The Living is Easy...

Recently there has been a strange phenomenon here in Seattle—sunshine and warm weather! It's quite rare to have such good weather weekend after weekend here this time of year. Usually summer doesn't really hit until after July 4th and it's not even June! Trying not to jinx myself here, but I'm hoping it will stick around until, hmmmmm, how about October? That would make up for the terrible winter and spring we endured.

So here's a new illustration for you inspired by the sunshine. Enjoy. :)

Georgetown Garden Walk Sneak Peek

I've been busy working on big project—a 36 page magazine for the Museum of Science in Boston—which just went off to the printer. I love that stage of a project. Now I just sit tight and wait for proofs from the printer before it hits the press and ink meets paper.

In the meantime my sweetie and I have been cooking up the design for Georgetown Garden Walk materials. This is the 6th year that one of us has done it: he did it three times, I did it twice and this year it's a collaborative effort. And if I do say so myself this is the best one yet! We've retired the chicken and gone in a fun new direction. So mark your calendars for Sunday July 12th and hope for sunny skies!

Here's a tiny sneak peek to tide you over...

An oink oink here...

It must be all the swine talk of late that made me think of these illustrations I did for Migo mugs a while back. Wash your hands folks and let's keep our sneezes to ourselves. Hopefully the news will be back to talking about happier things such as the recession before we know it.

Cute hoots

The other day I did a new little illustration for a friend's baby onesie—a little blue owl. I thought he needed some friends so I did a few more to hang out in his tree. Here are the owlies in the day and also how they look at night time. 

Bertschi School: Teaching Sustainability

My client Bertschi School in Capitol Hill has an on-going commitment to sustainability and uses a global approach to education. Recent additions to the campus include an impressive LEED certified building, water cisterns, solar panels, a green roof and more. Last year I designed an interpretive signage system to highlight these features, as well as inform students, parents and visitors. The signage functions in tandem with an interactive kiosk which gives additional information the viewer.

I created a system of 14 signs that cohesively fit with the style of the existing campus signage. Each of the signs represents one of the 5 main categories—sustainable sites, water efficiency, solar energy, air quality, materials—and has a corresponding illustration at the top of the panels.

We created the signs to be: intriguing, engaging, fun, informative and to have a 5-8 year lifespan. They also needed to have the ability to display the students' artwork year round. The signs are made from steel and allow the metal's natural finish and oxidation to show through, then were protected with a clear coat finish.