Drawings I did 20 years ago

I've scanned in photos I found of some old drawings I did a long, long time ago. These are way before I ever went back to school for art, so everything you see in this album was self-taught.

You can tell I was still tight with my lines and basing everything on realism, but you have to get that part down before you should ever try to move on. I didn't know that at the time; I was just feeling my way, and I think art school came along to loosen me up at just the right time.

You can see more current drawings at www.norathompson.us. Click on the "portfolio" link on the left and then "drawings" right below.

New business card design

I've been working on a lot of graphic design projects for Adventure Foods (based in Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania) including Firefly Chocolates, their shop at Westmoreland Mall in Greensburg. We wanted their business cards to reflect the same look and feel we've already established for this arm of the company, specifically the posters and signage I had designed for previous projects.

These images show the front and back of their new cards.

New photography portfolio images

I've updated my photography portfolio with several more landscape images and photos from Banning No. 3 Mine. Click on "portfolio" and choose "photography." These are all silver gelatin prints, made the old-fashioned way with film, chemicals, paper, dodging and burning.

My portfolio site URL: http://www.norathompson.us

Banning No. 3 Mine operated just outside Van Meter, PA and is off the Yough River bike trail, part of the Great Allegheny Passage. You can read in more detail about the Darr Mine history and explosion at http://patheoldminer.rootsweb.ancestry.com/darr.html

New banner design for Etsy shop

Here's a new banner I designed recently for The Dreaming Owl's Etsy shop, along with the matching identity icon. The Dreaming Owl sells handmade mittens, scarves, jewelry, bookmarks and purses, and requested a banner to reflect the shop's personality. We went with this hand drawn and stylized owl and banner.

Lots (and lots) of snow

It must be February.

Yesterday we got more snow in one snowfall than we've had in the last 17 years. The unofficial estimate in the backyard would be around 18 inches, but it snowed more after that.

Earlier this winter, we had a January that didn't get above freezing until late in the month, so the snow we were getting just kept piling and piling. This is an image of our birdfeeder from that January stretch of weather.

Molly Leach

Few designers actually get recognition in the world of book publishing, but thankfully Molly Leach seems to be getting at least a little of it.

Molly is the brilliant designing mind behind many children's books including The Stinky Cheese Man. We're used to books breaking the rules these days, but The Stinky Cheese Man expanded the boundaries of what was considered acceptable in children's book publishing at the time (1992). She rearranged where parts of the book were traditionally placed; she melted type (pre-computer enhanced); she ran text off the page; she used several different fonts on a single page; she used extreme type sizes. The list goes on and on.

Probably the most important thing to remember about her work is that everything happens for a reason. Yes, it looks really cool when it's finished, but it certainly isn't random. (Please see some specifics in the Horn Book link provided below.)

The interesting part of the story of The Stinky Cheese Man is the fact that she is the wife of Lane Smith, the illustrator, so they were able to work on the look of the book together. Until Jon Scieszka (the author) presented the text he had written to publishers accompanied by both Smith's illustrations and Leach's design, he was turned away. The March/April 1998 issue of The Horn Book contains an article written by Scieszka that illustrates this specific situation as well as how the design of a book helps relay its message.

Barnes and Noble sat both Leach and Smith down for a short video interview which they posted on their site. I've shown it to my typography classes, and I've embedded it here.

The Bald Soprano=Tim Burton @ the MoMA?

The Tim Burton exhibit at the MoMA included a free, take-home brochure that I promptly and eagerly grabbed up last Thursday. The evening prior, I and my fellow museum goers had a bite to eat at a firehouse-turned-brewery in Philadelphia. In the entrance space, you could peruse various postcards and announcements for upcoming local events, and one in particular caught my eye. It was a large postcard for "The Bald Soprano," all in line art with a spiral on the front and hand-written text on both sides. I mentioned that it reminded me of Tim Burton, and so I took a copy for myself.

When I returned home with both the postcard and the MoMA brochure, I soon realized I wasn't far off in my initial assessment at the restaurant.

I've included here both the front cover of the Tim Burton exhibit brochure, and the front image on the postcard I picked up last week at the firehouse.

Strikingly similar.