Minted

I have been a huge fan of Minted.com for about a year now.  But, what I didn't realize what how they came up the designs that are sold on their site.  As it turns out, Minted is based on design competitions where graphic designers from all over the country can submit designs.  The Minted Community then votes, and designs are chosen to be sold.  The best part is, the winning designs get a commission on those sold!

So, what better way to learn and grow in graphic design than to enter into their contests.  The current contest going on now is a Stationery Contest.  Below is the design I submitted.  My training in Illustrator is going well, but I still have a lot to learn.  I created the below design using some of the new skills I've developed over the last few weeks.  Once voting is opened up for this design, I will let you know so you can vote for me!

Illustrator

After doing more research, I've decided to start at the basics and that is to perfect my design skills and abilities.  Since I don't have a graphic design degree, most of what I have learned has been self-taught or through brief stints in training.  I am very well versed with Adobe InDesign, somewhat good with Adobe Photoshop, and I have NEVER used Adobe Illustrator.  The design world only focuses on Illustrator for creating vector images, therefore this is where I need to spend my time.

I downloaded a 30-day trial so that I can start playing around with the program.  Luckily, I am already familiar with some of its tools, but there are so many more things that I can do with this program.  I am most likely going to sign-up for an online class to kick start my training.

I have made a personal goal to design something everyday using the program.  It will be fun to just create without deadlines or pressure.  Hopefully I can build a solid portfolio in the next few months or so.

Putting thoughts on paper

It's been about 6 months now that my brain has been consumed with the idea of starting my own company. Somewhere between helping friends design and print wedding invitations, scrapbooking, and designing cupcake toppers I realized that I really enjoy creating for people who don't have the time, talent or know how to do so. So, how do I start my own company and what in the world is my product?

I've been brewing for months over this question, and my type-a personality will not allow me to start anything until there is a proper vision, plan, and demand for the product. So, that lead me to pouring over blogs of creative talents all over the country, mostly stationery entrepreneurs. It seemed that time and time again I found myself fascinated with the designs, texture, and process of letterpress. I only could wish that my own invitations for my wedding could have been created with this oldest known form of print. I started researching and reading the business of letterpress, and it has been fascinating.

Before I can even decide if this is the proper route for me and my vision, I decided to invest in the most studied book on letterpress:

The Practice of Printing: Letterpress and Offset by Ralph & Edwin Polk (1964) HC.

This book is hard to find and usually retails for around $50. So, when I came across an old version selling on ebay for $28.99 I jumped on the opportunity to have it.  Once I educate myself on all things letterpress, I will likely take a workshop course to decide if this art form is where I want to invest my time, efforts, and money.  

In the short term, I view this as a hobby to eventually launch into a business.  I find that if you don't write things down, thoughts are just simply thoughts and may never turn into actions.  So, I'm starting this blog as a means to keep myself accountable on this journey to finding the real plan behind the urge within me.

To reading and finding vision.

Brittany