Illustration Friday: "Worn" Trunk Murderess

Hey everyone!! Just wanted to post my illustration for this week's "Illustration Friday," post. The chosen theme was "Worn." I took to google and got the definition of "damaged and shabby or very tired." I decided to create a piece depicting, "Winnie Ruth Judd," aka the "Trunk Mudderess":

Ruth Judd was convicted of murdering her two best friends back in the 1930s and placing them in a trunk that she attempted to transport at a train-station to Los Angeles. The entire case as well as what Ruth Judd was put through left her an extremely "worn" woman. Way more macabre than anything I usually create I decided to place newspaper clippings I found online around the illustration as a background.

LDN Twitter - Print Ads

Hey everyone! Just wanted to update the blog with another inhouse newspaper ad I created for the Lebanon Daily News. The publisher was looking for two different sized ads to help promote LDN's twitter account as well as the editorial employee's twitter feeds.

The two sizes ended up being 2x5 and 1x8. I did the 2x5 first. I love Twitter's branding and wanted the ad to evoke the same fun effect by creating a graphic environment of clouds and a little bird I made in illustrator carrying the daily news!

Once I got the look of the 2x5 approved and cleared away creating the 1x8 was just a matter of resizing and moving the elements around. Both ads are able to run in black and white and color and I am really happy with how they turned out!

If you have twitter be sure to follow me, @lawlzlaura or the website updates at @violetinkdesign. I hope everyone has a good day!

Out and About won an AWARD!

Hey everyone just wanted to update the blog with some EXCITING news I received a few weeks ago about a publication I was involved in called "Out and About" magazine. It is a FREE local publication I created with my fellow Graphic Designers at the Daily News that got distributed all over area businesses.

 

(Table of Contents of OUT & ABOUT  featuring my illustrations and crediting all the designers!)

My responsibility as I had posted before was to lay out a few of the stories, create illustrations and bring summer content like recipes and activity lists. I wrote another post about it here http://lauradoodleshere.blogspot.com/2012/07/out-about-illustrated-recipes.html and you can even view the publication in it's entirity online over here http://lebanondailynews.pa.newsmemory.com/special.php?date=2012060

Well as you can tell from the title of this post the publication won an award!! It took FIRST PLACE in the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association's Advertising Tear Sheet Contest in the "Special Section/Niche Publication" category!!

We got a plaque for winning. As you can see I was really excited to be holding the glorious FIRST PLACE trophy. The newspaper even ran an article of it for their print edition as well as online at http://www.ldnews.com/business/ci_21684853/lebanon-daily-news-graphic-design-team-wins-pennsylvania. For a full list of winners be sure to check out their website at http://www.pa-newspaper.org/events/contest/awardtearsheet.

Gretna Music - Print Ad

Hey everyone!! Just wanted to update the blog with one of my FAVORITE print ads I had created for the newspaper! It was an ad to be placed on the back of the programs for Gretna Music, a company that brings a broad range of musicians to audiences in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania.

The initial concept from my publisher was to base the ad around just one quote from someone in the music / theatre industry. First I had to find a quote. So I scoured the interwebs and settled on a quote by Victor Hugo, the French poet, novelist and dramatist who is the mind behind, "Les Miserables," which is not only a popular musical production but is coming out as a movie in 2012.

I came out with a really solid and eye catching layout for the type. If you don't know much about the Gretna Area either, a lot of it is just dense woods so I went with a very leafy background in hues that matched my palette I had going on with my text.

I am a big fan of white space but it still needed something to tie it together so I doodled up a treble cleft in with the pen tool and added a fancy brush stroke and voila! This is an ad that is relied heavily on my skills in typography and demonstrates I am much more than a girl who can just draw pretty pictures. That is what makes it one my favorite ads! Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Farm Aid 2012 - Print Ad

Hey everyone! Just wanted to update the blog with another ad that I did for the Lebanon Daily News. Over the weekend was a big concert here in Pennsylvania called "Farm Aid." Honestly I have never heard of it before but I go assigned the task of creating a print ad, letting people know that full coverage can be found from the newspaper.

From their website, http://www.farmaid.org, I learned, it is not only a HUGE concert event, but a social movement. Their mission? To raises money to help keep family farmers on their land! Pennsylvania, as most people imagine it to, does have a lot of farms so I can see why we were picked for this year's location for the event.

The ad is itself is a 2x5 that unfortunately ran in black and white. If you ever find yourself in this quickly declining industry you have to have the ability to roll with the punches. Everything is always needed "yesterday." The ad was something that I had received on my desk the day before it ran.

I hope everyone has a good weekend! I baked so expect to see another addition of "Laura Cooks" coming up soon!

Out & About - Illustrated Recipes!

Hey everyone! Just wanted to update the blog with another project I ended up doing at my full time job at the newspaper. The newspaper puts out a magazine called "Out and About" every year that is freely distributed atarea businesses with lots of summer goodies and this year I was obviously a part of it! I did a lot of illustrations and content for the magazine but one of my shining pieces was the two recipes!

A Toasted Marshmallow Milkshake Recipe:

(the recipe can be found here: http://acozykitchen.com/stands-toasted-marshmallow-milkshake/)

And a recipe for an Orange Creamsicle Fruit Dip:

(the recipe can be found here: http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2011/07/orange-creamsicle-fruit-dip.html)

It was a tough choice when going through the millions of recipes online. I wanted something that was vegetarian friendly, fresh, fun and relatively easy for both kids and adults! I really appreciate both A Cozy Kitchen and the The Girl Who Ate Everything for letting me use their recipes in the magazine!

To view "Out & About" in it's entirety just click on this link: http://lebanondailynews.pa.newsmemory.com/special.php?date=20120601

Hope you guys try this recipes and have a great rest of the summer!

Creating Automotive Ads

Hey everyone!! Just wanted to post on my blog about some updates I made to my site!! As you may or may not know, I got a fulltime job working at the newspaper. I get to create ads all day for advertisers, still have fun illustration work to do and I'm learning a lot about page layout and programs I never used before like Xpance.

I started out doing classified ads which include automotive. Although it may not sound like the most exciting thing in the world, especially to a fellow graphic designer, I have to say it is both challenging and fun.

You get ample room for space, some ads run as long as 21.5 inches. Wow! And full color.

Sure it's no cupcakes or rainbows or cute little fuzzy animals, it's something different. The difference it has from my usual work is what makes it challenging.

I posted two of my favorite ads in the Graphic Design section of my portfolio on my website (violet-ink.com).

Laura Loves Dresses!

Hey everyone!! Incase you didn't know I recently made my freelance gig into a career by getting a job at a newspaper!

I work as a graphic designer and create print ads, web ads, as well as special sections and outsourced publications. I get to design everyday!

But one of my favorite parts about my new job is I also get to dress up everyday! And I love dresses.

So I couldn't resist making a cute doodle of myself in one of my favorite jumpers and my Hello Kitty Shoes and of course, a bow!!

I'm really starting to explore my style of illustration more. This is the first self portrait I did of myself since 2009 and if I compare them side by side there is a BIG difference.

I really hope everyone enjoys their weekend!!