Creative Director almost done with logo design ;)

Before I get into talking about my logo I have a small announcement.

After years of procrastinating I just got my tax ID # and my DBA (Doing Business As) License. Now that I have the paperwork in order and just got my new email address (thepaintedhand@gmail) I feel strangely legitimate. So what do I call myself?

Sole Proprietor sounds so boring. Maybe C.E.O.? President is a worthy title. I can also be the Treasurer, Secretary and the Head Janitor if I want. I should start making the contact sheet now, and the email lists so that I can keep in touch with my growing organization of one :)

Creative Director..... Hmmmm, I like that.

Meanwhile, as the bureaucratic mess of ID#s and contracts is being dealt with I am still working on the final logo that I will use as my website and Etsy Storefront. The Logo looks great but I do not want to be represented by a computer generated image so I have decided to print the logo on some really nice paper and put it onto a scroll. I want it to look ancient. I have looked around at all the usual suspects: Michaels and the local art supply store but in the end I had to make the long drive to Pearl over on Pico and La Cienega in order to find what I was looking for.

I found some great paper. There was some with leaves pressed into it, some that was thick and gold with a pressed on fibrous textured overlay. There were two types of paper that looked like the one I had been visualizing. One was pressed and kind of fibrous with the fibers being like a long thin confetti and the other being more muted and natural looking with the fibers having a more fabric type feel, almost eggshell in color. The Mulberry that had the best texture and the closest resemblance to the antique parchment that I was looking for. I got bundles of paper, okay, maybe I got more than I needed for a simple logo.... but, surely I will find a use for all this beautiful paper. Not to mention that I have noticed I never know where the project will take me once I get my hands dirty.

So off I went, thinking I could print on this paper and would be done tonight. Unfortunately it is never as easy as it seems like it will be. This has definitely been a learning process. I just discovered that it is impossible to print on Mulberry Paper (laser printing gets up to 300 degrees and would just burn the Mulberry right onto the printing wheel thinger) and I can't get it done on the spot for anything over 11"x 17." If I want to print it on my paper I basically need to make a block print. Learn something new every day.

Damn, that's annoying. I get it printed on their paper, just to see how it looks an then I get it printed on some recycled paper I had. The recycled paper has a little texture to it and is also that muted eggshell color that I like... it looks a little more interesting than the plain Kinkos Paper but it still needs something. Its not what I was looking for.

After a lot of consideration I decide to put the printed logo under the Mulberry and trace it. The delicate Mulberry might tear if I am too rough and is so porous that it will definitely bleed with marker so I do a few practice times before I commit to doing it on top of the logo. Even with practice it takes three tries doing the logo full size before I like it enough to put the brown henna art on the hand.

So its drawn on now but now I have to make it into a scroll. I thought this was going to be one blog, but I also thought this was going to be done by now! I will have to finish off the blog and the scroll when I am done posting few more items on my Etsy store. No use having a logo when you have nothing for sale...