You know when the first song on an R&B and Soul record starts out with “They call me Big Mama ‘cuz I weigh three hundred pounds,” its gonna be good.

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I love my job…never a dull moment. Yesterday evening David and I went to one of our favorite local joints, Austin’s Coffee, for a bite to eat. Little did we know, we were actually sent from the high heavens upon request from Jackie (owner + barista extraordinaire) to assist in the design for a poster for their I-4 Festival on July 4th. Jackie’s idea, an elephant on a bike, reminded me of the CD cover David did for Michael Claytor + His Friends incredibly catchy album titled We Have An Elephant (see it in our portfolio)…so of course I immediately loved it. David and I threw together a quick design and wanted to show it to the world (and of course endorse the show). They will have 26 bands on 2 stages, beer (free Magic Hat #9 during Alias Punch’s set), henna, tarot readings, live graffiti, and more! Definitely check it out on July 4th from 12pm-12am and see some live music!

My sincerest apologies, dear audience, for being late to post the newest Hatchet Design Throwback logo. What was the inspiration behind this wondrous mark, you ask? Well, for starters, parachute pants and acid wash jeans. The 80′s wouldn’t have been what they are today without such severe fashion statements (or extended lapses of judgment, linguistics…) as these. Add a dash of Miami Vice and a pinch of Saved by the Bell and voila! You’ve got one bangin’ neon-colored, triangle-inspired, brush-strokin’ squiggle party for three (you and your Lumberpeeps). Now go turn your chair around, sit on it backwards, unhook your overall strap (just one) and tell your friends.

I know you’ve been waiting all week to see what Hatchet Throwback is going to reveal for the nineties logo. Ohhh the nineties, what a beautiful time. It was a time of light bulb logos and burgundy, furbys and pogs. Tall, skinny serifs and bad brush scripts. Although a LOT of really good work came out of the 90′s (ie David Carson)…a lot of really not so good work appeared, too. We will probably be reusing this style in about 50 years, but for now- for me anyways- its kind of the red-headed step child of the design decades.

Today was take your Jaden to work day, so we put the tiny girl to work. She had her own little space and we assigned her to work on a very important client project. She dominated it, to say the least. The project was a logo for the up and coming “Ninja Pizza Parlor”. She made a sketchbook, researched, sketched, vectored, and colored the logo (with a little help from her Lumberfriends), and this is what she came up with! Read on to see some studio photos of her day at the office…

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Did you even make it to the text down here with that collage of activity at the top? What an awesome awe-inspiring weekend the two members of hatchet design LLC had. Let’s see if I can break it all down for you. Read the rest of this entry »

Can I get a drumroll please?

Hatchet Design LLC, in a desperate attempt to attract consumer attention, is launching their newest form of marketing: the Hatchet Throwback Collection. I know, I know. Its a lot to handle right after lunch on a Friday, but you won’t want to miss out on this – trust me. As part of our newly implemented personal project time, your Lumberfriends have put together a tribute to design through the years…via the Hatchet brand.

No, that’s not a button, its a logo. I know, I clicked on it too.

Kicking off the Throwback Collection is Hatchet 2.0. In thinking of decades past, we actually overlooked the double nought decade. Then we remembered, ten years marks a decade, and there have definitely been ten years in this millennium. Weird, right? For those of you who may not be familiar with this style, Web 2.0 became a web design standard in the 2000′s. Marked by a thick coat of gloss and an intense reflex to click into other’s personal lives, this style has defined the decade as it relates to advances in technology and our newfound online personas.

We know that a good designer never gives away his or her secrets, BUT, for educational purposes, we are sharing the formula for a Web 2.0 logo. Shhh…

Formula for logo: 1. Make a circle. 2. Apply gradient mesh. 3. Overlay transparent circle, offset from original circle. 3. Bevel + Emboss typography.

And there you have it! What about all of those other decades, you say? Well, stay tuned and you’ll find out. Next week has to be one of my favorite periods of design- the 90′s.

Big thanks to my surrogate brother Tim Geary. He sent along some totally radical goodies from one of my favorite nonprofits in existence. Check out Seattle’s version of 826 National. These groups set up excellent themed fictional stores to raise money to teach children creative writing. National site here. So I says to my friend Tim, I says “You gotta check out this place in Seattle my man, they sell space stuff and it’s hilarious!” So he goes and what does he do? Send us the most awesome package of stuff from there. In the shot above you can see our space map poster, our bright red panic button next to our climate modification panel, and the packaging for said button along with an ominous can of dark matter that we are too scared to open. Thanks again ol’ buddy our office just received an icy blast of nerd cool!

If you dare look after the jump for what the panic does when hit…

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Laughed so hard at this… Also sort of sad because its true

I am always a little shocked at this sort of thing… Heavy-hitters Squaredeye web studios makes a rockin’ whale logo, going so far as to name him (Levi my buddy!) and make a paper-craft model of him, only to have their cuddly mascot purloined by two other designers. My feelings on the overuse of animal logos aside, I thought Levi was refreshing in a glossy, web world and a unique instance of a design company outsourcing its own identity to another (read more on Squaredye’s website). Then here we have his fatherless children trying to pass for original.

As designers we should take pride in creating original work. I know everything in this wide world has been done before, but come on! Either get there first or by sly as heck about it! A wise man once said a good artist copies, a great artist steals. So if you’re going to take something make it yours!