Tag: graphic design

Graphic Design

Open for Business

Jessica Smith

Before I dive into this blog entry, I wanted to say sorry for spamming all of my readers who get emails anytime I post something — I’m sure you truly enjoyed reading the one and only word in the post: “Shop.” Riveting, huh? You’d think after four years of using WordPress I’d know how to publish a page versus a post. In reality, it’s amazing it’s taken me this long to spam you! Anyway, my bad. It’s not my goal to send you random emails.

Maybe “Shop” was a great teaser for this post, since my exciting news is that my Etsy shop is open for business! Woohoo!!!

A-Smith-of-All-Trades_Etsy-Shop

Right now, I’ve got my nursery prints for sale, along with my popular Do What You Love print (I’ve already sold my first one of these — ahhhhhhh!). I’ll be adding the Adventures of Remmy the Dog prints up there shortly. And, of course, if you’ve seen a design on my blog over the years that you want to see in my shop, comment or send me an email!

A huge thank you to my sister Allie (a fabulously talented artist in Chicago), my friend Beth (who blogs about her fitness journey on BoltingButterfly.com) and blogger Charlotte (over at Monno Design) who all gave me great advice and feedback when it came to the right way to open up shop. They really gave me the push I needed. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while now, and I finally made it happen!

OK, end of my Etsy store plug. I promise I won’t flood my blog with shameless self promotion, but I’m super excited to share this news 🙂

Do any of my readers have shops of their own? If you do, comment and share your shop link and what you sell! I’d love to see the fabulous things you all are doing.!! I love perusing Etsy and looking at all of the amazing things people have to offer. There are some insanely creative and talented people out there.

Happy Tuesday!

Graphic Design

Doggy Silhouette

Jessica Smith

Remmy is the funniest dog on this earth, I swear. He has been cracking me up lately with his love affair with the snow. We had about 8 inches on the ground, causing my crazy dog to go even crazier the second his paws touched the stuff. He bounded through snow like he may never see it again, taking breaks only to chomp down large bites of frozen goodness.

We were trapped inside most of last Thursday because of the snowstorm, but I made sure to take the pup out for a walk trudge through the fresh snow since he loves it so much. We walked about a mile, which was exhausting with no path cleared out. And man did Remmy enjoy every second of it.

I call Remmy my shadow dog because he is always by my side in the house. Since we were stuck indoors a lot of last week, my little shadow dog was my inspiration for a new print.

I found a photo of him from last spring and created a doggy silhouette using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. I had a little bit of practice with this technique at work a few weeks ago, and am happy to say I’m getting pretty good at it! Here’s the print I came up with for Rem’s silhouette.

Remmy Silhouette

I excitedly emailed this to Brian, who like it but told me right away that Rem’s face was too short — turns out he was right and I had used a photo with the pup’s head turned a little away. Good work, huh? I found another photo with Rem at a true profile, but his tongue was hanging out. So…. I took the nose from one and compiled it with the nose from the other to create this version, which I think looks great. I also tweaked other parts of the design, as you’ll see.

Remmy Silhouette_final

I took off the outline from the oval and recreated the banner in illustrator to have no outlines, too. I also added in the new silhouette and changed all blacks to a super dark gray (95% black). I like the gray better than the stark contrast of the 100% black.

I’ve always liked cameos and I like that silhouettes are pretty much the 2D version of a cameo. But I don’t like my own silhouette (probably a strange thing to not like, but whatever). Remmy, on the other hand, is cute no matter which angle you look at him — the perks of being a dog!

What do you think? Would you want a doggy silhouette of your pup?

Graphic Design, Holiday, Valentine's Day

Bruce Springsteen Valentines

Jessica Smith

** Nerdy post alert**

My family adores Bruce Springsteen. It’s been ingrained in our personalities since birth that Springsteen is the man. I was listening to The Boss on the way into work the other and had the funny idea to make Springsteen Valentines. You see, Bruce is pretty much the only person who can get away with telling a woman that they are just OK looking, but he loves them anyway. Any other man would get slapped for a comment like that, yet women still swoon over Bruce.

Off the top of my head, I could think of two instances in which Springsteen pulls this line. So I made my step mom and little sister cards with those lyrics:

“You ain’t a beauty, but hey you’re all right.” – Thunder Road

“I just can’t understand it, you’re not pretty at all. But I come when you whisper, I run when you call.” – I wanna be with you

I’m positive there are more examples, but none come to mind just yet.

Anyway, here’s the simple card I made for my Springsteen-loving family members — I’d never give them to anyone else because they would be so offended. But if you love The Boss, you’d love to get these valentines.

Bruce Card_1

Bruce Card_2

Hope you all had a great Valentine’s Day. B made a yummy breakfast and bought me some beautiful flowers. Then we got our favorite pizza for dinner and watched The Interview.

In other news, Brian was concerned Remmy was cold since it is all of 9 degrees in Maryland. So I gave Remmy and old hoodie, which was simultaneously the most adorable and hilarious thing ever.

Remmy_Hoodie3

He wore it all afternoon and slept in it last night. That dog never fails to crack me up.

remmy_hoodie4

Remmy_hoodie2

Remmy_hooide