Chalkbard A-Frame Artwork: BUTCHER SHOP

I was recently asked to make a Chalkboard A-Frame for our Kosher for Passover meat products. The butcher shop has undergone a big re-branding lately, and we wanted to bring attention to these special holiday products.

I was inspired by old-fashioned butcher shop signage.

The A-Frames we use measure 2 x 3 feet. They are sturdy, durable, and reusable. I generally use mostly white chalk and white chalk pens to do the lettering and, depending on the board, add additional colors to highlight aspects of the design.

I had fun making this sign! This back side is simple foam core!

For this sign, I made a back that was inspired by the price flags and old-timey window signs from neighborhood markets. This highlights the prices (literally) making it easy for customers to compare the price-per-pound for the different cuts of meats.

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Letterpress Class at the Book Arts Center

I found a new favorite place in town: The Western New York Book Arts Center. They are a non-profit that focuses in sharing the age-old traditions of letterpress printing, screen printing, and other traditional printing methods. They also have bookbinding classes and oh so much more!

I signed up to take their Letterpress I class the other day.

Even their bathroom had some great artwork and typography! Check out this great print with all of the letters and glyphs for Morgans font.

Check out their lovely wooden type. Can you see the variations in the letters? The different wood types? Beautiful.

Above are some of their glyphs and symbols in lead type. These are for letterpress, and are made from lead. They are delicate and, apparently, can be dented if dropped…so you have to be very careful with them! Obviously they have an abundance of fonts in various shapes and sizes. But it is so overwhelming to see all of the parts and pieces that go into making a printed piece.

The even have many, many vintage books and supplies nestled comfortably on their shelves.

The Cold Never Bothered Me

Original poster artwork.

Winter seems to be in it for the long-haul. I’m in the last leg middle of my second winter after my move from Los Angeles and it doesn’t seem like the cold will be letting up any time soon. Fortunately the last few days have been warm sunny.

I hear this winter has broken all sorts of records: Snow (it would seem) every other day. Several days with -26 degree wind-chills (today is a balmy -13 degree with the wind-chill). Snowvember! The list goes on and on. Good thing the “cold never bothered me anyway” or so I tell myself.

This wintry piece was inspired by the lyrics from ever-popular Let it Go song from Disney’s Frozen. I created it using several programs and started off with a sketch on paper. I’ve included some of the steps below:

The original sketch with pen and paper.

Once the sketch was finalized, I took it into the computer where I used several programs to get the lettering “just right”. Manga Studio by Smith Micro is a fantastic program for sketching or inking AND it can work in vector and pixels. The program seems to be under-appreciated and under-used in the art community. My artistic best buddy uses the program all the time and puts out amazing work. It’s a GREAT program and version 5 is a huge leap from version 4.  I used Manga Studio for most of the original hand lettering and sketching.

Lettering almost finalized and color swatches are in the corner.

I then took the file into Adobe Illustrator to clean up the letters and curves. I wanted to leave some of the hand-lettered feel, so not every curve and flourish is 100% perfect. Once the lettering was finished, I took the file into Photoshop where I added the colors and final touches. Here is the finished piece again:

Look for prints in my Etsy Shop soon.

What do you think?

Is There Life on Mars?

This package design project combines two of my loves: vintage tin rocket toys and David Bowie. I took the idea for an old-timey rocket toy and gave it a little bit of a Bowie vibe. I illustrated a Starman (Major Tom, perhaps?) on the package along with some intergalactic lyrics. I tried to keep the packaging simple but interesting; informative but not too text-heavy. Created using Photoshop and Illustrator.

One of the old brands of Tin Rockets were called Moon Patrol, or Lunar Patrol because that was on everyones’ minds at the time. Today we are more focused on Mars, so that is why this is a Mars-themed design. While youngsters may not be familiar with the Bowie references, the toy and illustrations are fun enough to make that a non-issue.

Postcards for ArtPrize

I’m pleased to present you with the postcards for my ArtPrize project. I know I’ve been showing you the digital files for a while now, but here are photographs of the real cards. They turned out very nicely, if you ask me.

These cards are standard postcard size, meaning they can be sent in the mail just like a normal postcard OR you can slip one in an envelope.

For $0.29 you can send one of these babies anywhere in the USA.

For $0.80 you can send one of these cards to someone in Canada or Mexico.

For $0.98 you can send these postcards anywhere in the world. Neat!

It’s a bargain.

Stop by 40 Monroe Center Street in Grand Rapids, Michigan from September 21st to October 9th to pick up a card for yourself. Add an address and proper postage, then come back to www.pageredford.com and  submit the destination of the card online. I will take that data and log it on a map that visualizes the travels of everyone’s cards.

Pink Toe Press

Pink Toe Press is the name of my online shop and my printing press… I’ve been creating a lot of work under the name, and recently decided to really push the “brand.” I recently decided to create a nice little logo to put on my invoices, blog, website, and other Schwag and promotional materials. I even have a sticker on my Laptop.