I am still alive. Really. But it has been the dance jam, meeting with the cutest little future cidery, meeting with one farmer and then another and then work work work. However, great work is happening. Not to sound too proud, but I am loving what is coming out of the pen. The new Tree Gate Farm is to the left.
What has been interesting in the development of the Tree Gate mark is that it isn’t about the pork and eggs they produce (along with flowers and soap and) but about the spirit and happiness of the animals and their farmers. It is about the positive spirit, the joy in the farm, in the land, and the aesthetic that stems from this profession and lifestyle. This is a big new idea for me. I need to find something that people can link to emotionally, and create a brand for these wonderful producers that distinguish them from each other, while at the same time, generate a connection between the consumer and the farm. This happy pig and his passenger suggest the happy blog entries that one of the farmers cheers us with, speaking to the delight his pigs have in the wonderful summer mornings sunning in the field, chasing luscious apples and living the life on Tree Gate Farm.
I have also discovered that taking a more lyrical, folkloric approach to the illustrations in these logotypes—creating logos that are driven out of illustration versus graphic design (pictures versus typography) shifts the feeling of my my logo designs—really speak to my desire to create farm signatures which emotionally connects people with these farms and farmers. Exciting—which is driving me forward to get these complete for myself as well as for my farmers as this is the season for seed starting and planning for planting. Wouldn’t a new logotype and brand be doing the same?
As you know, I engage in Illustration Friday occasionally as it gets the work out there, and I want to support the good work of Penelope Dullaghan. Illustration Friday posts a topic each week and encourages artists/illustrators to submit images that speak to the topic. The artist posts the image to their personal site, and IF then links the images to their page…building traffic and exposure for the artist. There is a nice exchange and sometimes comments left about the artwork.
In the same spirit of Illustration Friday, I discovered a page called Illustration Rally. I believe that Illustartion Rally is out of the UK— and that they create these rallies where folks submit work on a topic, and they will post it with links to website/blog etc. Seems like I got the last entry for Valentines day>> which is very nice. Plus, they do some nice tweeting too. Get the work out, get the work out.
Time for a double study hall at the HS for Yearbook.