I am fascinated and amazed by logo design. The beauty that a talented logo designer can create inspires me. I read them, I study their work and I try to listen when they so go out and buy this book or practice this. I would love to one day consider myself capable of creating a logo that could be classified as great, but a logo designer I am not. ( I will however, in the near future share with you some of my attempts.)

So why when in most cases I would attempt to avoid creating the logo for another would I think it a good idea to create my own? Two very simple reasons. One I think that in creating my logo it will help to push me to learn about the logo design process. Two, this is personal. Papertree Design and I are one and the same, it is part of who I am and thus I wanted the challenge to be my own.

Moving On – Here’s A Bit of History

Papertree Design was born while in transition from one “job” to the next. It was the start of  another branch of my life so to speak. The name itself was one of those things that just kind of crept up and hit me all of the sudden and just seemed to fit. It was the calm of the unknown ahead and the strength to overcome the challenges. Most of all it was simple.

Approaching the logo for the first time I new that I wanted something memorable, hopefully timeless and if at all possible something that would appeal to a variety of clients and audiences. It was also important that it was simple, representative of the name itself. The type was more important to me than that mark and thus I wanted something that could act on it’s own.

After months of using a simple Georgia typeface on my site, several sketches, a number of illustrator docs and even a business card composed of the bits and pieces, I finally created a unified whole that I am very happy with. I had planned to write a bit more about the inspiration and the steps I took in creating it as an unseasoned logo designer, but I decided that this article is better split into a few and I was just to excited to hold out. So here is the final revision of the new Papertree Logo.

Please feel free to comment or critique as I am not opposed to further revision! In the near future I will be outlining my process for creating the logo as well as sharing with you some very important inspiration in my quest to design a new logo. (Complete with sketches, trials, the whole nine)

Now on to the simplistic purpose of this post. As I regroup and reorganize I have revitalized a few areas of my online precense such as the one above and I have been working alot with my Flickr Stream lately so I thought I would take a minute to share.

Here you go -

(Take note of the slide YongFook.com, I share this for the beauty of it but the real reason I added it was a personally note to myself. This is built on his lifestreaming platform Sweetcron. There is something to come of that here on Papertree Design, be warned.)

I attempt to be a pretty frequent reader and commentor on Freelance Folder (a great resource for freelancers of all types) and while catching up on my reading a few weeks ago I stumbled across this post “Review of UPrinting -Fast and Affordable“. The post written by the founder of Freelance Folder, Jon Phillips, is a review of a new player in the world of online affordable printing. After reading the review I naturally dropped a comment thanking Jon for alerting me to this new company, as my stack of business cards was pretty thin and it was almost time for a re-order. Much to my delight I was contacted by one of UPrinting’s delightful employees asking if I too would like to write up a review in exchange for a sample run. Well this is pretty much a no brainer regardless of how much Jon hyped them up in his post so I happily agreed.

Now in the original post mentioned above the author goes gives a pretty detailed accounted of how the actual process works and since I encourage you to read his review as well, I won’t reiterate the process.

So here’s the brief version of my experience. With the opportunity to have somewhere around 1000 business cards sent my way free of charge I felt it as good a time as any to do a re-design. (Yes I design and redesign everything I do it’s just the nature of the beast). Anyhow I got my artwork together after having a quick look at the supplied template, proceeded to the UPrinting site and clicked on business cards. I filled in the details choosing 1000 matte cards full color both sides and got to uploading my artwork. Browsed my files, dropped them and had a quick chance to check them over before I sent them in. From there you will need to continue to the payment and shipping page, entering in all of the usual necessary info when ordering online and submit your order. Pretty easy!

I was contact very shortly after by one of he UPrinting reps as a cueortisy to let me know that my files had been uploaded and I would be receiving one final PDF proof to approve before we begin printing. The proof arrived and the files looked just as I had uploaded them, approve them and be on our way.

My cards arrived in under a week and half and looked great. It was an exciting feeling to be tearing into that nice big box of 1000 cards! The cards were perfect, colors are spot on, the text is crisp and clear and the card stock is high quality.

Now this of course is a sponsered review but as Jon stated in his review, I am 100% satisified with the product and service as well. The quality you receive at the pricing structure over at UPrinting beats my old printer hands down. Looks like I have found myself a new printer!

Highly recommended, but if you are not ready to take my word for check out the comments on Freelance Folder or visit UPrinting.com and give it a try it for yourself.

Oh and I will be adding a larger image to my portfolio soon, promise.

So what can the new Papertree Design do for your small business? As I have said many times before I don’t like to limit myself to being only a “web designer” in the traditional sense of the title. I think that my services and capabilities run a lot deeper than that and I have compiled and extensive list of services here “website and new media services”. In addition I will also be adding a bit to my portfolio and creating a Flickr account to showcase some of my various skills. I have also enlisted the help of a few very talented graphic designers, so if you have some ideas and would like to discuss a possible project, simply fill out my contact form and I will get back to you ASAP.

The title and concept of Brians post is one that I have been putting a lot of thought into over the past few weeks. For one, I recently joined a business networking group which I believe rekindled my interest in the power of the business card. As I venture of on my own into the world of freelancing and entrepreneurship once again my need for an effective business card has increased ten fold. Secondly I have also been toying with the idea of creating a business card for my brother who I would consider a semi- professional blogger. I say “semi” not because of he lacks any type of professionalism but because he is still in the middle stages where blogging is not yet providing a full time income. He is actually a very interesting guy with some great ideas and a plethora of knowledge when it comes to the internet and development, which is why I think he might benefit from a well designed business card. Traveling often he meets some very interesting people who may benefit from his skills and what better way to quickly plant the seed then to offer up a great looking business card.

So there I hope to have added my card to the library and I give kudos to Brian for creating what could become a very visually exciting library of business card design. Excellent idea and I think that it creates a good bit of evidence as to why a blogger should carry a business card.