Toot! Toot!*: NAILS Magazine features Jeff Fisher LogoMotives in "Graphic Design 101" article

The design efforts of Jeff Fisher, the Engineer of Creative Identity for the Portland-based firm Jeff Fisher LogoMotives, are featured in the October 2008 issue of NAILS Magazine. In the article Graphic Design 101, Fisher is interviewed by Ami Neiberger-Miller about his identity design work for Diva Salon, and the creative process in meeting the needs and desires of a small business client.

Owner Lisa Fritsch also provides the perspective of a small business owner working with a graphic design professional. In the piece, Fritsch sums up her experience in working with Jeff Fisher LogoMotives saying, "I've been fortunate. I got lucky when I had a meeting of the minds with Jeff Fisher."

In the introduction to her article, Neiberger-Miller writes: "Graphic design can make or break the image of a nail salon. Whether or not you have a consciously crafted image, your nail salon's brand is expressed through the look of your salon's materials."

Written for professionals in the salon industry, NAILS Magazine covers all aspects of the business, including how to open and run a successful salon or spa, career advice, safe and effective manicure/pedicure techniques, healthy and safety matters, trend forecasts, advertising, branding and more. Published since 1983, the magazine has provided advanced education for nail professionals to a subscription base of 60,000.

Fisher's branding efforts for the Diva Salon have experienced previous international exposure. The Diva logo appears in the The New Big Book of Logos, Logo World (Japan), Logo Design for Small Business 2 and Logos from North to South America (Spain). The business card for Diva is featured in the book New Business Card Graphics 2 (Japan).

Jeff Fisher has received nearly 600 regional, national and international graphic design awards for his logo and corporate identity efforts. His work is featured in over 100 books on the design of logos, the business of graphic design, and small business marketing. He is a member of the HOW Design Conference Advisory Council and the UCDA Designer Magazine Editorial Advisory Board, and served on the HOW Magazine Editorial Advisory Board. His latest book, Identity Crisis!: 50 Redesigns That Transformed Stale Identities into Successful Brands, was released in 2007 by HOW Books. His first volume, The Savvy Designer’s Guide to Success, appeared on bookstore shelves in late 2004.

(* If I don’t "toot!" my own horn, no one else will.)

Note: The NAILS Magazine article came about as a result of the writer's resource request through Help A Reporter Out (HARO).

© 2008 Jeff Fisher LogoMotives

Stone Soup and a Diva sighting

This past week I received an email from Jan Eliot, the cartoonist behind the nationally syndicated comic strip Stone Soup. Jan, whom I've written about in a previous bLog-oMotives entry, was excited to share the news that she was being featured on an episode of the television program Oregon Art Beat.

Oregon Art Beat - one of my favorite shows - is an Emmy award-winning series produced by the Oregon Public Broadcasting. The weekly programs feature the stories and work of Oregon individuals in a wide variety of the arts. I regularly TiVo the show, and over the years many artists and performers I know, or have met, have been featured.

The episode about Jan Eliot and Stone Soup may be viewed online. The show did a great job in showcasing her work, the process she goes through in creating a weekly comic strip, and her personality.

The "diva" I refer to in the title of this blog entry is certainly not Jan Eliot. In the Oregon Art Beat segment following the piece on Stone Soup, "Diva" unexpectedly popped up, full screen, on the television in the form of a logo I designed for the Diva Salon.

Blues musician Steve Cheseborough was the topic the incredibly interesting feature (also available for viewing online). Early in the piece Cheseborough explains how he does not use a pick to play the guitar. Later the Diva logo, and my friend and client Lisa Fritsch, appeared on the screen. Fritsch is Cheseborough's manicurist and she applies acrylic to his picking fingernails.

The complete Diva logo includes a tagline and a leopard pattern border - suggesting the faux leopard skin covered stylist chairs in the salon. The image appears in the Japanese books New Business Card Graphics 2 and New Logo World, David E. Carter's The New Big Book of Logos, Logo Design for Small Business 2 by Dan Antonelli, and the Spanish volume Logos from North to South America.

(I also worked with salon owner Fritsch on two other identity projects. I created a logo for a salon to be called Page Six - which never opened due to lease complications with a building owner. She did have much more success in opening a salon with the name Slick in a converted auto repair shop.)

I had a lot of fun calling Lisa Fritsch to tell her that she, and her logo, looked great on television.

© 2008 Jeff Fisher LogoMotives