Healdsburg, a tiny gem of a town snuggled into the heart of the Northern California wine country. Thanks to the wineries of the Dry Creek Valley, the town — loaded with history and charm — is practically guaranteed a steady flow of thirsty and well-heeled visitors.

Once there, you can’t walk into a shop or hotel without bumping into a stack of brochures offering maps of the wine country — but there’s a fundamental problem with this.

Those ubiquitous maps all direct tourists out of town.

This prompted Jennifer Burke of the online Healdsburg Magazine to approach me with an idea: an advertising-driven walking map of downtown Healdsburg, something hip and local and totally pick-up-able … something to keep those tourist dollars in town.

I loved the idea.

We got to work, trying to create a functional piece that also captured the historical charm of the place. Point of historical interest made the map as well as the coolest toy, bicycle, clothing and candy shops in town. On top of that, I designed it as a template that Jennifer would be able to update herself.

The results of our months-long collaborative project are now on the street, and “The Map” (as it’s been dubbed) is a smashing success.

Visitors love it, businesses love it, and those that didn’t make it into the layout are clamoring to be on the next one.

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Yet another case of a blogger outgrowing a pre-canned WordPress theme.

Irene Seah is a sweet, funny, spiritual woman who (with occasional assistance from her two young daughters) has been writing a blog as part of her micro-business for a year or two.

It had become obvious to Irene that even though her generic blog looked nice, it didn’t really reflect her personality or that of her business. She was ready to take steps to remodel her digital digs — and that’s where I came in.

Because her business is so much about her, we decided to have an illustration of Irene interact with the shiny new logotype in the header graphic — to bring her literally right into the picture.

Simple, clean, calming and cool … we added stars, drenched everything in shades of blue (a colour with powerful spiritual significance for her) and created custom RSS, Email, and Twitter icons for the sidebar.

Irene loves her new online home, and even more satisfying — her daughters are delighted!

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A fantastic and quirky guitar maker, tucked into an unassuming Sacramento Valley town — who’da thunk it? Well, I’ve seen his shop and played those gorgeous guitars … and it’s all true. Joe Dragony is a hidden treasure.

We’d worked on a logo together many years before, but you know the story — to connect with the world of potential customers, to come out from hiding, Joe needed a website.

Not just any website, but something that reflected his personality, his ascetic no-B.S. aesthetic — and a site he could make changes to whenever he needed.

For the design aspect of the project, I just did that thing that I do. For the technical development of the website, I suggested that building a WordPress site for him would be ideal, and what the heck — I threw in a blog, too. Take a peek and you’ll see why!

He loved it. I love it.

Please visit Joe and commission one of these guitars for yourself!

Or a ukulele. He won’t mind.

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This time around, the gods and goddesses spring into new life as 20th-century pop icons.

A swirl of enthusiastic emails and telephone calls inspired the motley crew you see below … and there are more on the way. Available as T-shirts? Naturally!

• Kali, dangerously badass-sexy as Shaft meets Cleopatra Jones;
• Shiva, soulful snake-headed club DJ, spinning the end-of-the-world trance;
• Hanuman the monkey god incarnate as mischievously innocent ’50s cartoon;
• Lakshmi, gracious and regal as Audrey Hepburn cruising down Hollywood boulevard.

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When a charming, potty-mouthed marketing genius emails me with the subject “Make me into a sexy logo, please”, I pay attention.

And get busy (see above).

The lovely Naomi Dunford of IttyBiz.com is a fountain of all manner of brilliant and, erm, “non-traditional” advice, support, and the occasional harangue for those plugging away at own very small home businesses.

Avoid her blog at your peril — I mean, that camo skirt was her idea.

This pinup was designed to work on posters, billboards, T-shirts, cruise ships, what-have-you (I’m talkin’ “HIGH-resolution”, internet people), so I’ve enlarged a piece below for luxuriously-detailed full effect.

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The “Town Crush” is a fundraiser for the Old Town School for Boys, an independent K-8 school in San Francisco. The black-tie event is held annually at the conclusion of the wine “crush” season (thus the name), and sells out ever year.

This year, it’s being held at the fabulously gangster-swanky Bimbo’s 365 Club in North Beach, and thus — when the red Emergency Logo Phone started ringin’ off the hook — themes of “Old Las Vegas” and Franke Sinatra came wafting through our heads.

The crisp little logo (pictured above) features silhouettes of Frankie and (for good measure) Marilyn Monroe, loitering fabulously around a vintage electric marquee.

I may have had almost as much fun pillaging through the galaxy of vintage Las Vegas neon signs as I did actually working up the mark, so I’ve included a few of the sketches that didn’t make the final cut. I do like the version that the organizers selected, but man, I was kind of looking forward to cranking up the neon!

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The “Dissolve-O-Matic” is the latest in the series of illustrations created for Havi Brooks’ self-work products, in the quirky style semi-officially dubbed “Steampunk meets Yellow Submarine.”

As I wrote about the first of these machines, they communicate a sort of alternate-reality functionality in a completely non-threatening way. This aligns beautifully with Havi’s brilliant copywriting and whimsically approachable brand, in both style and attitude.

This one is the metaphorical representation of a product designed to dissolve procrastination. You can almost hear the rattle and roar of this happy contraption at work … and if your curiousity is piqued by the rubber duckie, visit her other website.

My client calls me from the road, suddenly struck by a marketing vision. “Richard, I know what our next ad’s gotta be!”

As he describes this revelation, I see that he’s on to something. My own motorcycle riding has always made me feel environmentally virtuous, and with gas costing over 4 bucks a gallon, it does seem that now could finally be the effective moment to communicate this fiscal virtue to potential riders.

Thus, this month’s ad features a plea to quit worshipping the Oil God — or at least cut back a bit by riding a Harley.

I was pleased as punch when an old friend, after years of mulling, finally decided to throw open the doors to his own guitar repair establishment: Chicago Fret Works.

Guitar repair is a tricky business, bringing into play the same questions of competency and trust that you find in the waiting room of a hospital. Musicians treat their instruments like family members, and need to feel that the folks about to perform surgery care for them too — and know exactly what they’re doing.

Though the budget for was small, we were able to put together a logo, signs, business papers and easy-edit WordPress website that perfectly fit this scenario. Steve and his partner Dan are both musicians and artisans, so their brand was constructed to evoke reassuringly been-there-forever master craftsmanship — and a sense of authentic connection with this century’s working musicians.

They’re right down the street from Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music, so if you and your stringed instrument of choice are in the neighborhood, drop in and say hello.

“Simmer Down Sprinter” is a fabulous hand-built high-tech art project developed by my old friend and collaborator Steve Lambert:

“Simmer Down Sprinter is a two player, sit-down, arcade style video game I designed and programmed in which players compete to move runners around a track. The game is controlled by player’s bio-feedback. The more relaxed the player becomes, the faster the runner moves around the track. Essentially it is a game of competitive relaxation.”

“Competitive relaxation” — genius!

The visual style of the cabinet (like the game itself) casts a knowing backwards wink towards classically tacky ’80s arcade video games such as Track & Field, the Six Million Dollar Man, et al.

This hyper-American vernacular style was great fun to work with– the stars, the obligatory Tron laser grid, Bruce Lee-style high-contrast super graphics … what’s not to like?

Before you ask, no — though the game has been a huge hit wherever it’s been exhibited,it isn’t coming to an arcade near you; it is (sadly) a one-of-a-kind piece.

By the way, Steve not only programmed the game, but built the box, stars as both video avatars, and that’s his short-shorted image splashed all over the console. Visit his website for more explanation, photos, and videos of hot gaming action!

I ran across this half-forgotten postcard in my files today, and liked it so much I just thought I’d share. Truth be told it’s been so long that I’ve forgotten what this job was actually about, though the name does evoke an interesting image or three.

I believe the project had something to do with the hyperactively fertile brain of Tod Brilliant, and I also remember some talk about a Kung Fu Girl T-shirt, but as for the fashion show … not a clue.

Still love the image, though.

The website’s name translates as “Movies and Stuff”, and that’s what this German-language podcast and blog is all about. It features movie reviews liberally interspersed with thoughts on pop music, Macintosh hardware, and other necessaries of modern life.

The silhouetted talking heads in the graphic represent the male-female duo who review the movies (and stuff) in unscripted conversation. This spirited back-and-forth inspired the vivid colors and funky early ’60s animated style … though it may also have to do with watching too many Dick Van Dyke show re-runs.

This CD package and illustration of an irritated rhino was created for a sprawling and powerful 12-piece band from Oakland, California. Picking up where the revolutionary Nigerian musician Fela Kuti left off, Albino! is all about “Heavy Heavy Afro-Beat”.

The producer came to Calyx Design with a general concept, a visual meant to evoke both the thumping power and political consciousness of the band: “I want a lonely rhino on an African plain”. This image, together with the music, inspired the visual style of the whole piece. Through use of textural tricks and emulation of batik or off-register screen-printing, it evokes the hand-made. Both roughly textured and densely detailed, it simultaneously evinces an aura of rawness and sophistication.

A little back story: I began studying German several years ago, and in an effort to improve my ear, started cruising the interweb searching for German-language podcasts that might help. The first one I discovered, in fact my first podcast experience of any kind, turned out to be a brand new effort by a young woman in Munich named Annik Rubens: Schlaflos in Muenchen.

She was so charming, funny and (thank goodness) clear-spoken that I sent her a fan letter, she responded, and a long-distance friendship was born. This illustrated graphic was simply a gesture of gratitude for the countless hours of entertainment (and education!) she provided.

In the intervening years the podcast has made Annik famous; she’s one of the best known internet personalities in the German-speaking world. And the graphic I created — featuring her beloved cat Tiger and Munich’s famous Frauenkirche — still sits atop her blog, enjoyed by thousands.

Presenting “Nellie”, pinup girl #3 in the Spicy SinSations brand mascots series.

This irreverently good-natured purveyor of adult toys is located in Portland, Oregon, center of a recent explosion of music, arts, and eco-positive hipster street culture. It’s a youthful and vibrant scene, the female contingent of which comprise a vital chunk of Spicy SinSations’ demographic.

With that in mind, “Nellie” is, well, just your typical bicycle-riding striped-stockings-and-hoodie-wearing co-op-shopping Alberta Street girl!

» Pinup #1 — Jocelyn
» Pinup #2 — Candace

Presenting “Candace”, pinup girl #2 in the series of brand mascots created for Spicy SinSations. The company identifies itself, as oughtta be obvious, as “naughty+friendly+fun”!

I created each of the girls to speak to a different demographic sector, and “Candace “speaks to a suburbanite woman — the mother next door with a bit of sexy flair. I mean, there it is — martini glass, garters, oh my! Spicy’s owner neatly summarizes the concept as “Gidget grows up.”

» Pinup #1 — Jocelyn
» Pinup #3 — Nellie

Presenting the first of the “Spicy Pinup Girls”, a series of mascots created especially to support the Spicy SinSations “naughty+friendly+fun” brand.

Cute, no? This first pinup — I’ve dubbed her “Jocelyn” — has a tough and tattooed neo-rockabilly style. She was created especially for use on a sponsorship banner at Portland’s new hipster roller derby league, the Rose City Rollers.

» Pinup #2 — Candace
» Pinup #3 — Nellie

Spicy SinSations is a Portland, Oregon-based business specializing in — how shall I put this — “marital aids”.

The existing logo was an undistinguished script typeface, and the owner realized that she needed something that said fun, friendly, and just a little bit naughty. Sales are made using the model of the friendly home Tupperware party — not a trace of the dark ages’ brown paper bag nonsense here — so her instincts were right on target.

A separate part of this ongoing re-branding project is the creation of a series of illustrated “Spicy Pinup Girls”, extending the “naughty+friendly+fun” identity. The first pinup was created especially for use on a sponsorship banner at Portland’s hip new roller derby league … click here for a peek.

The sagging wine-coloured satin of a long-decayed palace, baroquely patterned with foliage, flowers and populated with tiny medieval demons. Suitable for guitar or heavy metal electric lute.

This acoustic guitar case is inspired by the gorgeous look of a well-loved and much battered vintage guitar, rich flamed maple and varnish darkened by age and scarred by countless belt buckles. As we all know, guitars like this just sound the best.