In Greenpoint Brooklyn, a mom and pop coffee shop, Crema BK, is quietly perfecting chai. The husband and wife team approached their recipe scientifically, experimenting with measurements, ingredients, and brewing techniques until finally arriving at something that finally met their very high standards.   They then figured out how to prepare a concentrated version, so that their customers could buy a bottle to take with them and prepare at home.  It was a hit.  The obvious next step was to figure out how to do it on a larger scale.  Thus, Alkemy Brewlab was born.  The name is a nod to all their exacting scientific methods that led to that perfect recipe, not too spicy, not too sweet.

Referrals are my favorite way to come by new clients.  And this client came by way of Earlybird Granola, which was sold at their shop, which led them to ask, who did this packaging?  Which led them to me.  A pretty sweet story, if I do say so myself.

This was one of my favorite poster designs ever and in large part that had to do with the sweet intersection of film, design and Texas dive bars.  Louis Black Productions trusted me with this poster for the restoration of this much-acclaimed, almost lost film which follows a young Sonny Carl Davis as Cowboy and his ne’er-do-well friends on the last night in their beloved dive bar, “the Alamo.”

Frequently with modern films, you can easily pull high res stills from the digital footage or even better, be given photos taken on set by a photographer during production to use for the poster.  That wasn’t an option here.  So instead, I recruited my husband, and skilled photographer, Christopher Shea, and we headed to one of Austin’s last real dive bars,  Deep Eddy Cabaret, to try to recreate a setting that would look authentic to the film.  I was lucky in that I had a good relationship with Linda at Out of the Past Collectibles who supplied me with beer cans from the early 1980s, and some dusty ol’ ashtrays and other dive bar pieces.  She helped out so much when I pulling props last year for the Doug Sahm documentary, and she came through for me again bigtime.   The cowboy hat is my own, and I placed it in the scene just because it resembles the one Sonny Carl wears.  I had only seen the first eight minutes of the film at that point, which was all that was available to see of the restoration, and I didn’t yet know that there is a huge moment in the film when the cowboy hat comes off.   So having it here on the table was a lucky stroke of accidental genius.  Once we staged the scene and got our shot, I just had to had to add details like the cigarette smoke in photoshop, and had a result that no one realized was an original photograph. I used some found fonts and some hand-drawn elements in the typography for that gently busted, broken-down feel.  One of my favorites, for sure.  Makes me thirsty for a cold beer just looking at it.

Find out more about the film here:  lastnightatthealamo.com

In a historic carriage house near downtown Austin, Ladyboss Brooke Nichol has been quietly dominating the botox game in Austin. Her philosophy is you that if you look good, you’ll feel good, and you’ll do good in the world. She is warm and beautiful, with a Mississippi drawl and manner makes you feel like you’ve known her for years. In our first meeting, we laughed as I told her the logo she’d been using since she opened reminded me of Truvy’s hair salon in Steel Magnolias and while it did reflect her southern roots, it didn’t covey the modern feel of her practice or her time in Beverly Hills, working with a plastic surgeon to the stars. Brooke is a RN. She and her staff wear scrubs in the office. And while you are in an environment in her studio that is calming and serene, they are, after all, doing injections, and there is a huge medical aspect to the work. Her clients want to know they are getting the most current application of the newest yet most trusted products, and that their results will be natural and not overdone or “plastic.” Brooke and Lisa have a completely personalized approach to each patient’s treatment, and thus the logomark needed to also feel personal. It is completely unique and hand-lettered. The lavender was already a part of Brooke’s branding, so we kept it. The website is clean and beautiful and fully responsive. Her new branding and website really sets her apart from others in the field. It has an almost editorial feel without becoming so fashion forward it alienates an older audience. Check out the video below to see the card in action.

See the full website here: savingfaceaustin.com