Nimble Toad banner design part II

My vacation wound up being very busy! I took a week off work and visited my parents and kid sister and lots of other nice people besides. I did and accomplished a lot in the tiny portion of my life that doesn't revolve around art, and returned home refreshed. I packed my files and laptop along with the swim fins and zinc oxide, and borrowed my parents' dining room table to work on the NimbleToad banner. Here's how it's looking:

Pretty good! I'm happy with the crisper colors, and the toad is much more limber. Let's see him a little bigger:

Aw yis. I feel like this is in the final stage of poking and prodding -- time to clean up the details and make sure it reads perfectly at the intended size. Once the banner is all set, I'll be modifying it to make an icon-type image for business cards, etc., and possibly a more spacious banner for the NimbleToad Blog.

Nimble Toad banner design part I

My brother's lady companion has begun a crafting collective with several other artsy types - they have a blog and a newborn Etsy shop. What they do not have is a logo, which I'm excited to take a crack at. Somewhere along the line I was shanghaied into designing banners for the aforementioned sites as well, which pleases me because I get to work in Illustrator. Thus far I have the rough ink sketches I auditioned with, and a rudimentary Illustrator mockup of the Etsy banner, both seen below:

I will unnecessarily point out that the name is a pun: the little toad is knitting with his toes. He's Nimble-"Toed." I think this is delightful.

Logo Design Contest

Here 'tis, dear ones: winning entry for the Marmalade Dog 14 logo contest (logos from past conventions can be seen here). It was wonderful working in vector again; I remembered and learned a great deal from this project.

Marmalade Dog is an annual gaming convention held by the Western Michigan Gamers Guild in my hometown, Kalamazoo. My brother is a longtime member - he designed the 2001 logo when he was but a wee lad.

Working time: 7-8 hours approx.