2009 Georgia Fishing Regulations

The 2009 Georgia fishing regulations book is the first that we have produced for the state. We will soon be working on the re-design of their hunting regulations, as well.

There was not much time allowed for this project. I feel that the visual improvements to the layout, despite the copy-heaviness of the contents, have resulted in a much easier-to-read book. Below are some examples of pages for which I feel my re-design efforts made the most impact.

I pulled a single image from the original cover (left) to use as the focus of the new cover (right). The goal at my company is to develop regulations that blend well with other outdoor-themed magazines with which they may share shelf space. This was the focus of my re-design.



The new Contact Information page presented the same information in a cleaner way:



The Fish Consumption Advisory charts below represent my most significant contribution to the redesign of this book. There are four pages of these important advisories, and creating these new color-coded charts involved analysis and re-interpretation of the existing data:



I applied a clearer hierarchy and visual elements to the pages of Reciprocal State Agreements:



New styles were established for charts, and vibrant color images were introduced when possible:

2009 New Jersey Freshwater Digest

I've held my current design position since the middle of August, and am very excited that my first book is about to hit the shelves in New Jersey!

Picking up another designer's files (and making them your own) can be very challenging. Style sheets are so personal!

Most of my own individual style and (obsessive) attention to detail can be felt beyond the cover, and I really think that my designs and re-designs have improved the readability of this book. Readability seems particularly important when your job is to clearly convey the laws of the Environmental Protection Agency.


Below are some pages from the 2008 Digest along with my re-designs for the 2009 book.

A spread showing the original trout charts which lacked uniformity, introduced arbitrary colors that appeared to have meaning, and contained redundant information — very confusing:


I standardized the chart styles, and restructured the content of those same charts:



The original stocking program spread:


My revised version—having fun with the flying fish:



I wanted the "Take a Kid Fishing" page to feel more cohesive. The redesign is on the right:



A simple design element introduced into this new 1-page article brought the subject to the forefront:

Baby Shower Invitation: Lucas and Elena

My friend, Jessie, had found the perfect invitation for her upcoming baby shower...almost. It was not the right color for her celebration and, more importantly, it did not reflect that there are two babies on the way. With her direction, we put a spin on the invitation that she found.

The original, by Tiny*Prints, is no longer available on their site.

And here is my design:



Matching thank-you cards will soon be designed, as well.

SplinkDesign Logo

Branding one's self is very difficult. I have designed a logo for my freelance design business (the nickname-inspired name came very easily!) that I think I am pretty happy with. I think that means it's time for business cards and letterhead!

Birthday: Mom's 60th

On a lovely August day, friends and family joined my mom in celebrating her 60th birthday. We decided to host a small dessert party (with big desserts!), and everyone showed up with amazing contributions.

Because this gathering involved last-minute planning, no invitations were mailed out. Over the past few months, I had thought about what the invitations to my mom's party would look like. Keeping in mind that my dad and I have called her "The Moose" or "Mamoose" for over 20 years, and that most people are aware of her nickname (which, for some reason, she embraced?!), I was going to go with the "moose" theme. I turned my idea, which uses Roman Numerals for the number "60," into little decals on display at the party.

Diabetes Coalition of Massachusetts Logo

I offered my services last October to the Diabetes Coalition of Massachusetts (DCOM). DCOM's executive committee was looking for someone to design a logo for the newly formed alliance. They had no visual identity when I contacted them, and I am excited to say that they now have a logo — and brand colors!

I wanted to develop a logo mark that represented the various groups of people coming together to form this coalition. I wanted it to feel positive, but to also be symbolic of the seriousness of the topic of diabetes. I had very specific direction to avoid pointy edges, which might be reminiscent of the needles used when treating the condition. Here was my solution:


I'm pleased to report that the committee is very happy with the result:

I just wanted to let you know that everyone on the Executive Committee loved the final version of your logo, and we’ve started to design the new web page around it. I’ll let you know when it’s live. I hope you are happy with your work. You did an amazing job, and we are all very grateful. Hopefully, the new image ushers in a new era of involvement and ups the excitement quota.

Wedding: Kala & Rob

I was, well, honored to have been asked to be Matron of Honor in the beautiful wedding of my friend Kala last weekend. As I blog, she and her new husband, Rob, have another week remaining of their Mexican honeymoon—nice!

The title of my blog looks strange to me—only because both Kala and I are Berkshire County natives. It seems like it should just read "Kala and Rob's Wedding." (This reminds me of a friend's question to me after I returned from a trip to China—he said, "So, do they just call it food there?") Anyway, the Berkshires actually played a significant role in this wedding. The hills offered a picturesque backdrop, and the crazy Berkshire weather did have an effect on the planned outdoor ceremony (this did not diminish the smile on Kala's face in the slightest!), but perhaps that was to be expected. Less expected was the decision of the bride and groom to name the tables after the famous cottages of the Gilded Age that populate the county. Researching this information and creating the table name cards was one of my (few!) duties as Matron, and I learned a lot of Berkshires history in the process. Mounting the cottage name and information on thick antique gold paper was a shiny, money-saving alternative to the copper frames we were originally planning to use. Below is the card from our table, The Mount—Edith Wharton's foreclosure-facing estate and gardens:


I also designed the programs for the ceremony, which incorporated both Italian and Jewish wedding traditions.


Many of the Jewish traditions were explained in the program, and I wanted to use the actual Hebrew words next to their English counterparts. This was unexpectedly problematic, basically due to a coding incompatibility between Unicode and InDesign. Although I had several Hebrew fonts on my Mac, and Wikipedia was a great source for the Hebrew words I needed (and my friend, Meira, knew enough Hebrew to make sure that Wikipedia got those words right), each word I cut from the web pasted in reverse letter order—not a mirror image—in InDesign. So, for example, the word "blog" pasted as "golb." It's an easy fix when you speak the language, but shuffling foreign letters around can be scary. This was further complicated by the accent-like vowel marks (nikkudot) that separated from the consonants to which they were attached when I tried to move them around. Oy vey! I solved this problem by converting the type to outlines (losing ability for edits), carefully rearranging the letters, and placing the new type image next to the English type. Perhaps there is an easier way?


This wedding provided the opportunity to participate in one of my strangest projects so far. The mother of the bride broke her foot not long before the wedding day—this, we thought, was tragic for a woman that was a constant presence on the dance floor at three other weddings this year. Of course, there's nothing that a few painkillers and some sparkly fabric can't cure! (Note: I am waiting to receive a photo of the glammed-up immobilization boot - in the meantime, here's the mother-of-the-bride's ceremony get-up...too funny!)

venn5 Bioconsulting

venn5 is a small, newly established bioconsulting firm who has united five specializations within the oncology field to assist businesses in need of their expertise. For them, I created a clean identity with a chemistry-inspired Venn diagram at the core of their logo.

This logo was selected as a winner for viewing at the 2008 Annual Rx Club Show!




I also designed the company's website:

Movers and Shakers Trivia Scorecard

This card was created for trivia contest contestants to easily record answers and calculate scores at a company-sponsored event.

Lice Product: Proposed Ad Campaign

Below are concepts and layouts proposed for the launch of a new pesticide-free lice shampoo. All other lice products on the market contain chemicals that can be harmful to both people and the environment, and I hoped to emphasize this product's novel, safer contents in my layout and headline development. In the end, the brand team chose a different visual direction for their product, which has not yet been launched.

Wedding: Erin & John

John and I were married in November 2006. It took me some time to document the design-fest that took place between our engagement and "the big day." At last, I am posting the work, all of which I designed and made (or, in some cases, art directed, if you will) for our harvest-themed wedding. Yet another big round of thanks for the hands-on artistry of my family and friends!

Before the wedding
The Save-the-Dates for our wedding doubled as our holiday cards in 2005, allowing guests to pencil in the date on their new 2006 calendars.

I made a 4-panel accordion-folded card that featured the (altered) lyrics to the holiday song Winter Wonderland:

In the meadow we can build a snowman,
And pretend that he is Parson Brown...

The final panel announced our wedding date and location AND wished our guests happy holidays.

Our wedding invitation was created with chiyogami Japanese paper and wonderful materials from The Paper Source. The first page of the invitation was hand screen-printed with a gocco printer. The second page contained a perforated reply postcard, which, when removed, left our guests with the invitation, information, and directions still nicely bundled together. Click on the image to see additional, rotating pages:

A close-up of the gold gocco ink used to print the first page of the invitation:


I gave myself a break from desiging the rehearsal invites (phew!) and bought these cute pre-printed blank cards. At each placesetting in the Chinese restaurant was a to-go container filled with M&Ms (for Murphy, of course!):


For dessert at the restaurant, I had custom fortune cookies made. They were dipped in different types of chocolate and covered with sprinkles, and contained amazing fortunes such as, "You will attend a wedding tomorrow."


At the church
The wedding ceremony program - click to see inside spreads:


Bundles of paper flowers hung on each pew:

Nothing compared to the real flowers I held, however, which were the creation of our friend, Joanne:


At the party
Guests entered the country club to find a (fake) pumpkin into which I carved our new initials. I had also created a pile of leaves from fall-colored papers, and added glitter to some oversized pinecones for extra festivity:


The welcome table, with table seating chart, guest book, and multi-tier cake-shaped card box:


Our guestbook was designed to look like a large version of the wedding invitation:


The fantastically autumnal carrot cake (made by our friend, Jeff):


Joanne also created our beautiful bundled wheat centerpieces:


The wheat sat upon squares of jewel-toned velvet cloth that were assembled and hand-debossed by my mom, creating a decorative leaf pattern (she made a quilt out of the combined squares!) - this photo really doesn't do the arrangement much justice, unfortunately:


Each guest received a personalized miniature accordion book as a wedding favor:


No two books were the same, as I chose a variety of jewel-toned and autumnal paper and ribbon to create the books. Here are some scraps from the bookbinding project:


My dad built the table number stands, which he painted gold.


The table number cards had a multi-color jewel-tone beaded border adhered with super sticky tape:


A coloring book for kid guests was placed in each child goodie bag (along with crayons, finger monsters, and animated flip books) - click to see a spread (illustrations adapted from iStockPhoto):


A menu card was placed at each table:


Cocktail napkins were gocco printed, and emphasized our love of music lyrics:


And, with cocktails sometimes comes the need for a ride home. I wanted our guests to know that there were alternatives to getting behind the wheel, and these table-tents were placed throughout the reception hall after dinner:



I rubber-stamped boxes of matchsticks in a November-y pattern so our guests might light up their celebratory cigars:


So many of the desserts we provided were generously made by our guests, themselves. I wanted to be sure to acknowledge their delicious contributions:


Also on the dessert table, I placed a bunch of self-addressed, stamped envelopes containing a blank CD. Most of our guests took digital photos throughout the day, and they were able to easily share their shots with us after the wedding:


The dessert table also had a basket full of miniature tabasco sauces, commemorating the Mexican restaurant where John and I met — so cute!