Now Offering Professional Printing Services

I am proud to announce that I have recently added quality, professional printing services to the Vintage 66 Graphics menu of goods & services. Whether you need business cards, brochures or an outdoor banner, by going through Vintage 66, you can save gas, time and the headache of coordinating a printing job, and you'll get a great price in the bargain. In addition to a wide variety of products and surfaces, I can also get you silver ink, dull matte finish with spot UV and metallic inks. So the next time you need a printing job done think of Vintage 66 Graphics.

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Traditional Art: Pink Flamingo Surfer

Here is a pink flamingo surfer dude in gouache and ink that I did for my sister for her birthday last week. I did have to digitally adjust the colors in some spots, there's a really a long, boring explanation about the CMYK mode vs. the RGB mode, but if you care you probably already know, and if you don't, it really doesn't matter, so I'll spare you the boredom and just say it's because that's the difference between digital and tangible art.

Thanks for stopping by.
Cheers!

New Service Listings on Etsy

I've finally gotten the V66 Etsy shop squared away, I mean for the time being, it is a work in progress after all, like pretty much anything else in the Vintage 66 Online Empire (including this very blog). Anyway, one of the new sections I've added is for Custom Graphics, which features logos, business cards and even custom pin-up girls.Of course, if you want to skip Etsy, you can contact me directly for any custom work, and I do have more flexibility when working away from Etsy, just because I don't need to make a custom listing and can make changes without needing to re-list or update the listing.

You can get 5,000 business cards, including the design and US ground shipping via UPS for only $190. Save gas, save time and avoid the hassle of working with a printer.

How about a custom pin-up girl to help promote your business? One initial investment is well worth the cost of $225. She'll add sparkle and umph! to your flyers, T-shirts and whatnot.

And finally this listing is for a custom retro logo to help you brand your business, organization, or band and features up to two rounds of revisions for $350. This is the real deal made in the USA, not some mediocre, hacked out piece of crap from a cut-rate design firm that outsources their work to other countries such as Taiwan.

Vintage 66 Now Offers Design and Printing Package Deals!

How's this for one stop shopping? Not only can you get killer business card designs done here at Vintage 66 Graphics, but I can also handle the printing for you and have your finished cards shipped right to your door. Man Alive! Talk about convenience. And in case you're wondering, yes, I can also do: stickers, brochures, T-shirt designs, folding table tents, postcards, event flyers, indoor & outdoor banners and more. You can get your project started by visiting this link.

Projects: Hellbetty Jewelry Part I

I recently completed a really fun project for Hellbetty Jewelry, a small company that makes upcycled jewelry out of old domino tiles, Scrabble tiles, etc. When I say small, I mean just the two owners, Tarrah and Jen, a couple of crafty rock-n-roll moms with a passion for making really cool stuff, which they do completely by hand. Being this small gives them the opportunity to easily go in a number of directions without spreading themselves too thin, they sell at fairs and markets, as well as wholesale, they offer home parties, and do custom designs for the individual, but they also do band merch—for example, they did some really cool stuff for the local band, The Warshers. Really unique and creative stuff.

Originally they had an existing logo and business card design, but they wanted some tweaks, however, for a number of reasons, including the fact that we didn't have access to any of the original vector files, we decided to completely re-brand Hellbetty Jewelry complete with a new logo, new colors and the addition of a devil girl mascot type character, tentatively named Betty. At the beginning of the project I met with Tarrah for coffee and we went over what she was looking for, the people she was trying to reach, short term goals, long term goals and that type of thing. Once I had a good idea of what was needed, Tarrah pretty much turned me loose to see what I would come up with, you can see the results below. It was a pretty big project, so I'm going to split this into two different posts, this one, which is just a brief overview, and then the second post, which will go into the design process a bit more. I'll also be doing the corporate ID design on the Hellbetty sister company, HB Jewelry, which will focus more on sports team fundraising and family stuff, so there will be a third post when that is all done. And now without further ado, I present the Hellbetty Jewelry Project: Part I.

This is the logo, which is pretty straightforward. It's bold, and legible and the tail and horns give it just enough mischievous character to match the spirit of the company. There are three different variations: shadowed, red, and black, which will pretty much cover any given situation. 

This is Betty, the Hellbetty girl, I'll focus more on her in the next post, but she is such a big part of the ID that I couldn't leave her out of this one. There is a longstanding tradition of devil girl characters in lowbrow/alternative culture since at least the late 40's & early 50's when motorcycle and hot rod clubs (gangs?) first started using them in their logos, or maybe even the days of WWII, I believe I've seen photos of devil girls painted on the noses of a couple of bombers. Of course, they became even more popular when legendary underground comic artist, Robert Crumb unleashed his character, Devil Girl on the World.

The business card is truly the workhorse of any small business, even now in these modern days of eBusiness. This is the front and back of the Hellbetty business card. It's really cool because it offers the best of both worlds, one side features the traditional horizontal layout, while the other has a more contemporary vertical layout. The design is strong, bold and memorable, but most importantly, it's legible.

This is a tightly cropped version featuring the logo and and a head shot of Betty. It's intended for a square sticker, and while this version of the design is 2" X 2" we've got a vector version so that it can easily be increased to T-shirt size, or even as big as a billboard if necessary, with no pixelation or  loss of quality.

This is co-owner of Hellbetty Jewelry, Miz Tarrah posing with the outdoor banner (which is based on the website banner) and will be used for the Hellbetty table/booth at fairs and such. It's the piece that I am proudest of, if for no other reason than because it is so big!  It is 8' X 2' and I've never had a chance to see my work this large before.

Photo: Copyright 2011, Tarrah Moore. Hellbetty Jewelry

Retro Inspiration: Vintage Luggage Labels

One of the great things about designing in the retro vein in the age of the internet is that there is so much material available for inspiration, especially with photo sharing sites like Flickr. No matter what time period fascinates you, somewhere on the internet you will probably be able to find at least a handful of examples to glean some ideas off of. That is the great thing about good design, it never goes out of style. It will certainly have the look of the time period, but if it was well designed in the first place it will look good through the ages. Case in point, I recently found a treasure trove of vintage luggage labels on Flickr. Many different nations and cultures are represented in this collection, and date wise they range from the late 19th century up into the middle 20th century. Below are a couple of examples, and you can click to explore the entire collection.

Watercolor: Pacific City

This is Haystack Rock at Cape Kiwanda in Pacific City on the northern Oregon Coast. There are actually two Haystack Rocks on the Oregon coastline, the other one is in Cannon Beach, which is about 65 miles north of Pacific City. Both of them are majestic and beautiful no matter the weather, and are well worth the visit if you find yourself in the area. Anyway, this was just a little watercolor practice I did over the weekend while taking a break from website updating. Some parts of it I'm happy with, others not that much, but overall I'm pleased. However, I should mention that I did warm it up a little bit with  the magic of digital technology just to make me a little more pleased. Thanks for stopping by.

Traditional Art: Old Beer Sign

This one is completely from my imagination, it's an old beer sign done in gouache and ink. I'm still fairly new to gouache, so there are a few rough spots in this one. I think I'll start offering original art in my Etsy shop after I get my chops up a bit more.

Cheers!