a regular basis like I used to. However, a few years ago I purchased membership into one of the best design and design-information sources on the web, LogoLounge.com. Membership in LogoLounge allows you access to an online library of thousands upon thousands of other professional logo design members’ best work for study and inspiration. There are excellent search fields, with logos linking to design firms for checking out their other work. One of my favorite features of the LogoLounge.com site are the articles, especially the annual Logo Trends.

LogoLounge also publishes beautiful books showcasing the best of their members logo designs, of which, naturally, I own every copy! They have stepped it up even higher by creating an additional series of category specific source books, the LogoLounge, The Master Library. My logo designs have been published in 5 of the LogoLounge books over the last few years, including my own Home Grown Logos logo. Here are the others:3 more of my logo designs have been chosen for LogoLounge 6 due out in February of 2011.

If you are a graphic designer of any style, niche or level, I encourage you to add LogoLounge books to your inspiration library and membership to their online resources to your annual business budget.

Recent Logo Designs: Near and Far

One of my favorite things about designing logos is the opportunity the internet has afforded me in creating for clients all around the world as well in my own town. Here are a few of my recent designs and wonderful clientele.

MeMaw’s Cookies for every occasion can be ordered and shipped from Kansas City straight to you!



Julia Made header for Julia Down’s hand printed recycled paper cards and stationery out of Australia.



Beltane Brewing is a home brew start-up out of Marin County, California.
Still in the beginning stages of set-up, Something We Made was created to inspire, encourage and enable their fellow Brits in the UK to make and give more handcrafted gifts from the contents of their own gardens.



Having created their new logo design 5 years ago, PromoCo, a local Petaluma, California company, celebrates their 25 year anniversary with this new graphic.
San Ramon in Matagalpa, Nicaragua, Central America is a not for profit organization that helped begin a cooperative working with poor farmers for the past three years teaching them to use tropical plants that contain high amounts of protein. With this system, their milk production has increased 50%. (San Ramon is the small rural town where they help the farmers.) They are also teaching them to reforest their pastures to conserve their soil/water and the tropical ecosystem. Their gourmet artisan cheese, includes Gouda, Edam and Mozzarella. All design work by me for San Ramon is pro-bono.

Recent Logo Designs

A few of my latest logo projects-

Once Upon A Nest Home Staging and Redesign Services.C Casa logo for Napa’s fabulous & famous Catherine Bergen in the Oxbow Public Market, Napa California.
Empower Your Shower logotypes for a company specializing in motivational clings for your shower.The Graphics Fairy is the web’s best source for free vintage images and craft projects.

For The Love of Red Trucks

There’s something about an old red truck. Charm, strength, friendliness, character, history, and hardworking. For me, the love of the red truck came one day in the early 90s when I was in perusing a boutique fabric store in Tahoe, California. This particular store had antiques peppered throughout as displays and a few for sale. The one that caught my eye, and is embedded forever in my mind, was a 1940s, red pressed-steel toy stake-bed truck that held a crawling ivy plant displayed above the bolts of fabric. At that very moment, it became my obsession to find a truck just like that that I could afford. I scoured ebay and antique fairs and eventually found my share of like trucks, some I kept, some I sold during my days as an antique dealer. Eventually, I became obsessed with actually owning one.

When I decided to narrow my graphic design projects to logo design, I figured what better icon for my own logo than the truck I love. I chose to model my truck as an early 50s generic style, no specific model. Since then, I have found that many other businesses chose a red truck as their identity. You know what they say about great minds. A few actually own an old red truck and a have their own story to tell.(1) Red Truck Wines (2) Red Truck Entertainment (3) Red Truck Beer (4) Red Truck Renovations (5) Red Truck Publishing (6) Step-Side Shorty Band (7) Red Truck Fly Fishing

Last week I was asked to design a new logo for a family rose nursery in Fillmore, California in need of a new look. They were planning to place the new logo on their father’s recently restored 1960 Ford F350 stake-bed truck.I suggested using the truck in their logo, as clearly, I think red trucks rock. They agreed and here are their new logotypes.

Please visit Otto & Son’s website HERE.

Blog Headers & Banners

I enjoy designing banners/headers for blogs. When else can you see your work in use any time you want? Here are a few recent ones, including my own recently updated JustSomethingIMade.com. Click on each to go to their blogs, (Gizzy’s blog is still work in progress.)

LogoLounge Master Library Series II

More of my work has been selected for inclusion in a new LogoLounge project, "Animals and Mythology", the second book in the new Master Library series. I’m looking forward to the release of this series!

Bar Rosso Restaurant and Vinoteca Logo

I recently designed a new logo for the new Bar Rosso Restaurant & Vinoteca located in downtown Aventura, Florida.







If you’re in the area, you must check it out! Click HERE to go to their website for more information.

A Family Logo

I was recently asked to create a logo for a family, a crest of sorts, utilizing the common theme that runs through their lives: Frogs. This is the final design and here is the story on their blog, The Princess and The Frog.

LogoLounge Master Library Series

I’m excited to announce that 3 of my logo designs have been chosen for publication in the first book of the new LogoLounge Master Library series, the inaugural book, Initials & Crests. The logos include: Holden’s Physical Therapy of Sonoma, (my brother-in-law!), Axiom Videography, serving Northern California, and an oldie but goodie, Early California Days, a logo for a St. Francis Elementary School, Sonoma, CA.

I have had one logo published in LogoLounge 4, (my truck logo) and another is in the upcoming LogoLounge 5, (Azz & Bzz) soon to be released.







More info from LogoLounge:

What is the Master Library series?

Like our existing (and continuing) LogoLounge book series, the new Master Library books will bring you plenty of exemplary logo design work from creatives around the world.

Unlike our original series, though, each book in the Master Library series will focus on a very specific logo design category, to wit:

• Initials & Crests
• Typography
• People
• Animals, Birds and Mythology
• Shapes and Symbols
• Nature and Food
• Arts and Culture (including transportation, sports and architecture)