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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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 “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.

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 Santa Cruz Harley-Davidson dealership expanded into a second home near Watsonville in 2001. The demographics of this more working-class region called for a different look, somewhat heavier and more ruggedly “Harley” than the parent store. The Green Valley logo features the eagle wings necessary to communicate the overarching “Harley-Davidson brand, and uses a hard-edged blackletter typeface and vintage “knucklehead” engine to speak to a blue-collar audience.

Inspired by their name, Roshambo Winery hosts a no-holds-barred “Rock Paper Scissors” Tournament every single year, sanctioned by none less than the World RPS Society. You’re wondering about the flamingos, of course… this year’s poster theme was swiped from the stylish “Flamingo Resort” in which the showdown was held.

It’s practically an absurdist concept — taking a winery on the road? After parting ways with an outdated property, Roshambo Winery needed a temporary home while their new digs were under construction. Voila, the “Roshambus”, Batmobile to Roshambo’s “Party Army”.

We’d already established a unique and powerful visual style for the upstart winery, which lent itself beautifully to the task of creating a red-and-black road whale that would shriek their identity. Mission accomplished. People cheer, wave, and honk their horns as the beast sails by, a true measure of the Roshambus’ — and the winery’s — populist appeal.

Milton Davis Junior of the family-owned Davis Sign Company was a great help in realizing this large-scale vinyl-wrapping project.

Communicate the unique brand values, show off the product, and project the story of this small winery’s history in a slick, simple, good-looking piece — that was the brief. And that’s what we have here:

The gatefold cover features a melodramatic oceanside photo of the recently christened “Roshambus“. The photo splits open to reveal a solid sea of Roshambo Red on which their lovely wine labels and cheeky descriptions float. The stories of the winery’s patriarch and of it’s current owner make up each side of the gatefold.

Powerful colors, clean-yet-quirky design, and a copywriting voice that melds perfectly with the visuals has made this little brochure a hit with the media, salespeople and customers alike.

Havi Brooks will inform you that she’s not at all a visual person, but when digging for ways to describe her series of self-work programs, eBooks and audio products, the images that popped up were “big, crazy, friendly machines”.

My visual translation: “Steampunk meets the Yellow Submarine.”

The machines are amiable mechanical mash-ups, communicating a sort of alternate-reality functionality in a completely non-threatening way. This aligns beautifully with Havi’s brilliant copywriting and whimsically approachable brand — both in terms of style (clean lines and flat areas of bright color) and attitude (friendly and welcoming).

This particular mechanical wonder represents a product designed to calm people down so they can be productive. In Havi’s own words, “The Destuckification Station will train you to stop the paralysis in its tracks so you can go back to getting excited about what you do. And do it.”

(And if this contraption grabs you, take a look at the Dissolve-O-Matic!)

Nothing says Harley-Davidson more than the eagle which has graced its corporate logo since the turn of the century. I borrowed that eagle’s wing, a stylized version thereof, for the Santa Cruz dealership’s logo and business papers. The clean, bold statement of a paper-white wing silhouetted against a pale gold gradient background makes a strong impression, while retaining a sophisticated consumer-oriented look appropriate for high-end motorcycle customers.

Another full page ad developed for Santa Cruz Harley-Davidson’s prized inside-front-cover spot in Thunder Press, a position occupied since the turn of the most recent century.

The visual branding of this space over the years has taken the form of a constant flow of new and inventive visual styles. This consistently interesting graphic dialogue serves to create the dealership’s personality and reinforce its smart, high-end identity.

These ads inevitable provide the challenge of packing in a ton of sales information without sacrificing the dramatic impact that demands the reader’s attention. Access to Harley-Davidson’s image archives allows me to have a little fun, too.

These three hands are familiar to any child who knows the RIGHT way to settle the problem of “who gets the front seat”: Rock, Paper, Scissors. This playful multi-part label for industry upstarts Roshambo Winery identifies their line of affordable table wines, known simply as “Red” and “White”.

I’m proud to report that this label was selected for inclusion in Unique Packaging, a glossy visual sourcebook featuring the best in international packaging design. Check out page 168!

The illustrations stamped into this series of wine labels feature the combatants in an ancient child’s game: Rock, Paper, Scissors. As the source of Roshambo Winery’s playful name, these three elemental icons have been pressed into service to distinguish Roshambo’s line of higher-end wines.

With embossed, foil-stamped, and die-cut labels, these wines are high-falutin’ enough to be known by their initials alone: RPS.