Local Artist Feature

Back in January, local news show 9&10 News The Four reached out to me to do a feature about my artwork. They came to my house and interviewed me about my block printing and artistic process. Watch here!

Video Post: Take a Walk Through My Sketchbook

I recently went on vacation to the Southwest and Mexico, and it was much needed inspiration! I live in Northern Michigan currently, and its cold and snowy here. I grew up here, so its no surprise or anything when its cold, it just isn't super inspirational to me anymore. So when I can get away and visit friends in warmer climates, I jump at the chance. 

My friends, boyfriend Josh and I stowed away to Puerto Peñasco in Sonora, Mexico for a long weekend. We drove there which was super cool - we crossed the Sonoran Desert to end up at the Sea of Cortez. Quite a stark contrast! Love experiencing travel by car. 

I had decided that I would try to sketch and fill a whole Field Notes pocket book on the trip, and it turned out to be the best idea! I sketched our experiences every day as they happened and got a lot of good practice and fun designs to use. 

I recorded this video tour of the sketchbook to explain some of the funny things and oddities of our vacation. I already miss Arizona and Mexico, and especially my homies Chris and Lindsey. 

12 Ways We Can Work Together

12 Ways We Can Work Together

I do a lot of different projects for a wide range of businesses and people. Things like logos, websites and merch are common. I love learning new things and taking on challenging projects. Here are 12 ways we could work together. Got an idea? Let’s chat!

1. New Website (or an update!)
   Maybe you have never heard of websites or maybe you need an update to a site you’ve had for 10 years. Either way there is usually something I can do to help get you current on the internet. I like to make new sites in Square Space or Wordpress for the ease of handing it off to the client. 

2. Event Campaign
   I have a lot of experience making posters and other event advertising collateral. Print, social media, websites and merch are some of the things I’ve designed for events, musicians, and city governments alike. I can design you a poster, or we can work together to come up with an entire campaign strategy. 

3. Pitch Deck
   Pitching a new event or idea can be stressful, and making a good impression is imperative. Having a well designed pitch deck can be the boost you need in a presentation. I can provide a print or digital deck experience, you provide the content.

4. E-book Design
   Sometimes what we do is more complicated than a simple tagline and needs a good explanation to really sell it. A well written e-book designed with simple to follow formatting can help you seal the deal. A designer can make sure your content sticks with whomever reads it by creating interesting page designs. 

5. Infographic
   Picture this: you’ve got pages of great stats and info in a Word doc. Are you sleeping yet? Jazz up those little info snacks with some icons and pie charts for more impact. I can make your info come alive with original illustrations, icons and other fun design elements.

6. Logo Design
   Logos are a major investment for any company, and its best to get it right! My process involves getting to know you and getting to know what you do. I become your biggest fan and your logo becomes my personal mission. 

7. Letterpress Business Cards
   I own some big huge antique presses and can make your business card a unique experience. We can pick paper and get a plate made of your logo. It could be printed in gold. Just saying.

8. Illustration & Lettering
   Hand drawn style isn’t for everyone, but it does lend character to whatever it’s used for. If you are looking for illustration, you probably have an idea. Share it with me. I’ll draw you something magical. Also, I like lettering enough to dedicate a couple sentences here. Need a hand drawn logo for your band? Just say so. Need some fancy script for a chalkboard? Let’s do this.

9. Editorial & Publication Design
   I have a considerable amount of experience in this department. Do you need a visitors guide? I used to design official visitors guides for over 25 US cities and states. Updating your official state map? I can handle the task. From brochures, to catalogs, to editorial design — I have the skills to get it done for you.

10. Menu Design
    I have a ton of actual food service experience (bartending & serving), and happen to love great food and cocktails. Those experiences make me an expert at menu design. Making menus organized and creative is one of my favorite things. A well designed menu can elevate the experience for the customer and increase sales! 

11. Screen Printed Posters
    Screen printing adds character to design that digital and offset printing doesn’t have. My studio can handle 2 color prints and up to 11 x 17 poster size.

12. Invitations
    Between the antique printing presses and my fine art handmade book making skills - I can make the invitations of your dreams. Let’s make those letterpress invites and hand sewn program booklets you always dreamed of. It’s your day after all...

There are countless other ways we can work together to help your business, band, conference or festival. I want to make great experiences for customers everywhere using my design and art skills.  If you like what you've seen and read, let's connect! 

The Making of Event Artwork

Hoxeyville Music Festival 2016

Its February in Northern Michigan, which means that winter is still clinging to life mercilessly. A small group of people have been quietly, albeit busily working behind the scenes to launch this year’s Hoxeyville Festival line-up. I work remotely from the producers and create the carefully tuned artwork theme for the year in the cold months of winter. I suppose probably the thought of those dog days of summer drives the motivation, that somehow finishing this artwork will bring sooner summer temps. 

This year was unlike and just like the past years of festival prep. Jake Robinson and I sat down for a number of brainstorm sessions before deciding on this years vintage wooden amp theme. 

I got to work lettering bands, testing out watercolors, researching and drawing amps, lettering more bands or lettering bands again.

Once we had all the pieces, I was able to scan, rescan and start digitizing the hand done art I had made. The hand lettering has to be digital, so that was taken into Adobe Illustrator and vectorized. The water color had to be cleaned up and detail added by way of woodgrain art, watercolor and some photoshop magic. 

Once the amp was all made and the bands laid out all legibly, it was time to apply the art to the actual pieces we need to use to market the festival. We are after all, selling tickets. Over time our marketing efforts have turned over from word of mouth, paper handbills, posters and our fans to social media. We do still print posters, but that is much more of a locally targeted audience closer to the festival. 

Facebook and Instagram are primary outlets that reach thousands of people we otherwise wouldn’t reach. The format for those are square, shareable images. So I set up the print poster first, since that is the largest format we will have for now. I get all the info on there looking svelt. Then I created the social share images. Our main object is an amp, so I set it in some purposely plainly designed settings that look like a living room. I added a cord and some letterpress style texture to the background to help the amp tell more of a story. 

There are rules for advertising on Facebook, so one image is designed within the 20% text rule, and the other shows all the art, all the text and info. It becomes more shareable. 

In addition to making different shareable pieces, internally our marketers and web people need a kit of elements to keep things fresh during the next six months of advertising. I supply backgrounds and elements to help those guys keep the marketing consistently vibed and fresh. 

Then we launch our baby into the world. It looks like it took no effort at all, and seamlessly announces the line-up across all outlets and media. 

Le sigh. Like seeing your little baby all grown up.