A Little Las Vegas Neon Boasting

The Bombshell neon. Image courtesy Melissa Black, used with permission.

The Bombshell logo I designed way back when.

Hey kids! I’m just doing a little shameless boasting here. A few Years ago I did a logo for a company called Bombshell Brazilian in Richmond, Virginia,  they’re a chain of salons which  specialize in the waxing of various bits and pieces, as well as hair, nails, etc. Over the years I’ve done  quite a a few other projects for them. Anyway, since I designed that logo they’ve opened 2 more locations, won more awards than you can shake a stick at, and now they are getting ready to dance on the national stage when they open their newest shop located across the country in Las Vegas, Nevada.  Which brings me to the boasting portion of today’s post, I recently heard from, Melissa (one of the owners) that they are installing a neon sign based on my original logo design, and I couldn’t be more pleased because after all,  what is Vegas without neon? It’s a big, dark city in the middle of the desert, that’s what.  I’m really excited because this is something I’ve never seen before, despite all of my years of designing in the retro vein I have never seen one of my designs in neon. It’s going to look incredible when it’s lit up at night, and I can’t wait to see it in person, although I’m not sure when that will happen, it will depend on what 2016 throws my way. In the meantime I would just like to congratulate Melissa and Scott Black on their spectacular and well deserved success. The final date for the grand opening hasn’t been set yet, but I believe it will be in mid February. So if you find yourself in Las Vegas stop in and say hello and have a look around and tell them I said “hey”.

WIles Side Graphics Logo for 2016 (WIP)

Here is a behind the scenes look at some of what I’ve been up to lately. I’m reworking the WSG website for release in in 2016, and in the process I’ve been kicking around some new logo ideas. I’m pretty pleased with this one, not finished my any means so it’s still a work in progress, but I like where it’s going. I Really like this new color scheme, too—although the shade of blue may change before the final version is debuted. I’ve been using black and red for such a long time now that I think blue my add a freshness to everything.

Molokai Gardens Design Revisited

Tonight I revisited an old design I did a few years back (2011, I think). The overall design is intact, it still features a combination of vintage clip art with some digitally drawn elements. I did change the colors and the fonts, but other than that I just played around with some things.

Fall Graphic Design Sale

Wishing you and yours a very happy first day of autumn 2015, and what better time to start a fall sale? Check it out! 10% off all custom design work: logos, business cards, postcards, posters, custom illustrations, etc. Just shoot me an email for details or a quote.
Cheers!

Wedding Collateral Art

This is the final wedding art for all the collateral. Line and walnut ink wash. Everything should be going to the printer on Tuesday, except the banner and the thank you notes.

Logos: Archie Thompson Entertainment and Higher Calling Records

 

 

 

 

 

I recently finished an awesome project for San Diego jazz musician, Archie Thompson. The project consisted of two logos, one for his Production/Recording/Booking business, Archie Thompson Entertainment, and the other for a new record label he started called Higher Calling Records. I also did a set of double-sided business cards (not pictured), featuring each business on one side. This project was what I call trifecta, it was a blast to work on, it turned out great, and my client is really happy. I’ll probably be doing a more complete overview of the project a little later, but I wanted to get these out now because I just can’t wait.

Wedding "Save the Date" Bookmarks

I’ve always considered wedding stuff to be a little out of my line, but when I got engaged to Doodle she really wanted me to do all the stationery for the wedding (save the date, invitations, thank you cards, etc) and she wanted it to be hand drawn. She really likes the walnut ink and pen landscapes I do, so that set the theme for the whole series. The bottom image is the original art work, which was cropped to fit the bookmark dimensions (8″ X 2″) for the front. The back is a cropped detail of the front with a reduced opacity to make an interesting background without competing with the text. The subject is the bridge at Eagle Fern Park out in rural Clackamas County, it’s a beautiful little patch of old growth forest that has been a destination of my family for as long as I can remember.

New Project: GSI Pawn Shop

I recently finished up a project for the GSI Pawn Shop in Tooele, Utah. My client wanted a sign for the side of his business, something based on the old gasoline logos of yesteryear. He knew exactly what he wanted and he even had a sign company working on it, but the text wasn’t coming out the way he wanted it, so he asked me to take over. Modern technology can only do so much, and when you want a certain look sometimes you have to get creative. It took some research and a bit of trial and error, but I enjoyed the challenge and learned a lot, and best of all, my client is happy with the final results. So pretty soon this will be a 5 ft. sign on the side of his building. I’m working on a couple of other projects right now, but when I get a chance I will give a more in depth overview of the process, or maybe even a tutorial.

Retro Thank You Notes Coming Soon!

Gadzooks! This has been a busy couple of weeks. I'm getting ready to relaunch the Wiles Side Etsy shop, so that should be coming later this week. I'm doing a soft-launch (basically just means I'll gradually be adding listings rather than everything all at once). Starting off with some retro inspired thank you notes. I've got 7 ready to go, but hoping to get 1 or 2 more done before Wednesday. Anyway, these will be available for instant download, you print your own as needed, or you can have them printed at your local copy shop. I've also got a couple of printing partners lined up, so I'll be offering finished cards soon—hopefully. Next up will be pre-designed business and profile cards, kind of template hybrid. These will be followed by a pre-order T-shirt, probably of the tiki persuasion, but it still isn't set in stone. I'm also thinking of re-launching the Wiles Side Zazzle shop, too, but I'm still kind of irritated with those bastards —so we'll just have to see about that.

Rough Draft: Car Show Flyer

Just a rough draft, but you can still see where it's headed.

I’ve been working on re-launching the Wiles Side Etsy shop lately and have been working on samples for listings and such. So here is a rough of one of the flyer designs I’ve been kicking around. It features a 1955 DeSoto Firedome, which may seem a little obscure, but it is a sweet looking ride, and I think many of the more popular classics, the 55-57 Chevy Bel Air for example, have become clichés and are way over used. Although I would be perfectly happy to park one in my driveway. But back to the design, obviously it will need a few rounds of revisions—including completely re-working the car, but I think you can see where I’m headed with it. Oh, and just to be clear, this is NOT an actual event, and as far as I know the venue doesn’t exist either.

Happy Vanetine's Day!