New Work, Old Work

This has been a whirlwind of a week since returning from vacation! I got right back into the swing of things with three new projects on my plate: a redesign of my brother's business logo (he owns his own computer service company) and new business cards, business cards for a client, and business cards for my best friend who is an amazing photographer!

Here are some of my early ideas for my brother's logo:

Quiesco means "I rest" in Latin, which is what my brother wishes he could do all the time. I think breaking the word into two ("qui" and "esco") makes it makes it a bit easier to understand the pronunciation, and I like that "qui" and "esco" are also words in Italian, translating to "here" (as in location) and "I go" (as in exit/leave).

I also got my volunteer assignment for Free Arts of Arizona this week. For those of you who don't know, Free Arts is an incredible nonprofit organization that "sparks the creative spirit of abused, homeless, and at-risk children." I've returned to Free Arts after a 5+ year hiatus (because I was away at school) and I will once again be a volunteer mentor, something I have been looking forward to since I returned home. Once a week, for 14 weeks, I will be visiting a location and doing an art project with kids. I've been assigned to a group home with emotionally disturbed teenage girls, and I'm really excited about getting started! Last time I worked with Free Arts I was volunteering at Crisis Nursery, where most of the kids were under 5 years old, so the types of projects we could do were pretty limited. I'm excited to bring some challenges to these older girls and try to get them to enjoy the creative process as much as I do!

Speaking of the creative process, a few months ago I was working on a freelance project that I had found on craigslist. The project ended up falling through, which is part of the reason I don't trust anything on craigslist, but I thought I'd share the sketches I was working on. The client told me to draw a cow in a Superman pose, with Hamburger Helper hands and tennis shoes. I drew this:

The guy rejected it and told me that he was looking for something a cow with a bit more of a Superman physique (I thought mine was funnier, but whatever). So I sketched up this buff, rugged, militant cow:

And the guy said this was on the right track but still not what he was looking for. He told me he'd send me some samples of what he wanted (if he had samples, why did he need me in the first place?) and I never heard from him again! Oh well, I guess that's why I didn't produce any final art quality work for him. And I guess it wasn't a complete waste of time, because I have these funny cows to show for it!