Bleek Blog

Anyone who knows even a little bit about me knows that I love animals, especially my pugs, Moglee and Simone. And since they are by my side day in and day out, they can’t help but provide me with all sorts of inspiration. Especially Simone, who has one of the most expressive pug faces I’ve ever seen. When I launched Obleek, the monthly graphic I used was an Illustration I created based on a photo of Simone, so I thought another illustration of her, this time with a Christmas twist, would be perfect. The photo below is what I based the illustration on. While this one has a slightly more cartoony flavour, it’s because the original photo is so comical. And that’s why I love it.



My first go at the illustration was sloppy and a bit rushed as seen below, but as you can see in the second version, I’ve refined many of the lines and created rounded eyes to polish it up. I can’t take credit for the design of the snowflakes; I nabbed those by purchasing a stock illustration from istockphoto.com, though it’s barely recognizable in how I used it. The original was blue and arranged quite differently. And speaking of colour, my inspiration for the hues of the card of the card came from my love of browns (who, me?) and a way to incorporate red to make it Christmassy. I really love the colour palette!





Both the outside and inside of the card use the intricate pattern you see on my site and most of my branding materials. This pattern is courtesy of Jason Gaylor from Designfruit, and it really helps to define Obleek’s look and feel, something I wanted brought over to my Christmas card, as you can see in the following photos.





I had a ton of fun creating the card, and I hope those of you who received it enjoyed it as well. I look forward to coming up with something new every year. Designing for yourself is both a challenge and a reward.

Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year!