As per usual, the process of hunting down great Rogue and Gambit fanfiction across all universes continues. A few new additions to the House of Cards community on Fanfiction.net, for your reading pleasure...

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such icky quality. :/

morning world.

Times like this I wish I had my own line of cosmetic products that I could build an identity for; or some posters advertising a personal pharmacopeia, or something a little gritty and 19th century inspired. Even Steampunk-eque! (So if anyone feels like throwing a project my way that would entail the purchase of $200 work of gorgeous fonts, please, feel free...) my heart's bleeding for Olduvai and Phaeton right now [...]

Originally published at Cabinet of Curiosities. » Click here « to leave any comments.

It was a considerable surprise to me to find, after several months of waiting, the Soap Box Co. finally released their Tub Tonic product. The design for the label was done a while ago, so its appearance gets a few exclamation points, having found it today by a fluke chance that I was visiting the site [...]

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“Go, you must.”

Over time, a lot of time, I’ve learnt that it’s not so difficult to trace patterns in the way by which my interests arrange themselves in a spoked loop, of sorts, where each driving, dominant aspect of my creative interests situate themselves on one arm of the wheel. Life carries on, the wheel rolls, and somehow I find myself snagged on the idea of something I’d left behind months ago.

The problem, as I see it, is that the focus on said interest tends to blot out any interest in anything else.

(Its a prickly wheel; lobster-trap style, and I’m clacking my claws from the inside with moderate amounts of equal parts frustration and obsessivene abandon.)

Lightly put: I’m burnt on work and looking forward to not doing anything remotely design-related to turn a profit for a litte while. (Not long, given that this is my choice of career, and I haven’t spent a decade in school trying to perfect myself enough to edge myself into the industry, but I’ll be happy to take a month-long vacation from it and the responsibilities of being my own boss. Gladly.)

In the interim, I’ll be focusing on myself: the portfolio and my writing, because both have been suffering at the hands of an active social calendar and Too Much Work; work that spills into my weekends, and work that stresses me out to the point of tearing off my fingernails, and work that doesn’t put food in the fridge because of late payments.

Done with that.

Finito.

I can’t handle the pressure of trying to make twenty dollars stretch for two weeks anymore.

So, back to the grind we go; back to regular paychecks and the sort of menial cubical-centered drudgery that will remind me why I studied so long in this profession to begin with. I see it as a refresher course, as self-motivation of the best sort. (You realize shortly after a few days why you need to get the portfolio done and the curriculum vitae re-written, you realize how very much a misanthrope you are, wheedling away your time on the phone, trying to be polite while listening to people spout inanities; you remember distinctly why you chose to work behind a computer rather than with people, and that refreshes the love and the joy of the thing that was driving you mad to begin with.)

Like I said: onward the wheel rolls, until you get caught up again on something else.

These hit the online store last week(ish) along with a few more Black Label items. Since is a new addition to the catalogue, perhaps temporary (perhaps not, though I can neither confirm or deny that), its worth a mention.

These, like the Pro-Labels, were printed in-house. There's something to be said about have a good quality printer on hand if you're a small business, handling your own packaging design. Absolutely invaluable.

( Graphic Design: Villainess Soaps - Burn! )

I should note that the rest of the labels that require plasticizing (especially in the case of bath-products that hit the water the first time you use them) are printed by Lightning Labels. (The Soap labels go out to Imagers. They're not water-proofed, per se... but kind of waxy, semi-gloss with a bit of "squeak" when you run a thumb across them.) Both companies provide great service and great quality prints, if you're in the market to switch up your quality from the home-grown to the uber professional.

Ginormous labels for ginormous pro-sized bottles.

(This is, incidentally, the size of Whipped! I'd like to keep on hand to slather with personally. Won't happen, but still... I can oogle... 32 ounces. Holy crow.)

( Graphic Design: Scintillating Smooch/Whipped in Pro Sizes )

These were handled in-house on the Official Villainess Printer (a.k.a. the night-before-the-product-is-supposed-to-ship emergency printer). That's a pretty damn good quality print, if you ask me.

While I've over-compensating for not updating this blog for some time, I might as well name-drop: I've been working freelance for Villainess since 2008, and while I don't often talk about it (since anything done for Brooke tends to come with a lot of gushing; she is one of the best clients I have on my roster - affords me tons of creative liberty, listens well, has great ideas, is constantly expanding her product line and she works tirelessly for her clients... so it follows that I dole out a lot of affection and respect for both her company and what she does for her company.)

Once upon a time, when the redesign was still an inkling of an idea and we were still debating where to go with the whole look, she mentioned that she liked the idea of a "Victorian Catalogue". A year later, we've come full-circle (outlink):

( Villainess Soaps: Wholesaler Scent List )

This is part of the Wholesaler PDF she's using for distribution and her resalers. How to get that layout everywhere else without breaking a sweat over the typography is what I'm going to chew on for a few weeks.

(And yes, those are the little bits of Victoriana that you can find on the wrappings Brooke uses for her bars of Soap.)

I'm nothing if not ambitious.

Realistically, the website for Jessica Verday's The Hollow ought to have taken a solid two weeks to put together. Given more time, I likely would have spent a few more hours on the flash components of the site, and I would have skinned the blog for her too - but barring that, I somehow managed (still not entirely sure of the mechanics since the week was a bit of a blur and I didn't sleep an awful lot from stress), to spit out eight layouts within the framework.

Eight. Eight!

Item a: That's redonkulous.
Item b: When the publisher, the editor and the author herself are all pleased with the fact that not only did I stick to the design brief I drew up for graphics, but I managed to somehow mash together two different requests for the aesthetic, I call it a success.

Pretty damned pleased with myself for this one, but lordy... I am not going to attempt to do something this big in that timeframe for a very long time.

*sweatdrop*

Check it out, live and large: http://www.jessicaverday.com

On a side note, having a chance to devour the book days before starting the build is single-handedly the best thing I could have ever done to get inspired.

You'll have the chance to get your hands on it in September 2009 (so I've been totally spoiled. Ha ha!)

( Web Design: JessicaVerday.com )

(Big thanks to Jessica, on this one.)