While Nicola Black Design specializes in print design, we are no strangers to the world of web. In addition to our print design services, we also offer our clients help navigating the sometimes overwhelming world of web marketing tools. We understand that it can be a bit intimidating and we're here to help! We have experience working with most online newsletter interfaces and are happy to assist in creating newsletter templates which you can store for future use, edit and re-use. Below are a few examples of our most recent newsletter work. These newsletters were created using two different services: myemma.com and MailChimp.com (we personally use and recommend MailChimp) respectively. We also have plenty of experience with constantcontact.com. Please contact us if you have any questions about or would like us to help you with your newsletter service.
When we "we love what we do," this is what we're talking about. The process of creating this logo has been extremely rewarding. Dolly Dahl is truly a stellar woman to work with! Not to mention her brand is one that is right up our alley. Vintage, retro, sparkly and fun! How could this NOT be a fun project to work on. Dollydahl.com is an online retro empire selling everything from clothing and accessories to housewares. It's a one stop shop for your vintage-styled life! In addition to the solid colored black, white, and pink and black logos, we came up with a sparkly version as well (seen to the left). Read about our creative process here. Please visit Dolly Dahl's site for some of the best online vintage shopping available! Her logo will be implemented soon throughout her site and collateral. We can't wait to see it in action! Designs ©2010
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Hello, everyone! We've got great news! We've updated our site to include a new shop! The goal is to roll out a new line of designed goods by Fall/Winter 2010. So stay tuned for more information regarding those items. In the meantime, we have 3 pieces available for purchase immediately! Check them out: 1) Dr. Sketchy's Old-Timey Dirty Ditties CD: Package design by Nicola Black Design, L.L.C. and illustration by Molly Crabapple. This compilation was conceptualized by Mr. Joe Wos of Dr. Sketchy's Pittsburgh for SketchyCon '09. The CDs were created for Dr. Sketchy's branch directors who met in 2009 for SketchyCon as part of their swag bags. Today, you can grab your own as I now have a limited quantity available for purchase! Get yours before they are gone! 2) Desert Wind poster: 10 x 21 full-color, matte, limited edition art print illustrating Neil Gaiman's dark mirage of a tale Desert Wind.
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*Limited quantities of this poster are now on sale at our shop. Click HERE! For this portfolio piece, we thought we'd post about our process. This collaboration between Neil Gaiman, Molly Crabapple and ourselves was so much fun — we had to share our experience. When we received the art work sans text, we was in awe. Molly had done a beautiful job. Here is how it looked when it came to us: Our job was to find the perfect type style for the title, layout the poem itself and possibly embellish the art work and text elements when and where possible. We began looking through fonts for the perfect style to accentuate the illustration as well as the words of the poem. This process is one any designer can get lost in. There are oodles of well designed fonts out there to choose from (our fave go to site is myfonts.com) allowing
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Published by Fugu Press, Scarlett Takes Manhattan is a graphic novel written by John Leavitt, illustrated by Molly Crabapple and lettered by Chris Lowrance. We had a great time working on this project. We were asked to design the front and back covers as well as both the title and dedications page. Amazon.com's description of the book is as follows: "A young woman orphaned in tragic circumstances (by a pair of copulating circus elephants) rises to become the foremost burlesque performer of her era: Scarlett O'Herring. Mentored by the mysterious D'Lovely, Scarlett is a fire-breather, courtesan, and the heroine of Dr Sketchy's Anti-Art School founder Molly Crabapple's first graphic novel. "Scarlett Takes Manhattan" is a delightful erotic romp through the exotic world of Gilded Age New York!" The book is available for purchase on Amazon.
We received the honor of working with one of our favorite artists, Molly Crabapple, on the 2009 MoCCA Art Festival poster image. Molly's whimsical illustration required complimentary text to accent the piece. We found a great font to start with that we then utilized throughout the poster. We feel it really falls in line with the under water theme. The text moves with the piece and becomes a part of the illustration rather than an after thought. We also created the extra bubbles for the special guests names so they also became a part of the illustration. T-shirts, post cards, and ads utilizing the final graphic were also created. This project was, by far, one of the most interesting pieces we've worked on in 2009. It's always a good time working with an artist such as Molly. We believe there's a fine line regarding how design comes across in illustrated
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Image above - Model: Candy Mayhem • Photographer: Celeste Giuliano Dr. Sketchy's Philadelphia is a monthly event that we at Nicola Black Design, L.L.C. had the honor of putting on from 2007-2009. It's a drawing event where cabaret meets life drawing. Dr. Sketchy's features models from the worlds of burlesque, roller derby, and old time side shows. With the monthly event comes monthly advertising and promo images. This allowed us to really spread our wings and play with imagery and text in our own special way. Dr. Sketchy's Philadelphia offers true creative freedom. The examples highlighted below are just a few of our favorite pieces from the past 2 years. Each piece is translated into mini-posters (11x17), post cards, and web graphics. In addition, we had the absolute pleasure of working with some of Philadelphia's finest photographers. They include Celeste Giuliano, Kevin Loreaux, Chris Koontz, Leah MacDonald, to name a few.
We designed a brochure for Penn's View Hotel and Ristorante Panorama in 2006. This design is a revised version of that same brochure. The original piece was an 8.5x11 tri-fold which then folded out into an 11x17 piece with a full interior for extra information. On the original 11x17 fold out we included the map of Old City, special packages information, and elaborate directions from 4 different points. We also had the brochure printed on a weightier stock to better engage the consumer and hopefully persuade them to keep it a bit longer than the average brochure. After revisiting the project, our client shared with us that while the benefit of having the 11x17 fold out was very well received, they needed another option for traveling purposes. The weight of the 11x17 brochures as well as the thickness posed a few issues when trying to travel as light as possible. We
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We had the pleasure of working with Darla Magee of Houston's Darla's Yoga Garden. The process of creating the above logo was an experience we won't forget. Darla allowed us to have a lot of fun in creating the design — her approach to the creative process is very open and she truly understands how communication with the designer aids in design. There were a few different approaches we explored with this being the final approved logo. Darla wanted something very laid back that emanated a warm, comfortable feeling as well as something that illustrated the name, Darla's Yoga Garden. In our design process, we always create a black and white logo first. It is important that the logo work without color for applications that may require black and white, or one-color printing. By creating the logo in black and white (or one-color) the overall shape and impression is the
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The Liberty City Kings (AKA LiCK) are Philadelphia's only drag king and burlesque queen performance troupe. Full of lowbrow humor and captivating performances they prove that drag and burlesque are a combination you won't soon forget! They asked us to design a poster and post card that could be utilized for numerous performances. They needed a promotion that allowed them to manually add information for multiple shows throughout the year. These posters and post cards meet that need. We combined the main image from two different photographs (both by the incredibly talented Leah MacDonald). The remaining members of the troupe are featured at the bottom of the promo. Both the poster and post cards have blank areas for show information - a great solution which also, in its own way, brands the troupe since the same image is associated with their shows.
