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Well, it finally happened. With the iconic Mac mail ‘ding’, BKNY received its first order! Pictures above are of my poster prep for mailing. Hadn’t really thought about mailing labels, but I quickly threw one together, a little ink-jet hand stamp combo. They look great on the kraft tubes.

I have a feeling the word spread after giving a wayfarer print set to a certain bday girl (thanks Lauren!). But anyhow, it’s a great feeling knowing that someone will be enjoying my art on their apt walls. Not to mention, BKNY is on the map (as I tape up a dollar to my bedroom wall).

As for updates, I have been really concentrating on photography for my products. Can’t say how many times I have been switching pictures around but I’m getting more efficient as I become more familiar with my camera. I’m planning on printing (yes you heard it right, me and my hands!) my new design Friday. So expect it to be up for sale this weekend. I also came up with a real dope pillow case idea while napping (go figure). I’m thinking that will be my next thing to move on once my new shirts are up and running…one thing at a time.
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I have said this before, sell sheets are always the coolest projects to work on because you basically get to do whatever you want! Pretty much angles, bright colors, multiplied gradients, grids and knock out copy are all a few of my favorite things.

Hey Yanina, your old sell sheet just got ’served’.
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It’s here…well sorta. Even though I have a ton of more work still to do, I decided early this morning (6am!) that today was going to be the day I pre-launch BKNY to the masses (via Facebook). I am very thankful for all the positive feedback I have been receiving and proud of what I have achieved so far, but far from being satisfied. Be on the look out for constant updates and new style releases in the near future as I try to expand BKNY creatively. I definitely have some stuff cooking on the back burner that I am really excited about.
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It’s been a while since I have had any worthy design work to add to the ol’portfolio. Lucky for me, I was asked today at work to design a sell sheet for Olympic athlete Mirai Nagasu. Although I can’t fathom laying a huge program, sell sheet layouts give me the perfect amount of ‘editorial opportunity’ to experiment with design. My mind blows up if I have to layout more than 5 pages…I’m still trying to get better and more efficient.

I used to loathe getting any layout projects, but now I welcome them (1-5 pages). Typography is a heavily overlooked skill any great graphic designer must possess. I admit, I’m not where I want to be, but I think my layouts are starting to show promise.

Check out my collection of sell sheets:

• Camilo Villegas
• Luke Donald
• Filip Krajinovic
• Derek Hough

I’m excited I don’t have to ‘work’ tomorrow (I’m on call, I’m hoping they don’t call). I’m picking up my first batch of tees which are being finished tomorrow (exciting!). I also will have some more time to work on my retail site and think about my sew-on labels. This clothing venture (BKNY) has been a long process, but I’m making headway. I just have to fight my temptation to watch back to back to back episodes of LOST…just started season 3.
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Today during some of my downtime at work, I finally designed the ‘99′ I am going to wheatpaste on my building’s door in Greenpoint. I figured since my door doesn’t even have a real functioning address anyhow, I might as well help out the mailman. You’d laugh if you saw what was up there now (wish I had a picture).

I ran old and yellowed newsprint through our HUGE Canon laser printer here at work. I had to cut down the sheets so I could affix them to color laser tabloid paper (to act as a guide, either that or the newsprint jams). The 9’s came out great and I am really excited about finding the right opportunity to put them up (unfortunately the forecast this weekend is a wet one). When the time does come, I am definitely going to enlist a little help from wheatpastin’ extraordinaire Clint.

Up until now, he’s been having all the fun in my hood.
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Above are some favicons (scaled 700%) I designed for the following sites:

• (BW) My portfolio site
• (BKNY) My new clothing site
• Veronica’s blog, Superveronica

I love creating favicons, then again I love logos so its only natural I would. You get only 16px X 16px to in essence recreate your logo or some identifying (brand) mark. Your site just isn’t complete (or pimp) without one. They are so easy to create too. Probably the hardest thing is finding a free .ico photoshop plugin which allows you to save your file with a .ico (icon) extension. Other than that it’s just overwriting your current favicon.ico via ftp and wallah!

For more detailed instructions, go here.
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Its has been almost an eternity since I last entered a submission into the Threadless weekly t-shirt competition…it has been even longer since I was printed. Since I come up with a couple of these ideas a week and never really act on them, I figured today I’d submit a shirt design. It’s a clever idea. May not be the best execution of it, but my fingers are crossed. I’m surely going to give a shout once it’s approved for voting. Be on the lookout Facebook world!
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Worpress theme re-designing has become my new found addiction. It started with re-designing my personal blog and now has carried over to some recent freelance work I’m doing.

These are two blogs I recently re-designed:

• I Will Inspire You
• Sweetwater Farm

I’m not at the point where I can fully code a custom theme from scratch yet , but I’m surely getting there. For now, it’s just taking existing themes and customizing them as much as I can.
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If it’s two things I consider myself well-versed in, it’s branding and t-shirts. My buddy Chris’ friend’s band is running a Facebook t-shirt contest until February 28th, so I decided to enter. Who knows, I think the graphic I created would make for a great logo too.
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This made my day. I am always a sucker for quality, simple and iconic logos/marks. To me, they are the most impactful, yet simplest forms of graphic design (think about the Nike swoosh). This mark by Jon Contino kills it.

Via Super Veronica!
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