Valentine’s Day is just such an event.  We do a special dinner at the brewery I work for…and so does practically every other restaurant in town.  So now, I’m not only trying to create a design that is different from the ones I’ve done in years past, but I’m also trying to find a way to make this one poster of ours stand out from the crowd of other Valentine’s Dinner posters that will be hanging up around town.

Now, add in the fact that this is a brewery and we’re not really the cupid and lacy hearts type.  We serve beer and we want to appeal to beer lovers most of all on this Valentine’s Day.  Oh, and we’re really into DIY, here, so we’re going to screen print our own posters.  Which means the design has to be limited in colors and complexity to ensure a good print.

So how do you create a simple, gender neutral, stereotype-free Valentine’s Dinner poster?  Well, here’s my solution:

Here’s what they had to say about the work I do:  ”Amy Jones has been leading Boundary Bay’s social media and public relations efforts (yes, they are totally interrelated) for some time and it is paying off.  Boundary Bay not only has a large following but also a large number of people interacting with their Facebook content (almost 250 by today’s count).  Jones also makes great use of their visibility to help promote other local companies and organizations.  Well done!”

Read the full article here.

January 2012 issue of Sunset Magazine

In the latest issue of Sunset magazine there was an article about domestic artists – these interesting, ambitious folks around the country who are making their own soda and hard cider, roasting their own coffee beans and making their own sausage.

The part I found fascinating, though, is that every single one of them has a completely unrelated day job: publicist, software project manager, banker, etc.  They all have jobs that take up the majority of their time and that pay their bills.  Then, they do these crafty hobbies in their spare time for fun.

It sounds so obvious and simple now that I’m writing about it, but at the time I read the article, the idea blew me away!  I spend so much time longing for a way to do what I love all the time.  I fantasize about quitting my own day job and devoting myself fully to my crafts.

Photo by Gabriela Hasbun - sourced from Sunset article

When I began flipping through the Sunset article, I was sure each of those artisans had the romantic, idyllic life I dream of.  Before reading the fine print, I was positive they each had a story of their own “a ha moments” when they turned from their corporate worlds to pursue their creative dreams.  Instead, I found that they make time for what they love and juggle the demands of their other work too.

I read somewhere, once, that your calling doesn’t have to be your job.  I was skeptical, but now I’m starting to understand the sentiment.  Don’t misunderstand, I am not chained to a desk somewhere, whiling away the prime of my life in some tightly wound, conservative, money-hungry atmosphere.  My day job is a delight.

I work for a small, locally-owned craft brewery and get to spend my days managing our online communities through Twitter and Facebook, YouTube and Foursquare.  I get to engage with people who love us, love our beer and love our brand.  I get paid to chat, to listen, to engage and to spread good news.

Best of all, the brewery I work for has a strong commitment to keeping business local, so they see it as equally important that I spend my time strengthening this great little community we all call home.  I get to talk online about our local economy, about local food and about how we can support WA agriculture…all of which I believe in on a personal level.

So I have nothing to complain about.  My daydreams of quitting are not rooted in dissatisfaction.  They are just idle longings for a life that I thought I had to live for my craft to be legitimate.  I am lucky to have a day job that is unbelievably flexible and a boss who encourages my freelance work.  It’s time I start focusing on what I DO have and leaving behind my outdated notions of what living a life with purpose means.  I don’t have to create art in every moment of every day to be an artist. It can be my part time passion and that’s still ok!

Brogan shared his three words for this past year: reinvest, package and flow. I focused too literally on his words, but he went on to explain that reinvesting related as much to his focus on his fitness as it was about his financial goals.  It was about reinvesting his time: on himself and on his future.

I started musing about my own three words and challenged myself to think more broadly on what they might mean for this coming year. The words that really resonated for me were create, learn and grow.

CREATE:  I want to continue creating art: through my greeting cards on etsy, through my design freelance project and through my photography.  I am choosing to focus on the act of bringing something forth from imagination into life.  I want to focus on creating opportunities for growth and learning and challenge, to be thinking creatively and finding creative solutions to challenges.

LEARN:  I want to take classes, learn new skills, listen, grow, change and expand.  I want to learn to kayak and snowshoe (which I’ve been longing to do for years now and continue to let time and fear hold me back).  I am challenging myself to learn to take myself less seriously and to have more fun, to learn from those around me and to believe that everyone has something to teach.

GROW:  I want my business to grow – my social media consulting as well as my etsy adventures. But, more importantly, I want to grow as a person: to grow in spirit and to grow within my marriage.  I want my understanding of myself and of the world to grow.  I want to continue challenging myself to be more, do more, learn more. I am choosing to look forward and focus on new life, progress, forward motion and a deepening and broadening of the ways I define my life.

What three words will you choose to focus on in this new year of your life?

my Day of the Dead makeup, Halloween 2011

This year, for Halloween, I decided to attempt Dios De Los Meurtos (Day of the Dead) makeup.  I was excited to try out this costume idea that was a signature look with a lot of room for improvisation.  Though, to be honest, I was also pretty scared.

Because here’s the thing…I’m a Graphic Designer most of the time which means most of my art gets created on a computer.  I have the luxury of saving multiple versions and coming back later to choose which stands out.  I make good use of the undo key stroke!  It’s easy to shift layout, try different font options or change colors on a whim.  Real life art isn’t quite like that.

I stood in front of my bathroom mirror armed with face paints and inspiration pictures.  Of course, all the pictures I’d chosen as inspiration were, inevitably, done by professional makeup artists who were, most likely, wielding tools far more sophisticated than my $5.99 makeup kit from the local drugstore discounted to 50% off!  I let myself be intimidated at first…wondering how to begin and what to do if I messed it up.  There’s no command-Z for face paint…if the smile turned out crooked, there wasn’t a thing I could do about it except scrub it all off and start completely over.  Eventually, I just took a deep breath and started.  Here’s what I learned:

* as Nike said:  just DO it.  the only way to get through it is to just BEGIN.

* once you begin, just keep on going!  ride the momentum that you’ve started.

* embrace mistakes – they take your creative processes in entirely new directions.

* it is pretty much impossible to be perfect…and, really, perfect isn’t all that interesting anyway.

* DO NOT OVERTHINK.  that one is worth repeating.

* you are your own worst critic!  other people’s work always seems better because you didn’t see the process and it wasn’t your idea.  your work is good…believe that.

Ultimately, the biggest lesson learned was to make more art by hand.  Give computers a rest, sometimes and embrace the challenge of handmade.  And never forget that the act of creating, in and of itself, is the best part.  We had fun going out that night after all the makeup was on, but we had the most fun laughing in front of the mirror trying to figure out how the heck we were going to bring to life the amazing creations we saw in our head.

Recently, the General Manager asked me to redesign the beer sampler mats and I leapt at the chance.  The old ones served their purpose, but they were stark and rather utilitarian.  They focused on providing information…not on being aesthetically pleasing.

With the new design, I wanted to delight the eyes in the same way the nose and mouth were being entertained by the beer samples.  Why not engage all of the senses?!  The feedback from our staff here at the brewery has been great.  Everyone seems to be loving the new design.

Next on the list, is to add a QR code to the sampler mat that will link to detailed information on each of the beers:  hops and malts used, ABV, IBU, awards and food pairing recommendations.  But I think that’s going to turn out to be a wintertime project!

in my day job, i find my work moving steadily toward public relations and social media and, unfortunately, away from design.  so, rather than let go of that which i love, i decided to find a way to design on my own time.  i knew that having an etsy shop would provide me with an outlet for my card creations.  what i didn’t anticipate was how much craft satisfaction i’d get out of other aspects of etsy.

in setting up an etsy shop, you have to not only create the items you’ll sell.  you also have to take great product shots, write interesting and lively product descriptions and find ways to contribute to the already active and incredible community of artists and crafters from around the world.  i’ve found the process to be enriching and creatively stimulating…despite, at times, being somewhat overwhelming.

uff da card by 521design on esy

the product shots require thoughtful responses to lighting, styling, props and mood.  they need interesting backgrounds that don’t compete for the viewer’s attention.  the photos, ideally, help you stand out from the crowd and draw viewers into your shop to find out more about what you do.  you can’t just set your card down on your table and snap a pic.  you have to weave a story around your creations and create a life that your products would be used within.

i’m mostly satisfied with my first round of photos.  more than anything, i just wanted to get my shop open.  looking back, i probably could have fine tuned my exposures and my styling.  but they work…for now.  i love, though, that i’m already thinking about what’s next and how to do it better that time.

treasury by 521design

one of the things i’ve loved the most so far is being able to create my own treasury lists.   the lists function as a member-curated gallery of etsy products and can feature your favorite items, items selected within a theme or anything, really.  your imagination is pretty much the only limit (besides the 16 item limit for any list).  anyone who’s signed up for etsy can create a list…and there’s no limit to the number of lists you can make.

so go have fun and be creative!  make lists to show people your style, to highlight the work of other artists you admire or to create a feeling or a mood.  i’ve made a few lists so far…check ‘em out on etsy!

i guess it’s safe to say that etsy just stokes my creative fires and i couldn’t be happier.  come check me out on etsy and stay tuned for whatever’s next for 521design!

At their request, I’ve used the same imagery (of a figure planting a tree) each year and had to dig deep into my own creative processes to continue making it new and interesting.  I’m quite pleased with my results for this year’s poster and delighted to find that I serendipitously focused the poster directly on Galbraith Mountain which is a subject of a great land use debate in our community right now.

copyright Amy Jones

I started with a topographic map of Bellingham and used a blending mode to combine it with another image of old, stained, faded paper to create the background.  I researched old cigar bands and created my own in Illustrator to showcase the event name, date and time.

Happily, my contact from the Land Trust also thought the cigar band referenced old bottle labels which tied in perfectly to the Brew Ha Ha theme.  I finished it with a few Illustrator brushes around the periphery to reinforce the feeling of an old, faded map.

I love projects like these where happy accidents just happen along the way and make an already good thing even better.  I love starting a project not knowing where it’s going to go and feeling apprehensive about using imagery over and over and over again…only to have it turn out to be better than I had even imagined.  Click on the links below to see the Brew Ha Ha posters for the previous years.

2010 poster

2009 poster

When I began brainstorming, I was hung up on considering how the logo would work on posters, handbills and tshirts.  I kept holding on to the hope that we could screen print all the materials ourselves too and, sadly, let that influence my early designs.  I was too focused on simple shapes and my newbie status when it comes to screen printing.  My first fumbles into the brainstorm produced these results:

Thankfully, I kept working…

Here’s the logo we settled on and, oddly enough, it’s still simple and clean and easy to screen print.  But so, so much better than my first attempts.  It’s a good reminder that sometimes you gotta work through the mediocre ideas and get them out of the way so the good stuff can rise up!

copyright Amy Jones, 2011

i love my job as an in-house designer and PR gal, but it’s always so nice to get to work with something new – especially a project as fun as this one.  the firefighters were delightful to work with – full of great ideas about how they wanted the logos on the shirt to look.  pretty early on, it was clear that we needed to use a maltese cross as that is one unifying element to a staggering number of fire departments across the united states.  and, since our brewery, has a big roll up garage door in the tap room that already made it feel like a station, we wanted to use an illustration of our building on the back.  but those were the only thing we really knew for sure; the rest of it just developed through playing. we have a local screenprinter who is printing them as i write this and the shirts should be for sale at the brewery by next week…i can’t wait to see the finished product!

design for front of shirt - over left breast

design for back of shirt