The Project this week was to make an image for a Local Coffee house’s website.  I decided to create a coffee house I’d love to run, and one that would be a bit more than just college students studying (though that of course would be welcome).

The first thing I did was come up with the name and logo.  I have a fondness for monkeys… don’t know exactly why, but perhaps it’s my experiences with them in India.  At the caves of Elephanta, we saw a monkey drinking a discarded coke. And when I was in the Himalayas, I  accidentally came upon a tribe of tall white monkeys as I came around a bend.  Luckily, I remained calm and circumvented the troop taking great care not to seem aggressive by moving closer nor fearful by moving away quickly.   And then the next day I was served the best pot roast I’ve ever eaten… later to find out it was monkey… and that made me smile. Try to kill me monkey… eh?

Anyhow I am fond of monkeys, so I named it the 3 Monkeys Cafe. I created the logo by placing the curved banner we were given as source images. Then I distorted it to have a deeper curve, by using the transform tool. I then created a path using the pen tool and convert point tools to create an arc. Then, using the text on path tool I added the text “The 3 Monkeys,” and adjusted it’s location using the move tool.  Finally I took the word “CAFE” and applied and adjusted “Bulge” from the Transform -> Warp tool. For the logo I used one font, Berlin Sans FB Bold.

Next I created the “Events” section, by selecting events that have left me with memories from across the states.  I color and font coordinated the events, so that poetry was yellow and Bauhaus 93 Regular, movies were purple and Footlight MT Light Regular, and the rest were blue and Anton Regular. I also added the decorative squiggle for Tuesday, my night off at the coffee shop. “Events” was Fontdiner Swanky and the days of the week were Berlin Sans FB Bold, both in orange. And I added a flat banner behind Events.

I then searched the web for monkey webdings and found two fonts that I used; Le monde de Victor and MonkeysDC Primates.  I chose my monkeys by looking at the charts for the fonts.  For the two right monkeys, I also flipped them horizontally with the so named tool under Edit -> Transform.  I then adjusted the sizes of the monkeys and the Events section.

Next I added the “Be a Monkey” section and the “Serving…” text. Both in Blackadder ITC Regular font. And I made a copy of the flat banner from events and moved it down and below the “Be a Monkey” text.  Also while doing each stage I applied the various chalk layer styles and colors, to ensure a chalkboard look.