Publication Design for The Prospect Research Institute

 Recently I designed two fun, image-heavy publications for The Prospect Research Institute, which are now available for sale in their store.  If you are in  charge of fundraising for your organization, these guides are a must read. What about Women was especially interesting to work on, as it deals with often-overlooked, source of prime donors for non-profits...Women. It was released on March 8th, for International Women's Day. I am very proud to say I was part of an all-woman team to produce this fantastic book. Check it out :)

High School Career Day: Becoming a Graphic Designer

Me, getting ready to show students my portfolio at Career Day

 Last week, I was invited to speak at Pennsauken's High School's Junior Career day about working as a Graphic Designer....my first thought was.., "when did I become an adult, let alone be qualified to talk to high school students about my career?!" I've actually been working as a Graphic Designer for over 10 (!) years now, which is a concept too crazy to comprehend. And it has been 15 years since I graduated high school, which makes me "so old", as a student so kindly pointed out after reading the dates written on the pages of my high school sketch book - hah!

Overall, it was a great experience and one that should be repeated at other high schools - so much of what we learn in high school may seem useless, but it actually could lead to a lifelong career. Many of the students asked great questions - ranging from, "how much money do graphic designers make?" to "where do you get inspiration?" and "do you ever get stuck and can't think of a new idea?" (the answer to that last question is "Yes!", everyone gets stuck sometimes, you just need to power through :).

I thought I'd share my journey from high school to graphic designer for anyone who might be thinking about it as a future career....

One of the first drawings in my high school sketchbook,
hands from freshman year.

From a very early age, I have always loved to draw. In school I won a few "art awards" in elementary & middle school and in addition to taking the required art classes in school, I also took classes in drawing and pottery at a local art center (Perkins Center for the Arts in Moorestown & Collingswood, NJ). In high school, I continued my love of drawing, taking various art classes as electives for all 4 years, as well as taking a figure drawing class outside of school (figure drawing = naked people, which was a shock to an immature 17 year old, however, it was a necessary skill and would be repeated during college, where I got very used to it!). As senior year drew to a close, I knew that I wanted to continue art in college, there was nothing else that I cared as strongly about, but felt I didn't have enough good pieces to put together a portfolio for college review and decided to go to community college first. Community college was a great (and inexpensive!) way to gain more experience - though in retrospect, I probably could have gone directly to art school as well, my portfolio was probably more than adequate for an incoming freshman. Anyway, one benefit of community college was taking all Art & English classes (my best subjects), gave me a high GPA, and I was inducted in the Phi Beta Kappa Honor society - which would have given me a very generous scholarship (at the time, perhaps even 100% of tuition), had I chosen to go to a state school such as Rutgers or Rowen University.

High school, sophomore year drawing,
small object drawn large - close up of a hair clip

But no, being a teenager with no understanding of how college loans would impact me for the next 10+ years of my life, I had my heart set on an expensive private art school, and ended up going to the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. I don't regret this decision, as UArts was an excellent school were I greatly improved my skills. My credits from community college were all accepted, though only as electives - not as major required classes, so while it lessened my credit load per semester (and got me out of taking Art History I), it didn't save me any time in getting my degree. At UArts, and I imagine, most other private art schools, all visual artists (this included graphic design, illustration, photography, film, animation, fibers, metal, sculpture, industrial design, glass blowing, pottery and any other major that wasn't performing arts, writing or communications), had to take the same freshman year "foundation program", then split off to their desired majors for sophomore year. "Foundation" consisted of basic drawing, painting, and sculpture classes, which could be more tedious then fun. Students who had drawing skills did relatively well, while others with talents in in an area that (seemly) didn't require drawing - like film and photography, often had to tough it out with lots of complaining. It was MUCH harder than my art classes at community college, and about 1/2 of the students in my freshman class didn't return for the second semester or sophomore year.

At the end of the foundation program, I was undecided as to whether I wanted to continue with graphic design or illustration. I met with the directors of both programs, and after learning that graphic design wouldn't require much drawing after the sophomore year, decided to go with illustration instead. I was still very drawn to computers, and followed a "digital track" in illustration. At the end of my time at UArts, my skills using the Adobe Creative Suite enabled me to find a job as a graphic designer fairly quickly, and I've been working continuously since. One of the benefits of graphic design is it can be much easier to find work directly out of school, while Illustration can take longer to get established - the average is about seven years. For me, it has been much easier to find graphic design jobs, and I work much more often as a graphic designer than as an illustrator - though I have also worked on projects that blurred the lines between both titles, and I have found being able to draw has given me a wonderful advantage in finding design work.

If you are thinking about going into graphic design or illustration (or are currently in college) check out my post on Tips for New Graphic Designer & Illustrators.

I'm looking forward to speaking at the next career day in the fall - it was a lot of fun!

Introducing myself to students, along with the other Art & Music professionals at Career Day.

Fair Trade Valentine's Cards - Free Download!

Happy Valentine's Day! I figured I better break my month long silence and share something....

This card I drew for Fair Trade Campaigns last year is available as a free download on their website here. It was created for customers to send to their favorite fair trade farmers & artisans.

Just for fun, here are 2 alternate versions that I loved, but sadly didn't get picked : ( I had an elaborate plan of making a different background for each of the fair trade industry they were trying to highlight: roses, coffee, chocolate, plus a "generic" square version that could be used for other products, but they wanted to go with something simpler. The coffee & generic versions are shown below.

Do you have a favorite fair trade product? Mine is definitely CHOCOLATE - I have to have a bar at my desk at all times - it helps me work!

Lower Moreland Township Flag

Last month, I finished up working on flag design for Lower Moreland Township, PA. For this project, I went through a few different rounds of unsuccessful vector-based designs before going to the pencil drawing that was eventually chosen.  

I don't work on realistic drawings of houses very often, so this was a nice little project for me. The flag will hang on posts in their downtown, and I am looking forward to seeing them in person once they are up!

How to find FREE Photos for Personal or Commercial Use

Everyone knows how easy it is to do a search for a specific photo on google and instantly use any of images that come up for whatever purpose we see fit - but how would you feel if some stranger took the photos you shared of your kids, or your kitchen, or your dog Penelope and used them to promote their business? You'd probably be pretty angry - so why would you do it to someone else? Maybe you just don't want to spend any money - and that's totally fine! There are a TON of great resources on the web for photos that are free to use without any bad karma :)) The list below are are all sites that I've used myself while working on a bare-bones or non-existent budget.

Just a heads up: The first 3 sites require you to sign up for an account to download, which is no big deal - I always just sign up with my "junk" email address. It's also important to read the terms of use on each site/image to be safe before using any image in a commercial project! While 90% of commercial use will be fine, there is always a few scenarios (like re-selling the same image as digital download) that are not permitted.

This week's Free image on iStock 

1) iStock: iStock is the industry-standard site for stock photography, and I've purchased from them extensively, but did you know they also give away a Free Photo of the Week? Just click on PHOTOS in the top menu bar, then click on the FREE PHOTO OF THE WEEK image in the right sidebar. There is also a super cheap $1 bin of photos & vector art as well, and if you sign up for a new iStock account using my referral link, you'll get 10 Free credits ($20 value, $2 = 1 credit) and I'll earn a few credits as well for referring you (win-win!).
PROS: Super easy to search through, always high quality photography, available in large sizes great for print or web, 4 different free images per month. You won't have to credit the photographer when use the photo. And you can't beat the 10 free credit deal.
CONS: Free photos of the week are usually very specific images, might not be generic enough for your needs, you'll most likely need to check the site weekly and build up image overtime

"Walking" photo from Freerange Stock

2) Freerange Stock: Free Range Stock is made up a community of photographers that make their photos available to you for free, in exchange for revenue from ads featured all over the site. There is a decent sized collection of typical stock photos with many different subject matters, worth a look!
PROS: Great search feature & lots of different photo content. You won't have to credit the photographer.
CONS: Varying levels of talent in contributing photographers, lots of ads on the site

Ornate Tiles photo from CG Textures

3) CG Textures: CG Textures was started as a free database of textures for 3d modeling artists, but there is lots of useful content for graphic designers or other professionals . While you won't find any photos of people, there are tons of excellent images of flowers, animals, landscapes, buildings paint splatters and more. CG Textures just asks that you download respectfully, on an as-needed basis (no photo hoarding!). They do limit the amount of downloads you can make in one day. However the limit is very generous and I've never exceeded it.
PROS: High quality photos, & great selection of subject matter. Especially good site for illustrators & designers who want to digitally add textures to their work. No photo credit needed.
CONS: Photos are mainly geared to be used as a addition to another design, not as a stand-alone piece.

Totally free photo from Wikimedia 

4) Wikimedia Commons: Believe it or not, there is a community of artists that want you to use their work for free without any compensation in return - and it's huge, with over 20.5 million freely usable files and growing.  You're allowed to download, use, copy or modify anything on the site, as long as you respect the terms supplied by the artist (which may mean crediting them).
PROS: HUGE and I do mean HUGE database of images, with particularly good health, & science & historical images.
CONS: So big, it can be hard to navigate. Since anyone can contribute, there are varying levels of quality in the photos. If you are looking for very commercial looking stock images, this is not the best site. You also may need to credit the photographer, which may not be ideal for all commercial use.

Photo Credit: Hussain Didi on Flickr

5) Flickr Creative Commons: Flickr is another great resource for free-use photos. Since it's a gallery site geared towards people who are interested in photography (whether they are professionals or hobbyists) the quality of images is a bit higher & more consistent than Wikimedia.  There is a section especially for sharing public photo archives like what you might find in museums (mainly photos dated from the late 1800s-1950s) called The Commons. If you ever need a 1880's era shot of a baby posing on a chair, here's your goldmine.
PROS: Great selection of historical images in The Commons, and you won't need to credit the photographer. Some really great modern & artsy stuff can be found in the Creative Commons section. Very easy to share, download, or embed images in multiple sizes.
CONS: You will need to credit the photographer for anything used from Creative Commons & the multiple copyright scenarios can be confusing. 

Official US President Photo!

6) USA.gov: Yes, the government! Numerous government agencies have entire databases of images for you to use, and they are nicely organized on this site. You need a state map? Got it. Photo of the President? Just check out the US Government's photostream on Flickr. Picture of someone getting infected with the flu? Tons of those! Belt out a quick Pledge of Alligence, then go crazy at the USA.gov site above.  
PROS: So. much. stuff. All taken by professional photographers. And if you're a journalist or blogger, these photos are pure gold, with almost no restrictions. 
CONS: You can't use the president's image in a way that implies he personally endorses whatever you might be selling. darn.

7) Google Image Search: Yeah, I know I told you in the first paragraph NOT to use google image search, but I lied, you can. But only in a specific way- by adding a filter to your search. Search for the image subject, then click on> Search Tools, and choose> Labeled for reuse. Google will do a search of free images on wikimedia, Flickr, deviantart, clip art sites and more. Always click on the image and go to> Visit Site to get the exact copyright specs.

PROS: The world's your oyster.
CONS: You'll need to have a specific subject in mind before you search, no random browsing. Much harder to find images where no credit is required, since they get mixed together with ones with attribution (credit required) licenses.

Photo Credit: Brian Ochalla on Flickr

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go find some chocolate.

Kate Moross : Make Your Own Luck : Graphic Design & Illustration Lecture

Last night, I attended AIGA Philly's Lecture with Kate Moross, entitled Make Your Own Luck. The event was held at CHAD (Charter High School for Architecture + Design), so as a bonus I got to check out some of the senior work on display before the lecture started. It took me back to my own high school art classes ~ though if I had gone to a High School especially for design, I would have had a MUCH better time ;)

CHAD Student Work : My favorite self portrait -great colors!

CHAD Student Work: Look closely - the beautiful pattern on this purse is also the artist's initials - AB!

Kate's lecture was very entertaining, though it wasn't quite what I expected. She talked a little bit in the beginning about how she started off as a very young designer and how she eventually built up to paying gigs, but the majority of her talk focused on how she had moved on to making music videos, both using film and rotoscope (a technique where illustrations are drawn over film stills - if you've seen the film Waking Life, you know what I'm talking about). While she didn't talk specifically on "how to make it" in the graphic design/illustration world, it was obvious that she had become successful by being bold, social, working non-stop, and not limiting herself to one style or medium (like her move from design to film). Kate said that if she ever found herself not knowing how to do something, she would simply look up a tutorial on the internet and/or hire someone that could do it better than her.

Kate Moross sharing the concept sketches she made for a rotoscope music video featuring Disclosure and Mary J. Blige

Though I was slightly disappointed there wasn't more "How to make it" advice (she did say she had toned down that aspect of her lecture because she mistakenly thought the AIGA crowd would be old & not interested in that part, haha), her work and tireless enthusiasm was incredibly inspiring, and there was some really good music. I also bought a copy of her book: Make Your Own Luck: A DIY Attitude to Graphic Design and Illustration, which talks about all the subjects I missed in her lecture. I am only about 1/2 way through, but so far enjoying it. It is very nicely designed, has great colors and very gorgeous paper for the cover and pages. You can buy it on Amazon after March 31, 2014.

So now, freshly inspired, it's back to the drawing board (literally) as I work on a new side for my business.....I just need to be more brave.....here I go......