Annette Marie Price

Hazelden Strategic Plan Graphic

annetteprice — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:47:31 +0000

Not too long ago I completed another project for Hazelden, a graphic for their Strategic Plan. Logo development is always challenging and fun, and this wasn’t unlike developing a logo, except perhaps for the fact that it had to potentially convey a great deal of information at a glance. That is, the concept needed to be scalable, with the idea was that one could “zoom in” on an area of the plan to gain greater detail and level of understanding.

As with all the Hazelden projects I’ve done, I worked closely with writer Teri Ryan to develop this concept, back and forth which is always rewarding professionally and also makes the end result much improved for it.

The logo is ready for application in a variety of formats, and I provided Hazelden with a couple shown here: a one-sheet summary document and a PowerPoint template. You can download a .pdf of the summary document [although it will have lorem ipsum text in place, to preserve confidentiality].

Blueprint CSS

annetteprice — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:59:51 +0000

I am acquainting myself with Blueprint CSS this week, using it to build out the Stepmother Stories site.

I’m still figuring it out, but so far I really like what I see. Coming to this as a print designer, the idea of having grids for web design is, um, huge. The grid is 950px/24 columns wide, as-is. Or you can adjust it — either manually or using a Ruby on Rails compiler.

Below is the grid on, grid off [mouseover to see] which you control via the CSS class “showgrid.” This example uses SlipFire’s WordPress/Blueprint theme.

The grid is fab, but the aspect of Blueprint I’m most keen on its emphasis on typography, as evidenced by a “typography.css” file, as well as a mysterious subfolder labeled “fancy-type.”

I knew this was going to be good when one of the selling points at blueprintcss.org read: Typography based on expert principles that predate the web.

For a print-turned-web designer who’s studied typography and set metal type, reading that sentence is a little like sinking into a nice hot bath. *aaahhhhhhhhhhhh!*

Update 10/30/09: I found a nifty bookmarklet that toggles the grid on and off for you. Nice!

Online portfolio creation in progress!

oldsite — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 03:05:46 +0000

A completely revised online portfolio is in progress. Spanning about a decade of work, the types of projects include: interactive work, print design, illustration, and photo retouching.

In other news, Yearbook Yourself turned up on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon a little while back. Check out the video.

Update 10/06/09: Portfolio now done. It’s right there. Right up there.

The lovely latest

oldsite — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 04:45:35 +0000

I wrapped up at Colle+McVoy last week and the Yearbook Yourself 2009 site should be up any minute now. I can’t wait to do my own portrait and put it up on Facebook. I think I’ll do one from the 50s or 60s. Or maybe the 70s, because the glasses and hair were so great back then. Oh, I’ll probably do them all and change them every few days. Why not?

And so now I turn my attention to Hazelden, where I am working with the fabulous duo, Dawn Carlson and Teri Ryan once again. This time an invitation for an event for writers in L.A., as well as Hazelden’s graduate school case statement. Both wonderful creative projects that I’m very excited to be getting started on!

I’m also working with ICMA-RC on their benefits enrollment materials again this year, which is fabulous because that means I’m teamed up with Jan Irwin and Vanessa Waller-Jones, who are both just a dream to work with. And there’s always a nice little bit of creativity involved as well, in the form of a logo design for the year’s theme. This year it’s “Wellness Works.”

Will post examples of everything once available …

Update 7/21/09: And the site is live!

Yearbook Yourself!

oldsite — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 19:46:04 +0000

In addition to my freelance work, I also work for The Creative Group, which is a staffing agency for creatives. I like it because even when the project at hand is something pretty familiar to me, it’s always with new people and in a new place, and after 18-odd years of being in this line of work, that keeps things interesting.

But occasionally TCG will send me on an assignment that’s just pure, unabashed fun. Last time it was to a balloon factory to familiarize myself with the product so I could do some renderings. This time, it was to Colle+McVoy, a Minneapolis marketing agency that just won a Webby award for their development of the Yearbook Yourself website.

I had seen these yearbook photos around on Facebook and such and did wonder where people were getting them. Now I know! And I’m working with some very nice folks at C+M to create new templates for the 2009 version of the site. These are the templates based on old yearbook pics into which people will insert their photos to create the retro looks. It’s super fun, especially when you take friends’ and family’s pics and retro-ize them. I often end up chuckling to myself throughout the day as I’m working on this.

I don’t have a date for the 2009 site launch, but you can sign up here to be notified when it happens.

Update: I’ve finished my work on this project, and they are wrapping things up at Colle+McVoy the latter part of this week. The site launches the week of the 20th! Check it out! There are some great new images, and some nice additions this year that make the end result even more convincing and fun.

Hazelden 2008 Annual Report

oldsite — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:16:55 +0000

I worked with some fantastic people at Hazelden — project manager Dawn Carlson, writer Teri Ryan, marketing director Lisa Neary — to produce Hazelden’s 2008 annual report.

Hazelden’s vision, while not easy to achieve, is simple and beautiful: “All who seek recovery will find it, and the stigma of addiction will be overcome.”

In keeping with this, we paired simple but beautiful imagery with a simple but sophisticated layout. I’m very proud of this effort.

Oh la la

oldsite — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 02:41:38 +0000

The visual display of information

oldsite — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 20:49:36 +0000

I tried to get on last.fm yesterday and couldn’t. Their error page said something about temperature control problems in the datacenters. Today, a graph on Flickr shows the nature of the problem. [For the record, 50°C is about 120°F.]

A chiller failed, leading to a high ambient temperature, leading to 5 other chillers failing. This is what happens next.

Perusing site designs and came across this beaut

oldsite — Sat, 30 May 2009 03:54:37 +0000

Goodness me, this is a beautiful logo from [MN]Interactive.

Reworking things

oldsite — Tue, 26 May 2009 05:18:39 +0000

I have been reworking my website for, oh I don’t know, about two years now. There was never time to do it properly, and that’s why it’s been a work in progress for so long.

But I put my nose to the grindstone recently and got the redesign of it well underway. I have all sorts of ideas — too many, really — but it’s starting to gel. Here’s a sneak preview:

Having fun with Japanese stencils [also in use here on current site], type-as-art and lots and lots of color! [Hrumph, you’ll have to trust me on that one, seeing as the screengrab is fairly monochromatic.]

The Hazelden 2008 Annual Report was on press last week, all went extremely well and I’m excited to see the final piece. It was printed by Ideal Printers in Saint Paul and they did a fantastic job.

I will post a .pdf here once it’s officially gone public.