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.