(to quote the infamous Teri Lyn Fisher)

Right now, at this point in my Art Center career, it is all about branding. All of our focus is being pointed towards effective packaging and presentation.

For me, the biggest challenge is re-vamping my website. I want to change from my black background to a more clean and sophisticated white. I am also deep in the never ending search for the perfect font. Lawrence, my Self Promo teacher, and I discussed working a font like Hellenic Wide and manipulating it through a series of methods to make it less like a recognizable ‘font’ but more like a logo for my building brand.

So off goes my handwritten font…

Get ready for loads of changes at alexandra-marie.com. It’s the ending of an era (in a good way….)

So my woodtype digital toolkit came in the mail today (wow, could I sound any more like a nerd?!?!), and I have to say, I am pretty stoked. Basically it is a cd full of transparent layered tiffs that allow me to create letter press looking designs through my computer. I know it is sort of a cop-out, but since I don’t have any credits left to retake Archetype SLAM at Art Center, I figured letter press a la Photoshop will have to suffice.

I got the bundle so in addition to the fonts I also got a bunch of shapes. Seriously, I feel like a kid on Christmas morning. Heck, better than that. I feel like a graphic designer on designer drugs…hmm, not sure if that translates correctly.

Anyway, the image above is half of a project I did for Archetype SLAM during fifth term. The full text reads, “V is for… VIVAS, CARA. Mayest thou live, dear one.”

So in my Self Promo class we are working on making books through blurb.com. Instead of building a book using InDesign we are using Blurb’s software “BookSmart.” My thoughts so far?? Not so smart. It is an extremely frustrating program that doesn’t let you customize anything! (Although, I can see how that would be the point being a software for the design-inept).For my book I am working on combining my photography with some of my journal entries. A fusion, if you will. I am using my journal pages as textures and shapes rather than just tears; more graphical elements than direct material. I am really excited to see how it will turn out (if this god damn software doesn’t kill me with stupidity first).

The Blurb crew is coming to class on Tuesday so hopefully we will get some answers and some divine inspiration.