Blue Lobster Art and Design - Sacramento Web Design and Graphic Design » Latest Work

Yet another Photoshop goof-off

Dawn Pedersen — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:45:21 +0000

I solicited high-res photos from my online friends on a message board, and the first responder gave me photos of his baby. “300″ is copyright Warner Brothers, not me!

On top is the original photo.

Beckett 300

Another retouched photo to wind up the weekend

Dawn Pedersen — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 06:08:15 +0000

I had so much fun with the photo retouching I did yesterday, I did another one today. I found this photo on Google images and attempted to take 20 years off her. What do you think?

random lady

A fun photo retouch

Dawn Pedersen — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 01:03:05 +0000

This is just a quick post to share some Photoshop fun I had today. I found a random guy on Google and tweaked him a bit. The result is sort of graphic novel-ly.

Some Dude

From my Studio: a Self-Portrait in Illustrator

Dawn Pedersen — Wed, 27 May 2009 05:53:16 +0000

Self-Portrait in Illustrator

I had so much fun with this self-portrait in Adobe Illustrator. I based it on a photograph my husband took of me in April at Santa Monica beach (California). Now he wants an illustration of him.

Click the image below for a larger version.

Self-Portrait in Illustrator

Logo Project for Orchestrated Home

Dawn Pedersen — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 18:09:51 +0000

Logo Revision 5 for Orchestrated Home

I’ve started a new logo project for Orchestrated Home (orchestratedhome.com). He designed a serviceable and attractive logo for himself. Now he wants a logo that communicates what his company offers, and has the polish that a professional designer can create. Orchestrated Home sells home automation devices that can remotely control thermostats, sprinklers, appliances, etc. by a cell phone.

I’ll post all of the stages as the logo goes from concept to final.

April 17, 2009

First I began with some loose sketches. Pencils sketches seem at first like they might add extra time and effort, but they actually save me time every time. Plus, by coming up with more ideas than I really need, I can cull out the ideas that don’t really captivate or are too detailed.

Logo Sketches for Orchestrated Home

Below are the six logo concepts I created yesterday.

Logo Concepts for Orchestrated Home

April 18, 2009

Here is the first revision, based on feedback asking me to “work with #1 and #3″, and for “the house to be personalized so as not to look like clip art. Possibly illustrating the house in a slightly cartoon like shape would do this” and “a more custom font.”

Logo Revision 1 for Orchestrated Home

April 26, 2009

Here is the second revision, based on feedback asking for “three fonts maybe each with a different color combo and seeing the logo with the text at the right in an example or two. Then tell me or show me how the logo would fit into a banner.”

Logo Revision 2 for Orchestrated Home

May 2, 2009

“These are really cool! We are very, very close.” A few color changes, and one rearrangement/font change.

Logo Revision 3 for Orchestrated Home

May 5, 2009

A few more font and color tweaks.

Logo Revision 4 for Orchestrated Home

May 8, 2009

The client asked me to round off the pinkie knuckle a bit more, reduce the boldness of the word “home”, and show some more shades of green. Almost done!

Logo Revision 5 for Orchestrated Home

A new site design goes live: 4500parkridge.com

Dawn Pedersen — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:47:00 +0000

This client’s family bought an old home and is in the process of building a new one in its place to accommodate his family. This site’s purpose was to introduce his new neighbors to his family and their plans for the property.

4500parkridge.com

4500parkridge.com Home Page

A new site design goes live: artnacht.com

Dawn Pedersen — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 19:00:06 +0000

With Art Nacht’s help, I’ve completed his 3-page resume site this morning, and it is now live at artnacht.com. This is my first Web site design (and indeed freelance work) since I went into teaching full-time almost three years ago. I’m leaving high school teaching, and will be freelancing full-time again, in June. It is so good to be working on design again!

artnacht.com

artnacht.com Home Page

artnacht.com Resume Page

New Business Card for the Lobster

Dawn Pedersen — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 00:08:56 +0000

Based on my latest Blue Lobster illustration, I put together a new business card. But first, here’s the one I rushed so I could get it printed for a business conference a few weeks ago:

Original Business Card

This was eye-catching at first, but I was disappointed to notice that when it was printed, the contact information was not easy to real. At all. I should have made it plain black text. If you make it difficult for someone to reach you, well you can bet they’ll skip it. In particular, the Web address is super-tiny. I knew right away that I’d need to design new cards and pay for a second printing job.

So this time I spend a great deal more time on the design. I also printed out the design at actual size on my home printer. Lesson learned: take my time, then proof, proof, and proof again.

The black text does the job. I hope you agree.

New Business Card

Designing a New Logo

Dawn Pedersen — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 04:09:40 +0000

Original Blue Lobster Logo

My first logo (on the left) was, frankly, created hastily in my eagerness to get this Web site up and running in late February. However, the primordial idea in my head was to have the lobster more dynamic, jetting backward through the water as lobsters do by swiftly scooping their telson (tail) under them. Lobsters walk forward and swim backward.

Now that I’ve a bit more time on my hands, I have the luxury to work on that initial concept still rolling around in my brain. I began a sketch tonight:

Sketch for Blue Lobster Logo Design

Next step: referencing my photos and the live model himself in his watery home, I will draw the pinch-happy creature in Illustrator. He’ll shoot out gusts of swirling water and bubbles. I’ll probably do further refinements like textures in Photoshop. Finally, I’ll rework the whole Web banner above to be better integrated, and with nicer-looking menu buttons.

Four Lobster Photos

Incidentally, the little guy’s name is Ocelot. My husband is Russian, and when he first heard the word ocelot he was so enamored with it that he named several things in our home Ocelot, including a house plant.

Update 3/26/09, 5:00PM

Here’s what I have so far in Illustrator. The sections of blue carapace are created using a gradient mesh and three shades of blue. The brown joints between the tail pieces employ a simple brown to gray linear gradient. The whitish swimmerettes under the tail use a radial gradient from white to light gray.

Logo, Work In Progress No. 1

Update 3/26/09, 9:00PM

More!

Logo, Work In Progress No. 2

Update 3/26/09, 10:00PM

Still more. He still needs spots.

Logo, Work In Progress No. 3

Update 3/28/09, 11:40AM

I think I’m finished!

Completed Blue Lobster Logo

Update 3/28/09, 2:10PM

I lied. I needed to pump up the amount of orange. I’m really happy with it now. I hope you are too.

Completed Blue Lobster Logo - Revised

Update 3/28/09, 8:00PM

The new banner is live! Yay!

Screenshot - New Web Banner / Design