These pages contain information for the various internet (and other) things I have been working on over the years. They help me keep track of projects as well as explain those projects to others who express an interest. The arrangement of the pages may change over time and I am also in the process of migrating information from other web entities I have used for this purpose in the past.
In the fall of 2008, the Northern California Branch of The Mediterranean Garden Society hosted the Annual General Meeting of the international membership. In anticipation of the event, I created a ‘logo’ that could be used as a folder cover or front page. Ultimately, it was used to decorate a tote bag that we gave to the meeting’s attendees.
Our aim was to highlight California, so I mused on a number of iconic natural locales, flora, and fauna, especially those relating to the meeting’s location – Monterey. Because the committee chose the denim option for the fabric of the tote bag (considering it also an iconic fabric for our state), I had to do some selective reversing of images since it would be printed in white ink on the relatively darker fabric.
I managed the printing of the bags and was very happy with the outcome! And they remained very popular even after the event until all bags were claimed.
More posters I created for the California Horticultural Society’s speaker series, this time for 1993. (see my post of the 1991 series for more information)
In 1992, I was asked to come up with a new Pacific Horticulture ad for the California Horticultural Society. The society was getting ready to celebrate their 60th anniversary (in 1993). As an active member during this time, I created new ad art as a member gift to the society. I still have the Pacific Horticulture issue where I apparently took notes on the creation of the new ad – text to be modified, additions, subtractions.
Looking over other current ads in the magazine, I considered an approach that would cause the new add to distinguish itself in relation to other page content. The old add was relatively nondescript with a mere bulleted list of reasons to join the group. While this was not to change, I wanted more graphic appeal.
I chose a stylized representation of Sollya (now Billardiera) heterophylla, which was a relatively new plant in local gardens at the time. I made the flowers white – there is a white form of this species – and the foliage black, to increase the graphic contrast. This ad art was done in the old style of cut-and-paste, with the text produced using a computer mark-up language and pasted right onto the drawing. The line border with rounded edges was done by the magazine’s ad art group using their standard template.
This ad ran in Pacific Horticulture from 1993-2003. I recall that it was assumed to contribute to a rise in membership during the beginning of the period. Even during its final year, it was always easy to spot in the publication, in spite of many neighboring ads having been ‘improved’ during that time.
More posters I created for the California Horticultural Society’s speaker series, this time for 1992. (see my post of the 1991 series for more information)
During one of the CalHort meetings, I heard that they were looking for someone to take over the job of producing posters for the monthly meetings. These posters were then sent to various nurseries, libraries and other public place throughout the San Francisco Bay Area to publicize the upcoming speaker program. Having done a lot of graphic design in the past decade or more, I thought it seemed like something I could contribute.
This kind of event announcement might seem strange today – in the age of the online event calendars, e-mailing lists, Facebook events – but that is how we still did things during the early 1990s. Google and the internet as we now know it did not even start until later in the 1990s, and even then most people were still unaware of the emerging online world.
After I volunteered, I learned what else apparently went with the task! Not only was I to design and create the poster, I also had to chase down the information for each speaker program – usually directly from the speaker. This part I actually found interesting – it was an opportunity to connect one-on-one with someone who had something valuable to share with others. For the most part, all of them were relatively pleasant to work with, though occasionally their busy schedules made contact difficult.
The other part of the process I only became aware of after I finished my first poster. It was only then that I was informed that I was in charge of the printing of the poster and mailing labels, preparing them for mailing, and then actually mailing them using our non-profit USPS code at a specific post office in San Francisco! Managing the mailing list was unexpected, but again, it gave me the location of many nurseries I had never visited. I also had the opportunity to update this list with many other institutions that I knew would welcome information about these meetings.
The artwork for this posters was largely done by hand. I was able to produce most of the text (except the large font left sidebar CALHORT SOCIETY, which was hand-drawn) using a mark-up language – i.e. you had to send it to a mainframe computer to process and then it had to print before you knew if it was what you wanted. The artwork was executed using various forms of cut-and-paste (it the fully literal sense!) methods I had been using for years.
Below are two of the early posters I did at the end of 1991 (I continued producing and distributing these speaker program announcements through 1992 & 1993).
Seán A O'Hara 