Rainbow of Business Cards

One of the first things that I love to do after finishing a big project is taking blog photos! I take A LOT and I waste a ridiculous amount of time... but it's so much fun to scroll through all of them later!

Right before Market we got about 500 cards printed up at Kinkos so that we would be stocked up and ready to go. 500 cards cost $100 dollars... making me feel pretty confident that the quality would be halfway decent.

This didn't turn out to be the case.

When I picked them up, I was horrified to find that they were the thickness of notebook paper!

So when my mom visited last month we worked on these little gems!

The idea behind our logo took quite some time for us to land on. I've always been taught to take the core essence of a company... then boil that down into its simplest, most iconic representation. But it’s sort of difficult to define our team without sounding completely sappy, and whether you're advertising a design company or encouraging people to use your brand of laptop to Visit foxybingo.com, it's probably best not to look a little dramatic. When I first began my logo exploration, I worked on a mother/daughter theme... but those were turning out to be lame. Then, I began fooling around with just a simple logotype, but when I took that logotype and tried to match it up with our various fabric line logos, total chaos!

Then one night it occurred to me that we don't really need to create a logo with a broad, all-encompassing kernel of truth... because our defining characteristic is what we're making... pretty patterns. So in the words of Marshall McLuhan... I decided to let "the medium (be) the massage."

The idea of using a hummingbird was arrived at rather arbitrarily... I like them and my mom likes animals that are tiny. While the symbol itself doesn't have any meaning... the way that we handle this symbol... does.

With every line that we create, the hummingbird will be updated accordingly. It will always be used to showcase whichever line is current. Thus making the designs the hero. Additionally, the way that that the hummingbird is cut out of its white background is reminiscent of reverse applique... a technique that is very relevant to fabric design.

This reverse applique technique was first used on our website's navigation bar... where the bird is cut out, revealing the yellow fabric from our Botany line.

This business card follows the same idea and is made up of two sheets of thick paper. On the front, the shape of our hummingbird is cut out from the card itself, then glued onto the other piece of paper, revealing the pattern through its dicut. The opposite side shows the full version of this pattern as well as a white tag containing our contact info. This technique gave our cards the tactile sensation of something that has in fact, been reverse appliqued... as well as thickening them up to the weight that I have always dreamed of!

The ten cards in these photos show patterns out of our next line, Hideaway! (Minus the black... because it didn't make the final cut.)

They make me happy every time I pull out my wallet...

It's about the little things!

A Book Review Blog Post

...by the family quilter Jessi Jung

Lauren and I were recently asked to participate in a blog tour to review a new book by Clotilde, called Jump-Start Your Quilting. The official tour dates are March 10th through the 16th. Seven designers (I'm sure you'll recognize many of them) are participating, and each reviewing one of the patterns from the book.

First of all, I have to say this is a great book! The whole idea is to save time (or "jump start" your quilt making process) by using pre-cut fabric packs. These packs come in coordinating fabric lines, and they are already cut to fit the quilt pattern...putting you way ahead of the game.

Our assignment was to review a quilt called Shadow Play, by Julie Weaver. The skill level is beginner. In my opinion, this quilt was so fun and easy to put together. There are no seams to match, except when joining rows, and it is the type of quilt that can be quickly constructed using an assembly line process. I used fabrics from my stash (to get a feel for the pattern), which can easily be done, but pre-cuts make it a breeze.

To see more pattern reviews, be sure to visit the other blogs on the tour:

March 10 : Victoria at Bumble Beans Inc. March 11 : Linda at Quilt Cookies March 12 : Here's our website too. March 13 : Pat Sloan at her blog March 14 : Melanie at Texas Freckles March 15 : Aunt Pitty Pat at her blog March 16 : Glenna at Holly Hock Quilts

While this blog hop only reviewed 7 patterns, Clotilde compiled over 45 adorable projects for this book, including quilts, pillows, and gift ideas. Every project in this book includes clear directions, color-coded diagrams, various skill levels, and pre cut pack requirements.

I highly recommend that you all check out
Jump Start Your Quilting by Clotilde.

Two Rednecks in Hatboro

When I finished up grad school, the economic problems were in full swing, and it took me quite a while to find a job.

At the time, I was interested in an interactive agency in Manhattan called G2 Interactive. I wrote back and forth with them for months about a potential position as a Junior Web Designer. Then, four months into my job search, they offered me the opportunity to work in their PA office... and I jumped at the chance!

No, it wasn't quite New York City, but it was a job...

Last year in the middle of March, I left the beautiful city of Atlanta to move up to the town of Hatboro, Pennsylvania... a tiny little crumb of a city who's claim to fame (I've been told) is its wind.

Having braved only the tail end of last year's winter, I am experiencing what a Northern Winter actually means for the first time this year... The last round of snow added another 15 inches to a base of at least 10. (See below.)

So why are there TWO rednecks in Hatboro (as implied by the title)...  

Well, my sister ran into the same luck as I did when she began her job search, shortly after getting her Masters in Marketing...  

I suggested that she look for an internship somewhere... in order to gain some experience...  To which she responded "Well, How about an internship at G2 with you!"

For people who didn't witness the two of us growing up, this would sound sweet, but to those who know us, they feared for our safety...  and hair...  a lot of hair pulling goes on between the Jung girls....

Kidding, sort of.

To make a long story short, she got the job and moved up here on December 2nd.  

Two days later I put in my notice at G2 because I happened to get two job offers from companies in Princeton, NJ!!!  And Princeton is lightyears cooler than Hatboro so I really didn't have a choice in the matter!  I wound up choosing the offer from a software interface company that creates web components, where I was very pleasantly surprised on my first day to find out that they are in the process of rebranding their ENTIRE company... and that I would be in charge of the website and product branding! I've always wanted to take a monster of a project... and this opportunity is giving me everything I could ever ask for in that respect!

And now I'm going to steer myself back towards my original topic...  

With Carrie being up here in Hatboro now, I've been trying to give her little projects to keep her busy.  

(I don't have cable right now because I was sinfully underpaid for the last nine months...)  So I gave her my stack of Botany fabric and my mom's old sewing machine... and after a day and a night she made this little messenger bag! (See below.)

Kudos to Carrie!  

That next weekend, we experienced our first big snow storm. It was a big day for us and rather than bundling up and staying indoors, we decided to go galavanting about outside... taking photos... because that's what rednecks like to do in the snow!

Carrie Jung Is Getting Married

Carrie is my younger sister by two years, so we were all a little surprised when she was the first one to get engaged...

Those who knew her well, back in her high school years of dating, refer to that time period as her "dumpster diving phase". She dated a few guys here and there, but each relationship ended quickly and tragically for Little Carrie...

Then in the summer following graduation, she began working at Brusters, an icecream shop in our home town of Spartanburg, SC. She became fast friends with her manager, Inbal, and started hanging out with her on the weekends...

It was on one of these weekend outings that she met Inbal's boyfriend, Andrew... AND it just so happened... that on this SAME weekend outing, Andrew decided to bring his brother, Jon, along.

Jon fell madly in love with Carrie... Carrie fell madly in love with Jon, and the rest is history.

This wonderful happy ending was made even happier by the fact that while I was living in Atlanta, my boyfriend, Beau decided to move in with Jon. The two of them later moved into my same apartment complex, and the three of us, along with their third roommate, Kevin, became the best of friends!

So, I suppose it works out well for everyone... Carrie's getting married... Jon was in my "Atlanta gang" so I approve of the decision... my friend, Megan, took these awesome engagement photos (see below)... Beau and I both get to be in the wedding... my bride's maid dress is ADORABLE...

AND... I was put in charge of the wedding invitations! (...or I might have demanded to be in charge of them, but that's neither here nor there.) We've just finished producing her set of Save the Dates and those will be going out tomorrow. (See above.)

And those are just a small taste of the interactive experience that is to come with the invitation itself!

Carrie's wedding is in June and she decided to go with a very natural, garden inspired wedding... I used this organic inspiration as my jumping off point for the design... My first attempt with these produced a wild and crazy mass of plantlife that wound its way across the four page, accordion-fold invitation... But there was something about the illustration's lack of structure that didn't sit well with me. So I began again, and even though I kept the same flowers and vines, I let the structure of the vines take on the shape of an intricate wrought iron gate. Which produced this very structured, garden-themed drawing that we all LOVE!

Carrie's starting to love them a little less, because she's in charge printing, cutting, stickermaking, gluing, and round-corner punching each piece of her wedding invitation suite.

The Infamous "Minibook" Fiasco of 2008

Moderation has never really been my strong suit... I'm not sure why that is exactly, but it began sometime in my early childhood... and... I think I'm going to go ahead and blame my parents.

Kidding... sort of.

Anyway, I've recently experienced a wicked bout of déjà vu as my mom and I were frantically assembling our 133 promotional packets before this year's Fall Market... The following entry describes the source of this déjà vu.

Exactly 1 year ago, immediately following my graduation from the Portfolio Center, our entire class, flew to New York City for a Portfolio Review. The night before my flight, I was frantically trying to design, print, and assemble 10 "minibooks" to hand out at the review. After months of sleep deprivation... I found that I wasn't in the correct state of mind to begin this task 7 hours before my flight.

After the panic set in, I cried for a few minutes, then called and woke-up a team of helpers at 3:00 in the morning: my boyfriend, Beau, my sister, Carrie, and her boyfriend, Jon. Over the next two hours, we all printed, folded, and cut out the first three pages of sed minibooks, at which point, I came to terms with my inevitable defeat... the minibooks had won.

Carrie and Jon volunteered to make a Kinko's Run... it was 5:00 AM.

Kinko's did an amazing job for the minimal fee of $400, but I still had to cut, fold, and assemble these books once arriving at the hotel in New York... Thankfully, I had Carrie with me, who turned out to be quite the little trooper...

She stayed up with me until midnight in order to finish these before the review the next morning... even after being rudely awakened at 3:00 AM to help me the night before... AND despite her plans to wake up at 4:00 the next morning in order to stand outside of the Today Show with a "Please Hire Me" sign.

And, my story doesn't end there... after not having slept more than 5 hours in the last three days, my phone alarm wasn't quite enough to get the job done the next morning... Carrie had to leave her much anticipated Today Show at 8:00 that morning, and walk the 26 blocks back to hotel, in order to wake me up in time for the Portfolio Review. I'm a terrible sister.

Carrie fondly refers to this course of events as the "Infamous Minibook Fiasco of 2008"... and rightfully so. I'm still trying to make it up to her!

And on a more positive note... I'm happy to report that I must be getting better at these last minute projects from hell... because my mom and I finished up our promotional packets at 11:30 the night before our flight... we had a full 3 hours of sleep before having to wake up and go to the airport the next morning!