Movin' on up...

to the East side. To that deluxe blog site in the sky. George Jefferson would be proud.

Just to let you know, I have now migrated everything to another blog site with room for more logo, icon, design and illustration stuff. And even some other kinds of stuff.

Please check it out: leightonhubbell-blog.com

Thanks so much. Hope to see you there.

Got the word on LogoLounge 5.

Just received word from the folks at LogoLounge that I'll have some work in the upcoming LogoLounge 5 due out in early summer 2009.

As I've mentioned before, the Logo Lounge series of design books is excellent and I am honored to be included in the next edition. The level of work is top notch from some of the most talented logo and identity people in the business.

This time, I have only a logo created for Costa Macaroni shown above.

By the way, I have a collection of over 40 other logos that were in the previous editions: LogoLounge 2, LogoLounge 3 and LogoLounge 4. They are listed under my other identity, Hubbell Design Works.

You can also check out their website at: www.logolounge.com

Digital is the new green.

Here's a new piece I just finished for Electronic House magazine. It's a fun little illustration for the PLAY section of the publication. The creative director is Alyssa Bradbury.

Old school hand lettering in our digital world.

'How'd you do that?' is a common response when someone sees my logo lettering samples for the first time. It seems in this modern world with thousands of fonts available to anyone on a computer, we've lost some of the 'old school' skills of hand work. And it seems to be coming back.

A few years ago, I had some of my long time colleagues hit me up for some lettering design on their logo projects. I was kind of flattered, really. I never thought of myself as a traditional lettering or font designer with years of training, lots of French curves and India ink stained fingers to show it. But, whenever the assignment called for it, I worked in some of my lettering skills into the work. I'd use a brush, markers—sometimes even a small twig to get the effects I wanted. Seems kind of rudimentary, with all the stuff we're working with now. I guess they remembered all that.

Anyway, the recent work in the images shown here was an assignment for Blue Water Surfboards and Damion Hickman Design.

With this project, I basically started with good old India ink and a round or flat brush. Then, depending on the creative brief I tried different styles and techniques until there's some good variety to choose from. From there the work is scanned into the computer and saved into high resolution Photoshop files. To get it into vector form, I used to use Adobe Streamline until they bundled it into Illustrator CS2. Some people don't care for the way it outlines the files, but I haven't had too much of an issue with it. It's really something you have to fiddle with until you get the results you want.

Then, the vector shapes need to be cleaned up. This is where the old days of whiting out Xeroxes and photo stats (if you don't know, ask your creative director what those are) comes into play. After that, it's great. You can cut and paste or duplicate letters to make it work. Much less time consuming, but still quite a bit of effort.

I'm glad to see it is an art style that's coming back. Something being reinvented in the new digital world and I'm glad to be a part of it.

Information, please.

One of the many types of illustration work I am getting more calls for is for information graphics. Not just icons, but technical illustration either for instruction manuals, posters or labels. Some would say it's dry stuff, but somehow I like the challenge of taking the engineer's scribbles and notes and making it work into something useful and cool.

Recently, I was approached to illustrate a new solar canopy parking structure for the Port of Long Beach. This carport/canopy covers the small fleet of electric and hybrid vehicles that the POLB has for it's staff to use on corporate outings. It's their effort to try and offset the port's carbon footprint and make the organization a little greener. The illustration appears on an outdoor banner affixed to the canopy to explain to the average passerby what the thing is. At ground level, it's not overly obvious.

The panel's cells are made to capture various forms of the sunlight's energy in almost all weather situations. At the bottom are a couple of insets so you can see the detail of the work.

Check out the goods.

The t-shirt. An American icon. Who doesn't have one of these old favorites in their closet somewhere? Well, at least I don't know anyone. Around my studio on casual Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday—well, just pick a day. I love to wear t-shirts. Anyway, I assembled a collection of favorite concepts and worked up a few new ones to appear on some wearable design on Zazzle.com. 

The great thing about this site is the ability to have shirt (or promotional items) ready to sell, without the hassle of printing them yourself, or having the storage space. You can go to my storefront and look through my designs or do a search and find something else you may be into. Most everything can be found in assorted sizes and colors and can be shipped directly to you—all from the website. How cool is that?

You can check out my storefront at www.zazzle.com/leighton_hubbell. Enjoy.

I'd like to be, under the sea...

About four years ago, I got involved in a project that I had little knowledge would work its way into such vital importance. With so many green issues coming into the news these days, it's hard to keep up with everything. With this, I had an opportunity to give back to the community and help out a worthy cause—ocean conservation. 

The company, Fashionfish, gives a portion of the proceeds from the sale of these garments to organizations educating the public about ocean conservation and sustainable seafood issues. Each of the designs takes some of our unusual and interesting ocean life and puts a silly spin on their names. This not only educates children on the huge range of species in the big, blue sea, but gives them something fun to wear. And everything is slated to be printed on organic cotton with water-based inks.

So far, the clothing is available on the Fashionfish website, and some select retailers. Soon, we'd like to try and get in with some of the wonderful aquariums located around the country. At the present time, there are about a dozen different designs. With a little luck and nationwide interest in everything green, maybe our little cause can help make a difference.