This year I have focused heavily on building my graphic design clientele and I have taken on a lot of creative design projects recently! As so many of you know, I spent a lot of years with wedding flowers being my main focus, and while I never really stopped doing graphic design, I certainly wasn’t doing it as often during “busy wedding season”.
Here are some of my recent and ongoing projects for clients old and new…
Last month, I completed label design for Blend Apothecary. Blend Apothecary is a new product line created by one of my longtime clients (Blend Salon). Blend’s new line includes a full range of beauty products and candles– and they all smell divine! I worked with Cynthia (owner) to develop a logo for this line and fresh color palette that worked for all of the scents offered. Once we found the perfect fonts, she found the label manufacturers and gave me specs and I laid out each label for printing. I also created icons and individual elements that Cynthia will use in Canva to customize and create future templates and labels on her own.
I went to Blend for a facial last month and caught a glimpse of the entire Blend Apothecary line on display and MIGHT have stopped to smell each one. It was hard to pick a favorite but “The Blend” and “Sugar Berries” were top contenders. I was very proud of how this line looked in person and how professional the finished products are– but I know Cynthia and she wouldn’t have it any other way.
GroTurf is another company I do a lot of fun projects for. They have had a great past couple of years– lots of great projects, renovated and moved into an awesome new space in Wheaton and continue to get new projects daily. Brian takes his golf pro expertise and designs amazing putting greens and yards for clients all over the Midwest. I take his designs and turn them into digital renderings to present to clients. Brian and his team amaze me with their beautiful craftsmanship and design! We’ve worked on hundreds of these greens since the beginning and I still delight in seeing each and everyone come to life!
Sometimes I get to go back to my illustration roots and make tiny illustrations for maps! My friend at Jennifer Kaye Photography was in charge of a social media “shop local” challenge in downtown Geneva for the holiday season and needed some custom icons designed for a map she was making. I got to draw the local legend that is The Little Traveler as well as some other uniquely Geneva locations… it was a very fun project!
The Geneva map icon project led Ashley of Knack PDM to find me and she hired me to do illustration of her friend’s business. This drawing I did of The Pep Line was a labor of love and I ended up also doing a line-art version of it as well. This project was followed up with a recent project designing icons and infographics for another of Ashley’s clients– The Local Petaler, who is a talented wedding florist in St Charles.
I love when a chain of referrals and projects comes my way. I used to have this happen a lot with weddings- I would do flowers for one bride and then all of her siblings and friends would hire me as well. I always have loved that because I knew I was working with not one, not two, but series great clients!
I have done several Illustrations over the years for my friend Lynda at Greenstar Paperie. Her projects are always fun and creative and quite often I get to do them in watercolor (or watercolor-style digital, or markers blended like watercolor)…did I mention I love watercolor anything?! Well, I do. Here are some of my favorite little ditties I have done for her in the past. Lots of Chicago map icons in the mix! She takes these icons and makes them into beautiful wedding maps, signature drink menus and other beautiful event stationery and signage. If you are looking for wedding stationery– GreenStar Paperie is the place to go! I am just starting a new watercolor project with Lynda–and this one might be our best collaboration yet!
Like I said, we have so many projects in the works right now–but these are just a handful of them! I feel very fortunate to have a lot of great clients who come back again and again to me for their graphic design and illustrative needs! If you have a creative project– please reach out. You can find even more of my design work here.