Sheri, Author at Soleil Design

Mateo’s banner, product sheet and photography

in Campaigns by Sheri October 24, 2012February 13, 2013

Mateo’s had an existing logo and label design, but had not yet established a look and feel for their print marketing when we stepped into the picture. Most of their sales are to restaurants and retail, so we knew we had to appeal to the business market more than the consumer market.

Our first mission was to photograph the product — bottles only (to show packaging) and product in use (to reinforce the end user’s viewpoint).

Next we designed a product sheet that reflected the colors and Trajan typeface from the logo; we emphasized the “Uniquely Different” tagline by running it over the product photo, putting it on an angle and giving it a rustic texture.

We set the type in two contrasting faces (one serif and one sans-serif) and highlighted part of the the copy with green small caps.

We set the contact info in a green bar at the bottom to draw attention to it. To finish out the layout we added a bold photo of the product in use.

Once we established a look it was easy to create a 7′ tall banner for a tradeshow banner by rearranging and resizing the pieces to fit the new proportion. Although the size is dramatically different, the branding is very consistent.

The Hatchery logo

in Logos by Sheri April 4, 2012November 7, 2015

The Hatchery project was a 20-foot-tall climbable wooden tower based on one designed in the early 1900s by Russian artist and architect Vladimir Tatlin. The Dallas version was destined to go to Burning Man, the huge arts and music festival in Nevada, and to go down in flames with the other 30+ CORE projects brought from all over the world.

The project needed a logo to give it an identity for promotion and fundraising purposes, and to set it apart from the other CORE projects that would be working in parallel on their pieces. We designed the logo in the Russian Constructivist style to complement the time period of the original Russian tower project (which was never built).

Characteristics of Russian Constructivism include very strong graphics, elements running on diagonals, red and black color schemes and bold sans serif typefaces. What a fun style to mimic!

The Hatchery logo includes a simplified rendering of the tower (overly complex logos are trouble to reproduce in all the ways one might need to reproduce them, so it’s best to KISS — keep it simple stupid); in the background there is an abstract version of The Man with a star for his head (because we’re from Texas!) and a flame icon.

We chose the typefaces East Bloc (bold & chunky) and Heliotype (condensed) since they are reminiscent of faces from the early 1900s.

As every good designer knows, a good logo works just as well in black and white as it does in color; thus we modified the artwork into a one-color version for tee shirt art. The shirts were used for fundraising and Kickstarter incentives. And wow, were they a hit! Reducing the logo to one color and printing it on a dark shirt as a graphic tee was very well received.

The logo, the fundraising and the tower project were all a huge success!

Shown below are the color logo, the black and white logo on a dark red shirt, and a patch, which was produced in red and black thread on a khaki background.

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Bunny Rampage logo

in Logos by Sheri March 20, 2012February 4, 2013

We created this fun and colorful logo for the sometimes annual event, Dallas Bunny Rampage.

We chose and customized a cute, cartoony illustration and added a pop of color with the flowers.

The condensed sans serif type follows the round shape of the character’s head; the “HOP” type is set in Vantasyhouse because it’s friendly and whimsical.

Since all the logo elements are light in color, we chose a nice, dark teal as the background in a rounded rectangle shape to finish it off … hop hop hop!

Our Afrika logo

in Logos by Sheri January 29, 2012February 2, 2013

What a fun project this was! We got to design a logo for a small travel agency (yes, they still have those!) created by two lovely South African ladies. Both specialize in creating amazing, unique travel adventures in their home country and other parts of Africa — especially safaris!

We researched traditional African colors and patterns and chose some simple graphic shapes to accent the typographic logo. We replaced the crossbar of the “F” with a diamond and mimicked the shape of the “K” with another.

Then we manually adjusted the letter heights and added the three khaki blocks above and below certain characters to create a pleasing rhythm.

We set “Our” in a nice friendly script, painted it red and outlined it with a stroke of white to pop it off the black “A” to complete the logo. We chose a black, red and khaki color scheme since it’s earthy and vibrant, just like Africa.

Rooooaaaar!

Halloween party invitation poster

in Flyers by Sheri October 1, 2011February 11, 2013

We have some awesome friends who go all out throwing their annual Halloween bash. Every year there’s a different theme and a new poster to tempt adventurous party-goers.

This year’s theme was Vegas Baby, Vegas! Since the iconic Las Vegas sign art was to be used as a prop at the party, we incorporated it into the poster.

The main emphasis is a beautiful and dramatic photo of a face-painted lady ready for a masquerade ball. We let the photo choice guide the layout as well as our choices for an elegant and contemporary type treatment and the rich, royal colors of gold and purple.

Normally, using four typefaces in a one-panel project is risky, but with as much experience and skill as we wield, it’s a no-brainer. There are so many beautiful typefaces in the world and not enough time to use them all!

We used Bordeaux Roman Bold (Vegas) and Avant Garde Gothic (Halloween Bash) sparingly; we chose Bickham Script (baby and some important tidbits) for contrast and elegance and the workhorse Franklin Gothic for most of the body copy.

Trick or treat? Definitely a treat!