I wanted to update my blog with some recent designs I did for a client at Captured Images. The talented Gary Palmer took these photos and I worked up a couple design options that expressed the love of dance so evident in these photos.

Photo © Gary Palmer, Captured Images
www.capturedimages.net

Photo © Gary Palmer, Captured Images
www.capturedimages.net

Every year the Fort Scott Community College commissions Captured Images to photograph the football players and design posters for both Offense and Defense.

This year the theme is “NEXT Level.” It’s always exciting to see what the theme will be and this year came at the perfect time. I was fully inspired right away and proceeded to create a poster design that would kick some major booty.

I’m particularly proud of this year’s design. It might just be my favorites of the three I’ve designed in the past few years.

There may be some changes as these are the first draft versions of the posters, but I was too impatient to show them off.

EDIT: The images have been updated with the final design!

OFFENSE VERSION: Loosely inspired by an "X-Men" movie poster. I think it's pretty intimidating.

DEFENSE VERSION: Also loosely inspired by X-Men. This was actually the first of the two I completed.

So there you have it! I might repost this if we have any major changes.

I really am going to post more of my design work in the future. No, really.

- B.

Photos © Gary Palmer, Captured Images

Hey! It’s been forever since I’ve posted here. As some of you might know, I’m getting married and at only 10 days out from the big day I’m as busy as I’ve ever been! I have many more sessions and designs I’ve done I’d love to show you all but I’ll have to do that when I have more time!

With weddings on the brain I wanted to post a collection of some monograms I’ve designed lately. You might have seen my post with tips for creating your own monogram, so I won’t double-post those designs, but these are some recent monograms.

The option chosen by Amanda and Jeremy for their wedding monogram. Love the look here.

A monogram option for Amanda and Jeremy. They chose a different version, but this was my 2nd favorite of the two I liked the best.

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Hello silverdoves blog audience! It’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything new, so here are some photos from an engagement session I shot earlier this year. If you’ve been on Facebook I’m sure you’ve seen some of these photos from the lovely couple, Cherrelle & Ryan.

This session was a bit different, the couple wanted a set of candid photographs around their apartment as they shared activities they loved. They made me and my fiance’  some incredible lasagna. Authentic cuisine, inspired by Ryan’s experience growing up in Italy. They cooked, they laughed, they played video games and we laughed along. By the end of the afternoon I felt as though we could have known each other much longer and it was one of the most enjoyable sessions I’ve ever photographed! Their personalities were just shining the whole time and I think these photos might give you an idea just how amazing they are and how much they love each other.

Yeah. I like cheesy blog titles.

Last week I was asked to find a specific font for a bride for her invitations. This type of thing is like a highly addictive drug to me, lol. Once I started looking… I couldn’t stop. I spent some time drooling over fonts I found, etc… so I thought I’d have a post dedicated to some of my favorite fonts and font related things.

Scripty fonts I feel in love with:

• Corinthia
• Liana
• Voluta
• Suave Script
• Bickley Script
• Intima
• Carpenter Script
• Lavishly Yours

One of my favorite things lately  has been fonts with awesome alternates, such as swashes to flourish at the end of a name. Here is the winner of the day:

• Sudestada

Font Finder

When on my search for this particular font I came across a very handy tool at My Fonts called What The Font. Click the link to try it out, it’s amazing and fun to use.

Font Organizer/Viewer

I’ve listed this on my links, I think, but it’s definitely worth mentioning again. I love Nexus Font. I make as many “favorites” tags as I want. I have a “Wedding Calligraphy” category and a “Script” category. You can type in your own sample text and size and install and uninstall fonts. I completely recommend it. Go get it here.

Overused Fonts

One thing I just decided to tack onto this post… overused fonts. In my mind I put fonts into 3 main categories: System-included Fonts,Free/Designer fonts, Totally Unique fonts

This is just a personal system, nothing scientific, of course. Overused system-included fonts are ones that you see everywhere but I myself am quick to excuse if it’s a quick flyer for an organization or a “Please wash your hands. Thanks, — the management” papers above a public restroom sink. Office reminders and home-made invites for baby-showers are also excused. As a personal taste issue, I prefer not to see these fonts used in professional design or to promote an organization that is related to design, etc… Some of these fonts that jump into my mind are: Comic Sans (it’s casual but legible), Brush Script (it’s so elegant and … brushy)… also includes Rage Italic, Jokerman, Playbill. Now… these fonts can be nice in a design, so I’m totally not dissing them, I’m just listing some of the fonts that catch my eye immediately and sometimes leave me thinking more about the fact that the font is Comic Sans than about the content of the design.

My middle group is categorized in my mind when I see a font I recognize right away but it still isn’t obvious that it was used as a fall-back font. I usually greet these fonts displayed with an indifferent “Hey, that’s _____ font” and am impressed if any of the following are observed: The person made the effort to search for a tasteful font online, The well-known font was used creatively, if the effect of the typography is out of the ordinary (i.e., etched in stone), if creative tracking, leading and kerning were used and if the basic design itself is well composed. I also realize that just because I recognize the font does not mean the casual observer does and I’d like to clarify that I often use many of these fonts myself, if I feel it fits with the design. Some of these fonts: Papyrus, Copperplate Gothic, Scriptina, Stephanie Marie, MA Sexy, Black Jack, Bleeding Cowboys.

The third category contains a wide range of fonts I recognize but are not used very often or are used so creatively that I am impressively stunned. The highest regarded candidates for this category are ones where the font is one I have never seen before and just takes my breath away with how beautiful or perfectly suited it is to the layout. Many of these are found on greeting cards or minimalistic designs– just a little trivia for you.

Hey everyone! I finally  (hopefully) have a store on my blog now! So I want to start with this action I made. It’s one of my favorite I’ve made. I plan to sell the actions that took the most work and troubleshooting to get just right, etc… and others I plan to give for free. I might put those in my “shop” too, but list the price as $0. We’ll see.

Meanwhile, go check out the new, buyable action at my BRAND NEW…

silverdoves SHOP

Here’s an example of what the action does
(photo © Gary Palmer, Captured Images)

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE STORE

Last weekend I had the blessing of photographing one of my close friends, Chantel and her new fiance’ Doug! They were so cute together and braved the cold weather with a smile We spent a day in the park and had fun with it. I’m so happy for them and wish them both the best!

Hey everyone!

I had a fellow bride who wondered if I had any pointers for designing your own monograms and I thought hey, why don’t I blog about it?

I have a love for monograms, I don’t know why. Perhaps it stems from my love for weddings or just love for design. Mostly I like the idea that you can say something about the couple with just a few simple letters and shapes. I’m not going to be able to give a step-by-step how-to since everyone will be using different programs, etc… I just want to give some pointers and hopefully inspire you. I’m just going to start rambling now, so take what you can from it!

Software

Obviously to create a monogram you will need some sort of software to create it in. I use Photoshop, but unless you have connections or a healthy pocketbook, this might not be an option for you. If you’re willing to put a little learning time into it a good alternative is Gimp. It’s free to download and use as you will. Other options are Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, etc… Powerpoint will let you move things around a little better and overlap, so many people prefer this to Word for designs.

Fonts

I like to use a combination of simple serif or san-serif fonts and script.  I’ll call the simple fonts “base” fonts and the script fonts.. well… “script” fonts. Many of my fonts are free and downloaded from dafont.

Base Fonts:

• Optimus Princeps
• Cheboygan
• Organic Elements
• Chocolate Box

There are many more, those are just some I use often.

Script Fonts:

• Stephanie Marie
• Miama
• Scriptina
• Black Jack
• Mutlu Ornamental
• Jellyka, Saint-Andrew’s Queen

I’m sure there are more there, also, but those are ones I usually remember to try. A good site besides dafont.com to try is Fonts for Peas. They have some GREAT handwriting fonts.

Flourishes

Another way to make a monogram unique is to add flourishes to your design, or perhaps just a simple symbol that represents a couple. This can be anything from an ornamental swoosh to swirls to a little feather or heart or house or flower or even just a simple line. I have shared a link for some great resources below.

DeviantArt – Great place to download free brushes, shapes, etc… especially for Photoshop and Gimp

Techniques

Now here are some basic tips and tricks I use when creating monograms that I think can be useful to brides you wish to design their own. I’ll try to show photos when I can, either of previous designs I’ve done or a sample monogram done for this blog.

1. I like to start by typing either the first letter of the couple’s new last name or the initials of their first names. I  usually start by making them the same font, etc… and I like to highlight the letters and cycle through some fonts to see what they look like applied to the specific letters.
2. Once I find a font I like (and sometimes I combine both this process and the first) I’ll move both letters around to see how they fit into one another. As a general guideline you should put the last name initial in the middle and the individuals on both sides, the brides on the left and groom’s on the right. This can be changed if they don’t look or sound good that way. For example, if I had done that with our monogram it would have looked a bit like “BS” so I flipped them to read “SB.” Consider things like this and how different letters balance each other out.
3. If you have a symbol you would specifically like to add you can do that next. Move it around to see how it looks in different spots. If you don’t have a centralized letter, such as the initial of a last name, you can use a small significant graphic or even just an ampersand to add more visual appeal.
4. I like to use a different font for the “and” or ampersand for contrast. Probably my favorite ampersand is from the font “Miama” it’s straightforward and yet elegant and isn’t too italicized.
5. Use colors to add contrast, as well. Make the “and” either a different color or a more subtle shad of your dominant color. I like to make it 30-50% of my main color.
6. If you have letters that overlap, especially when they are in different colors, it sometimes looks too busy. There are two methods I like to use to make it look cleaner.
   - Add a stroke (thick border around your letters) that is the same color as your background (usually white) on the TOP layer. This will give space around it and let it be seen better.
   - Intertwine the letters by using an eraser or mask, etc… to make them look like they are wrapping in and out and around each other.
7. Monograms seem to look best to me when they are able to stand on their own. It should be able to look good smack in the middle of a page or at the corner, etc… sometimes if you give it too much imbalance, even if it looks good it could look wrong on things you decide to put the monogram on.
8. Depending on the monogram it may look better if you “close it off” by adding a border around all or part of the design or putting mirrored flourishes on 2 of the sides, etc…

Examples

I hope this blog will be able to help some of you brides out there who are wanting to make their own monogram. If you’d like to talk to me more, feel free to comment or message me. I love talking (especially weddings ) I’m also always available for custom design work if you don’t want to bother with it. If you message me or email me at dirtndiamonds@silverdoves.com I can quote you a price.

Now go out there and make your beautiful monograms like a pro!

-B

I decided I really needed to start posting things I work on. I work on many projects like this and often I suppose I’m so used to it that I just don’t ever think it blog-wortyh. Perhaps it’s not, but I want to actually diversify my blog posts, so here you go!

This is a pro bono business card design for a youth pastor, and in that spirit of giving I am including two textures I created using a combination of my own imagination and resources I’ve collected. You can use the image for any type of personal use (non-commercial). Scroll to the bottom of the post for the download link. They’re awesome and somewhat Christmas-y

Business Card Front:

Front of the business card

Back of Business Card

DOWNLOAD TEXTURE ONE

DOWNLOAD TEXTURE TWO

During the week, right before Thanksgiving my best friend of all time was proposed to by her wonderful (now fiancee’) Mike! These are some photos I took Saturday to celebrate. I’ll probably take some more “official” engagement pictures closer to the date. I am SO happy to see my Lizzy so in love and every time I look at these pictures I want to tear up because I see the Lizzy there that I love so much. I hope you can’t help but smile when you see their overwhelming love, too.