Jimmy’s turning 28 on the 28th! To honor his golden birthday we thought we’d celebrate with a huge sale. Everything is 28% percent off with free shipping and is perfect timing for your Christmas shopping. The sale is only one week, so get your tees today!
The party at EXY was a hit! We are still recovering from the big event. Special thanks to EXY, U4rick vodka and alittlescene.com and especially everyone that came out to celebrate fall with Collar Free. We had a blast and hope you love your tees!
Mel and her crew working the “alittlescene” flip book station. This was so much fun. Thanks again alittlescene.com!
Hope to see you at the next Collar Free event. To see more of the photos from the event check out our flickr.
Wallpaper has taken on a whole new meaning. No more, yucky brown, awkward texture… these artists have used the wall as a canvas to create a bold statement with techniques I’ve never seen before. I would love to have this in my office or bedroom! Some can be over-powering, but they are so beautiful!
Check out this light emitting wallpaper by Jonas Samson. I don’t fully understand it, but I like it.
You will never be bored again with the paint-by-number wallpaper by Jenny Wilkinson. Simple application with water and you can paint/draw for hours. Great for kids and you too - for little artist in all of us!
If you like the “create-your-own wallpaper” idea, check out this one I found on Graham & Brown. It comes with a simple frame outline and you add whatever you like: your art, photos or quotes.
Fern has created beautiful, bold wallpaper for that modern chic home. Love it.
Flavor Paper probably has the largest collection of wallpaper out of all the links I’m posting today. If you’re not afraid to make a statement, you can use some of these dynamic patterns in your home or business. These would be fun for a cafe or lounge.
Wook Kim also has a creative collection of wall coverings. He uses a lot more color which was be over-powering, but fun. He incorporates animals and shapes to create a unique design.
Twenty2 offers some sweet wallpaper that is a little more pricey, but fun to look at.
For wall art with less fuss, check out these awesome wall decals from Blik.
I am in charge of creating all of the promotional materials (poster/flyer/tshirts/website) for my friend’s movie: “Mended.” I created this poster and I wanted to share my process with everyone.
STEP 01: Research
The themes of this movie include heartbreak, recovery and surrealism. The director described the film with certain words and I spent hours on the internet finding imagery that depicted her themes. Forest, creepy, eerie, curious, surreal, heartbreak, revival, interaction, engaging, dark, intriguing.
GREAT blog posts about Movie Poster Inspiration: Design Fix / Smashing Magazine / Inspirdology / Well Medicated (posters from poland) / Design Feedr / Smashing Magazine : Asian movie posters
Random Articles: How to Mend your broken heart / Recovery from a broken heart
Images: Here are some sample images - I saved a bunch in an “inspiration” folder for reference.
STEP 02: SKETCH
I don’t have my sketches handy, but I believe that all designers MUST spend time with a pencil and paper doing thumbnail sketches of their ideas before they go to a computer!
STEP 03: DRAW IMG
I wanted the poster to have an artistic, hand-drawn vibe and because I don’t have a wacom pad yet 
I have to do it the old fashion way. I think it’s more fun anyway! I draw on art vellum (transparency paper) so I can do many different versions and lay them over each other to decide how I want the final image to look. I did one version in outline only, and then I did a version with texture.
STEP 04: We go to the computer
I scanned my line drawings into the computer.
PHOTOSHOP: select > color range > choose white
This separated the black img out, but it still had a slight white border. You can continue selecting pixels to get ONLY the black, but I prefer to take it into AI.
ILLUSTRATOR: Bring in the PSD file and click object > live trace
You can play with the options to get a clean vector img. I love vector images and Illustrator files. 
STEP 05: Color and Texture
I created a new layer in Photoshop and added some red behind the hearts and some brown behind the trees. I also found a great underground texture from CGTextures.com. This is a great source for free high-res images. I also found these great texture brush downloads from Brusheezy.com to add some texture. I created different layers with different opacity to give it that rough, texture on the edges.
Download these brushes: urban decay / cracks / oil stains
STEP 06: Version 2: New Texture and highlight
After creating version 1, I decided to step back & go more dramatic. I added some texture for the hillside, taken from an actual photo of the forest. Then I drew a ground line and scanned it in. I also made more grunge layers in black. I finished it off with a radial gradient the came over the hill, but behind the trees to add the the mystery. Simple shadows on the ground add depth to the image.
STEP 07: TEXT
We all know that fonts play a large part in the emotion and mood that the poster conveys. I spent some time on dafont.com downloading some sweet new fonts. I didn’t want to over-design, so I spent time with the basic helvetica, futura and garamond as well. These are are some of my favorites. Ultimately it’s up to the client.
STEP 08: POSTER COMPLETE!
Our final image turned out like this and Diliana was very happy with the outcome!
Now I have to create a flyer, poster with more info and website that incorporate this art. I also have to think about the difference in screen and printing colors. At home this poster is fairly dark, but on my screen at work it’s almost all black. Plus, different printers have different inks and if I print this with a company like CalCopy, I need to make sure I like the way they print out! (Not too dark) I’ll keep you updated on all of the promotional material. If you have any other questions about any of the steps, or how I created this image, feel free to ask! This movie is currently being edited, but I’ll let you know when it’s complete and where you can go see it.
Designing a logo can be difficult at times but is always super rewarding in the end. Millions of sketches later, 50 or so mocks, infinite number of color swatches and waa laa your precious logo. I always find it difficult to start designing a logo. Check out this great article I found on logo lounge. Below are a few of my favorite trends: from clean & simple design to the “less is more” approach and vivid colors, every designer will be drooling wishing they designed these.
Jawbreakers
Foldover
Global
Fineline
Amoeba
Fibrous
For more logos read the full article here.
So the Collar Free party @ EXY last night was a success! Thank you to everyone that made this event happen! We will post more stories, photos and videos from this event on Monday and lemme tell you… they are gonna be good. For now… we are recovering. Here are our favorite links we found this week:
*Design Meltdown - Design elements, trends and design problems. Great source of inspiration and information.
*Smashing Magazine: 6 steps to creating a successful website
*Ellen Kooi Photography - these make me smile
*Dzine blog - 10 designers of the month - these are amazing. gets me in the mood to be creative… i need to paint.
*Designer-Daily.com : Should we listen to music while we are working? designers answer
*Museum of Bad Album Covers - hilarious (found on cloudal partners)
*Branch: sustainable design for living - awesome stuff for the home. we want that flower holder thingy
*Best Ads on TV.com - this is great because you dont have to actually WATCH TV to see them. sweet.
*What are you really good at? - a good article about clarifying what it is you do as a designer and focusing on your strengths.
*Sneak Peak: Dolan Geiman - article on Design*Sponge showing this amazing space… sculpture… textures…beautiful
Product (RED) is starting to catch on as many more powerhouse brands join the team. Converse has just released their 1Hund(RED) collection where they have invited 100 artists to create a unique line of shoes to celebrate artistic spirit and help fight AIDS in Africa. See some of the amazing designs:
Dell has also joined the cause and teamed up with some talented artists inviting them to create something that expresses their individuality and also the unity in their goal to fight AIDS in Africa.
You can actually have a laptop PERSONALIZED by on of the amazing artists: Joseph Amedokpo, Siobhan Gunning or Bruce Mau. $20 of every purchase goes to The Global Fund to support help fight AIDS.
In 2007, Andy Jenkins, the Art Director of Girl Skateboards, created special edition Eric Koston signature boards for (RED). From Andy’s original set of paintings came 2 different Girl boards which, when put side by side, made complete the Girl logo inside the (RED) embrace. It’s really cool that it takes 2 skateboards to get the complete image - together we are more powerful and we can make a difference. ….insert dramatic music here ;)….
With every board sold, Girl gives a majority of its profits to the Global Fund.
Designer Susan Hanover has added two (PRODUCT)RED bracelets to her internationally-acclaimed line of jewelry.
These beautiful bracelets are available on susanhanoverdesigns.com. 50% of purchases will go to the Global Fun.
Other companies that offer (RED) products are American Express, Apple, Emporio Armani, Hallmark and Windows.
Each time you buy a (RED) product, at no extra cost to you, the company that makes that product will donate a large percentage of their income to buy and distribute antiretroviral medicine to distribute to our brothers and sisters dying of AIDS in Africa. AIDS in sub-saharan Africa is an epidemic and with 2 pills a day they can survive and live more normal lives.
Fun USB drives are popping up everywhere lately. They are super fun and there are so many out there to choose from. One of my favorite blogs I keep up with is DesignMilk. They post really cool designed items from accessories, architecture, furniture, graphic design pieces & paper goods and their post on delicious usb drives is what sparked this topic. I would love to see what crazy types of usb drives you guys find, email me at michelle@collarfree.com
The 10 Most Delicious USB drives on the market:
Got Wood? Purchase these fun wood stick usb’s at the Supermarket
USB Jewerly? Toni Welter has created some masterpieces that I would love to own.
Another blog that I follow is Designer Daily.com. They have done a great job at finding a great set of creative usb drives. Below are some of my favorites:
Mimobot has these great little monsters. You’ll want to collect them all!
The exercising dog and the humping dog below. Make sure you check out the vid, it’s hilarious
Wake up to your usb alarm clock:
If you can’t afford these snazzy usb drives. Make your own sawed off usb cord like the one below:
-michelle
Our famous “Momentum” t-shirt is finally complete. Apparently printing over the shoulder of a t-shirt is harder than we thought and caused our screen printers to order special printing boards, create a new test process… blah, blah, blah and they are done! This is printed on our super-soft cotton/poly blend shirt and Derek Bischoff’s design is organic and powerful with colors that pop. We love it and we know you will too. See how the design goes to the back:
Available NOW for $27 and FREE Shipping! Shop Now.
This design is featured on Please Dress Me as the shirt of the day! Go to their site, become a fan and enter to win Momentum for FREE!
Derek Bischoff also designed the cool t-shirt: “Emperor” which has also been very popular.
$27 - Support Derek and shop
ABOUT DEREK:
“I recently graduated from Monmouth University and my inspiration for this design came from a project that I created for one of my classes. I really wanted to create a fun design for a shirt. The organic concept had a feeling of movement…it continued to grow, which is why I titled it “Momentum.” In my spare time I like to hang out with my friends and family. I played competitive sports since I was 5 years old, which includes playing college football for the last 5 years. I’m a very passionate person and the thing I’m most passionate about is my family, they mean the world to me. I have a few things I try to live by everyday: don’t take anything for granted, and whatever it is you’re doing you should enjoy it and make the most of it. I think it’s important to laugh and just enjoy life. I would love to see any famous musician or actor wearing one of my shirts, but I’ll be happy when I see my little brother rockin’ it.” - Derek
I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to work with designers from all over the world. What a great project with a great heart.
Being creative is hard work. I know that most of your friends think you just get to ‘draw’ on your computer all day and wish that they too could have this freedom, but you know it’s not as easy as that. Being creative day in and day out requires lots of energy, which sometimes fails us. In fact, if you’ve been as this thing we call design for long enough you have probably encountered a dry spell in your creative juices.
It’s generally hard to explain to those who haven’t had it. For me it’s just a lack of any type of idea. Not just good ideas, I have nothing to put on paper at all. I sit in front of my canvas (Photoshop or Illustrator) and put ‘pen to paper’ and…nothing. Nothing that is worth the money it costs to have my computer on at least.
Sure I’ve hammered out projects for clients through these times and most often the projects turn out alright, but if you’re anything like me alright isn’t what you were going for.
So how do you get out of that creative slump?
for an outdoor shop so we spend lots of time that is ‘work related’ outside for her. It doesn’t have to be outside though just find something that is not in front of your computer and you enjoy. How about reading, basketball, photography. All good options and can bring huge amounts of rejuvenation as you open your eyes to those things around you.Ultimately having a time in your career where you lack creativity just marks that you have been designing for a while. We’ll all hit it. What will make us succeed as designer’s and artists is pushing past it and continuing to enjoy what we do. - Curtis McHale
Who is Curtis McHale?
I am an in house designer/wannabe full-time freelancer located in BC. I design because I love to be creative and code because I like the technical stuff involved. Creativity is a breathe of fresh air into life that many people don’t get to experience. You can see more of my work on my site and on my blog.
Guest Blogging!
Mel and Michelle are inviting fellow designers to share their ideas, inspiration and advice on our blog every Friday. If you’re interested, please send us an email: mel@collarfree.com OR michelle@collarfree.com. We would love to hear from you!
