We’ve been taking a little break from blogging this summer to focus on family, hot weather and swimming pools. However, the child is now back in school and I’m back at my desk. Hooray for routines!

We have a few things up our sleeves for this second half of 2010. The biggest one is that I am going to be changing up the focus of SCD to work primarily with non profits and other socially responsible organizations. I’m so excited to be specializing in this way, and we have a lot of work to do to set up for it. A new website/blog will be coming, so be on the look out!

One such client that we’ve just started collaborating with is Sweet Mango Baby, a small company that makes organic clothing for premature infants (and up to 12 months). I love the rich color palate of these tiny clothes!

We’ll be working on their packaging; can’t wait to see the completed product!

Below are some recent spreads from the June issue of Auto Pilot Magazine. We have really enjoyed working with them! Now I just need to get up in my dad’s airplane before he sells it!

Well, as everyone knows I don’t participate in spec work. When X3 Sports approached me with their insanely organized RFP process, I knew this client would efficient and focused (they even give creative briefs!). After I submitted my initial proposal, it was accepted and the next step was to provide a “design sample.” I weighed the benefits and potential negatives, and in the end decided to spend about 3 hours and see what I came up with.

Here is the end result, which got me the job. This would be a concept for a “flyer” promoting their clubs, which also offers a 2 week trial pass.

I still think working with only the potential of getting paid is not a good practice. Lawyers don’t do it, doctors don’t do it—why should designers? Still, in this particular situation, I felt good about the project and the client, so I followed my gut. Has anyone else done this, and had it work well?

Lots of little fun things going on… so, a general update for you:

1. Sara Cowley Design was featured in HOW magazine’s ‘Site of the Month’ June round-up! If you are coming to us from there, welcome!
2. We are working with a new client, X3 Sports, so I expect to have lots of fun new work to share. They offer real martial arts training along with kickboxing classes and other serious workouts, all with real trainers.
3. We worked with copywriter Anna Morgan to update the ‘About Us’ section on our site. We love what she came up with!
4. This weekend I attended a fun and inspiring lunch hosted by Toni Hung of Praxium Press. Sherra Bell led a conversation about balancing a creative career and parenthood. And, I even got to print on their letterpress (love!). See more at their blog here.

That’s it for now. Time for actual work. Have a great week!

Here is more work from the Dare to Dream project! This is a Program through C5 Atlanta that assists at-risk high school students graduate and move on to a college career. They graduated this past Tuesday, and this is the program book we designed for the occasion.

Happy Monday all. We are having trouble getting our motors running this morning after a fine weekend. If you are too, perhaps these concepts will give you a little dose of graphical inspiration.

We created these last week for Educational Concepts (a medical continuing education company here in Atlanta). Designing concepts only is always fun because we get to work on the most creative aspect, versus full-on layout and client revisions. We can’t wait to see how they use our designs.

It’s no big surprise that corporate identities change with the times. Every year logo lounge (which is the site behind the inspirational book series) takes a broad look at all the logos submitted for their books, and spot the most obvious trends. The overall themes? They say:

• There is plenty of optimism shining through in many designs—or at least clients are trying to bravely declare through their identities that they aren’t the slightest bit afraid.
• There is significantly more warping, faceting, and animation.
• Circles upon circles upon circles, especially nested inside each other and of diminishing sizes, are everywhere, as are building objects from circles.
• “Greeness” is still pervasive, but it no longer apparently has to be expressed by the color green: Any fresh palette will do.
• Finally, there is another significant development. For many years, successful logos were built from beautiful shapes. They were usually one color, or perhaps they incorporated a few colors. Now, designers have begun to look at the actual surface of the shapes as an entirely new canvas that can be addressed in myriad ways. Good draftsmanship and good ideas are still crucial to the process, but surface effects now add entirely new levels of meaning.

You can find the full article here. And of course, here are some nice visuals from their findings:

I’ve written about the importance of a well considered home office before (here and here). And I have to admit, since we moved to a new house last year, I haven’t followed my own rules! Our office has been the neglected room, the dumping ground. When we don’t know where to put something, we’ll say “eh, just throw it in the office.” Well, I’m fed up! I need an inviting space to work in. We’ve started the process, and I can happily say it won’t be long now.

Here are some images I’ve found on the web for inspiration. All of these call to me…

We need at least 2 work stations, storage and a loungy area. I can’t wait to show you our finished room. Hopefully it will inspire more creativity, or at the very least, more productivity.

(and as usual, I’m terrible about sources. do you know where these came from?)

These designs are a little dated at this point! Last summer our family held a big party for my dad to celebrate his retirement. To make the event more festive, we “branded” it a bit; I created custom postcard invites that we printed through Overnight Prints (they also do my business cards), silly fans, and a PowerPoint background. I wish I had some pictures of the party, but I was too busy playing MC at the Open Mic to take any!

(these we made ourselves, by printing on card stock and using a glue stick to adhere them to the Popsicle sticks).

We are happy to now be working with Activ Technologies. They work with large companies on high-level IT solutions to make existing technical investments run smoother and be more effective. Our first project was creating this little promotional postcard that was used as an aid to explain their services to non-techy’s like me!