New Junk Drawer Logo!
Fun May 1st, 2008Back in March I introduced a Junk Drawer logo created with a tool called Spell with Flickr. Just type in your letters and it generates a logo based on images it grabs from Flickr OneLetter.
It’s a very cool tool, but something about it bothered me. The letters it grabs from Flickr are likely copyrighted photos and I didn’t want to violate copyright.
Chances are none of the photographers would notice I’ve used their letters in my logo, but that didn’t make it any less illegal. Since I also plan to use the logo on merchandise, the copyright issue became even more important.
So what’d I do? I grabbed my camera, took my own pictures and now the logo is all mine! I would have been done weeks ago, but I was on a hunt for the elusive Perfect K, which I managed to get last weekend. Thank you, Karl Ehmer Quality Meats!
I want to thank my uber-talented colleague, Jason Slipp, for creating this new logo out of the million letters I sent him. The poor guy.
Conversations during the design phase went like this:
Jason: So how do you like the latest version I sent you?
Me: I found a new E last night. It’s a great E. I don’t like the E in Drawer, can you put the new one in The, and the old one in Drawer? And I don’t like the K. I need a new K. This one’s too thin. And I’m worried about having two brick backgrounds with the U and the D.
Oh, and look at how many uppercase letters I have! There should be more lowercase and I’m not sure if I love the first R in Drawer, but it’s kinda cool with the circle around it. Oh wait, I do like the first E. Can you put it back the way it was?
Jason: You’re killing me, woman.
For the record, he was paid for his services, but probably not enough for the torture I put him through.
It was a chore getting this thing finished, but pretty fun, too. For weeks on end, I’d be driving along and a great letter would pop out at me. Pull over, take the shot, send it to Jason, tweak the logo.
It’ll adorn the comments section and stuff I’ve created on Zazzle for purchase or to hand out as blog contest prizes. Eventually, it’ll appear at the top of the blog once I get my theme perfected.
Another big Thank You goes to JD of the I Do Things So You Don’t Have To blog, who slogged all over her town looking for letters for me. She sent me half a dozen signs and one of them made the cut. JD, your wonderful right-corner R takes its place in blog history!
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In other Junk Drawer news, if you’re following the progress of the plastic bag in the tree, it’s still there, and it’s still driving me nuts. Check out the Plastic Bag Tracker box above my picture in the sidebar, updated daily.
Stumble it!
May 1st, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Fantastic logo! Merchandise?! Someone is preparing for fame! π Your logo really is a huge and exciting step. I still can’t even decide if I like my blogs layout. π
May 1st, 2008 at 5:12 pm
LOVE your new logo! Your anality (it is a word now) has paid off. I can tell you wear your new badge with pride, and it looks fabulous on you π
btw, I forgot my bag date. Am I still in?
Jeff’s last blog post..Some call it coincidence, we call it destiny
May 1st, 2008 at 5:14 pm
I knew the logo looked different when I saw the early preview on BlogCatalog !
The new one looks so much more better and “sunny” (lack of words) !
May 1st, 2008 at 5:22 pm
I assume you don’t want another graphic designer’s opinion on your new logo? ;O) I know….shut uuup!
I had the odd client that made never ending changes to their logos. One client was actually surprised at the cost, after 3 months of changing his mind!
Great logo… except for….. ;O)
Babs – beetle’s last blog post..Portrait of a little girl
May 1st, 2008 at 5:33 pm
I might be a bit dense here, but the new logo looks suprisingly like the old logo….
Bruce’s last blog post..My – POV
May 1st, 2008 at 6:16 pm
1) Nice upgrade. Glad you stuck with the letter mish-mash theme. It represents this dysfunctional community to a T.
2) Speaking of swag. I’d like to order a pair of boxer shorts. If not boxers, car mats will do nicely
3) Next up, logos in different languages?
4) If you turn the logo 90 degrees to the left, it kinda looks like….. nah, never mind.
5) Get one of those tennis ball machines to get the bag outta that tree. (charge coworkers for each shot they take.)
BigNerd’s last blog post..The Senior vs. The iMac
May 1st, 2008 at 6:24 pm
Stephanie — Thanks. I like it too! Although this may wind up being version 1.0. I can always make changes. It’s a disease. You’re never finished!
Jeff — You have NO idea how bad it was. I have easily a hundred castaway letters strewn all over my laptop. It got real bad towards the end. That K nearly killed me. You’re still in contention for the bag contest. You guessed May 14, but don’t hold your breath. It’s still hanging on for dear life.
Jaffer — Ah! You noticed! Yes, this one is a happier logo, much more colorful than the old one. But it’s harder to decipher when it’s small, which bugs me to no end.
Babs (beetle) — Please don’t suggest anything or my head will explode. I’m still on the fence about the W and the small a in Drawer.
Bruce — This one is distinctly different. It won’t get me sued for copyright infringement.
BigNerd — Mish-mash is right. It’s perfect for this place. No can do on the shorts. Best I can do for you is a T-shirt. That is, unless I try out another place like Cafe Press. Anyone have luck with that joint? A co-worker’s son has a Nerf gun. We’re thinking of having him try his hand at the bag, but I need to keep the contest pure. It must come down on its own.
May 1st, 2008 at 6:27 pm
It’s beautiful! All your hard work really paid off. It’s bright and happy and junky (in the best possible sense of the word). I can’t wait to start ordering my official Junk Drawer merchandise and/or winning fabulous Junk Drawer prizes.
And I “R” very proud of my humble contribution.
JD at I Do Things’s last blog post..I Queue It so you donβt have to
May 1st, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Prettyful! And just for the record, I have pretty good graphic skillz. I can make pretty animations and everything. =) I’ll make something pretty to show everyone tomorrow. Well I actually don’t know how to put graphics on here…
May 1st, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Kathy: The new logo looks great. And you didn’t even need help taking the pictures! Well, not much help anyway.
Regan: If Kathy can’t figure out how to get your animation put on her page have her give you my e-mail address and I’ll put it on my blog. π
May 1st, 2008 at 7:07 pm
My sympathies to Jason..:)) but I like the logo which beats mine whiich is my ugly mug..:)))
robert bourne’s last blog post..Mirrored Lake
May 1st, 2008 at 7:19 pm
The ‘a’ & ‘w’ are nice. Just as an extra for you to worry about. Maybe the answer is two versions – The main logo, and a secondary one that will reproduce small with no loss.
Just a thought.
Babs – beetle’s last blog post..Portrait of a little girl
May 1st, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Love it! I, of course, am very partial to the “J” …
Oh, and it figures JD was in on this!
Jenny’s last blog post..Hard To Take
May 1st, 2008 at 10:54 pm
It’s very snazzy. I’m sure you won’t appreciate that I don’t remember what it looked like before … but I’m sure it’s much better now. π
DrowseyMonkey’s last blog post..5 Out of 500 Survive
May 2nd, 2008 at 3:48 am
The logo is FANTASTIC! I’m so jealous! And the plastic bag tracker cracked me up! Are we placing bets? I forgot. lol
Corrina’s last blog post..I Just Wanna Send A Picture!
May 2nd, 2008 at 4:18 am
I like it! Well done for sticking to your principles – I thought I was the only one left with principles following a recent incident which I won’t bore you with.
I take all of the pictures in my blog myself, except those I can find which are available for free use or those I have permission to use (which I credit). Mostly it’s easy enough to find something suitable with a digital camera and Photoshop!
Jay’s last blog post..Tired of Google?
May 2nd, 2008 at 4:43 am
JD at I Do Things — Junky, it is! As for the merchandise, I’m sure I’ll break the bank because I plan on buying up most of it myself until my house and office look like Junk Drawer stores.
Regan, talented Regan — Send me what you got, and I’ll see what I can do.
Lee — Truth be told, Jason took the U, an E, and the J, but I was present to give direction. He just loved that. It’s too dark, it’s too fuzzy, a little to the right!
robert bourne — Jason is a saint. I think he was considering locking his office door at the end stage. Oh, God. Here she comes again. You have one of the best blog headers I’ve ever seen. It’s stunning.
Babs (beetle) — The W bugs me because it’s dark on dark; hard to see. We got that shot in a bookstore. There was a kiosk of wooden letters. We took the W, threw it on a wooden floor and viola!
Jenny — For the record, I stole the J from my sister. She’s an amazing scrapbook artist. She let me look through her supplies and I grabbed it from a sheet of 3D letters. The J is still stuck to my office door, on which the shot was taken. Lazy butt that I am. Yes! It’s appropriate that a JD would be featured in the JD logo!
DrowseyMonkey — It is better this way. The old one was drab, with earthtone colors. I like this one because it’s sunnier, as Jaffer put it.
Corrina — Yes, we are still placing bets if you want to get in. Winner gets something from the Junk Drawer store.
Jay — Now you’ve made me curious! It’s tempting to take pictures from Google, but it’s a no-no. In the past, I’ve been lax. I use http://www.sxc.hu/ and http://www.morguefile.com/ now. I prefer to take my own pictures, when possible.
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:00 am
Yes, it is tempting to lift things from Google. And I do use it to *search* for suitable stuff because you can sometimes find pages of clipart etc which say ‘free for non-commercial use’, so I do use those, but personally I hate people stealing my images so I try very hard not to do that to others. I used a screenshot in my recent post, and it does contain images belonging to others which are probably copyrighted, but I believe this comes under the ‘fair use’ clause in copyright law which states that you can use images without penalty if they’re for education or discussion. I hope I’m right on that!
Thanks for the links! They look like great sites!
Jay’s last blog post..Tired of Google?
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:03 am
Oh – did you mean you were curious about the recent incident? A personal friend used some of my photographs on a public site after I’d asked her not to, and finally told her that she didn’t have permission to do so. I had a very good reason to refuse permission and it caused a rift. π
Jay’s last blog post..Tired of Google?
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:20 am
Jay — I’m careful to read the license agreements for any image I want to use. What I think saves me in a lot of cases is that mine is not a commercial blog. I don’t run ads, so I feel freer to take images that have that restriction. I need to get better at attribution, though, just in case that’s required. Sometimes I’m not so sure.
And, yes, I was curious about your incident. It’s unfortunate that happened, but we have every right to take steps to protect our work. I had the weirdest material theft recently. A MySpacer took two of my stories and posted them. But he edited them first so it sounded like he was the one who “lived it.” And people commented on them! Strangest feeling for me. I was like “But that didn’t happen to him! It happened to me!” I commented myself, stating that the material was stolen. He immediately removed the stories, then made his “blog” private. Bizarre.
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:51 am
Doing my best to refrain from sending you MORE letters! bwahahhahaha
Hey, if you are taking photos of signs and such…couldn’t you still be pirating? Just saying….
(wondering if I’ve kicked off yet another of Kathy’s many phobias)
Lori’s last blog post..Another critique of today’s commercials
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:57 am
Hey, Aunt Kathy, if your logo can have animation I can make an awesome one. =) If not I can still make it awesome.
May 2nd, 2008 at 6:17 am
Lori — Oh, don’t do that. Seriously. I’m finally at a point where I don’t swing my head around if I think I saw a better letter.
About my own images, I believe this covers me: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html#wnp
I did meet with a marketing professor friend of mine, who explained the copyright rules to me. There are cases where I couldn’t use a certain letter, say, the “H” from my Honda, since that’s a trademarked item. Good question!
Regan — Make it!
May 2nd, 2008 at 7:06 am
MMMM, Karl Ehmer.
(I read the whole post, but thinking about Karl Ehmer totally distracted me. Guess I should grab some breakfast…)
Susan’s last blog post..My Awesome Garden
May 2nd, 2008 at 7:15 am
I think you should have done it in Cyrillic. Ask Jason to do it again….
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:52 am
Hmmmm…a few of those letters look familiar. Would I have seen them on campus?
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:21 am
Who knew so much thinking could go into letters! Looks good, so I guess it was worth it!
Kathy – Thanks for checking out my blog.
Tiffany’s last blog post..Another Good Website
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:23 am
You’re such an honest woman, I hope to one day follow in your footsteps. π Always better safe!
Natural’s last blog post..Shameless Blog Promotion
May 2nd, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Kathy, you need to check out this post…
http://prairiedreams.blogspot.com/2008/05/photo-contest.html
…I think it’s right up your alley.
Moonshadow’s last blog post..OR – CA 2008 / Chapter 9
May 2nd, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Sweet logo!!! That bag is possessed!
KFJ’s last blog post..T-Minus 4 Daysβ¦β¦
May 2nd, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Susan — A breakfast of sausage and bacon, perhaps? Nope, could never be a vegetarian.
BabaBooey — I think his head would explode if I even mentioned the logo again. No can do. I need him to help me tweak my theme next.
Susan — You might recognize a couple local places. The U is from University Square across from the Bridgeworks. The E in The is from the Brew Works, and the D is from Edge Restaurant. Good eye!
Tiffany — More than you know. You always think another better letter is right around the corner. I had to stop for my own sanity. And thanks again for the shout-out on your blog!
Natural — It really bothered me. I can sleep soundly now! Hey, loved your shameless blog promotion video. Excellent job!
KFJ — I examined the bag carefully today. It’s still in the same position, holding on with both handles since the day it got there. It’s not going anywhere any time soon.
May 2nd, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Moonshadow — Wow, I wouldn’t think someone would put something like that together. I’m in! Thanks for the link.
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:44 pm
Every time I look your subscription numbers going another two or three. You’ve got Regan recruiting her friends, don’t you?
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Lee — Uh-oh! You found out my little secret. I pay Regan a dollar for every classmate she can get to subscribe! Hmm, I shouldn’t be kidding about that. She just might ask me to do it.
May 2nd, 2008 at 6:06 pm
By the by, I sent you a couple of links in e-mail.
May 2nd, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Kathy, All your deliberations and vascillations paid off – the logo looks great! I jumped over to the site and put one together for Poetikat’s (just to out of curiosity). Pretty neat stuff!
So, I still have a chance with the plastic bag. Three more days and I’m out.
Kat
Poetikat’s last blog post..Miley Cyrus – Exposed or Exploited?
May 2nd, 2008 at 6:22 pm
“I need him to help me tweak my theme next”
OMG, I’d hate to be in Jason’s shoes right now !
I had a weird thought about the bag. Instead of shooting it down, you could introduce another bag in the tree and they could start a family. (That would make such a beautiful documentry)
Jaffer’s last blog post..Of split personality and irresponsibility
May 2nd, 2008 at 6:29 pm
I made two little graphics for your blog! I’m almost done with the second one, which has nice animation so it takes a little longer.
It would be cool if I got a dollar for every classmate I got to subscribe. =)
May 2nd, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Just remember, Regan, it was my idea for you to get paid! :0)
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Very cool…
I am looking forward to seeing it shining brightly at the top of the blog.
Forest Parks’s last blog post..Bed Bugs detection, control and eradication
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:08 am
Looks like a cool logo. Like it.
Write at Home Mom’s last blog post..Enjoying Weekend
May 3rd, 2008 at 8:11 am
Lee — Thanks for the links. I’m gettin’ there!
Poetikat — The tool is great, especially because you can swap out the letters for another one so easily. The bag? I warned people it would be months. Those who went long stand the best chance.
Jaffer — The bag is lonely up there. I know. I interviewed it. He could really use some company.
Regan — Thank you for the images. You do great work. Maybe I don’t need Jason anymore?
Lee — Regan has already asked me if she can start earning some extra cash. Now you’ve done it! I’ll have to decline. Need my numbers to stay pure.
Forest Parks — Thanks. I’ve got to set a deadline for tweaking the blog or it’ll never get done. I hope to have the letters run across horizontally within the header. We’ll see.
Write at Home Mom — I like it, too. Wish I could say it was easy.
May 3rd, 2008 at 9:38 am
I still haven’t given up hope on the bag. All it would take would be one really bad storm (nothing devastating, of course) and a good strong gust, or perhaps an industrious crow. I’m a gambler, what can I say?
Kat
May 3rd, 2008 at 10:58 am
Thanks! I hope you really liked the pictures. I’m not that good, but I can make some pretty awesome.
May 3rd, 2008 at 4:25 pm
I love your logo and I REALLY LOVE it that you went and hunted down all the letters yourself. Hi-FIVE!
Jeannette E. Spaghetti’s last blog post..Happy Birthday
May 3rd, 2008 at 7:14 pm
Poetikat — It would have to be almost a hurricane, I’m afraid. A co-worker and I stood and watched it flap around on Tuesday when it rained hard. We could tell it still was caught with both handles. It’ll take a miracle. (Or an act of Jaffer’s chicken finger God).
Regan — You are that good. You need to hold a class for me. Auntie needs your help.
Jeannette E. Spaghetti — Thanks. Would I do it again if I knew how much work it would be? Possibly not. I’m glad it’s over!
January 15th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
[…] This whole transaction has been a lot of fun, and is one more benefit of blogging. There are so many creative people involved in blogging and it’s fun to be able to possess some of their creative efforts. The logo on Kathy’s mug was created by combining photographs of different letters of the alphabet that she gathered with her camera and then turned into the logo. It was all inspired by a tool called Spell with Flickr. Her explanation of how she ended up with the logo can be found in this post. […]