It's Ombre, Hombre

It seems Mondays are my day to put things up, just for fun. I have really been liking the ombre trend that has been circulating all over the place. Cake tiers, stripes on cloth, and even hair... everything is ombre these days! I don't know that it's that brand new, but either way, I wanted to put my own spin on it.

These dusty fall colors are all the rage these days, too. Is it gray? Is it purple? I like to think it's both! :)

I think people finally got excited about paint chips sitting around at Lowe's and Home Depot and decided to put their majesty to good use in their crafts, art, and designs. I remember covering a notebook with paint chips in middle school. It's addictive. I made a picture frame using them as well. It has nothing in it yet and isn't hanging up, but I am waiting for the right thing and the right place to become evident to me. Until then, I'll be making more ombre magic happen elsewhere!

Have a delightful evening!

- Lara

P.S. Duhhh, it's Halloween! Totally forgot. Goes to show how spirited I am, and how I don't live somewhere where children are likely to show up at my doorstep, haha. Happy Halloween! I'll see you tomorrow in line at Target with my twelve bags of half-off candy. :)

Up With The Times

Hello, everyone! (Every... no one, haha. That is totally fine by me.) Even if I am writing to an essentially pretend audience, I am practicing what it is like to write to real readers and connoisseurs of all things eye-catching and clean, when it comes to design.

I really like things that are simple and have the right balance of colors, straight lines and curves, and have a really sharp, polished look. All the weird neon gradiation and moving GIF graphics of the past? It just doesn't look 2012. Using only typefaces that come with MS Office 2000? People's eyes tend to glaze right over those things. My hope is that if I ever get to put my brain to good use for someone else, I can come up with something that is attractive enough to pull in the right people's attention and convince them that they can expect professionalism in every way. Up-to-date use of our social media and communication. Good organization. Good communication. This generation wants everything available and answered at their fingertips and will move on to someone else who does that if the first company/firm doesn't fit that bill -- and if they haven't touched their website since 1995.

This all has nothing to do with what I am putting up today at all, really! I just wish I could help out some of the businesses I see online or around town without someone really putting time & effort into their advertising. So much potential!

Anyways, this was a quick and not-so-exciting little flyer, but I think it looks pretty and sophisticated enough:

There isn't really that much crazy stuff going on here, two fonts and two colors (besides black). But simplicity does the trick! I love that I get the chance to make up invites and flyers for Cru at my university and can play around even more on my software and see what I am capable of and get better and better.

Here's to modern aesthetics! (At least, what I think is modern-ish. It's okay to have a different idea!)

- Lara

Save the Date #2: A Little Bit of Curl

I lied. I flagrantly lied. I'm just on a roll, and there's no stopping me! Thank you, professors, for giving me a week of from some paper being due. :) I appreciate it! It lets me get my juices flowing and play with some colors!

When you find a gorgeous font, you look for ways to use it and make it work. It is just too pretty to leave lying on an invisible shelf inside of your computer. What, you didn't know that's how computers are organized beneath all that plastic??

This is one such case. It was too swirly and perfect. It needed some air. It needed life, people. I admire typeface artists so much for somehow creating these masterpieces that we take for granted, as if there was a "big bang" creation of all the fonts in the world. Someone designed that Verdana you use all the time, or cute little Trebuchet. Even Arial! (That guy must have made BANK.) Next time you are like, "Wow, those letters look cool," when you're looking at a magazine or an invitation, appreciate the person who made it! They do good work!

Anyways, that was kind of irrelevant.

See what I mean?! You know exactly which line of text I am talking about. Mmmm. So delightfully full of swoops and curves. Yes, my beauty, you had to come out and strut your stuff somewhere. Even if it is an imaginary Save the Date card. Maybe someday, I will have the chance to print you on paper -- what a glorious day that will be!

Keep it classy, friends!

- Lara

Bible Study Flyer

I promise this will be my last update for the day. I realize I could have combined all of these into one massive post, but that makes me look less accomplished and more like I have no life. (I DO HAVE ONE!)

Or maybe the choice is giving me the opposite PR problem? Eh, whatever.

I made this earlier today to print and hand out on campus to invite students to the community group bible study I co-lead. I hope it isn't too feminine? I have a hard time occasionally gauging color and style to keep something from being girly but also giving it a little pizazz, so that everything you get isn't just Times New Roman boring.

Would you be likelier to check something out if it looked like time was put into the ad you are handed, or the commercial you watch? Or if the style looks current with the times? Why do you think that has such an impact on people's decision-making? It's fascinating to me that something cheap, boring, or out-of-date can quickly turn someone off of something that they really might be into. Either way, it's just an interesting thing of culture and psychology. Who knows. Thanks, popular media!

- Lara

Experiment #1: Save the Date

So, as I have already mentioned, I am not a professional graphic designer. I haven't taken one class at my university (since they are only offered at the other campus), except for a little "don't you wish you could afford this!" session Adobe put on for their Creative Suite 5.5. My disclaimer is that I will not pretend to be super good at any of it. I just think it's fun and sometimes I feel like what I make turns out okay. :)

I am turning into such a girly-girl these days. Growing up, I avoided pink as much as possible. I was very selective about frills and bows that appeared on my person at any given time. As a teen, I prided myself a lot more on my excellence in school than I did in doing my makeup or flirting with boys, although on the inside, I secretly wanted to be into those kinds of things but was just too concerned with being taken seriously. But when I started to follow Christ (read about it here!), I was a lot more comfortable in my own skin and began to let the real me come out and play. I felt the freedom to bake cupcakes and wear glittery eyeshadow! Because it didn't matter to me as much anymore that people look at me and be impressed by how smart or talented I was, I sure had a lot more fun being the girl that God made me to be!

All of that is to say that now, out of seemingly nowhere, I am really having more fun with wedding stuff. Part of it probably has to do with the fact that I am finally in a serious relationship with the most AWESOME man in the history of the world, Darin, who I could talk about for hours if I wasn't overly conscious of sounding like that girl. (You know what kind of girl I am talking about.) Now, wedding things just don't seem that unrealistic and far-off anymore, and there is so much fun to be had when a couple has a chance to let their personalities show off!

This is my very first try at a fancy "save the date" card. And by fancy, I mean not-too-fancy; it has a pretty modern feel and nice summer colors. It's more along the lines of what I would pick if I were planning a wedding... which isn't looking too far off, so I'm not a psycho yet, right? ;)

I just adore lemony yellow! It's a happy, laid-back color that says, "You can relax and have a good time at this wedding. Bridesmaids, your dresses will not be expensive. Enjoy your mojitos during the reception." Not that there's anything wrong with super classy, fancy weddings, but for some people, they like the simplicity of keeping it in a "yellow" state of mind.

Anyways, friends, have a fresh and fun day, and be true to yourself!

- Lara

The Start of Something New

I hope the title of this post doesn't get High School Musical stuck in your head! That only occurred to me after the thought. Well, either way, I think it best communicates what's going on with this site.

I am not new to writing or sharing on the internet -- I have a couple of projects (mostly for my own enjoyment) going on already, although admittedly I haven't been so active in updating anyone on my life via these outlets lately. My philosophical/spiritual/Jesus-related musings are found at In Due Time, My Child and some fun adventures in cooking, traveling, and other ideas in collaboration with one of my dearest friends is going on at Jabuka, Jagoda, Breskva. (That means "apple, strawberry, peach" in Bosanski, in case you were wondering. The title makes sense if you read!)

But this site is brand spankin' new not only to my family of unread blogs, as well as to me in general. I confess that I am a little nuts about design now. Mostly in a spectatorial fashion rather than as an artist. It drives me nuts seeing really outdated, ugly logos or signs that use Papyrus, or... Comic Sans. Ugh, I just shuddered writing that. I am kind of snobby about it sometimes. But on the bright side, I really admire other people's beautiful designs for everything else. A perfect typeface, a good color scheme, an amazingly drawn and colored graphic, can each draw you in and give some personality!

Upon experimenting with some programs available to me, I happened to discover that I really like playing around with design myself! I am definitely in the practice stages, learning a lot about what I can do and how to make it happen. I don't think I have the chops to build my own business or a school portfolio or anything, but I'm liking doing this in my spare time, and so this is where I'm going to poop out my ideas so they are all in one place. I hope that every time things will look better and better! :)

So, if you like what you see, thanks for noticing! If by some weird miracle anyone would ever like me to adapt something I am playing around with to be used in real life, I'd be happy to oblige, just shoot me an email at lara.l.dickerson@gmail.com.

If you are one of the three people that will probably ever read this blog, thank you for your eyes and have a blessed day!

- Lara