graphic design – sarah vail

DEEP DIVE: GAY PRIDE FLAG COLOR MEANINGS

Posted on June 25, 2019 by

HAPPY PRIDE MONTH!

Welcome and thank you for joining me on my descent into the fascinating world of color meanings and representation. In this post I will explore the meanings behind the 6 colors represented in the gay pride flag.

RED: LIFE

Red is the purrrfect color to kick things off! It’s the top (first) color in the gay pride flag, making it a logical starting point. Besides that, red is known in Feng Shui circles as the most active of all colors, making it a great color to examine in preparation for a month full of rainbows, parades and glitter-filled celebrations.

In the context of the gay pride flag, red represents life. Indeed, the many variations of red are associated with power and energy, two sure signs of life that I struggle with on a daily basis. The struggle is so real that I’ve done some pretty deep dives into the practice of Feng Shui over the years.

My go-to for any and all design concerns is a document known as a Feng Shui Matrix (or Bagua). I’m not an expert and it’s complex AF, but for the sake of Pride, I reworked the rainbow colors into a Matrix that should work just fine if you dare to dabble.

Please do dabble carefully – red corresponds with the element of fire.

Red also has the ability to deliver powerful messages of warning, some easier to receive than others.

If you ever happen upon a set of red curtains appearing in a circle of 12 Sycamore trees, know that the color red serves as a warning. Special Agent Cooper, Mr. C, and Dougie Coop know what I’m talking about.

ORANGE: HEALING

Orange you glad you’re reading this post?!? I know I am.

Orange is the second color in the gay pride flag, and in this context, it means healing. I’ve been struggling with this meaning because it’s so broad, yet so specific in the context of the gay community.

I’m going to keep it broad here and share that I think there are many reasons we all need to heal and many ways to do it. From a Feng Shui perspective, the color orange encourages communication, which connects for me. When I know I need to work through some shit, I find that talking to someone is always a good place to start.

Besides communication, the positive qualities of the color orange include happiness, concentration, and intellect. A negative quality of orange is rebelliousness, but I’m on the fence about this label. Without the rebelliousness of all the activists, artists and allies that work tirelessly toward a more inclusive world, we’d all be in trouble. BIG trouble.

YELLOW: SUNLIGHT

Yellow, yellow, want some jello? Me either.

I’ve been looking forward to yellow because, in the context of the gay pride flag, it’s the meaning I love and connect with the most. It means sunlight, which, on its own is pretty great. But let’s go a little deeper here – it’s about being yourself instead of hiding in the shadows.

Come out into the light and get some vitamin D, y’all!

Without sunlight, life as we know it would be nearly impossible. This correlates with the designation that Feng Shui practitioners give yellow – it represents the Earth element.

From a Feng shui perspective, yellow is also known to stimulate the brain and aid digestion. It’s associated with enlightenment, intellect, optimism, reason, and decisiveness.

GREEN: NATURE

Greed is good. Er, whoops, that’s a whole other thang. Green is the color of money though, and I bet if Gordon Gecko had a favorite color that would be it. This is where I really start feeling the colors of the flag.

In the context of the gay pride flag, green means nature. It’s interesting that green comes after yellow, or sunshine, which makes nature possible. Science!

This meaning is the one I relate to the most. Just this morning, we came upon a baby Black-crowned Night-Heron that had fallen from the nest and landed on the concrete sidewalk. The nest is high in the tree, so baby bird is in rough shape. That’s nature. It can be pretty harsh.

Green represents the wood element in Feng Shui.

Besides representing the wood element in Feng Shui, green is known as a restful and refreshing color. It symbolizes growth, fertility, and harmony. It is associated with optimism, freedom, and balance.

BLUE: PEACE

Blue is my favorite color. Like, hard. It’s kind of complex in the context of the gay pride flag though, so I’ve been struggling with this color meaning in particular. To keep it simple, I leveraged the decisive attributes of yellow and decided to focus on one meaning: peace.

I do believe in the concept of world peace and all that jazz, but for now, let’s keep it simple and think about it using the frame of inner peace.

I know that inner peace would be a beneficial tool for me to have, especially when I’m feeling down or having a bad day. I’m not actually working toward it though, and that’s my bad – it looks really really hard.

Feng Shui practitioners use blue to represent the element water.

From a Feng Shui perspective, the peaceful and soothing color blue is linked to spirituality, contemplation, mystery, and patience. The positive associations of the color are trust, faithfulness, and stability. The negative associations are suspicion and melancholia, two associations I’m quite familiar with.

PURPLE: SPIRIT

All month long I’m doing my best to embody the meaning of the color purple – spirit.

Learning that spirit is the meaning of purple in the context of the gay pride flag is one of the main reasons I decided to do a deep dive into color meanings. I mean, spirit? I think I know what spirit is, but how in the heck can it be articulated? Needless to say, challenge accepted, universe.

For me, this means spending time with people I love, and that love me too (including pets, of course). I’m hanging out in nature, letting myself be creative and am excited for the months and years ahead.

From a Feng Shui perspective, purple is known to be a spiritual color and is thought to encourage vitality. Some positive associations of purple are excitement, passion, and motivation. Negative associations include mournfulness and force.

THE WRAP UP

I had fun researching the gay pride flag and am delighted to finally share what I know. I invite you to share this post with anyone that may enjoy it and would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Until next time, I’ll be trying to live my best life and hope you are too!

Adult Acne? These Crystals Might Help

Posted on February 20, 2018 by

My interest in crystals has been ramping up lately. The more I learn about the different gems, the more fascinated I become. I’ve got to create when inspiration hits, which it did after a recent Woman of Size Podcast episode.

In this post, I share the graphic, provide a brief summary of each stone, and give credit where credit is due – to the sources.

The Graphic

The Crystals

Selenite

Selenite is a great crystal for skin conditions. It amplifies healing and pulls away negative energies and blockages that cause that particular skin condition.

Turquoise

Touted as the master healer, turquoise has detoxifying and anti-inflammatory properties, helping to reduce acne breakouts.

Azurite with Malachite

Azurite with Malachite, a combination stone, is a powerful conductor of energy and a powerful healing force for the body. It is an excellent stone for treating all skin conditions.

Black Onyx

Black Onyx is a soothing, cooling stone. Use this stone to help fight infection and calm inflammation. This crystal helps to rebuild confidence and self-esteem.

The Wrap Up

Do you have any crystal recommendations for reducing acne? I’d love to hear them!

In the meantime, I’m working on a few more crystal-related graphics, so be sure to sign up for my newsletter to stay in the loop!

The Sources

https://www.theholisticdirectory.co.uk/articles/story/crystals-for-healing-skin-by-bunmi-aboaba

https://ecologicskincare.co.za/2017/02/crystals-and-complexions/

5 Healing Rocks and Crystals for Flawless Skin

Invitation to Love: Out-of-this-World Wedding Invites

Posted on December 11, 2017October 17, 2024 by

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted, so I’m easing back into the swing of things by highlighting a recent design project that I’m pretty excited to write about: my wedding invitation.

In this post, I detail the design process for my personal wedding invitation, including what I learned and the unexpected outcomes of the project. I put a lot of myself into this one and am thrilled with how they turned out!

First Comes Love (I mean a Save the Date)

I designed a Save the Date (STD) awhile back. Although we didn’t end up using it, I like it a lot and hope someone is able to use it one day!

Celestial-themed wedding invitation and save the date.

Then Comes Marriage (Ah-hem, I mean a Formal Invitation)

For personal accountability (and budgeting) reasons, I wanted to be sure the invites were sent to the printer by the end of November.

Image

I used an Adobe Stock credit for this beautiful image.

Color Palette

I used the colors in the image to build a color palette. This is something new that I’m doing to build my color confidence.

I was a little self-conscious, but I decided to just go for it and posted my palette on Instagram. To my surprise and delight, I got a few new followers!

Design Program

I used Canva, again. I feel like I should try something new, but it’s just so easy and fun to use!

Printer

I requested wedding invitation sample packs from several outlets, including Vistaprint. While I was impressed by the packaging and detail included in the other packs, our favorite sample (I’m picky when it comes to paper stock) was from Vistaprint.

Factoring in the minimum 20% discount code they always seem to honor and my confidence using them as a printer, we went with Vistaprint.

The Final Product

Size: 5′ X 7″ flat

Fonts: Playlist Script, Hammersmith One, and Arialle

Paper Stock: Ultra thick matte (Vistaprint) – the invite looks as good as it feels!

Then Comes Baby (HA!)

I’ve been thinking about listing some of my designs on Etsy for awhile now, but I just never did. Until now! This invite turned out so well, I decided to I finally take the time to set up a shop and do all the stuff I needed to do to sell my designs.

Here’s a link to my shop, which I’ll add more designs to over time:

SHOP NOW

I’ve got another project in the works that will launch on Etsy in the first quarter of 2018, so I’m glad I’m learning how it works!

But Wait, There’s More!

Back to the wedding invites – there are a lot of things that need to happen before the mailing commences.

RSVP Cards

I’m currently designing the RSVP card to include in the invitation envelope. I probably should have just done everything at once, but I wanted the invite to be done and paid for, so I just went for it!

Envelopes

I’m making things even more complicated by lining the invitation envelopes myself.

I have the envelopes, the paper is cut, and the glue dots are patiently waiting to drive me to the brink of insanity. Historically, glue dots and I are not friends.

I will detail both projects in future posts, so be sure to subscribe if you’re interested in hearing how they go!

Business Card: Rustic Treehouse

Posted on September 11, 2017 by

I really enjoy business card projects. Every design is different and comes with a unique set of challenges and considerations. I love the process of figuring out what the client wants, what they need, and how I can use my design skills to make it happen.

In this post, I detail the design process for Rustic Treehouse’s business card, including what went well and what could be better. I learned a lot on this one and am excited to see how they look when they come back from the printer.

Client: Rustic Treehouse

My talented sister, Emily, and her wife, Missy have figured out how to successfully turn their passion and talent for repurposing used wood into beautiful, handpainted signs, like these cuties:

Their business is growing organically and they need a basic business card that works in a variety of situations. The primary purpose is to include with completed orders. New business is a secondary objective – how awesome is that?!?

Logo

They have a logo that they love, and I have to say, I love it too. Until now, Missy had been hand painting it on the back of the signs, and in some cases, burning it in.

When I saw the wood burned version of the logo, I was excited to turn the image from a photo into a digital logo that they can use on future promotional material.

I asked Missy to text me the photo. Once I received it, I uploaded it Adobe Capture, a fun app I’ve been playing around with for a few months.

Say you were walking down the street and saw something that inspired you so much that you had to take a picture. Capture can be used to, well, capture, whatever it is about the image that inspires you – perhaps a color or pattern for example. In this case, I wanted to extract the shape, and it took less than a minute to do it!

Capture is compatible with other programs in the CC Suite, so I plopped it right into Photoshop, where I knew I could quickly transform the background from white to transparent.

Image

Early on, I floated the idea of using an image of wood instead of a solid colored background. They loved the idea, so I provided them with a few samples to keep the project moving. This was the crowd favorite after our initial design conversation:

black painted wood — Source: Adobe Stock

Imagine my delight when Missy shared this image of a Rustic Treehouse workspace:

It just feels more authentic, which makes sense, because it is. I was thrilled to replace the stock photo with an image that truly represents the business.

Fonts

Fonts were the most challenging aspect of this design.

The client uses a beautiful cursive script in most designs, and I wanted to honor that by incorporating a similar font into the business card. Early on in the process, we decided to use Playlist Script as the attention-getting font, but font pairing options were tabled until the last minute.

As if font pairings aren’t complex enough, I was too excited about using Capture to transform a photo into a digital logo to notice the R and T, which are a far cry away from a script font.

While the idea of pairing seemingly random fonts moderately inflamed my OCD, I wanted to get all the information on the card before playing around with the fonts. Before I could get back to fonts, the client fell in love with the back of the business card. If they’re happy, I’m happy!

The front of the card, however, was a different story. It took some time to find a font that we could all live with, and I hope I can revisit the font sitch at some point. For now, this is the front of the card:

Design Program: Canva

Printer: Vistaprint

Crystal Ballin’ Rustic Treehouse

This Side Hustle has the Potential to be Much, Much More
The rate of organic growth for new sign requests is insane. What started out as a fun hobby for my favorite sign making pair has turned into an almost overwhelming obligation. I have a whole business plan designed in my head, and they know I’m here when they’re ready to move to the next level.

Tutorial Opportunity
They put a lot of time and love into each sign, and I’m inspired to document their process. This would allow me to build my video/tutorial skills, while delivering a solid marketing asset if they should ever want or need it.

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to my blog (on the right hand side of the screen) to learn with me. Check out Rustic Treehouse on Facebook to see more of their inspired designs.

Universal Citizenship Card Series: The Elevator Dilemma

Posted on September 6, 2017October 17, 2024 by

After spending too much time researching how to build my graphic design skill set, I decided to do what every piece of research recommended: just start doing it.

Many of the articles I read suggested re-creating designs and images that already exist. I’ve never been short of ideas, and I was hesitant to go this route at first, but ultimately, I decided it was better than what I was working on, which was not a gosh darn thing.

Luckily, when I looked over at my ever growing “interesting things” pile, Eeboo’s Good Citizenship Flash Cards were sitting right on top. I picked three of my favorites and pinned them up on the bulletin board above my desk.

I think this is the debut of my Nessie bulletin board pins! I picked these up during a recent trip to the National Building Museum. They have a sweet gift shop that I highly recommend!

I picked the elevator card to be one of my first because it’s good advice that I’ve never really followed – I’m more of a “close, close, clOSE, CLOSE” button pusher.

This reminds me of one of my favorite episodes of Radiolab. They provide some very interesting information about the Close Button around 4 minutes in.

Concept

I’m going to try to do these using extraterrestrials instead of animals. The elevator card was easy enough to turn into an abduction scene, so naturally, that’s the route I went.

I detail the process of designing my X-files themed business cards in this post

Here’s my take:

Images

With the exception of the starry background on the front of the card, these images are from Adobe Stock. I believe the starry background is from Pixabay, but I downloaded it a long time ago and I’m not 100%.

This post provides several options for finding free images

Design Programs

Adobe Photoshop

I used photoshop to remove the backgrounds from the three individuals (2 aliens (which are different species/races if you ask me) + 1 white dude). I’m getting pretty comfortable with the magic eraser and background eraser tool.

Canva

As much as I’d like to switch it up and learn new programs, I’m still learning how to use Canva and it provides me with all the functionality I need at this point.

Once I uploaded each of the images, it was just a matter of adjusting them on the page.

Lessons Learned

When removing the background of an image, choose one with a solid background

It’s a lot easier to remove an all-white background from an image. Let’s just say I wish I would have watched this 3 minute Adobe Photoshop tutorial about 16 hours before I did.

Save Image As PNG to retain transparent background

Once the background is removed, save image as PNG (TIFF / GIF work too) to retain transparent background. Saving as a JPEG will just save the same image you were working with – colored background and all.

I need to keep building my Photoshop skills

This was a really good start, but I want to be able to do more. For example, I’d really like the running white dude to be dirty, like he’d been there for awhile. It would be great to make it look like he had a bloody nose, which is creepy, I know.

Pay attention to the details

As I put together the images for this post, I noticed that the back of the original card has a border on it. I need to be done with this project, so I let it go for now. Next time I want to be sure I incorporate details like that into my design.

The same goes with the shape of the card. They have rounded corners and I totally missed that detail.

I need to keep building my Canva skills

I don’t know how to create these with rounded corners, so I need to see if Canva has the functionality to create images with rounded corners.

Crystal Ball Time

Stay tuned for my next interpretation, which will either be the Recycling Card or what I call the “squealer” card. I can’t even wait – I have mixed feelings about the quality of this advice:

Want to know when the next one is done? Be sure to subscribe to my blog (on the right hand side of the page) to stay in the loop!

The Truth is Out There – So Are Free Images

Posted on August 22, 2017 by

A few years ago, I was looking for some images to include in an eLearning module. I wanted to incorporate visuals into some of the more text heavy slides, but didn’t have a budget. I thought it would be easy breezy to find free images to use.

Man, was I wrong.

At the time, free images were scarce. I spent countless hours searching, but in the end, I used my personal account to purchase stock photos.

Thanks to today’s collaborative and open resource sharing culture, free high quality stock assets are easy to find, if you know where to look.

Free Stock Photos

In my first obsessive search for free images, I found this super helpful article that lists 14 Free Stock Photo Websites.

Jacqueline Thomas one-upped that list, providing the image-obsessed 73 websites to geek out in this Canva resource. It’s truly a gift!

These articles provide so many options for finding free images that it seems silly to compile my own list. Instead, I’ll just highlight a few of my favorites.

Gratisography

I’ve never met, or even talked to, photographer Ryan McGuire, but I really enjoy his images and the way he views the world. Many of his photos are offered as free images on Piktochart, which I thought was interesting.

I can always find something that inspires me or makes me laugh, like this praying mantis smoking a ciggy:

Negative Space

This is a cool and easy to navigate site that I like a lot. They hooked me with this shot of a beautiful blue volkswagen beetle (sigh):

This list compiled by Adobe Stock is similar, but includes sources that offer additional free assets, such as video and illustrations.

Adobe Captivate Asset Store

This is pretty specific to eLearning developers that use Adobe Captivate, so I won’t dwell on it too much. I learned about this resource during one of my research binges for a class I was taking. It was perfect timing, and it helped me provide specific instructions in the reboot of a storyboard I was working on at the time.

Free Images

These next few sites may be considered something other than images, but I’m not exactly sure how else to classify them. All I know is they’re super cool and I’ve lost time – lots of time – geeking out and downloading my heart out.

Vintage Printable

This site requires a bit of patience to navigate, but I’ve found it to be well worth it. For example, I found this gem that I plan to use as the foundation for one of my next tattoos:

Vintage Posters

As I put together this post, I included Vintage Printable as an afterthought – I had actually forgot about it! When I went to find the site, I came across this Vice article that is a must read if you’re into vintage posters. I spent about a minute looking around before I found this gem:

Have fun exploring these sites! Keep in touch with any suggestions or additions to the list. Feel free to share this with your pals!

I’ll keep these free resource posts coming, so be sure to subscribe to my blog if you like what you see.

business card series: get noticed by deep throat with this design

Posted on August 1, 2017October 17, 2024 by

I’ve been obsessed with the X-Files for far longer than any other secret government/alien conspiracy shows, and it inspires a lot of projects that I have in the works right now.

That poster that Agent Mulder has in his office though!

I’ve always loved the print, but it’s never felt like the right time to have it up on my wall.

By making it the back of my business card, I can look at the image every day without it taking up too much space.

Design Program: Canva

I wanted to approach the feng shui of this card a bit differently than my last one, just to see if I am able to notice any long-term results down the road.

Here’s the general matrix that I use for pretty much everything, with what I’m hoping for with this design circled in red:

Printer: Vistaprint

I primarily use Vistaprint for my printing needs, but I’m always open to trying new things. They almost always have a sale and I’ve always been happy with the quality of the product.

I really love my shark cards, but they lacked any white space, which is one of the things I like best!

But for the rest of the series, I want to include white space so that potential clients and contacts are able to write anything down on the card that they see fit (hopefully something like “get in touch asap” or similar).

At first, I tried to match the font color to the blue sky on the poster image, but I didn’t love it.

Luckily, my girl Heidi had the brilliant idea of matching the pop of green in the image – brilliant. To do this, I used Colordot:

I detail this process and examine my favorite color matching resources in this post.

When the cards arrived, the image on the back has a slight white border on the bottom edge, but otherwise they look great!

Here’s my newest business cards that I’m thinking I should use to target new DC clients:

Lessons Learned:

Don’t Rush Image Alignment
The little white border that was printed on my cards wasn’t exactly a surprise – I played around with it on Vistaprint for a few minutes before deciding I just needed it to be done. I convinced myself that it probably wouldn’t print – it was well below the “safety” line.

I’m happy to send hard copies of this series if you’re a tactile person (like me – we’re so weird!). Just get in touch with your mailing address and I’ll pop ’em in the mail for you!

So Many Colors: 4 Great Resources to Make Life Easier

Posted on July 24, 2017October 17, 2024 by

I struggle with colors, especially when it comes to matching. Without any formal training, it’s been tough to know what really works and what colors to use if I’m trying to achieve a specific purpose, like motivating learners or gaining subscribers.

I’ve spent countless hours obsessing over colors and have found several helpful resources that help take some of the guess work out of it for me. Hopefully one of my four favs will save some color-challenged designer from the eyestrain that I’ve come to associate with color matching.

Material Design Palette

The feature that I use the most on this site is the palette. You simply choose two colors that you want to work with and voilà – you’ve got yourself a palette! Since I invested in Camtasia for school, as well as to build my video editing skills, I made my first very short, very silent tutorial on how this baby works:

Besides the palette feature, the icons and colors sections are worth checking out as well.

Color Lisa

This site is more inspirational for me than it is functional, but I spend a lot of time on here looking at beautiful colors. If you love a famous work of art, this site might be able to provide you with the color palette. For example, one of my favorites is The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai, and with the click of a button, this site provided me with an inspired color palette to use as I wish:

The Psychology of Color

I became enamored with Neil Patel a few years ago when I stumbled upon the guide that he co-wrote with Bronson Taylor, The Definitive Guide to Growth Hacking. It really spoke to me and helped me uncover my natural ability to understand consumer behavior. I subscribed to his blog and was really excited when I heard about another guide that he co-wrote with Rita Puri, The Complete Guide to Understanding Consumer Psychology.

Chapter Four, The Psychology of Color is amazing and is one that I look at on a regular basis. For example, this is just one section of an infographic that conveys a lot of super helpful information:

Screenshot 2017-07-24 12.47.16 — Source: Patel & Puri, The Complete Guide To Understanding Consumer Psychology

Hell-ooo-OOO Red Orange, Black and Royal Blue!

Colordot

I took what I learned from designing the first business card in my series, networking like a shark, and got to work on the next one.

I minimized both screens (Canva and Colordot) and put them side-by-side to use Colordot to find a green close to one on the image on the back of the card.

Please let me know if you have any recommendations for color matching resources – I’d love to hear what you use and how you use it so I can give it a try!

save the date: an STD of cosmic proportions

Posted on July 10, 2017July 10, 2017 by

I really think it’s great that the acronym for save the date is STD. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do because I’m going to use every chance I get.

I’m getting married next May and the clock is ticking for getting the STD’s in the mail. I’m pretty particular about the look, feel and the cohesiveness of the invites to the theme (which I’ll get into later), so I’ve got full creative control here.

I knew I would get obsessive if I designed them myself, so I ordered a beautiful STD template from etsy so it could go to the printer and just be done.

In the meantime, I decided to spend a little time working on an STD to build my skills. After a round of edits, this is what I came up with:

This was first for me, so my hope is that I continue to build my skills and improve over time!

Action Item: To keep the momentum going, I’m going to put spend some time on an invitation and RSVP and will try to finalize a complete wedding kit

Business Card: Casa Pena Designs

Posted on July 9, 2017September 7, 2017 by

I had a blast with my first business card design and learned a lot in the process. Here is everything I learned, from beginning to end.

Client: My girl Heidi at Casa Pena Designs, an interior design firm

We’ve been talking about updating the CPD logo for awhile, but it hasn’t happened yet. In the meantime, a great networking opportunity made business cards a priority. I used the current logo as a point of reference.

Considerations: Heidi incorporates a lot of blues into her designs, and loves those clean lines

I wanted the design of her business card to represent her distinct style, and here’s what I came up with.

Design Program: Canva

After a few revisions, I completed the design. Heidi quickly double checked the details before uploading to Vistaprint.

Printer: Vistaprint

I have used Vistaprint in the past, so I knew they could turn the job around quickly and deliver a decent quality product. Plus, they almost always have a sale.

After the cards were ordered, we both realized that there was one little detail we had missed: the website was wrong. Luckily, Heidi was able to work some sort of web magic to resolve the issue.

When the cards arrived, the fonts were smaller than they looked on the screen, but otherwise, they looked great!

Lessons Learned:

Logos are Complex
I spent a lot of time researching logos and logo design before deciding that logos are far more complex than I thought. Perhaps I’ll go into it another time, but it’s worth noting as one of my major takeaways from this project.
Be Careful with Font Sizes
In particular, modern fonts on printed material. Next time, I won’t order 500 cards the first round, no matter how enticing Vistaprint makes the offer.
Confirm the Details
It did occur to me that I should get up from the computer and take a 5 minute break before uploading and sending to the printer, but we both just wanted to get the project done. Next time I’ll trust my instincts and try to have fresh eyes when I finalize the design.