Friday, December 30, 2011

Del Ray Baby Logo


Before we officially wrap up 2011, I wanted to post a logo identity I worked on back in August. It is for Del Ray Baby, an online community developed to support, inform, and engage the families with young children in the neighborhood of Del Ray in city of Alexandria, Virginia.


Above you can sneak a peek into my sketch process. I always like to draw with pen and paper before working on the computer. I wanted to create something that wasn't a typical baby thing (rattles, alphabet playing blocks, etc.). My inspirations were a sun and moon reference as a fresh take on the Ying and Yang symbolism.

Something that interested me was making sure it can be for boy or girl with a neutral color reference that evokes happiness in the cheerful, bright smile. Another great thing is that it can be viewed as one or two faces working together (if you have more than one child). This logo has global recognition and is an easy read.



The Del Ray Baby logo is now on merchandise such as onesies, shirts, water bottles, tote bags, and more.

It was a fun project and I hope I'll be able to do more freelance work in the future.

Available for Freelance Work
If you are are creative director, art director or designer interested in my illustration and/or design skills, please email me at info@curls-studio.com.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Recap: Curls Studio's Year of 2011

Being the last week of the year, I thought it would be beneficial to recap the experiences Curls Studio had in 2011. We had 13 tour stops this year, with a total of 20 or so days dedicated "behind the table" - WOW - that's almost a month in table time. In addition to that, we also had a handful of talk shows, podcasts, and other appearances. Below is our 2011 tour schedule with links to event recaps and photos to each event, so you can click to read all about the events. 

2011 TOUR 
APR 10 • Capicons 
MAY 22 • Handmade Mart J
UN 12 • Capicons 
JUN 19 • DC Comicon 
JUL 30 • DC Zinefest 
AUG 20-21 • Baltimore Comic-Con 
SEP 10-11 • Small Press Expo 
SEP 16-18 • Intervention 
OCT 14-16 • New York Comic Con 
OCT 29-30 • VA Comicon 
NOV 30 • GV Expo 

  In addition to listing appearances, I'd thought it would also be nice to recap specific projects of 2011. In January, I was the first guest of the year on the talk show You, Me, Them, Everybody and it was fun although the bar was very loud. It was also the first time I was on a live show. I participated in Hourly Comic Day for the first time in February. In March and April, I was plugging away on my webcomic, Curls. Around this time also saw the release of Magic Bullet #2, a Washington, DC based comics newspaper which published our Black Magic Tales story, "Good Enough." In May, Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes talked about Curls Studio on their podcast, Jay and Silent Bob Get Jobs. I was also selected to create a monster for Pleasant Plains Workshop and their exhibit, We Are Monsters. The original handcrafted MASER monster sold and was later featured in Curls comic strips. Click here to begin the MASER storyline in Curls. In June, Joe was interviewed live on the You, Me, Them, Everybody talk show. I contributed art to Team Cul De Sac in honor of Richard Thompson's great comic. The book will be available on June 15, 2012 and I am very excited for it. One of my favorite events of the year was meeting international political cartoonists at The National Press Club. I loved it because it felt like a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I appreciated their courage and cultures. It was something I had never experienced before and I think that is why it was enjoyable. In July, August, and September, we were hard at work preparing for the fall conventions. Baltimore Comic-Con, SPX, Intervention, NYCC, and VA Comicon felt like they wear all back-to-back weekends. I'm not gonna lie - the entire fall felt like I was on a spin cycle. We were also guests on the MOKA Podcast and JellyVision. I was asked to speak with on a panel called "Bleeding the Narrative: Comics in Art and Culture" with Jim Rugg, Robert Ullman, Monica Gallagher, and Alexis E. Fajardo at the University of Maryland. At SPX, our comics we selected to be included in the Small Press Expo Collection at the Library of Congress and we gave away a Curls Canvas Print from Easy Canvas Prints. I was interview by Michael O’Connell about Curls and webcomics for an article in The Connection newspapers. In October, a bunch of Curls comic strips were published in Indie Comics Magazine #3. The main highlight of the month was exhibiting at New York Comic Con and tabling next to Bob Camp, co-creator of The Ren & Stimpy Show, in Artist Alley. At NYCC, we also had the opportunity of hosting our panel, "The Other Side of The Table: Lessons from Creators." The panelists included Raina Telgemeier (Smile, The Baby-Sitters Club), David Gallaher (High Moon, BOX 13) Reilly Brown (Amazing Spider-Man, Power Play) and myself - Carolyn Belefski (Curls, The Legettes). The panel was moderated by Joe Carabeo. Astray Productions filmed the panel and hopefully it will be released online soon. If you can't wait for the footage, take a listen to the audio here, from our podcast The Carolyn & Joe Show. Speaking of the podcast, it has been released every Tuesday and we are currently on episode 154. That's pretty monumental! That same month, we exhibited at VA Comicon for the first time and got to meet the creator of The Crow, James O’Barr! In November, I made a Harvey Head for Harvey Pekar's Kickstarter campaign and was a guest blogger for a second edition of selections for Jimmy Palmiotti's Sexy Monday feature on his blog. Joe and I also spoke on the topic of "having fun" at the GV Expo, the East Coast’s largest pro video and broadcast expo. December started out nicely with the honor of having one of my Curls comic strips selected to be published in the Philadelphia City Paper‘s special Comics Issue, celebrity judged by Art Baxter. Curls Studio closed the year by giving away issues of Indie Comics Magazine #4, which feature our Black Magic Tales story, "How Roxy and Dean Stole Christmas." Whew. That was a mind-blowing year. I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted just recapping that! Exhausted - in a good way! We hope you enjoyed all the activities Curls Studio has done this year. Thank you to our fans who read comics, listen to our radio show, and attend our convention appearances. We really appreciate your enthusiasm about what we do and hope to be creating more for you in the future. There's already material we've completed that will be released in 2012 - but we can talk about it just yet. Stay 'tooned. Curls Studio loves having fun. Happy 2012 to everyone. Make it fun.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Curls Studio Holiday Giveaway Contest


Ho! Ho! Ho! In honor of the holiday season and to celebrate our story, Black Magic Tales: How Roxy and Dean Stole Christmas, Curls Studio is giving away one copy of Indie Comics Magazine #4 to two lucky winners. Two people will win!

HOW TO ENTER (Do All Three Steps to Enter, Please)
1.) Like Curls Studio on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Curls-Studio/50763422380)
2.) Follow me on Twitter (http://twitter.com/#!/carolynbelefski)
3.) Tweet the following message: "Win a Indie Comics Magazine Christmas comic book featuring Black Magic Tales from Curls Studio http://www.curls-studio.com/curls #christmascrime"

Contest starts now (Monday, December 12, 2011 at 10PM EST) and ends Saturday, December 17, 2011 at 10 AM EST. Winners will be announced on Saturday, December 17, 2011.


Ask your local comic shop to order Indie Comics Magazine #4. Good Luck and Happy Holidays from Curls Studio!

Curls in Comic Creators for Freedom 2012


In January, I'll be taking part in a fundraiser event called Comic Creators for Freedom: Fighting Together to End Human Trafficking. (You may remember this organization for the past two years as Comic Creators Alliance, but they have since changed names as to not be confused with AOL's Comics Alliance.)

We’re a group of Comic Book Creators, who have come together, volunteering our artistic talents to raise money for the purpose of ending human trafficking in the world. Each comic creator who participates contributes an original drawing of one of their female characters. We compile all of these images into one single wallpaper, available for download when people donate to the cause! The hope is that readers will be excited to participate in our donations drive, and that the wallpaper will be used to generate interest in the project. All of your favorite characters on one screen!


This year's theme is Epic Snowball Fight, as you can see in the image above, my character, Curls, is prepared to fight! We hope you are able to donate January 9-20, 2012 to receive the complete downloadable wallpaper. Want to participate? Find out what you need to do to get involved here!

The Problem:
There are currently 27 million enslaved people worldwide -- more than double the number of enslaved Africans during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. UNICEF estimates that 1.2 million children every year are sold into slavery, most of it sexual. The US Department of Justice estimates 16,000 victims of human trafficking are brought into the United States every year.

Here is the art for 2011 and 2010: http://curls-studio.blogspot.com/search/label/Comic%20Creator%27s%20Alliance

Stay tuned for more information during our January 9-20, 2012 donation drive. I'm excited to see the complete wallpaper!

All-New Secret Identity #36 Podcast


We met Brian LeTendre at New York Comic Con 2011. He interviewed us for his weekly podcast and the interview is part of the episode posted today for the Creator Spotlight for this week. Listen to the episode here: http://secretidentity.podomatic.com/entry/2011-12-12T03_35_28-08_00

Thanks to Brian for the interview and we hope everyone checks out more episodes of his podcast.

All-New Secret Identity #36 Podcast

Reviews
Flash Fordon: Zeitgeist #1
Valen the Outcast #1
New Avengers #18
Star Wars: Agent of the Empire #1
Justice League Dark #3

Creator Spotlight: Carolyn Belefski and Joe Carabeo
Brian spoke to the creative duo behind Curls Studio and the comics Kid Roxy, Black Magic Tales and The Legettes at NYCC 2011. For more info, head over to www.curls-studio.com, where you can also read the Curls webcomic that Carolyn does twice weekly.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Philadelphia City Paper's Comics Issue


My comic strip Curls was selected to be published in the Philadelphia City Paper's special Comics Issue, celebrity judged by Art Baxter (who also did the cover above). The physical newspaper is available on newsstands this week in Philly! Take a look online here: http://www.citypaper.net/cover_story/2011-12-01-city-paper-comics-issue.html


Thanks to Philadelphia City Paper for having a comics issue and spotlighting comics in print.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Recap: GV Expo 2011


Carolyn Belefski and Joe Carabeo spoke on Wednesday, November 30, 2011 as part of the annual DC Metro Final Cut Users Group special event taking place at the Government Video Expo, the East Coast’s largest pro video and broadcast expo.

It was interesting because most of the other speakers there were discussing very high tech stuff, such as the Arri Alexa camera and Autodesk Smoke. Curls Studio and Astray Productions presented some of our latest work along with glimpses of our how our process works while focusing on the topic of fun and how you can interject elements of yourself into projects to make it fun. I hope the attendees really appreciated our presentation and believe it was refreshing to see some practical effects and low tech innovation. We also made a film around one minute long that encompasses all 365 of my Sketch Before Sleep illustrations. I think it turned out to be really amazing.


We gave away a mystery box in the raffle at the end of the day. It's confidential.


Thanks to Rodney Mitchell (who is pictured with Joe and I in the photo above) for inviting us to speak.