4eD Affordable prints: $35!

*All of these digital prints come framed & matted for just $35!*

To order, just click on the image......

     

     

      

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

4eD Holiday Gifts!

Tis' the season!

It's that time of the year again when we all think, "Yikes, I have NO idea what to get <insert name here> for the holidays!" There are always people on your holiday gift list that stump you, it never fails. No need to freak out because 4eyesDESIGN is here to rescue you from this annual predicament!

Here's my sales pitch......

The gift of art is great BECAUSE:

1. it's unique and certainly more interesting than a bag of socks!

2. it's original and wayyyy cooler than the mass-produced, generic art you find in most stores!

3. it's super thoughtful to pick out a specific piece of art for someone, something that suits *them*!

4. whenever your loved one walks past the piece of art hanging in their home, they'll get all nostalgic and be like,       "Awww, that's what <insert name here> got me 10 years ago for <insert holiday here>."

5. C'mon, who *wouldn't* want to be gifted art?!

There ya have it, that's ma' pitch! 

I feel like I should be wearing a cheap suit and selling cars. :-)

To purchase 4eD art go here: 4eyesDESIGN on Etsy!

Wishing you a purrfect holiday season!

The holiday card I designed for myself this year!

POSTERS: Ketchup & Cats!

Retro style fonts I used.

I came across a bunch of retro style fonts one day while perusing design sites on the web and not only did I fall in love with them, I was extremely inspired by them. I LOVE vintage posters and anything vintagey---the colors used and the way type is dealt with makes me happyyyyyyyy.


I knew I wanted to design a couple of posters using these typefaces and it didn't take long for me to figure out what I wanted the posters to be about: my two loves, ketchup and cats!


I am a HUGE ketchup fan (Heinz, of course!) and I treat both of my cats like they're my children (which they are, duh!).


I decided to write down all of the words that come to mind when I think about ketchup and cats. I came up with a long list for each and then narrowed it down to the words I liked best. 

Next up was figuring out what colors I wanted to use. My art is usually very modern, so I had to switch gears in order to achieve the look I was going for. I wanted the posters to feel vintage, so I chose the color schemes accordingly. 

COLORS: Top = cat poster | Bottom = ketchup poster

The "choosing of the colors" happened organically as I began composing the posters. I worked on the cat poster first. <meow>


I typed out lots of words using different fonts and started playing around with them. This is where my instincts kick in. I can't really explain how the words ended up where they did because there is no way to describe what goes on in my head during this process. All I can say is that when something doesn't feel balanced or like it's in the right place, I feel unbalanced. May sound strange to you, but that feeling is something I rely on and have naturally felt my whole life.


While playing with the words, I threw in some whiskers to add a playful element to the design.

CAT LOVE poster

Next up was the ketchup poster! Yes, that sentence deserves an exclamation point---to say I love ketchup is an understatement. 


Once again, I typed out words from the list I made and started messing around with them. Heinz is OBviously the best ketchup out there, so I wanted to include the infamous "57". 


Like the cat poster, the color scheme came together naturally. I don't think I need to explain why I included red, do I? ;)


I used the awesome retro style fonts that I found so inspiring in both posters, as well as a few other fonts including one of my faves.....Arial.

KETCHUP LOVE poster

These posters are a perfect example of a design project where trial and error will get you to where you want to be. I started off with an idea of what I wanted but it wasn't until my execution of it that the idea came together. I had to play around with words, fonts, size, color, placement and direction until I had a design that I was happy with.


Time for some ketchup and cat snuggles!

LOGO: Oh Scrap!

I came up with this "Oh Scrap!" logo back in June. One of my dear friends, who does beautiful scrapbooking work, was starting her own biz and needed a logo. 

Final design

She was a dream client because she told me that I had complete artistic freedom to do whatever I wanted. Yes! 


Before being left to my own devices, I asked her to send me some of her favorite pages that she has scrapbooked and what her favorite colors are. She emailed me some pages and right away I was drawn to the rhinestones---I loved the texture it brought to the page and of course it brought back memories of bedazzling back in the day! She told me her favorite colors are blues, greens and purples.


I knew right away I wanted the logo to look like it was made up of scrapbooking supplies. I grabbed my sketchbook and started drawing.

Initial sketches

If you've ever been in a craft store and seen the MILLIONS of scrapbooking supplies that exist, then you would understand the challenge I had in front of me of narrowing down the (million) ideas I had running through my head and coming up with a design that was fun and cohesive.


I wanted to design "stickers", both flat and 3-dimensional and there were so many different directions I could go.

One thing I didn't want to do was make the logo look like it had a specific theme: wedding, baby, etc. I wanted the design to be universal, the only theme being color. 


Once I was done sketching and had a pretty good idea of where I was going with the design, I grabbed ma' Macbook Pro and got to work.

Different color combos and compositions

I played around with colors and created different scrapbooking embellishments......buttons, flowers, rhinestones, etc. 

The final design incorporated all of the ideas and colors that I wanted the logo to have: scrapbooking supplies + blues + greens + purples. It was completely self-explanatory; if you saw the logo you would know that it was a scrapbooking business.  

This is a great example of a design challenge that could have potentially been overwhelming because of the million different directions I could've taken it. In order to avoid a situation like that, you have to find a focus from the start and build the design from there. 


If possible, I like to add touches to the design that make it even more personal for the client. In this case, there were tons of color combinations that could have worked but I chose to go with my client's favorite colors. 


She was more than happy with the result which = success! If you or anyone you know ever needs any scrapbooking work done, contact Lindsey at Oh Scrap!

4eD LOGO!

When I started my small biz, 4eyesDESIGN, I needed to come up with a logo. I was my own client, which is great, but you still have to set your limitations and approach it like any other design project. With that said, I started out the process by drawing a mind map.                          

Mind map

I wrote down all of the words that came to mind when thinking about this new venture of mine, 4eyesDESIGN, then narrowed my thoughts down to 4 specific ideas that I wanted to incorporate into the logo:

1. the quantity of 4

2. eyes

3. glasses ("four eyes" expression)

4. design

I started sketching ideas one day while at the beach. I didn't have any paper, so I tore out those annoying magazine inserts and drew over any blank space I could find.

Initial sketches

I had something stewing and couldn't wait to get home to dive in! I love designing logos and I was designing my own, which made it even more fun.

Before hopping on the computer I did a few more sketches. I fell in love with one of them and knew it was time to sit down with my laptop.

Final sketches by hand

The design I fell in love with incorporated all four ideas I had from the start: the quantity of 4 and eyes, both self-explanatory......the eyes were within the shape of a "D" for design, which also mimics the shapes of glasses/lenses/frames. BOOM.

I came up with a zillion different versions of the design I liked and started to narrow it down.

Different versions of the design

I wanted to incorporate blue (I have blue eyes) and green and orange are my favorite colors so I played around with different color combinations. I ended up eliminating the orange and going with a color combo I felt was more cohesive, but still very "me".


Now it was time to tie together the logo and text.

When it came to the text, I wanted to keep it simple but not have it feel disjointed from the logo. Looking at "eyes", a four-letter word, it hit me----make each letter one of the eye colors, which tied in the logo perfectly.

The 4eyesDESIGN logo was complete!

Final design

4eD on Etsy!

People often ask me how to go about buying my art, so I set up shop on Etsy. If you've never heard of it, it's basically Ebay for handmade goods.....minus the bidding.

It's really fun to search around the site because you can find some pretty unique things, like cross-stitch mustache buttons and cat hats!

Anyway, I digress.

Check out my 4eyesDESIGN shop on Etsy! I sell drawings, paintings, digital prints, posters and note cards.

4eD BLOG!

Hello!

I'm starting this blog as a way to let people in on my design process and give y'all some more info on the projects I'm working on. I post my work regularly on my FB page, so feel free to become a fan and check out some of my other art!

If you need any design work done, have any questions or just want to say hello.....feel free to send me an email: 4eyesdesignstudio@gmail.com.

Thanks for visiting, come back soon!