LazySuzan Design

Suzan Freeman
Image taken from AGDA site

LazySuzan is a small design studio located in Sydney Australia's inner west suburb of Leichhardt, that was started in 2008 by Suzan Freeman. Visit her site here. She provides a wide range of services including design, art direction, web design, print and project management, high end retouching, marketing strategy, copywriting, illustration and flash animation.

She has designed for companies like Hunter Plastic Surgery, Ubertech IT Services, Westmead Medical Research Foundation, PlayWriting Australia, Cancer Council, More Recruitment, and Dentistry at the Cross. 

Her work is clean, uncluttered and professional. Her website reflects this while also being subtly playful with the use of her spinning "lazy susan" logo.

Agency: Publicis Mojo | Client: Four Bells | Role: Designer

Agency: Publicis Mojo | Client: Nestlé – Nescafé | Role: Art Director / Designer

Agency: Clemenger BBDO | Client: BlueScope Steel | Role: Art Director / Designer

200 Years of P&P

Cover designed by Jessica Hische for the
Barnes & Noble classics collection.

Today, I am happy to say, is the 200th anniversary of the publication of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I love classic literature, but I'm a sucker for the works of Austen. Her writing does not contain the kind of passion and emotion that you would expect from the Bronte sisters, nor the dark and despairing themes popular in Dickens' work, but her stories contain a level of humour and intelligent wit that other writers just can't match.

Pride and Prejudice is undoubtedly my favourite of her novels, thanks to her heroine, the headstrong Elizabeth Bennet, and the hero, the serious and "proud" Mr. Darcy. While Austen's work can be hard for a modern reader to find very interesting, the conversations between these two are incredibly entertaining. Elizabeth is intelligent, witty and stubborn, and refuses to compromise her beliefs and values. Without her in the novel, it would indeed be a dry and boring read, with or without Mr. Darcy.

I love Austen's work because there is so much about her world that I love. The manners and language, all the intricacies of their social customs and their social hierarchy. It's fascinating. I'm also able to appreciate her work because I know more about her life than the average reader. I wrote an extensively researched paper on her for a history course in highschool. I can see how her family life impacted her writing and how her experiences shaped her views. While this is true of all writers, Jane Austen's experiences shaped her work in a different way because she only wrote about what she knew. She only wrote about things she had seen, heard or experienced, and even though that might make her work seem that much more unappealing, it actually adds to it. The wit and vivacity of Elizabeth Bennet is really Jane's. All of the clever remarks and witticisms throughout the book are straight from the authors heart.

Pride and Prejudice is a historic marvel, having remained a popular book choice for 200 years. It's a book that everyone should read once.

Beer Labels

I'm currently working on a beer labeling project, and have had to do a lot of research to see what kind of labels are out there. I have a rather large Pinterest board devoted to beer labels: http://pinterest.com/caitmcelroy/beer-labels/ but here are some of my favourites:

Blood Alley from Russell Brewing Company
Image taken from http://jeanfivintage.tumblr.com/post/25996817091

This was the only image I was able to find of the bottle being black, so I don't know if it's a desaturated photo or a special edition version, but I love the bottle regardless. The name, the ax icon and the pig with butchering lines makes for a very eye-catching beer label.

Gluten Free Pale Ale from Scotts Brewing Co
Image taken from http://www.thedieline.com/blog/2009/5/25/scotts-brewing-co.html

I love the simplicity of this design, and the fact that it's not a traditional paper label. The white text gives the brand a very clean and crisp look.

A line from Speight's Brewery
Image taken from http://www.ohbeautifulbeer.com/2012/11/speights-brewery/

The design of this beer brand is similar to the one above, but they've used a coloured neck band instead, which sets the different beer flavours apart, and gives it more personality.

Giving Sweet Pea a Typeface

There is a song by Amos Lee called Sweet Pea that I decided to find a matching typeface for. Here's the song:

Video posted by themusicboxx on Jan 23, 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8YYsg4gFCo

And here's the typeface I chose:

The font is called Cinnamon Cake and was designed by Brittany Murphy. Get it here. I chose the typeface because it's simple and looks hand done, like something you might see on a love note. This matches the feeling of the song because it's very simple and mainly acoustic. It also has an innocent cute factor that the song has as well, making it a perfect fit.

Strategies for Organizing Work

This hasn't been the best week for me. I've been tired, sluggish and my mind has been in a relentless fog. I was so ready to jump right into projects after the Christmas break, but that enthusiasm was quickly interrupted by my trip to NYC. Touring the city from morning till night took up all of my energy, so I got little done in the way of creative work for school, and then I was so drained after coming back, that this week has been a total write-off outside of school hours because I would come home and crash. This is going to bite me in the ass really soon. The staff and older students always stress how important your first week is. You have to get your planning out of the way and jump right into projects, otherwise, everything snowballs and it becomes impossible to catch up. So, how can I break out of this funk and get work done?

To help me get through this weekend, I looked at my project list and then set goals that I wanted to achieve, first for Saturday:

• Blog
• Jan and Feb sketches for typographic calendar
• Plan newsletter progress
• Write down ideas and do research for packaging of nothing
• Plan layouts for illustrated book of poetry
• Continue working on organic pet food logos
• Develop 3 beer logo directions: modern, traditional and illustrative

 Then for today:

• Blog
• Mar and Apr sketches for typographic calendar 
• Plan newsletter progress
• Write down ideas and do research for packaging of nothing
• Set layout 1 up for book of poetry and prep for acrylic
• Continue working on organic pet food logos
• Narrow down possible beer logo designs and finalize 3 concepts

It's a hefty list and a bit overwhelming, even when it's broken down from the original projects. I did a pretty good job of staying on track yesterday, so here's hoping that my lists will keep me motivated again today. I also created a master calender of my own personal checkpoints, which I haven't ever done before. I planned out when I want to get blog posts done, when to have poetry spreads done and when to work on my newsletter. I should probably do this with all my projects, but hey, baby steps :) I always keep track of stuff in my planner, but I find that it just turns into a huge to-do list as opposed to a list of achievable goals, so I'm hoping that this new strategy of using a master calender to keep track of my own deadlines will help keep me going.

An Afternoon at MoMA

I was in New York city a week ago on a school trip and, unfortunately, had the opportunity of attending MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art. Modern Art is something that I absolutely despise and simply can't respect. Don't get me wrong, there is the odd piece that I don't mind, and some of them, while I don't like the style, I can appreciate the process and message, but so much of it is just pure garbage. Take some these:

 Images taken from www.moma.org

From left to right: A Tree in Naples by Willem de Kooning, Painterly Realism of a Boy with a Knapsack by Kazimir Malevich, and The Voice by Barnett Newman.

I do not consider works like these Art, and I certainly don't understand why any institution would force people to pay money to see them. There is no skill involved, no greater message, nothing! It's such a waste! 

An example of a piece that I don't like the style of, but can still appreciate is Pablo Picasso's Guernica. 

Image taken from http://www.pablopicasso.org/guernica.jsp

This piece is a "powerful political statement, painted as an immediate reaction to the Nazi's devastating casual bombing practice on the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War." It's an overwhelming piece to look at upon first glance, but when you're able to dissect some of the individual parts, you can see pain, tragedy and injustice.

MoMA is full of blank canvases, scribbles and stuff that a 2 year old might have painted, as well as ridiculously pointless stuff like Yoko Ono's cough track and a video of a naked couple on a sofa passing a big ball back and forth. MoMA is full of stuff like this. It was an awful experience, and I really wish I hadn't had to waste half a day there.