A Beautiful Resource with Gold Foil

The inaugural volume of The Kindred. We wondered if it was possible to create something so lovely in such a small city. Thank you for helping us exceed people’s expectations of the level of beauty this town can create. With this book we are hoping to provide the ultimate resource for Waco weddings and events. The best of the best. Thoughtfulness, integrity, and unleashed creativity was poured into each page of this book. In our industry, there is nothing like a referral from someone in the know. We consider The Kindred to be the loveliest version of “word of mouth”. We give this book to each of our clients and the other members of the Kindred do the same. Our goal is to not simply refer each other but also to build community within the event industry.

Publication Articles Can = Puzzle Pieces

As a kid, and even now, I never have enjoyed putting together puzzles. Getting all the pieces out, organizing them into corner pieces, flat edge pieces , the pieces that look like they go on the top of the puzzle, and so on. Then you spend hours testing and trying each one to see which ones in fact fit together to make the final image. However, in my adult life and career as a graphic designer, this work is often very similar to a puzzle. As a matter a fact, publication design and layout is very much like a puzzle, and yet it is one of my favorite types of projects to work on. There are the pieces – copy, images, logos, and colors that all need to fit inside the parameters given. It's my job to come up with creative problem solving design solutions and make it all work cohesively into the final layout. This too takes hours of testing and trying the different pieces together to find out what works and what doesn't, but for me this process is energizing.

Have you ever come across an article or publication in which you were interested in the content, but visually it was disoriented and hard to read? They are out there, and my goal is always to come up with a nicely designed layout that should make you want to read the article. It should draw you in visually with the images and colors enough to give you an idea of
what you are about to read. It should be easy to read, enjoyable to look at, and cohesive in design and content.

Who's paying your bills?

SimpleBills is a Waco based company servicing many university markets across the nation. They are the roommate utility billing service specializing in the student housing market. SimpleBills brought me on board to give their marketing materials a fresh update and to create a few new pieces. The same brand message still needed to be communicated but in a new way visually, so I gladly stepped up to the plate. I was able to modify some of their main graphics for a cleaner aesthetic and add some new colors, textures, and photography. SimpleBills does a great job of getting the important information and facts out there in a very direct way, and I wanted that simple yet direct communication to transfer through the design as well. Each piece needed to fit into the "design family" I was creating yet separately appeal and target corporate properties as well as engage students and parents. My goal was to design new marketing material that is easy to comprehend and engaging to look at, while also captures the attention of the target market. I really enjoyed getting to create a 22 page booklet that shares the story both visually and conceptually of how SimpleBills got started and how to take advantage of their services.

I love getting to be apart of each clients business and story, a relationship that keeps going project and project.