I want to work as a graphic designer and make money at it! Really, I do!
I look for work at Elance almost daily, and do find jobs there. I've worked with and for some great clients who are passionate about their companies. It thrills me to please them and see my designs show up on their products.
And my work is represented by a very proactive design studio ... my work along with a couple hundred other designers.
Alas. As much as I want there to be enough work to go around, it seems there are dozens of designer vying for the same job, and *thousands* of designers hoping to sell their designs to just a handful of clients.
We soldier on.
Meanwhile, as I hustle for work and complete the jobs I do manage to get, time for my own design work falls short. So, it is on the days when I am completely free, I design, design, design!
Here's a group I put together during a recent "free" time.
Dear Universe, May someone out there see it, love it and buy it. Such is the prayer of every graphic designer.
From the inside of my design world, I can't see what my style is.
It seems to change from week to week, depending on what I've fallen in love with.
Perhaps it's the approach I take to each design that defines my style.
But, whatever it is, this week I'm loving subtle colors and quiet vintage.
I'm still really digging the grunge/distressed look. It's been around for a long time now, and I see it everywhere, mostly on advertising fonts.
Working in vector, my favorite way to achieve a distressed effect begins in Photoshop. I create a 12" x 12" transparent 300 dpi document and use a wide variety of free web grunge brushes in black. Saved as a png, I open it in Illustrator, use Live Trace, then work it into a seamless tile.
It is now a vector grunge repeat that I can lay over an existing design.
Here's a recent example:
I love it!
I LOVE this floral!
I basically redrew an image of a 19th century fabric, simplified it, and added a textured background.
A bright, more contemporary color palette was also in order.
It really is stunning, if I do say so myself.
It's available to purchase in perfect repeat.
I found myself away from my own designs during the last 10 days. Fun personal stuff and working designing for someone else at a paying job took priority. I'll be seeing my designs on scrapbook paper in the near future.
I had another card approved at Greeting Card Universe. I like to think this is an honor since the process can take 10 weeks . And many, many long-timers at GCU are retroactively having cards deleted as they no longer live up to the higher and higher standards.
This artwork is different for me since I used Photoshop for to distress and layer the textures.
Illustrator is my home. I only visit Photoshop on occasion.
After being waylaid with other design work, I have finished my next quilt fabric collection. It includes 6 patterns. The focal fabric, that big flower with the fancy stripe is awesome! It was inspired by an antique French textile.
This is the the "working" color palette, but that yellow/green is not quite right, a little off-putting. I'll be going in now and exploring alternatives.
The collection I have planned next will be much simpler, perhaps just three colors.
After I initially posted the image above, I revamped the colors. These are happier, friendlier.
I've completed the third and final colorway for this group.
Tomorrow, I'll begin work designing a new quilt fabric collection!
