Pink Laughter Designs Blog

Twilight Cafe is a menu and restaurant concept that was inspired by futuristic themes and motifs of the 50s as well as stylizations from the cartoon The Jetsons. Boomerang shapes, things relating to outer space, colors blue, pink, red and green, the future, exploration and modernism were heavy themes that shaped the design output during the 50s and the early part of the 60s. I decided to first create a menu design using these ideas. I wanted the menu to be playful, intriguing, reflective of the look and feel I was going for and interactive to some degree. The prices and selections of the menu items had to represent the time period and style. Prices were of course going to be much lower. For example, a burger might be 50 cents or a sundae might be a nickel rather than what the prices are today. A restaurant such as this would offer traditional American foods that would fit into the theme.

I discovered during my research that it was common for many restaurants during the 50s to offer juices and fruit selections as appetizers. Today these items are normally sold as side orders or placed within the beverage or dessert menu so it would look rather unusual to see juices offered as starters now. These two pieces are vector illustrations and were created entirely in Illustrator. I also created a tangible copy of the menu. I printed out the layout for the menu, had it assembled, laminated and presented as a real menu that a restaurant would actually use.

As with all of my other business and advertisement concepts, this one is themed very specifically. If money were no issue, I’d definitely establish a club called Club Worship in a hot spot or location. The flyer presents Worship as a themed night for a fictitious club called Club Panorama but Club Worship would be an offshoot of that club…so it would be an addition to that franchise.

Club Worship would be based on a solar theme. The club’s interior would be a mix of oranges, yellows and orange-reds, but mostly the latter two hues. The walls would be glazed to give a candy-like appearance and there would be lots of sun motifs and decorative references about the entire interior space. The club’s style would be lush, warm, sophisticated, inviting, and hip with a very intoxicating setting.

The club would showcase bands, spoken word poetry, storytelling nights and eccentric but funny stand-up comics. Bar would be full while featuring an assortment of special house cocktail drinks and there would be a kitchen serving tasty and decadent foods at the honey-colored cushioned tables and chair sets made with blond wood arranged around the various floor sections in different lounge areas (including the sun deck and patio spots).

This flyer is a fictitious advertisement for this club concept created in illustrator and taken into Photoshop for depth. The female character is dazed and possessed by the glowing and dazzling lights around her and especially above her head.

Originally the design for this piece was for a class project in a design advertisement and marketing class that I was taking. The objective was to come up with a word and associate and image with it to not only create a statement but to also highlight another word within the original word. I chose the word worship…focused on HIP in worship and decided that the female character that I’d illustrate around the word selection would be designed right within the word “hip” around her hip area.

The implication was of a woman obsessed with being beautiful, being hip, “in”, “popular” and accepted. Her eyes were to be glazed over, completely showing white, and she’d be looking upward in a complete haze totally worshiping the idea of beauty and fame…the limelight (represented by the sun)…all the while holding a sweet lollipop which represents innocence, yearning and craving.

I am always full of ideas…especially concepts for products, services and businesses. What I love as much as design is the idea of taking an idea from concept stage all the way to prototype stage. Concepts for me need to come out of theory at some point and I am thrilled when I can do this with any of my ideas.

This illustration was inspired by my fondness for pastries, desserts and especially pastry shops and bakeries. I’ve dreamed of opening up my own shop in the future when money and time allows for this. I’d sell petits fours, cakes, cupcakes, tarts, creme-based confectioneries and much more.

It would be a place of delight and pleasure. Along with my intrigue for ideation, I enjoy the idea of branding. Branding goes hand in hand with conceptualization. An idea becomes an actual identity; a product or service which enhances one’s lifestyle.

Cake Wonderland was one of these ideas. I plan to develop it further someday…to create a full blueprint for the business plan.

I find that having mascots or character icons is very effective for promoting a brand. Character depictions become the emboodiment of a business. I chose the character Airo from my Pink Laughter Kingdom world concept. He is one of the characters in this story world.

He is known as the elusive pastry chef. He head, always topped with a tasty cake on a platter, which acts also as a permanent hat, becomes iconographc for the cake shop, Cake Wonderland.

This piece was created in Illustrator and Photoshop.

I came up with the concept for this fictitious company about a year ago. I was working on a project in an Adobe After Effects course and the objective was to come up with an idea for an advertisement short.

I thought of many ideas but I wanted whatever it was to be fun, different, exciting and playful. I thought about my interests and desires in life. I’ve always thought that if I ever became very independently wealthy, I would often plan and host themed parties and events for friends and family.

I love the idea of entertaining and creating fun. I liken creating fun to the effect of an explosive display of confetti, fireworks or dazzling bright light shows. These types of effects and actions surprise, entice and engender a very euphoric and celebratory series of feelings. I think many people find anything that breeds these emotions exciting and alluring.

I also thought about the movie The Game with Michael Douglas and Sean Penn. The unusual plot of the movie gave me more ideas.

So I thought to create a make-believe advertisement for a surprise party planning business. I thought for days on what the business name should be as well as the slogan. I finally came up with the name Confetti Palace and the slogan: Celebrate The Unexpected!

I thought both the name and slogan were catchy and emotive.

I created a video for the advertisement in After Effects and after I completed the project, I uploaded it on YouTube. It can be seen here:



The music is by the artist Twink. He’s a favorite. The title of the track is called “Not Enough Crayons For Everyone”. He’s an artist that uses toy piano to compose his music. He’s quite the artist in many facets, which includes illustration.

I decided to use the graphics that I illustrated and designed for the video to create an advertisement for the faux business. Recently, I went in finalized the design and layout by illustrating it further. It was created in Illustrator and then taken in Photoshop to finalize the digital painting involved in many of the highlights, shadows, sky drop and surfaces.

In order to see the details of the piece, click on the image to download a larger version of the image in a new window.