Happy Holidays and a Merry Christmas Jellyfish to all!

To all the folks who celebrate,

Merry Christmas

from

Tracy Lenihan Design Studio!

Happy Holiday Cheer!

Great cheer, love, inspiration and respect to all this holiday season from Tracy Lenihan Design Studio!

Yummy Supper Logo Refresh

How lucky was I to work with one of the most talented photographers I know? Erin Scott of Yummy Supper asked me to refresh her logo. Sigh, she is the best. I can't wait for her book to be released!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! I had to make adjustments to Isley's Working Man costume. Instead of a big logo screen-printed on a shirt, I have designed a sticker to go on the front of his hard hat. Color yet to be determined! I love them all but we'll see how they looked printed out and attached to his hat.

Isley's Halloween Logo

I have been working on my son's Halloween costume today. He is a two-and-a-half year old that is obsessed, as many little guys are, with construction sites. Well actually, construction sites, backhoes, front loaders, bulldozers, excavators, you name it, he knows it. And l.o.v.e.s it. (What is up with how that so many little boys are into big machines. It's kind of cray-cray.)

It makes sense, then, that his heroes are the people that make it all happen. He calls them the"Workin' Man." And since we all like to dress up as our heroes, that's exactly what he's going to do. Ask him what he is going to be for Halloween and that is what he'll tell you with great gusto. A Workin' Man!

I felt like I had to come up with a strategy, however,  for when he goes Trick-Or-Treating. I want folks answering their doors to look at Isley and tell him "aha, and you're a working man, I see." Not something close, like a construction worker, or a carpenter. And since I am a nerdy graphic designer, what better way to sell something than with a logo?? A "Workin' Man" logo that he could wear proudly on his chest. 

I found beautiful and classic Union labels and logos to pull from for the design. I will screen-print it, with help from me good friend, Cynthia Warren. I still have a bit more finessing but I think I am close.

The coolio facet to this costume is that when Isley was born the baby announcement I designed had a union-made logo as well. Guess I am starting a trend with this little guy...

Oaktown Spice Shop Website Burst

My wonderful Oaktown Spice Shop peoples asked me to design a callout burst for their splash page. The burst would redirect folks to their holiday e-commerce site. To keep continuity with the existing page, I designed a burst that felt like the original artwork in style, color palette, and texture. The complimentary teal and the sans serif typeface made the burst visually stand out. They loved it! Practicality won out over fun design, however, and we set up a straight-forward redirect to their e-commerce page. They admitted their undying love for their splash page, and requested we somehow keep it in the design of our full e-commerce site.

Volunteer Poster for The Edible Schoolyard Project

I am working on a volunteer poster for the most freaking amazing edible education program, The Edible Schoolyard Project. The local and flagship garden is at the nearby King Middle School here in Berkeley, CA. The poster is to grow the connection and friendship between the garden and the staff at Chez Panisse. (The Edible Schoolyard is the brainchild of Chez Panisse's Alice Waters.)  

Bartavelle Trading Card. Just for fun.

Just playing around with a vintage chocolate collectible card for my Bartavelle client, Suzanne Drexhage. This is what I do for a quick fun project to get myself going in the morning. 

The Edible Schoolyard Project Newsletter

In 2011, Alice Waters decided to use the national spotlight of Chez Panisse's 40th Anniversary as an opportunity to introduce and discuss her passion of edible education to a larger audience. A part of this strategy was to rename the Chez Panisse Foundation to The Edible Schoolyard Project and launch its new identity and website. I worked on a newsletter with the newly designed assets of the Edible Schoolyard Project. I was like a kid in a candy store. I was able to chose from a rich palette of colors, badges, imagery and fonts. 

Ice Chamber Kettlebell Team Emblem

The Ice Chamber emblem and t-shirt for their nationally ranked kettlebell team.

Gemma's Baby Announcement

As a gift to a friend, I designed and letterpress printed her daughter's baby announcement. I used one of my photographs as my inspiration. My good friend and incredibly talented Cynthia Warren worked with me printing this on her 100 year old press. We learned a lot with this project about color and registration. It was a four color print job. Registration is one tricky beast and the more colors, the more  rascally the process!

Balancing creativity and staying on brand

Electronic Save-The-Date for LeapFrog CEO

Collateral Exploration

Promotional Booklet

Promotional Booklet

Promotional Travel stickers for PR packages

A few years back I was brought in to LeapFrog to create new collateral pieces that would work with their new identity. I stayed on and worked on packaging and various promotional pieces for different lines of toys. The creative challenges were, as always, to bring joy to the work but respect the brand. 

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Kabongo Logo and Splash page

 

I did a short stint at Formium Creative Agency a few years ago and had the privilege to work on a new online educational company, Kabongo. We had fun coming up with concepts for their logo. (Shown are unused versions.)  Then it was on to the temporary splash page. The design was animated with various moving characters throughout the island. It turned out to be very charming.

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Fishkill Farms Labels

Just got word from Josh Morgenthau of Fishkill Farms that the our new labels look great. Yay! Our design challenge with these was in consideration of production costs. The farm will be printing these labels out themselves so I needed to come up with a family of colors that was both low in ink usage, but still had continuity with the apple cider labels we created. We also wanted a fresh feel balanced with the idea of  vintage fruit crates. Here are a few of the labels. 

Communication Arts Design Award of Excellence 2013

Holy moly. Just unwrapped my 2013 Award of Excellence for the Communication Arts Design Annual. Wow, I feel deeply, truly, overwhelmingly blown away that my work was honored amongst the design giants of the competition. Seeing my name in the same list as my design heroes is magical. Crazy town, I tell you.

Various logos

The Poppery, a popcorn shop.

Agent Records logo

(An exercise in logo making.)

Emilie's Pantry logo

Visual inspiration came from the marks on the bottom of chinaware.

Chez Panisse Floor Staff logo

(An exercise in logo making.)

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Letterpress New Years Card, circa 2007

I seemed to be pulling out the oldies but goodies in my posts. I had great fun with this personal New Years card. It was really my first foray into playing with typography. I found little bits of this and that for the frame and put it all together. It was also the first time I used old typefaces from an encyclopedia instead typing out a digital font. I then letterpress printed the card at Heironymus Press under the tutelage of master printer, Richard Seibert. Quite a lucky gal to have worked with such masters of their craft.

Oaktown Spice Shop Identity

I have been in the process of designing the website for my folks at Oaktown Spice Shop. Two years ago they came to me when they were planning on opening their store. I created their identity which included their logo, their business cards, receipts, letterhead, color palettes, the signage in the store as well as outside, their labels, and their temporary splash page.

We are now working on their e-commerce website. My photography will be used for the site, thanks to a wonderful team of stylists, and two amazing photographers. (Thank you Erin Scott. You are a photography genius.)

Letterpress Birthday Broadside

This is a project that is standing the test of time. I still love it after years of looking at it. 

I was asked to design and letterpress a birthday invitation for civil rights attorney, Howard Moore Jr. Because it was going to be a big celebration for a BIG personality I suggested we create a poster/broadside instead. It could be handed out to all of the guests as a gift and serve as a memento of the occasion.

In my research for the design, I found a speaking engagement of Mr. Moore's. The title of that day's talks was "Are you going to lie down, or stand up?" This call to action seemed like a perfect symbol of the attorney's career, so I decided to use this as the building block for my layout. I then found a powerful old photo of three men in the middle of a snowy railroad yard from the 70's in the emblematic pose, one fist in the air.  Howard was well known for throwing up a Power-to-the-People fist himself, so the silhouettes of the men became the other component of my broadside. 

From thereon in I played with the idea of dimension. Up and down of the type, the forward and receding of colors, and three-dimension of the figures with their shadows. These dimensional qualities were all underscored by the tactile quality of the letterpress printing. 

Howard was very pleased. (No easy task, let me tell you.)

California Save The Date Postcards

Though we did not use these Save The Date postcards, I loved the idea. I am hoping to find a use for the beautiful vintage postcards that I found in the process, and have fun with typography.

Baby Announcement

My husband and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary yesterday. It felt right that our son Isley celebrate with us. We had the most delicious, long and relaxed meal at Pizzaiolo in Oakland and our two year old was a champ. He charmed everyone. Posting his baby announcement this morning seems appropriate. I am so grateful he is in our lives.

Eating For Education. 40th Anniversary of Chez Panisse Restaurant

Chez Panisse's 43rd birthday just passed quietly this year on August 28th. The big celebrations took place on the restaurant's 40th. I was brought in by the extraordinary Samin Nosrat for a special event "Eating for Education." It was an effort to bring a national awareness to Edible Education, and Alice thought to use the restaurant's big birthday as an inspiration for the event. I designed a logo, postcard, and flyer for restaurants across the country to educate and raise money for their own local edible schoolyards.

The 40th birthday celebration was quite massive, with many different events at many venues, and over a stretch of time. There were dinners all over the Bay Area, the restaurant itself had a open sidewalk cafe and the Berkeley Art Museum held a huge event for the public.

I had great fun designing the signage for the sidewalk cafe at Chez Panisse. Alice wanted the typography to look and feel like the Bar de la Marine from the original Marcel Pagnol trilogies. I also was asked to do a cheeky temporary tattoo design for the Berkeley Museum event. It read: I am edible. I added to the design Eat me, in Latin. I used the tattoo to introduce the newly re-designed identity of the Edible Schoolyard Project, done by Green Dragon Office, as well as an image of the radish that Alice uses as her personal symbol.  The tattoos were handed out to hundreds of people at the event.

Chez Panisse Bastille Menu

Bastille Day is a celebratory day at Chez Panisse, and a couple of years ago I was fortunate to be asked to design the menus. The menu is written around, and for, a garlic extravaganza; the building is swagged with garlic bulbs everywhere. I worked with Alice Waters directly and her design request was open. She just asked that it feel very french. The Gallic Rooster had the personality that we were looking for. I found the cheeky coq from a beautiful old patriotic poster but Alice wanted garlic in the image to fit the occasion. I drew the garlic bulbs and fit them in as though they were part of the original artwork.  

Fishkill Farms Identity Re-design

I have been working with Josh Morgenthau, a third generation farmer, on re-designing his whole identity for Fishkill Farms. As things often go in this hectic world, we have been working on various projects for him, not necessarily in the logical order of a new look but who cares!

We have recently finished the label for his apple cider, an invitation/flyer and poster for his farm's centennial celebration, and for t-shirts. We'll have more projects on their way.