Right on Cue

One of my new favorite hobbies lately has been playing pool in league. I joined the American Poolplayer Association (APA) the end of 2019 due to the encouragement of my best friend, her husband and my boyfriend who have all been playing in league for years. Entering the APA and joining a 9-ball team, I would come in as a skill level 3 and win or lose to determine my long-term skill level. Being completely new to the sport, I quickly dropped down to a skill level 1 with a ton to learn. This allowed a lot of flexibility for the team though since we had a broad range of skill levels already on the team. 

I lost a TON at first, but that definitely made that first win extremely memorable. Eventually COVID-19 put a wrench in any social activities including pool league. One benefit we had was a pool table in the basement. I watched a bunch of intro videos and practiced nearly every weekend. When we came back to shooting league later in 2020, I was winning and bumped up to a skill level 2. Our team went through some changes as well and were now under a new name Right on Cue.

Once back to shooting full time in league, Right on Cue placed first during the "summer 2020" session. Unfortunately, we lost the first round of playoffs, however, since we had finished first in the session we advanced to regionals. Being a team full of friends outside of league, we were all really excited at our ticket to regionals. The winner of regionals then advances to go play in Las Vegas. While we have a couple months until our shot in regionals, we all decided we needed a logo design and t-shirts. After my busy catalog season at work, I got inspired and designed a logo.

In true fashion, I designed a logo based around a great typeface. Additionally, I came up with the concept of having the name be large and keep the pool concept subtle but still recognizable to those in league. "Right on Cue" references hitting the cue ball with right English, causing the cue ball to move differently after contact with the object ball than it would if you hit it straight on. Many instructor videos include diagrams of applying English with a red dot to signify where the tip of your cue should make contact with the cue ball. I wanted to include that concept subtly within the logo.

Initially I was thinking of using the "o" in "on" to represent the red dot. However, after several attempts, I couldn't quite get it to work or find the right font to pull off the concept. From there I focused on the dot of the "i" in "Right". Below is what I came up with.

Hopefully we can get these made up in time for regionals and have a successful weekend shooting! Until then, we'll be practicing weekly and having fun while doing it.

LAS Catalog Ads

Yesterday I shared the Lancaster Archery Apparel print ad I had designed and included in the annual LAS catalog. In addition to that ad I had created three additional full page advertisements featured throughout the catalog.

LAS Custom strings is an in-house brand/service.

The above ad was featured in our dealer version of the catalog, replacing some retail-specific products. In this ad I focused on the benefits and perks business have when becoming a dealer of our archery supplies.

This ad is a very broad and general advertisement of what Lancaster Archery Supply has to offer. It includes all seven of our icons that are referenced on the LAS website and break down the different types of archery that we provide and promote. This is also a dealer-focused ad. All photos are from our in-house and freelance photographers.

Lancaster Archery Apparel: Women's Tee

One of our goals is to expand upon the women's apparel we have available at Lancaster Archery Supply. With this design I wanted to focus on typography. I found a script font that had a bold yet vintage vibe to it for the main "Bows & Arrows" text. It naturally had more of a feminine look and feel to it. I added additional design elements to make the final mark.

I chose a heather gray shirt color in a soft style. The fit of the shirt was really important to me. Finding a nice woman's cut that is flattering on many body-types is quite challenging. So many cuts are cut small which makes it really difficult for ladies to shop, and especially for those shopping online. This Fruit of the Loom cut is pretty perfect as it is true to size and isn't as short as some other cuts.

Our screen printer suggested we do one pass of the white LAS logo on the sleeve and no white base under the front image. I absolutely love their suggestion because it gives it more of a natural and vintage feel to the whole look. Grab yours at LancasterArchery.com!

In addition to creating these three new garments, we added some hats and shooter jerseys to the 2021 LAS apparel lineup. I designed a full page ad featuring some of these apparel items that is currently being printed in the 2021-2022 Lancaster Archery catalog. Below is the ad design including in-house photography.

Lancaster Archery Apparel: Zip Up Hoodie

I love a good zip-up hoodie, and the District re-fleece full zip-up hoodie is a really nice one. It is a well-constructed medium weight. I've been wanting to design on a maroon garment for a while because it is such a flattering color and is liked by all genders. District has a heather maroon that would work as the perfect canvas.

Again, I went with a one-color design. I originally had some color options with this design, however, with the garment color being a heather it made the most sense to stick with a solid white color. I do always love working with one-color to keep the cost down, especially with hoodies and their natural expense.

With this design I was mainly inspired by denim jackets, large patches, motorcycle colors and the bold statements they make. I designed this LAS mark with all of that in mind. While it has a bold "in your face" LAS in the center, it is encompassed by a circle of arrows and a handwritten-style font. This creates a bold but delicate balance within the circular design.

I added the vertical LAS logo on the bottom of the sleeve to incorporate our easily recognizable logo.

They're currently available at LancasterArchery.com

New Lancaster Archery Supply Tee

I created several new apparel pieces for the 2021 Lancaster Archery Supply apparel. First up is a men's pocket tee. I started off with the Next Level cotton pocket crew t-shirt in forest green. This is a really nice poly blend shirt that is of good construction but also has a soft feel.

The design features a circular graphic I designed stepping away from the original LAS logo. A few months ago, I came up with the broadhead/antler design. I built on that by incorporating the text and other design elements. To be consistent with our other apparel, the original LAS logo is featured on the sleeve. I went with a one-color design in a neutral tan to compliment the forest green shirt color.

Overall I am very happy with how this shirt came out and you can buy your very own on the Lancaster Archery website.

 

Florasaurus 2021

Each January Native Poppy, a flower shop in San Diego, runs a dinosaur and flower drawing contest they refer to as their Annual Florasaurus Competition. While I don't usually partake in many contests anymore, this one is definitely one I still very much enjoy.

This year's contest is accepting entries through Jan. 17. Native Poppy will select 4 finalists and voting will be from Jan. 20 to Jan. 24. Winners to be announced Jan. 27.

Below is my entered drawing, wish me luck!

Feel free to check out their Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/native_poppy

LAS Handbook

Earlier this year Lancaster Archery distributed a new employee handbook. I was tasked with working with HR to create and source a printed product. I worked with a local print vendor to get estimates on several different booklet options. 

The final product was an 80 page 9" x 12" spiralbound booklet. The text pages were black and white to keep it cost-efficient. The cover was a heavier paper weight and full color. The inside back cover features a pocket to allow for employees to add additional handouts of policies as they happen throughout the year.

The cover was definitely the place where I was able to be the most creative. There were some design elements incorporated within the book, but primarily it was simply neatly set text. I had looked at several different sources for cover inspiration prior to landing on the below.

For the cover, I knew I wanted a collage of images. I wanted to include a photo that represents the size of the company. I also wanted to include various photos of people within different departments - some candid, some not. I also really like when color runs from the front cover and onto the back cover. Also on the back cover I wanted to include the LAS tagline "Leading the World in 3D & Target Archery."