Check out my latest collab with Zeina Riachi Fashion, a local fashion line. We talk about our love of art, fashion, and it’s relevance to our lives.
She’s also a talented make-up artist and did my make-up!
Check out my latest collab with Zeina Riachi Fashion, a local fashion line. We talk about our love of art, fashion, and it’s relevance to our lives.
She’s also a talented make-up artist and did my make-up!
The EverChew has finally launched! Check out the Kickstarter page for this inventive product!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1326618939/everchew-keeps-dogs-safe-and-busy-with-bully-stick
https://www.redmothart.com//portfolio/ever-chew-logo-design/
EverChew – Product and Logo Design – Interview with Creator/Inventor Kirby Kendall
KK: I am a research chemist by training, but I’ve been a garage inventor for 15 years now. Even as a kid, I wanted to be an inventor. I do inventing for my day job but, I want something to be successful on my own. And so that’s what the EverChew, this dog rawhide toy is for me.
RMA: I’ll also introduce myself, my name is Kimberly (Red Moth Art), I am a graphic designer/illustrator. And I love art, I love to illustrate ever since I was a tiny little kid. I’m glad I can do that for a living, be it more technical or creative for companies.
KK: Well, the EverChew came out of the fact that my dog is sometimes kinda stupid. Even though she’s a golden doodle, supposed to be smart. When she’d get to the last, little stub of a rawhide roll and you’d walk into the room, she thinks you’re going to take it. A couple of time she gagged, one time I had to reach into her throat and pull it out. So I thought, there has to be a way of preventing that from happening.
Eva – Lovable idiot/ Inspirational muse
I couldn’t find any products on the market that worked with regular rawhide rolls. There’s some compressed rings and things like that, but nothing like the standard roll. So I started developing something, went through a whole bunch of different prototypes and about two years later, I got what I call the Ever Chew.
Eva – Quality Control Officer
KK: Coming up with a design that met the requirements. I had set out a list of requirements that the product would have to meet.
Requirements met!
This was the hardest challenge, it took a lot of work but I finally got there. I made something that she’s never defeated.
KK:Two years. I spent about a year working and getting to a design I liked. I filed a provisional patent application on that. Then, another year of refinement and figuring out how to make my working design manufacturable at a reasonable cost
.
Early Prototype Starting Points
How is this going to be made at a decent price? Who’s going to make it? Where am I going to make it? What rubber will it be made out of? That’s what the past six to eight months have been about.
KK: I think mine is, I need to have some requirements that must be met. Because if you don’t, when you hit a roadblock, you’ll just say “Oh that doesn’t matter.”
For example, “It’s not important that the person not have to use a screw driver. This design needs a screwdriver, it’s good enough.” Well no. I have got the requirements of no screwdrivers, it’s non-negotiable. So, it forces me not to give up, forces me to try harder.
The other is, just trying something. There will be a time where I needed a certain type of rubber material to do an experiment. I order it, and it’ll take some time to come in, since it’s a special order but, in the meantime try something. Try anything. Tear up something in the garage and cobble it together. “Oh, that idea sucked anyway, let’s just move on.
Collection of prototypes to final design, in order of creation
Kirby describes the different above prototypes in greater detail, detailing the modifications that gave way to the final design.
Doing things really fast, trying horrible-looking experiments give you enough information as a proof of concept. Or not.
RMA: Absolutely, you learn more from failure than you do success, right?.
KK: Yes! Lot’s of failures. Got a whole bag of ‘em.
KK: One, it works as intended. It keeps the dog from choking on the rawhide.
The extra benefit, is when she eats the rawhide, she gets down flush to the ring in 15/30 min like a regular rawhide. But then, she’s working on that last little bit trapped in the ring, covered in dog spit she tears it out in little shreds. It can take care from between 1,2 to 4 hours to tear out all the little pieces.
Close ups of EverChew Product
Not only does it have a safety aspect, it also keeps her busy and occupied. When she finally tears it free, she’s out of breath and exhausted.
I think it gives them two things. The comfort, assurance that their dog won’t choke with the rawhide.
The second thing, is they know their dog will get enjoyment out of it for longer than a regular rawhide.
Actually, you can do a cost benefit thing. So, you’re buying this ring which costs extra money. The rawhides for this product are all-natural, high quality and US-made. So, they are pricier than the cheap rawhides you can buy. But if you look at the amount of time the dog has to spend with the rawhide, you can actually save money in the long run.
Ever Chew exclusively uses Tasman’s Rahides made from 100% all-natural US Beef.
So there’s a financial benefit as well.
RM:Good, I’m glad you brought that up. Why would dogs love this product?
KK: Well, she adores it! I do most of my work out in the garage. Drilling things, molding urethane/rubber rings ,and things like that, I’m always out there messing around. Whenever I walk out of my garage door, my dog is always waiting just right inside the house to see if I have a prototype for her to test.
KK: I wasn’t sure I was going to need one. I assumed I didn’t, I would worry about that sort of thing after it becomes a real product after Kickstarter. Talking to the marketing agency I got, he said,
“Make sure not only upload your photos in to the shared drive, upload your logo as well.”
“…I don’t have a logo.”
“ Well you got to have a logo!”
“Why do I need a logo? It’s a Kickstarter campaign, I don’t need one yet.”
RM: -. (laughs)As a graphic designer, I just died a little bit.
KK: (laughs) I’m sorry.
He was saying that even if we’re just doing Facebook ads, out sending email campaigns, it’s the brand recognition.
“They may the read the first email, they may ignore the second, but by the third one they’ll recognize the picture in the corner. So, they’ll click on it and it’ll refresh their memory. That’s why it’s important to have a logo. So go get one.”
RM: Definitely. As a graphic designer, I could go on and on about why it’s important to have a logo designed. But, I’ll just simplify it too. You’ve made a really interesting product, you understand the technical side of it. But for someone else, they need to have a face/symbol/artwork associated with it. It attracts attention to your product which translates to customers.
Looks better with a logo than without doesn’t it?
KK: I mean it works for Nike, right?
RM: Right. Automatically, you hear of Nike and you understand the product, lifestyle, and even the premium .
KK: The only preferences I had was to make you think of a dog when you saw it. Since we’re advertising on Facebook, dog lovers love anything with a dog on it, so it would at least catch their eye.
The other thing I wanted, looking around at Facebook ads, I noticed that the logos were very small a lot of the times. Half an inch, quarter of an inch, a really small size. I wanted it to look like a dog that small. So, it couldn’t be so detailed, or have so much extra noise in the background that you couldn’t recognize it when it was a quarter inch diameter.
Logo Sizes Comparison
KK: (chuckles) Well, it was easy. You did all the work.
The hardest part was trying to identify someone that would do good work. It was just a matter of googling like crazy looking for examples. I wanted someone local to Austin so that we could meet and talk.
RM: Yeah,you get rid of a lot of problems in project when speaking face to face.
KK: So it was perfect, we meet for lunch, you saw the product. You got to handle the product and took pictures. We got to talk things through, it was easy that way.
First samples used for logo inspiration
KK:No. I saw your work and knew we’d come up with something.
RM: Good to hear! Some of my clients are really nervous about the whole process and I have to calm them down a little bit.
KK:No it was fine. I had a vision I had sketched up in Power Point, it looked like a vampire dog! But, it was a starting point. It wasn’t going to work the way I had in my head obviously. But, you were able to spin it and give me several drawings to start.
Behold the vampire dog logo starting point.
Some of them would’ve been great if I was a more established brand and this was a new rawhide product line. One design focused more on the device itself, it had the swirl of the ring and roll. But, since it was a brand new product, so it need to have a dog icon.
Collection of Thumbnails
I remember I was able to say, “Take this element from this drawing and combine it with that one.” You then threw in a few artistic elements. The ear is flipped as if in motion and there’s a little shine on the nose.
Collection of Black and White Mockups
RM: The good news, is that later on as your brand becomes more established, you can change the logo. Companies update their logos over time.
KK: I could only be so lucky.
KK: I chose the one that had elements of what I had originally sketched. Which was some aspect of the dog holding the rawhide, with the ring attached to the side, what my dog looks like when she’s carrying it.
Colored Options Samples
We went with the dog option with a rounded head, and the marketing team picked the green color for the device. You made it green and it naturally fell into a blue background, because the dog was black and white. What was nice is that the logo is round , just like the product with the title encompassing it.
Blue Color Variations
The marketing agency also uses just the symbol without the blue background, sometimes without text and it still looks good.
Final Design Logos with/out background
KK:Oh, absolutely. It was great.
KK: The dream result is, the Kickstarter campaign is successful. I’m not sure how to define that, I guess that I don’t lose money right?. That would be success no.1!
Success no.2is most of the things get paid for. The mold costs, the manufacturing, all of the fees, etc.
After that, assuming all goes well, it would be to have a product that there for people to buy. Whether it’s a standalone single product website, maybe Tasman’s (sells the rawhides) will take it and run with it. Or who knows, maybe one of the big players will buy it out or license it.
I don’t know, I’m open to anything at this point. I would like to get it out there in consumers hands and in dogs mouths.
KK: I will always have the website Everchew.com. So, it will always point to the store that carries it. Be it Amazon, another store or even years later, a company that licenses it. That website will always be a starting point to get it. Initially it will be the Kickstarter campaign that launches August 2nd.
Dog + Dog Owner Approved!
Oil paints are the “classical’ choice for many artists, and with good reason. Oils have been used to create masterpieces that the collective consciousness still recognize today. Remember Michaelangelo’s Creation of Adam? How about Van Gogh’s The Starry Night? Or the greatest painting of all time, Cakes by Wayne Thiebaud? 😉
So, whether you paint a deeply realistic portrait of your long dead great Grand-Pappy Ulyssis, or a day-glo abstract study of SpongeBob, each piece carries the hallowed legacy of oil paints.
Question is, what kind of brand of paint should I buy? After all, there’s WAY too many options, and too little money to try them all. That’s where reviews can really be handy.
Check out this article by Olivier Jennes over at Wonderstreet. It’s a great comprehensive article reviewing many of the major brands, as well as lesser known ones. They aren’t paid for their reviews and I’m not paid to plug them either. Just found it useful for me in my work.
One brand was not mentioned there, Soho Urban Artist. It might be because, it’s a house brand of an Art Store I regularly buy from, Jerry’s Artarama. I’m not affiliated with them either, and this review is gratis.
(Nothing in exchange for this review. No money, no coupons, no nuttin’. Hit me up Jerry’s Artarama, if you want to change that. 🙂 )
Let’s begin!
This review is for the Soho Urban Artist Oil Colors Set of 24 Each tube is 21 ml, aluminum-lined and is packaged in a cardboard tray.
The colors that arrive in this set are : Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber,Raw Umber, Alizarin Crimson, Vermillion, Cadmium Red Medium Hue, Cadmium Orange (Hue), Raw Sienna, Yellow Ochre, Naples Yellow Hue, Cadmium Yellow Hue Pale, Cadmium Yellow Hue Medium, Permanent Green Light, Sap Green, Pthalo Green, Ultramarine, Cerulean, Pthalo Blue, Cobalt Blue, Prussian Blue, Dioxazine Purple, Paynes Gray, Ivory Black and Titanium White.
A high pigment quality and amount is key to creating great artwork. Certain bargain brands use more filler and less whole pigment to offset costs. The filler is grainy and dulls the pigment. Sadly, that means your work will not be as bright as it could be.
So, I am happy to report that the pigment quality for this brand is very good, it can even compete with pro brands. In fact, it’s marketed towards both students and pros.
While I have only experience with the 24 colors mentioned here, their open stock boasts more than 50+ choices of colors. That may be a bit limiting for some artists accustomed to more options, so fair warning.
A good brand uses a high ratio of oil to pigment. The types of oil used can be a number of plant-based oils, linseed being the most common.
For this brand, pure refined linseed oil is used as the binder. I’m happy to say that the ratio is perfect. Not too thick ( so, if you’re looking for heavy body paint, this is not it.) and not too runny ( add more linseed oil separately if needed).
Ideally, the best oil paints have a lipstick-like consistency. The texture of this paint is not like lipstick but, it is smooth, creamy and buttery. The pigment and oil don’t separate like some brands and remain consistent through long brushstrokes.
Oils have the capability of blending beautifully. Whether they be blended next to each other, or layered on top of each other, it’s one of the best parts of the medium. In the example below, Cadmium Yellow Hue Pale, Vermillion, Prussian Blue and Sap Green were blended together.
On the left side,colors were painted side by side, then feathered into one another. On the right side, a layer of color was laid down, then another layer was painted directly above it. That caused the paint to be mixed on the page.
With both techniques this brand blends very nicely. The blending is clean and seamless.
This brands’ paints aren’t full body by nature, so they aren’t very thick. The thick brush strokes below required a few layers. So, if you paint impasto or prefer nice thick paint, it is highly recommended a thickening medium be added.
A tint refers to a color + white. In the example below, increasing amounts of Titanium White are added to Dioxazine Purple to create the values. The paint mixes cleanly and evenly, easily lightening the hue.
A shade refers to a color + black. In the example below, increasing amounts of Ivory Black are added to Permanent Green to create the values. Black paint is usually very strong, and this brand is no exception. The paint mixes well with no issue to create shades.
Grays are the back bone of tones and used more frequently most may imagine, so being able to create clean values is important. This set came with Paynes Gray ( a cool gray with blueish undertones). Mixed with Ivory Black, the below values are created. Had no problem creating them with this brand, the mixing was smooth and the colors crisp.
To find a brand that suits your style/budget and needs, check this article out.
Whew! Long post, thank you for reading! As a reward use coupon code RED15OFF for 15% your purchase at my etsy shop.
What brands of oil paints do you prefer? What’s most important to you when buying oil paint? Color options, thickness, etc? Comment below!