graphic design

in some way work related

it may be a stretch, but this would include work that is enhanced by my graphic design skills

packaging for catbird creek

| melanie jensen

Since covid started and my work died for a few months, I had all the time I needed to work on my jewelry logo, website, and packaging.

I’ve been a graphic designer for over 20 years. It’s so much about finding balance : what does the client want and what do I like? What do I want to create and what is the budget? How much time could I spend on a project and when is the deadline?

With catbird creek being my very own project, I have freedom to design whatever I want. Due to covid, I have all the time in the world. My budget was somewhat limited, but I sort of love that part. How do I make something I like that is affordable. Also important to me… is it earth friendly?

Let’s start with the logo. True confessions… Tim and I enjoy creative thinking over a couple beers and pretzels. Like the scene from MadMen, all you need is a napkin and a pen to start writing down ideas. This is how we came up with Pebble Road, Lake Street Book Keep, and Catbird Creek.

This is the first year we discovered a catbird in the back yard. I always wanted to create a logo with a bird in it. And when I think of Peopple Road–the actual spelling of the road I grew up on–I think of the creek where I spent hours playing as a kid. There was a barbed wire fence at the entrance to the creek. Purple has always been my favorite color. And there it is. A logo is born. Forget the pressure of designing a logo for a client and making it meaningful and readable and clean and perfect. That’s not me. This is me.

I’ve created these pieces of jewelry. It’s just a hobby– just fun. I really like hammering the metal. And i’ve really found my niche. Like my hand drawn bird and “catbird”, my style in jewelry is rough, hammered, organic, natural. I realized after selling my first piece that I needed packaging to go with it.

This was really fun. I wanted earth friendly packaging so I started with a simple recycled box from Eco-Friendly Packaging. The bird is a perfect icon to cut out of the strip of paper. Purchasing a Cricut to cut that bird was not in the budget, but I’m convinced that I will use the Cricut for other things.

I then created a card to hold the jewelry. The cricut allowed me to die cut a piece of card stock exactly as I needed it, with two holes for the twine, scores for the folds and rounded corners to fit in the box. With this design, I can tuck the polishing cloth inside the card.

Being a graphic designer, I believe paper matters. When developing my brand for Pebble Road, I found Neenah Paper’s Canaletto. It has a great texture, 20% cotton for a soft feel, and comes in all the thicknesses I need.

Any why not throw a bird in the box?

Project complete. www.catbirdcreek.co

design by pebblerd.com

Dent de Lion wine

| melanie jensen

I’ve always wanted to design a wine label. I’m so glad my friend had this creative idea for me to illustrate. In the end, she chose the white background to go on the clear/yellow bottles.

adobe fresco

| pebblerd_5ckglw

while starting up adobe draw, i was invited to try fresco. great. I wouldn’t have known about it without an invitation. it’s sort of a mini version of photoshop–but so much more. it combines vector art with raster-based art which are separated by the layers and the tools used to create them.

i quickly learned to draw large blocks of solid color with the vector layers and then add texture and shading with the raster (pixel) layers.
the trees were drawn as vector art. another layer of pixel art adds shading and texture.

new ipad

| pebblerd_5ckglw

my amazing significant other, tim, had the brilliant idea to surprise me with a new ipad with pen capabilities. I have not been able to put it down. i’m impressed with the pressure sensitivity.

playing around, i appreciated the ability to zoom in for infinite detail.

wow.. and the brushes available are endless. all vector art.