Design at Work

process work from current and past projects  • laurendellaquila.com • @_designatwork

[love-personal]

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BEEN THERE DONE THAT.

[bled]

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I don’t like reblogging... but this is a worthy message to everyone. 

[easy-to-love]

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Be careful who you share this with... 

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Quick PSA to all of the designers out there that never seem to have enough time— So…all of you.

The new(er) app Coolors @Coolors_Co for palette generation is awesome when you want to brainstorm away from your desk. 

I use it on the subway, but you can use whenever you feel like you’re wasting time anywhere. No internet required to search / save within the app.

Usually picking colors for a new brand is a painstaking process for me: Brainstorm reference imagery, find said images, color drop those images, fine tune in Adobe, format for platform. I am methodical because I love it, but this app still allows for the tweaking after you find your general palette. Coolors makes the process fast, but maintains the human element behind picking colors and the UX is just fun.

Quick run through of the star features:

• Automatic Palette Generation • Custom Palette Generation • PDF / PNG / Email exports (I emailed a PDF to myself and was able to use their exports directly in my brand presentation b/c it’s so simply designed.) • Tweak Palettes in any production format (RGB, HSB, CMYK)

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“science” WIP

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I'm reblogging this image in light of my new obsession: StarTalk, Dr Neil DeGrasse Tyson's podcast.

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It has been a full week of iconography. Slowly going insane... 

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Portable Workspace: One of the best investments I made when I first started freelancing was a reliable laptop. It seems obvious, but after you’re chained to a desk at a day job for years you forget about investing in your own practice and supplies.

I’ve been able to tote my ‘office’ to some pretty incredible places, like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Italy, Greensboro Alabama, Iceland, Baltimore, DC and London. It also means I can go down the street from my home office to the local coffee shop or bar so I can be around humans for awhile.

Even more importantly, when an agency or office calls me last minute with a great job opportunity and they ask me if I can bring my own laptop so I can start right away, I can say yes.

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Improving and adding to existing brands is always a welcome design challenge

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Finally sketching logos for myself.

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My Creative Director's real catty.

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Redesigned the EPA's Food Recovery Hierarchy Diagram with @FoodShift branding

Working on building a proper case study for a non-profit client of mine who I've been working with for the past three years. Three years of solid research, learning, development and design work is a long time. Since the food waste problem is just starting to gain traction/popularity I wanted to start from the beginning; Reports and statistics that influenced our organization from the start. 

The report mock-up that's pictured was written by one of our advisors Dana Gunders back in 2012. I highly recommend taking a look.  

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Concept development and image research for the development of Food Shift brand, print and digital design. In my search I became fascinated with transforming the logo into a produce sticker for guerrilla marketing purposes. Original Pakistani mango stickers can be found here.

[designatwork]

Concept development and image research for the development of Food Shift brand, print and digital design. In my search I became fascinated with transforming the logo into a produce sticker for guerrilla marketing purposes. Original Pakistani mango stickers can be found here.

[designatwork]

Concept development and image research for the development of Food Shift brand, print and digital design. In my search I became fascinated with transforming the logo into a produce sticker for guerrilla marketing purposes. Original Pakistani mango stickers can be found here.

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Final Food Shift logo in situ. 

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Concept development and image research for the development of Food Shift brand, print and digital design. Finally started to collect all of my process work for this project. One of the benefits of freelancing / consulting is the (slight) freedom to design at your own pace and what process stages work for you. 

It should be noted that my vector files are NEVER this neat and tidy.