I had the absolute privilege of designing a book cover for my grandpa’s autobiography this spring. He turned 104 last July and he’s been working on his autobiography for a few years with some help from his eldest daughter and a few of us grandkids.
Two New Stickers
I added two new stickers to my shop this week.
The first one is a line I saw from a friend a long time ago. It’s always a line that has stuck with me growing up as a woman in this world. This is the first time I’ve opted to try for a glitter border too and I think it turned out pretty cool. The sticker is 3x2.5 inches and durable vinyl.
The second sticker is a quote I read a while back from author Glennon Doyle and it’s one that I really relate to.
I will have plenty of these stickers in my booth at Draper City’s Art in the Barn on August 25 and 26 and possibly Draper’s Int’l Arts & Crafts Festival too.
Also remember that any sticker purchases include a free 2x2 inch circle sticker of Sundial Peak. You can read about that one here.
New Stickers
Hike it Baby Turtle Fur Tube
I have been a contract graphic designer for Hike it Baby for a long time and this year I got to work on an awesome design for a Turtle Fur tube and it became available just this month.
Coyote Hills Elementary Logo
A while back my friend, Brandi reached out to me about creating a new logo for the elementary school where she’s a teacher. It just so happens to be the same elementary school where both she and I were students back in the 1980s. The school district made some big changes last year, and one of them included a new name for our old school and I was asked to help them with a new logo.
It has been such fun to be part of the process to rebrand MY elementary school.
They had students submit hand-drawn concepts for the logo and the school committee (made up of teachers and the principal) chose one as a conceptual starting-off point for me. That drawing involved a howling coyote with beams of light in a circle around it. The landscape I created in the background is a portion of Coyote Hills Regional Park that the school is named after. I grew up hiking in those hills and going there on field trips!
It was a fun process taking that student’s artwork and turning it into a professional logo and I’m really happy with the final concept. I sent them multiple versions of this logo in one color, two colors, and three colors. That way they have multiple options in the event they want to print on t-shirts or make stickers.
Thanks so much for this fun opportunity!!
LÍLLÉbaby Product Manuals
For about four and a half years, I had the pleasure of working for LÍLLÉbaby as a contract graphic designer. They’re a baby carrier company that sells a variety of babywearing products like infant carriers, toddler carriers, stretchy wraps, ring slings, and more.
Their original user manuals used photographs of an adult and a baby to show step-by-step instructions on how to use the baby carriers. Some of the photos weren’t very clear on how each step was performed and in some instances, it was tough to get the baby to cooperate (which is totally understandable!). Plus, if any of the photos needed to be retaken, it was very difficult to find another baby the same size/age to recreate an image and maintain continuity.
They came to me with the idea of having a simplified drawing for each step rather than a photograph AND a goal to make the drawings as clear as possible so there could be as little text as possible. When these products are shipped to different countries, they have to have the manuals translated into different languages. Some phrases get confused in translations, so if the drawings were very clear, then there would hopefully be less confusion.
We started with the stretchy wrap and ring sling carriers. These first manuals were fun to create as a single page that folded up to be a little bigger than a business card.
From there we slowly started rebranding all of the booklet manuals for their existing Complete and CarryOn carriers.
As the years went on and they launched new products, I was thrilled to get to create new manuals for them; from carriers and wraps to accessories like a rain cover and a snuggly winter cover. For most products, we eventually created an international version that included all of the translated languages in one, big manual.
LÍLLÉbaby carriers were already my favorites when my boys were babies, so my knowledge on how their products work was integral in drawing these as clear and concise as possible. Understanding safe and correct babywearing made it easy for me to create these drawings and be in compliance with safety regulations and reduce any liability on the company.
Each new product was a new and fun challenge and they were truly a pleasure to create.
Product of the Month - September 2021 - Squarespace
It’s time for another Product of the Month, and I’m almost running out of items to feature. At this point, I’m not sure if I can get through the whole year. My goal is to get through 2021, and then I’ll do occasional “Featured Products” or “Featured Tools” on future posts rather than one every month.
This month I’m featuring the company I use for my website: Squarespace!
While I did go to college to learn digital and traditional art, visual development, and graphic design, one thing I did not learn is how to build a website from scratch. I don’t know HTML or CSS or any other acronyms that involve website coding. I have a basic understanding of WordPress, but that’s kind of it!
Nothing was more frustrating when looking for a job about 15 years ago than seeing a job listing for a “graphic designer” and seeing HTML, CSS, and Dreamweaver listed under required skills. A web designer and a graphic designer are very different jobs!
Of course, these days, plenty of companies want their graphic designers to do it ALL… graphic design, print layout, email marketing, web design, UI design, social media marketing, and video content creation and editing. Oy!
I used to have a simple website that a friend set up for me years ago that I managed through WordPress. But after a few years it was hacked. and I lost a LOT of blog posts and content. I didn’t want to deal with another WordPress site and have to keep plugins updated and secure. I wanted someone else to handle that.
Enter: Squarespace.
Building my website was so simple and they made it so intuitive to make a really beautiful website. Does it cost more each month than I could be paying through WordPress? Yes. But having everything in one spot (theme, security, hosting, design) and knowing they are keeping my site secure is worth it.