Designing Pretty Things

When I was little, my friends and I would sell stress balls made out of balloons and corn, homemade magnets (old relator magnets with a new piece of paper glued to the top with a picture or "catchy" phrase on it) and spend hours creating new art projects. If there was a group art project, I would find a way to do it just a bit differently than everybody else and also spend an extra 20 minutes on it after everyone else had left. It was creativity mixed with a bit of entrepreneurial spirit and some obsession. Those were just the things I loved.

But, I also decided early on that I wouldn't be doing anything "art" related for my job when I grew up. The only guy I could think of who tried to do art for a living was Vincent Van Gogh and he was poor, crazy and actually made no money until after he was dead. Plus, there was that whole cutting off of the ear thing...I think he was a bit of a creeper. And I just didn't want to go down that path. I knew I wanted a secure, predictable job without any "just scrapping by" if I could help it.

So, as the years went on and I applied to colleges, got accepted, and had to figure out what in the world I wanted to major in, I choose the practicality of Business & Marketing. I figured there were so many jobs you could get with that degree, so there had to be something that I liked. Let me tell you- business is boring, people. While I enjoyed some of the marketing and consumer behavior classes, I realized with a few semesters to go that I didn't really like business. At all.

But, I persevered, since quitting would be a waste of the past 2 years I had put into this degree. I graduated, ended up back at the same job I had in high school and college, got married, and sometime in the midst of all that realized that what I was really supposed to be doing was graphic design. So, in August 2012 my husband and I scraped together some money to buy a Mac with the Adobe Design Suite. I had no idea what I was doing, but I was so excited anyway.

The only thing I could make were Chevrons, so I would make chevron after chevron in so many different colors (my husband can attest to that because I would proudly show him each one). Then, I took some online classes in Illustrator (the king of design programs) and fell in love instantly.

So, here I am. Not at all where I thought I would be when I was 12, but I couldn't be happier about being wrong (I'm sure this is the only time though). Designing makes me happy, makes me crazy and makes me want to work late into the night (and sometime even get up early, GASP!) And I'm so excited to share this passion with you all! I hope you find something you love as much as Ioved creating it. Thank you for joining me in this crazy effort to make a living with art and supporting me in it. I am thankful to each and every one of you.