bloghttp://www.alanaruoso.com/blog/en-US2010-07-30T12:31:13ZSquarespace Site Server v5.11.5 (http://www.squarespace.com/)New Silver samba design logohttp://www.alanaruoso.com/blog/2010/7/5/new-silver-samba-design-logo.htmlalana ruoso2010-07-05T14:59:46ZAfter a few incarnations, I decided to redo my design company logo. It now reflects my design style rather than the meaning of the actual words. Originally I had a more to reflect the energy of a samba. But it never felt quite right. Now it feels perfect.

 

 

]]>alphabethttp://www.alanaruoso.com/blog/2010/6/1/alphabet.htmlalana ruoso2010-06-01T17:27:34ZIn my ongoing exploration of type, here is a small segment of a larger poster design I am working on. All 26 letters of the alphabet here, and again 26 different unique fonts.

]]>letters & numbershttp://www.alanaruoso.com/blog/2010/5/24/letters-numbers.htmlalana ruoso2010-05-24T18:25:03ZI recently started a personal design project and truly got carried away. Before I knew it I had rekindled my love of type and got pretty obsessive over these posters. It was the type of obsession that has you working till 3am and you forget that maybe you should get some sleep. I hadn't done that in a while. So these were born out of true love. I'll be selling these posters online - in some delicious colors - very very soon.

]]>mod grillhttp://www.alanaruoso.com/blog/2010/5/2/mod-grill.htmlalana ruoso2010-05-02T22:17:27ZAfter seing this awesome grill on sweetspot.ca I had to have one. If I designed a grill it would look like this. We set it up the next day with no regard for aesthetics on an old piece of wood we found at the side of the house.

]]>First tattoohttp://www.alanaruoso.com/blog/2010/4/21/first-tattoo.htmlalana ruoso2010-04-22T02:29:24ZI have never designed a tattoo but when your sister insists on getting one you jump on board. The fear of her having her wear some stretched out version of Nuptial Script for the rest of her life made me nervous... It ended up being a fun typography exercise. She went with the one second from the left.

]]>final logohttp://www.alanaruoso.com/blog/2010/4/20/final-logo.htmlalana ruoso2010-04-20T23:22:00ZA little simpler than I had first anticipated but definitely a logo you won't tire of after a few years. This is a case where the logo starts to pop when used in context. I quickly mocked up how it would look on the front of a business card - the yellow 'splat' really looks great on a big field of black. Often a client wants the logo to say everything in a single shot. You actually need collateral and material to exploit it and turn it into a brand. A logo is not a brand.

 

Created with Oneleigh and Neutra fonts...

 

]]>Logo developmenthttp://www.alanaruoso.com/blog/2010/4/13/logo-development.htmlalana ruoso2010-04-14T00:30:25ZCurrently working on a new logo for a company called Requiem Entertainment, a music management company. I always start off making a hand written list of potential fonts after typing the characters out in Universal Type to see how they will look. Here is my almost illegible list:

The Q with the long tail on the bottom left of the list is a visual note to myself to play with that character. I love Qs.

Then I go into Illustrator and try out all these fonts and make a big type mess on a page:

The client is looking for a bit of a Tim Burton feel, not too serious and corporate. I'll be posting proposed designs shortly...

]]>Gotham lovehttp://www.alanaruoso.com/blog/2010/3/19/gotham-love.htmlalana ruoso2010-03-19T18:43:25ZI know it is slowly sprouting up everywhere, but it really is an awesome font.

]]>DL MUSIChttp://www.alanaruoso.com/blog/2010/3/14/dl-music.htmlalana ruoso2010-03-14T14:45:00ZHere is a new business card for my husband, a musical composer. Designing for anything music themed is really, really difficult - very easy to fall into cliche mode (no treble clefs, thank you). Declan wanted something slightly retro looking and simple, nothing too literal. So I used a lot of chocolate brown - paired with a blue grey to make it feel contemporary - and created an original pattern for the back. The pattern was based on speakers and bass strings but in the beginning it was really cold, static and boring. So I started taking it apart to make it more abstract and give it movement. The dot pattern overlay, based on speaker covers, was added last minute and adds to the vintage vibe.

]]>HeadStart 2010 picshttp://www.alanaruoso.com/blog/2010/3/1/headstart-2010-pics.htmlalana ruoso2010-03-01T20:26:57ZHad a wonderful time at the Portfolio Reviews critiquing books of 'soon-to-be fab designers-in-the-real-world'. Great event and really loved being a part of something so constructive. Thanks to everyone who sat down with me (I'm far left by pillar). I hope I helped you all further along your path.

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