We recently had the opportunity to design a brand new logo for the Madisonville Business Chamber! As residents and small business owners in our Cincinnati, OH, neighborhood of Madisonville, we were thrilled to create a fresh new perspective that helps to show off the vibrance, diversity and growth of our community. From home-based businesses to small brick & mortars to large corporations, we have such a variety of businesses here and we wanted this new logo for the business chamber to represent that. We drew inspiration from architectural styles and various businesses in the area to create a graphic that includes all of those wonderful facets of Madisonville.
With the letterform, we incorporated some subtle symbolism as well. The shape of the letter “i” and the bright dots above represent the people of the business community. The upward slants of the “d’s” and “l’s” convey the upward growth and momentum of the neighborhood. Going even further, we like to think that the “d” and “i” combo represents a person working from home while the second “i” and “l’s” together can be seen as a person working from a larger building or office complex.
We selected a bright color palette to imply the vibrancy, diversity and growth of the Madisonville business community. And of course, we made sure everything still looks fabulous in black & white!
For the Music of Lollapalooza, we envisioned a fan from the 90s, wearing a faded festival tee and flannel shirt, decorated with band merch from Lollapalooza performers of that era: a NIN patch and buttons from Devo, Fishbone, the Ramones, and Siouxsie & the Banshees. The repeating rock & roll hand sign completes the background.
Weezer: we think this Weezer super fan was so inspired by “Undone - The Sweater Song,” that they knitted this sweater and purposely left one thread loose! The color palette is derived from several different album covers (mainly, the Blue Album, the Red Album, and Raditude). We also incorporated the iconic glasses of lead singer Rivers Cuomo in the background pattern.
The California Sounds concert was a compilation of music originating from the Sunshine State. We pictured this fan wearing a groovy “California Sounds” tee & denim jacket with an embroidered wave pattern. We added pins paying homage to The Beach Boys, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, No Doubt, The Grateful Dead, and The Doors. A palm tree pattern sets off the California vibes.
Heart + Aerosmith: we imagined this concert-goer cruising to the show on their motorcycle wearing a fringe-covered leather jacket. The jacket is hand-painted with each band’s logo. We carefully created our own version of both Heart & Aerosmith’s iconic lettering, and merged their logos, and added a winged heart pattern in the background to tie it all together.
The Who: we envisioned this fan proudly wearing a vintage concert T-shirt, purchased at a show from one of the band’s early U.S. tours. We reworked their logo for the shirt design, and added a silhouette of Pete Townshend jumping and shredding, with the goal of making the viewer feel as if they're reliving a wild performance by this legendary band.
And here are the full-size posters hanging on the School of Rock building! So exciting to see our designs come to life!
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]]>This year has been challenging for everyone. As you shop this holiday season, we hope that our kitschy collectibles will bring your recipient (and you!) a burst of joy! We created this gift guide as a way to help navigate you toward that perfect something for that special someone, no matter your budget. When all else fails, we offer gift cards that never expire!
What exactly is Crafty Supermarket?
Crafty Supermarket is an indie craft show that began almost 10 years ago with just 20 vendors at Northside Tavern, and has expanded to become a biannual event featuring 100+ makers, held in Cincinnati's historic Music Hall.
And what is the Virtual Maker Market?
This Friday, May 22, we'll kickoff the weekend with Happy Hour from 4 – 8 pm and continue into Saturday from 11 am – 5 pm, with makers going live for 20 minute time slots on the Virtual Maker Market event page on Facebook. 30 makers will be going live on Facebook over the two segments, talking about their business, showing their products, giving a tour of their studio space, interviewing their pets, or whatever they'd like to share!
Also, throughout the month of May, vendors have done a daily takeover of the Crafty Supermarket Instagram page. The Instagram takeovers will continue through the end of May, and you can browse all the makers and shop online anytime! All in all, over 50 small businesses are participating!
How did this happen?
Pop Rocket Creations (that's us!) had signed on to design the spring 2020 poster. As Crafty Supermarket's spring 2020 event was approaching, it started to become clear that the May event would definitely canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As coronavirus wreaked havoc on every level, we reached out to Chris, the Crafty organizer, to see if the spring market would be postponed and if we would need to update the dates on the event poster for a future market. With every upcoming market around the country being canceled, we were determined to make something happen for all of the small businesses involved. Putting our three brains together, we ran with the idea of creating an online market to replace the in-person May market. Several weeks of Zoom meetings later, we've launched the daily Instagram takeovers which will culminate in the weekend virtual market on Facebook, wrapping up the month with several more Instagram takeovers.
Why is Pop Rocket Creations involved?
We created the 2020 spring market poster, and we did the 2019 holiday tote bag design, and we really wanted to help make this event a success, somehow, despite all the odds. So, we partnered with Chris to be co-hosts of the event, and we helped with the planning, scheduling, and vendor guidelines. We re-designed the original poster to fit the new, branded virtual event by creating a set of graphics based on the new design to be used in different scenarios on websites and social media. And of course we're also one of the participating vendors!
This has been a major collaborative effort (and experiment!) to help expand exposure, boost sales, and benefit the creative community during this unprecedented time. Big thanks to Chris for her passion for the crafty community – she's kept Crafty Supermarket thriving and her support made this virtual market possible! **HIGH FIVE EMOJI**
Please tune in to Facebook and Instagram, shop small, shop local, and share on social media and with your friends and family! Your support is SO greatly appreciated!
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We're experiencing an unprecedented, worldwide time of FaceTiming, Skyping, and Zoom meetings while wearing hybrid outfits of business casual / sweatpants, all due to social distancing to flatten the curve of COVID-19. We're lucky to have a variety of high-tech communication at our fingertips to help us stay in touch. But, it's also time to return to the classic art of handwriting a letter to a loved one; nothing beats that! We've got two sets of postcards to help you write fun little notes to your friends and family, near and far: our Cincinnati set, our Route 66 set, and our Cincinnati postcard + sticker! Plus, it helps keep our hardworking USPS in business. You can buy postcard stamps online!
]]>Hello friends! We know that these are difficult times for everyone, especially for our fellow small businesses. We’ve been putting some thought into how we can help out as we all navigate this unprecedented situation. There’s never been a more important time to collaborate, network, shout out, and support each other and we want to be a resource of knowledge and productivity for you!
Some of the ways that we are ready to help immediately:
Should we make this design into a print? A shirt? Kyle has been really inspired by rubber-hose animation lately, so expect to see more fun illustrations like this one that he created using Adobe Illustrator!
And for the record, how do we prefer our coffee? Agent Dale Cooper said it best – "Black as midnight on a moonless night." We like to do a pour-over of some locally roasted beans (our favorite Cincinnati roaster is Deeper Roots but we recently discovered the delightful Kossa Kebena from Columbus-based Crimson Cup).
]]>We're all feeling the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in a variety of ways, and as a very small business we are also affected economically. We're still very lucky in many ways regarding the current pandemic, and we're definitely trying to focus on the positive because many others are having much more devastating experiences.
SO, all that aside, we are seizing this time to focus on honing our skills and tapping into our creativity! Which, to be honest, has been quite challenging in this first week, as the constant barrage of bad news has been hard to fully ignore.
Oh, and we have a LOT of home organizing to do, books to read, and watchlists to conquer!
PODCASTS WE LOVE!
The Creative Pep Talk podcast, hosted by the enthusiastic visual storyteller, Andy J. Pizza, is an entertaining listen, sure. But whether he's carrying the whole episode on his own or chatting with guests like Abbi Jacobson, it's an hour of morale-boosting creative inspiration.
The DisneyLand for Designers podcast dives into the thinking behind how DisneyLand is designed. Packed with well-researched material by Mark Brickey (from Adventures In Design) and Jerrod Marayuma, the podcast gives some fascinating insight into how much work went into making sure DisneyLand is as immersive as possible! (For instance, did you know the castle is blue so that it feels farther away when you enter, increasing the feeling that you're about to embark on an adventure?!)
The Honest Designers podcast is available on various podcast platforms, and deals with a multitude of topics including finding your style, building your client list, and finding satisfaction in your work. The four designers in the podcast are from the UK, South Africa, and Portland, OR, so this adds an interesting international dimension to their perspectives.
And lastly, for some genuinely interesting interviews and hearty laughs (especially needed right now), check out Conan O'Brien's podcast, Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend. It's not really creative-biz related, but we wanted to throw in at least one lighthearted podcast that can help take the edge off these weird times.
]]>Here's a recap of our 2019 logo projects:
1. We worked with Queen City Vignette to create a new logo for their vintage decor rental company!
2. We envisioned a logo for Cincinnati photographer Brendan Burkett:
3. We worked with Strictly Waffles, a community of Vans collectors and enthusiasts, to design a new "syrup" logo:
]]>We did a lot of designing in 2019! Here are some of the designs we did for other businesses:
1. We did a super fun button design for The Social Collective for all the Badass Babes at their Galentine’s Day event last year!
2. For Crafty Supermarket we dove into some World’s Fair/Disneyland/Winter Wonderland inspiration to help celebrate the 10th Anniversary of this marvelous market!
3. The American Sign Museum has so many fun signs – we incorporated some of our favorites into these new motel keychains for their gift shop!
4. The P&G Heritage Museum and Archives reached out to us to create a series of souvenir notebooks for the guests who visit this amazing archive of their company history!
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