Gretchen Miller Design • Monterey - design monterey

Monterey County Wine Labels

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 11:31:46 -0800

Having lived in Monterey for 12 years now, I have come to love the Peninsula. It is my home, I cherish the people, the views, the food and the wine. I think Monterey County wines are the best in the world, even better than Napa. In fact, it baffles me that people would drive all over Napa, when Carmel Valley has a grip of tasting rooms in one garden draped walkable location. As my friend Mark Anderson from the Monterey County Weekly put it, "Yes, Napa's beautiful … But it's also over-priced, over-hyped, over-boutiqued and often over-booked." Here are some fantastic examples of great design on local wine labels, many with tasting rooms in Carmel Valley.

And now for a plea for Boëté Winery.
Please get a label redesign immediately.

I'm sure that when you created this label in God knows what program (I have a scary suspicion it was MS Paint,) Papyrus seemed like a good idea at the time. I only hope it was 1997, as that would be the only excuse. Anyhow, it's 2012 now, and if my 94 year old grand mother could name that font, it has to go. Your wine is too good for this. I love the fact that you have one of only a few labels with a custom shape, which implies that your wine is so good that it breaks the norm. The choice of Papyrus as a font however, is second only to Comic Sans in the way of terrible choices. Time to invest in a good designer who can take your winery to a professional level in the 21st century.

For more information about Monterey County Wines, see the Weekly's list of tasting rooms, published in last weeks Winter 2012 Food and Wine issue.

Carrie says what?

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 19:32:44 -0800

So, I've been watching the show Work of Art on Bravo. Just caught up with it on OnDemand. In last night's episode, Sarah Jessica Parker, who is a producer on the show, was the guest judge.

One of the contestants this season is Sucklord, who creates amazing cultural pop art. I love his Star Wars pieces, being a huge Star Wars fan.

How awesome is it to hear Sarah Jessica say Sucklord. I laughed so hard.

Graphic Design Humor • Stencil Inequity

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 19:11:54 -0800

While looking at stencils on Amazon, I saw these great people stencils for architect pros.

Note the price difference.

Commercial Advertisement for Women

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 21:17:29 -0800

Last Sunday, I found myself home alone with not a lot going on, so I turned on the TV and pulled up the Guide channel. I was happy to see that the movie Banditas started in 10 minutes on the Halmark Channel. Being a Salma Hayek fan and never having seen the film, I decided it was a go.

The movie turned out to be a mexi-western Robin Hood meets Karate Kid with two hot chicks as leads (Salma and Penelope Cruz). Also starring that one guy who played Julia Roberts boyfriend whose car blew up in the Pelican Brief as the Mr. Miyagi character. And the very funny Steve Zahn.

My favorite parts had to be the Matrix shootout at the end and when Salma, holding onto a train trestle dangling over a ravine, flip-dives into the river, cgi style, to save Penelope.

I have most of the premium movie channels, so I dont often watch movies on basic cable. I forgot about all the commercials. Every ten minutes I was inundated with advertising directed at people who watch the Halmark Channel. Women.

Young, old, with kids and homes and medical issues and wrinkles and dogs. Lots of advertising directed towards women with dogs. My two favorite lines were, "Mastectomy Fashions," and regarding canned veggies, "As healthy as they are fresh." The following is a list of commercials that ran during Banditias. Sadly, not a very good film, I found myself taking breaks when the movie was on, so I could check out the commercial action.

Bissell Vacuum Cleaner—woman with dog
Gwen Stefani selling Loreal hair color "It's shine time!"
Green Giant Canned Veggies—so fresh
Wonder File Organizer

Golden Corral Family Restaurant
Macy*s Million Dollar Makeover—with a dog
Jamie Lee Curtis selling Activia
Hoover Vacuum—woman with dog
(vacuums+dogs=? All my expiences are that dogs hate vacuums)
Home Deliver Bladder Control Products
Marie Calendar Microwave Meals
Viactiv Calcium Chews
Abilify Antidepressent—lets scare the shit out of people into taking pills

Stem Cell Therapy—an anti-aging wonder cream
Corn Syrup Lobby—it's good for you
General Mills Cereal—kids with dogs
Tylenol Pain Cream
V8 Invusion
Andie McDowell selling Loreal anti-wrinkle cream
One-A-Day menopause pills
Airwick—more dogs
Nostalgia selling Chex Mix
Pajama Jeans

Cellerate Wound Care—this one sold me, the only one
Crystler—safety first for families
Intuativ—a ADHD pill for kids. omg!
New England Mint selling $2 bills for $10
Benecol low cholesterol butterish spread
Chantix antismoking pills
Orkin—really scary with lots of bugs
Miche Bag—interchangeable handbag

Awesome Logos

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 22:16:18 -0800

It has been a crazy couple weeks for me. At the Monterey County Weekly, we've been busy putting together our Best Of issue. It is easily the biggest issue of the year and takes weeks to produce. Packed full of stories about local business and great advertising, with a beautiful cover photo by Nic Coury. It's on the news stands tomorrow, so be sure to pick it up. I have also been doing a lot of freelance for

For your enjoyment, here are some of my favorite Monterey County logos.

Prague Border Freebie

Sat, 26 Feb 2011 16:32:19 -0800

Just because it is supposed to snow this weekend in Monterey,
here is a vector border I created. Enjoy!
For personal use only please.

gretchenmiller_pragueborder.eps
File Size:	485 kb
File Type:	eps

Download File

Monterey Stencil Bandit

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 22:32:41 -0800

I first heard about the Monterey Stencil Bandit a few weeks ago when my friend and fellow Weekly Alum, Walter Ryce, took this photo for the January 13 Etc. shot. Turns out the mystery Artist has been creating guerilla pop stencil art around the Peninsula. His badass works are thought provoking on modern culture. Right up my ally. I love an American rebel.

So I was incredibly excited when I recently visited the Walgreens on Fremont and Canyon Del Rey and I spotted one of his works for myself. Awesome! I am on the look out now.

This last one is from The Lettuce Curtain, a local photography blog. Check them out for more of the rebel art. They have been documenting the Artist for a while now.

Happy Valentine's Day

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 19:23:43 -0800

Please enjoy this free vector pattern and flower illustration that I created for Valentine's Day. For personal use only please.

gretchenmiller_valentines.eps
File Size:	594 kb
File Type:	eps

Download File

Agriculture Logos

Fri, 04 Feb 2011 20:20:38 -0800

Here is a round-up of local farm and agriculture logos. Some are large corporations that ship produce worldwide. A couple are smaller organic farms that deliver to Monterey County and/or frequent the farmers' markets. This will start a series of posts featuring logos from different local industries.

1. I really love this logo. It's got a barefoot chick strolling along, wind-in-her-hair, with a shovel and a pipe. She has some killer overall's and big boobs. It's sexy. Great graphic that really shows a small farm feel with dedicated people who love what their doing and have a sense of humor about it. I also really like the typography. Very organic hand drawn looking and nicely type-set.

2. What's not to like about this logo. It's fun, colorful, has great phallic energy and is such a throw-back. Reminds me of vintage produce labels. You know those beautiful works of art that people love to collect. My only beef is the kerning in the typography, especially in FARMS.

3. Nicely done. Love the colors and the compact look. In .2 seconds I know this is a produce company. I imagine that it is the top of fruit (tomato) that has been weirdly cropped in a angled boxy, not very fruit-like way. Hmmm. Fruit in a box or package? I think I would like it more if it wasn't so generic looking, slightly McDonaldsish.

4. For me, this label is all about the type-set Tanimura & Antle. The way it breaks the ellipse, the drop stroke. Beautiful. I also like the two workers illustration. It just works. I think they missed the mark with the small caps on the tagline–I'd have used upper case, and the colors. Especially the blue. I don't like most blue food to begin with, so it would not draw me to the package in the super market. And three different Trade Marks, is that really necessary? If so, then please work out a better more consistent solution for them.

5. Very nice graphically. I like the leaf sun and the colors. I get it. Fruit, crops, rolling hills. My issue is that the name gets lost. My eye goes from the sun to the ORGANIC to the Food to live by., then finally to Earthbound Farm. The hierarchy is totally off and the three type-set groups are almost the same size.

6. I don't know where to begin. I look at it and even though it clearly says Farms, all I see is pizza. There is nothing fresh here. It looks heavy, and minus the letter r's in Taylor Farms, I really don't like the fonts. There is the gold banner with the squished in serif. The strokes are inconsistent, the down point of the pizza slice is not centered. Even the Trade Mark seems like it's floating. Pretty much a mess.

Love it.

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 15:38:14 -0800