Retro Poster Design, More Logos, & How Zombies Are Like Totally The New Pink

 [Fig. 1: MM final logo (top center) with other options that were unused.] 

I've recently doing some work with my friend Kc's production company Modern Myth Productions. I posted a blog a while back with the progress of our logo design so I thought I'd post the rest of our progress as well as the final design. Our final logos were the simple MM (see Fig. 1) and then a more complex visual logo (see Fig. 2). 

 [Fig. 2: MM final complex logo (top center) with our progression below.] 

They also had me design a poster for their podcast "We're Alive." It's a wildly popular podcast about zombies and the end of the world. Sounds epic right? It is. You can listen to it here and its FREE! Anyways, they wanted to make some posters up that had a vintage movie poster feel for the show. Like Mad Men retro style. Here's what we ended up with. 

 [Fig. 3: MMP Poster. ©Amy Hood] 

Speaking of zombies, I just saw the new video for Cage The Elephant's "Around My Head" which is hilariously good. Zombies... they're, like, so hot right now. Finally my hometown of Bowling Green, KY can be known for more than putting out Corvettes and Fruit of the Loom underwear. We can now say we put out a great rock n' roll band thanks to these boys. Enjoy...


Amy
Listening to: Cage The Elephant's "Around My Head"

Cage The Elephant - Music - More Music Videos

New Logo Designs, HAMMERHOOD, & The Horror of Wipe Out

[ HAMMERHOOD logo ©Amy Hood ]

Here's a new logo I worked on for HAMMERHOOD, the collab between me and the great Timmy Ham. I did a blog on Timmy (a.k.a SLOTH) a while back that you should definitely check out. He is a graffiti artist/designer/customizer-of-amazing-Vans. Not only that, he's hilarious and he's my partner in crime for the above said art collab that we're currently working on and hope to finish the first installment of soon. Once the first one is done (which you can see the progress of by clicking here) we'll try to sell it and donate the proceeds to charity. It probably won't be much, but we're trying to give back in our own little way and every little bit helps! 


Now it's back to working on my portfolio. Guhhhh. Shoot me. Going though all of my files and trying to figure out which pieces are my best design work is the worst. It's worse than a Wipe Out marathon. That's pretty bad. Wish me luck friends. 


- Amy
Listening to: Otis Redding's "That's How Strong My Love Is"

Hoodzpah Logos, The Glory of Freelancing, & Pink Floyd

[All rights reserved. © Amy Hood.]

Life after The OC Gazette has been a wild and exciting (and busy) ride! Yes, I am no longer at the little local magazine where I got my start in graphic design those four years ago. It was the perfect ending to that chapter of my life though. I learned a lot, met a lot of great people, and grew a lot as a designer. Now it's on to new and exciting ventures where I can grow even more! The next chapter? Hoodzpah, baby. Jen (my lovely sister) and I's freelance art and design company is now at priority number one and we are readily accepting all the work we can get our grimy little hands on! Freelancing is a glorious, glorious thing. You get to make your own hours, work when you need to, take breaks when you want to, and you can choose your projects and workload. For that same reason it's hard too, because it takes so much discipline to stay on top of everything and to be diligent and keep a schedule. If it weren't for my handy planner, no work would be done - I'd just be vegging out at the beach, trolling facebook and conquering my Netflix Instant Watch queue all day. 

With a new company comes the daunting and arduous task of branding. Designing a logo for yourself as a designer is one of the hardest things EVAHHH. The glory of being a designer is that you get to try all different styles because you get to work with a slew of unique clients, but when you're designing for yourself you have to pick ONE style to define you as a graphic artist - and its TERRIFYING! It's like the first day of high school when you have to figure out where you're going to sit at lunch. That spot will define you for your whole life! (Well, for the next four years, which seems like your whole life at that age.) All that being said, here are some logo ideas I came up with for Hoodzpah last night. So far I think I'm liking the B series of designs best. All input and ideas are welcome! We knew we wanted to incorporate a diamond(s) in the logo somehow to reference Pink Floyd's mind-blowing and inspiring 13 1/2 minute song "Shine On You Crazy Diamond." If we had a theme song - this would be it. 8 minute intro and all. If this doesn't stir something deep within you, then you're just not human. 

Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun.
Shine on you crazy diamond.

Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky.

Shine on you crazy diamond.

You were caught on the crossfire of childhood and stardom, 

blown on the steel breeze.

Come on you target for faraway laughter, 

Come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!

You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.

Shine on you crazy diamond.

Threatened by shadows at night, and exposed in the light.

Shine on you crazy diamond.

Well you wore out your welcome with random precision,

rode on the steel breeze.

Come on you raver, you seer of visions, 

come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine! 

Alright, it's off to work on a poster for my friend Kc's awesome podcast We're Alive, a podcast about zombies and the end of the world. It's great, but don't take my word for it, take their 4 million listeners' word for it. Did I mention it's free? Nothing like free quality entertainment! Download it here. 

- Amy

Listening to: Pink Floyd's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" (Duh.)