[SOUND] Okay, yeah.

Thank you so much.

Thank you guys so much for being here.

Thank you Creative South for putting together

this amazing event and just general awesomeness and.

Thankfulness and pleasure to be here.

So, my name is Mary Kate McDevitt.

I'm an illustrator and a letterer.

And I like to say illustrator and letterer because

while most of my work is lettering based, it's

easier to say illustrator and letterer because it kind

of gives you an insight of what I do.

I illustrate letters.

I live and work in Brooklyn, New York.

And I share a studio with my boyfriend who is a screen printer.

And he's been my printer since 2005.

And he's been printing all my work.

Even in my, even in college, my college projects.

So I'm not a typographer.

I don't make fonts.

At least not yet.

I've kind of dabbled in it, but it's

very difficult making hand lettered fonts because hand lettering

is something that is completely custom, something that you

make all by hand, very project specific based projects.

And fonts, it's like you have to have.

It has to have like a more basic feel, so.

I have cr, attempted some fonts, and they're not good.

And it'll be years until I release something like that.

I just use letters as the main subject for my illustration work.

I do everything from book covers, editorial work.

Chalkboard illustrations, greeting

cards, covers of journals ad campaigns.

This is something I've finished recently for Smart Ones.

I did, these are all just stills of.

These animated billboards I did that were in Times Square.

And you can see on the right it's a, that's a billboard in Times Square.

And

here's a little animation.

It's really, it was really fun seeing my lettering kind of jump around.

And there's no sound because it was just in Times Square running.

And I actually didn't do the illustration, I didn't do

the potato chips another illustrator came in and did that.

And this really goofy animation of a hand erasing everything.

But it was really fun and it is amazing

to see how lettering can work in different venues, and

Everything like that.

More ad campaigns, something I did for Nintendo.

Sugar ad campaigns, because you need to know what kind of sugar to use.

And a lot of personal work.

I love coffee, so that's something I always go

to when I need a topic for new work.

And weird phrases I pick up from television shows.

I am obsessed with News Radio.

I've probably watched all seasons back to back so many times.

This is just something weird that Bill McNeal

said and it was around Halloween and I

was like that's kinda spooky I'm just gonna

make this illustration and it's something I just did.

You know, in one night or something.

And these are the tools I use.

I keep it pretty basic.

I don't really explore too much with different kind of brush

pens or calligraphy opens because everything I do is drawn, not really.

With like strokes, so, using a pencil to get my

sketch down and I just used the uniball vision pen.

I like it, it has a nice dark line

and sometimes I use different fine, fine weight markers.

But, that's pretty much it.

And this is probably the closest thing I'll

get to using a Syntec or Wacom tablet.

This is my light table.

It's real, it's a, if you're looking to get a light pad, this is the one to get.

It has really perfect light.

And it's nice and even.

And it's not super bulky like a lot of them.

But I like to keep my process pretty low tech even when

I use Illlustrator and Photoshop, which I do for my coloring and texture,

it's, I stick to the very basic tools, like I use, I don't

use a pen tool to create any lettering, everything is done by hand.

When it into Illustrator to really just to like

pick colors quickly and kind of get everything down.

And see the layout come to fruition.

This is my favorite tool of all time.

The good old number two Dixon Ticonderoga pencil.

It's by my side at all times.

My worst ideas, my best ideas and I always have 20 freshly sharpened

pencils next to me because I think that's really important and I love them.

A new pencil means better drawings.

While this is completely not true, nerding out on new tools can make you better

because when you get new tools, you're like okay, I need to do some drawings.

I need to like practice.

I need to see what this pencil, how this pencil looks.

And that's something that will make you better.

The more you draw, the better you get.

And that is the only way to get better.

So I did this drawing when I got a new pencil, and I was pretty psyched about it.

Kind of like a fancier mechanical pencil.

Still using my number two, but every once in a while, it's good to try new tools.

So I've been freelancing for the past five years now.

I started teaching some skill share classes, and I just

published a lettering journal with

Chronicle Books called The Hand-Lettering Ledger.

And coming to talks like this, it's kinda forced me to

look back at my process, how I've gotten to where I am.

And one thing that stuck out to me most is that my unexpectations have worked for me.

If expectations are a strong belief that something will happen in the future.

Then unexpectations are a strong belief that nothing will

happen in the future unless you make it happen now.

Expectations sound good, but if you apply them

to your life goals, it's scary as shit.

I mean it's like when you have this

extra pressure, it makes it difficult to continue.

When I decided to go to art school.

I didn't really know where I would end up, I didn't know what design was.

I was just pretty good at drawing so I figured I would go to art school.

When I decided to switch to freelance, I didn't know

how I would be able to pay my bills, how

I would spend my days, get clients, but it didn't

matter because I knew that's where I was meant to be.

Expectations can limit you.

When you're expected to have this specific outcome, it's just that added pressure.

But unexpectations are freeing.

I come from the school of thought

that things will work out, eventually, hopefully.

And I know that if you work hard, to be

doing what you wanna be doing, it will work out.

That's why this quote by Conan O'Brien really inspired me.

The full quote is Nobody in life gets

exactly what they thought they were going to get.

But if you work really hard and are kind, amazing things will happen.

Don't let the fear of the future keep you from doing what you feel is right for you.

That means saying yes to projects even if it

doesn't pay well, even if the deadline is crazy short.

Acting on inspiration, having an idea and just going for

it and just being excited for something you want to create.

And just being thankful this is what we get to do,

even when someone is trying to suck out all of the fun.

Even if it's 3 a.m.

and you're working on a deadline while everyone else is out for drinks.

We're all just basically winging it with confidence.

Anyone who has gone to art school, became a

designer, became a freelancer or just started a crazy

project from this small idea, is familiar with this

idea that the unexpected is better than the expected.

Because this path is not cut and dried.

We're not accountants, sorry accountants, I feel like every time

I use an example that's the opposite of designers it's accountants.

We need you we love you accountants but it's a different path.

Where you work for X amount of dollars for X amount

of years you get this kind of promotion and this kind of.

Pay raise.

There is no formula.

With this field, you find your calling, go for it.

Work your ass off.

And reach your own idea of success.

Many of us has been at a, many of us at one point in time have been

in a position where you're worried about doing the

work you feel like you're supposed to be doing.

And not focusing on the work you could be doing now.

The work that you actually love to do.

And I kind of align this idea with any romantic comedy from the

90s, or a Jane Austin novel if you want to be fancy about it.

Where the main character has such a specific type of person she thinks she is

meant to be with, she doesn't realize love was in front of her all along.

So, in this case, Cher's the designer.

Ty is the project.

The objective is to make Ty fit in, find

her a popular boyfriend, and give her a makeover.

Cher's influence was from Mr. Hall.

Because when she got a bad grade in class, led

to her first project setting him up with Ms. Geist.

Cher's inspiration was Josh, because he

was teasing her about being so self-centered.

She set out to do more good deeds.

The conventional expectation is Elton, [LAUGH] the rich, popular boy

who claimed he would never fit in with Ty anyway.

And the unexpectation was Travis, the loadie who generally hangs

out on the grassy knoll that no respectable girl ever dates.

After it was official Elton was never going to date Tai, she was crushed,

but she never even liked Tai to begin, I mean Elton to begin with.

It made no sense.

So this is the final revised version of Tai, a cross between

inspiration and influence, a more polished version of her skater-girl style.

Who.

Ended up happily ever after with Travis.

Who turned out to be good at skateboarding.

And like had all these interest outside of drugs, which he quit at the end.

Which is like kind of important for that to wrap up.

And of course, and of course Cher ended

up with an unexpectation as well, her stepbrother Josh.

But they had to make it clear that.

They were only for real step brother and sister for like a week.

So, cuz in the original Jane Austen novel,

I think they're like more official step, siblings.

So if we all had a group of cheer high schoolers cheering, be yourself!

You're too good for him!

We might be better off but for now we have to step back and cheer for ourselves.

Put the focus on small tasks to make progress towards your goal and you

will expe, exceed your expectations, rather than

putting the focus on the finished product.

If you set expectations for yourself, especially when someone else does it for

you, like Cher did to Ty, it's

limiting, potentially disappointing, and just not fun.

When you set unexpectations, anything feels possible.

When I started lettering, perfection wasn't my goal.

While I live design, I felt like I was attempting styles that didn't mean

anything to me, because I thought that was what I was supposed to be doing.

Working with slick styles and fonts and.

Gilt fans, I don't know, that's how my design brain worked back in the day.

I quickly found out that I should work how I like

to work, using illustrations and textures, and that's how I started lettering.

I just wanted to create unified designs.

I had no idea lettering was like a thing, I

just wanted to draw the letters so it matched my designs.

So I was blending my illustration style and design taste with the letter.

I wanted it to have a very of the

moment feel and keep that inspiration apparent in my lettering.

These are a couple spreads from a

children's book I redesigned in art school.

The book is [UNKNOWN] which was one of my favorite children's book growing

up, If you have kids or not you should pick up that book.

It's so magical.

These are mini curls chalkboards which were my

first personal project outside of school in 2008.

At the time shortly after I graduated school

in 2007 I was working at a design studio.

I wasn't creatively fulfilled.

I felt like I didn't have enough time to really do

the things I wanted to do outside of, outside of work.

Because at work I was more of a production designer

doing e-blasts and skews and doing these layouts of flooring samples.

And it was really not my cup of tea.

So, I came up with the, this idea outside of

work that I would just do two things in one day.

Because nine to five jobs, they really can suck all the fun out of it.

So I would just kind of write on a notepad

or I had this big vintage chalk board in my apartment.

And I would write two things i was gonna do, even if it was just grocery shopping.

And working on a painting, going for a walk, going out to dinner

with friends and just doing something that made me feel accomplished and special as

little and minuet as they were and I kind of came up with

this idea to make a product out of it I decided to make chalkboards.

I love the vintage feel of these slate chalkboards I found.

And I was increasingly interested in lettering and hand

painted styles, so I decided to bring those ideas together.

It didn't matter that I wasn't making a lot of money, or that it was

a small start, but I loved making them and I was psyched about the idea.

The chalkboards ended up on some of my favorite design blogs.

That ultimately led me to my relationship with Chronicle Books who

published the Mini Goals Notepad which was based off my chalkboards.

This is a screenshot of the Mini Goals Notepad in 2010.

The website doesn't look like this anymore, but I like

to keep this screenshot because the website layout is so wonky.

It's hilarious.

The [UNKNOWN] notepad was sold at Urban Outfitters,

so my younger cousins thought I was the shit.

[LAUGH] It was also sold at Staples, so my

Mom was like, okay you're legit now, it's at Staples.

She's been collecting Staples coupons for like the past 20 years.

I swear.

So it put that thought in my head that

I can perhaps quit my design job and start freelance.

Even though I didn't really have a ton of projects

lined up, I knew I was motivated to make more work.

And I figured, Chronicle Books is a pretty good first

client, so surely I'll be able to get some others.

But I was able to save enough money.

And I moved to Portland.

And, I just decided if I'm going to go freelance, I'm just going to make it work.

Move to Portland, where young people go to retire.

I figured it was very fitting.

And it was the perfect city for me at the time.

Really affordable, such a fertile commun, a creative community.

And.

I really loved it.

I continued to work with Carnival Books with my line of notepads and

journals, all based on the theme of

motivation and even celebrating the smallest accomplishments.

This is the Carpe Diem journal and it kinda

just pokes fun about doing your day to day tasks.

Feels good to get some stuff done.

I like some stuff.

It's less pressure.

It's like, if you do one thing today, that's awesome.

Go-getters are sexy, because they absolutely are.

If today goes well, you may go you out for ice cream.

I'm thinking of doing an update like,.

30 and up version, because I don't have as much ice cream as I used to.

Can't, you gotta cut down on the sugar, you know?

So I found lettering very freeing.

Not only was it something I could obsess over in the

world of design, the subject is already there, letters, words, quotes, whatever.

And it's my job to illustrate the letters,

and convey their message on a more conceptual level.

I love to take the information I'm given, and

present it back to the audience in a new way.

New beautiful hand drawn way.

Over time with hours of practice, exposure

to more resources and reference material, and

just more type in general, my lettering has gotten tighter than it used to be.

But I still try to not take it too seriously.

Sometimes I'll reference my older work just to like be reminded that

you can, it doesn't have to have so much decoration or something.

Or it can just be one hand-drawn letter.

It doesn't have to be over the top.

Which kind of reminds me of this, Picasso quote.

Every child is an artist.

The problem is remaining an artist once we grow up.

And the problem is remaining an artist, being

true to your style, from that initial inspiration.

I've always been drawn to the naïve style.

Folk art, and just the hand drawn style of handwritten notes and what have you.

While I don't think exposure to new references hurt my work.

I find myself wanting to let a line waver, a letter be crooked and off.

Because, that is what I was initially inspired by, and I don't wanna lose that.

[BLANK_AUDIO]

[INAUDIBLE] That's one of the reason's I was, I'm

drawn to chalk, the immediate nature of the material.

I started getting lettering projects when I

was posting them on [UNKNOWN] chalkboard online.

I was getting emails like oh I saw your chalkboard

online so do you do chalkboard lettering we have this project.

And I'm like yeah, of course.

So I was doing a lot of local jobs for

like Portland Mercury and little jobs that had like chalk.

Feel to it.

Rachel Ray, Oprah Magazine.

These illustrations were created for a [UNKNOWN] series by Puffin Books.

Every year or so they do a new series inspired by specific medium.

Tattoos, embroidery, and I was really happy to be brought on to do these series.

So this is Black Beauty.

A Christmas Carol.

[COUGH] These were created on large chalkboards with colored chalk, which is a

pain to work with because the pigment, doesn't erase like the white chalk does.

Especially working in layers and having this very illustrative feeling.

I wanted to have the titles work within the illustrations.

I created this series with the emphasis on a

background and middle ground foreground, to make it really cohesive.

But I wanted to mix classic styles and illustrations, so it had a playful

look, not too stuffy, since these are for Puffin, the young book reader division.

And I really liked how these came out; I felt

like they were really playful and had a lot of character.

Here's some in progress, that is, that's my hand.

The rest of the photos are just so terrible, I was not good

about documenting this process, but I was able to get a couple of these.

Something I've grown to differentiate in my

career is the difference between inspiration and influence.

Inspiration is a sudden moment of brilliance.

Influence is what you reference that affects your work.

Walking around surrounded by things you love, there are

no expectations on how to create, live your live.

But if you're browsing Pinterest, there are lots

of expectations of how your work should look.

How you should dress.

Wear your makeup.

Your kids, how to dress your kids, raise your kids.

Your workout schedule.

And while it can be helpful for reference and just get kind of unstuck.

It's really important to find balance.

When you start out you know what you like.

You have specific taste and different designers and artist that you

admire that kind of work in a similar style to you.

But too much influence leads to comparison, envy,

stress, which results in copying, quitting and insincere work.

Let your taste drive you and inspiration lead your style and discoveries.

This is just a screenshot of a Google search for

fruit crate labels, and I kind of think this is a

good way of kind of gathering specific reference material for

a certain topic because you're not looking at one single image.

You're looking at an array of images and

fruit crate labels is kind of a good Google

search because like the first five pages, there's like

no images of porn or anything crazy or weird.

[LAUGH] Like it's all just like beautiful fruit crate

labels so it's kind of fun doing that search.

Looking at this, there's a wide array of images and right away

you have, you get an idea for color palates,layouts and style without focusing

on just one image and, kind of like referencing that completely so it

allows you to create your own work with your special spin on it.

This is another, Google search for a style called, I'm, this, Buenos

Aires term so I'm gonna butcher how it sounds, but it's, filatato, and it's this

beautiful style of sign painting that I'm just obsessed with, and there is

some weird images in this Google search, so I wouldn't go ten pages in.

This is a screenshot of my Instagram.

The images are collected from a wide spectrum of situations.

A lot of my cat, some of my work weekend activities and just random inspiration.

It shows complexity, my interests and tastes and

the things I care about which inspire me most.

And these are just some objects I have collected

around my studio that drive my inspiration and influence.

Collecting objects and being surrounded by things I love are helpful when

I want to step away and focus on something else to create.

Also taking walks around your favorite block in this city is really

helpful, too.

The most common advice I hear given, and that

I give, is that you have to work hard.

You have to work a lot of hours.

You have to work on gaining confidence in your work.

You have to work on making meaningful work.

There's a poster by Anthony Burrill that's been

hanging in my studio for the past six years.

It's work hard, be nice to people.

It has such a simple, to the point, I just love, I need it,

motivation and inspiration around me at all times, so I find that very important.

I make a lot of work around the idea of working hard and motivation.

It's been a consistent theme throughout my work and personal projects.

This kind of advice isn't life changing, but it's there

for a good kick in the pants when you need it.

Making this kind of work has been more for myself.

When I started freelancing and making

personal work, I struggled with not knowing

where to start so my motivation was

motivation for making my motivation poster work.

[LAUGH] And just being in a constant making frenzy.

Because it feels good.

I mean, why do we work hard as designers?

Is it money?

I wouldn't say many of us thought we would

be making bank being a designer or an artist.

And it can't be fame or success because you know, I think there's like

a saying that being a famous designer is a lot like being a famous dentist.

Like, no one outside of this room is gonna care about what we do very much.

Happiness?

That would be my best bet.

If you didn't make money and you lost all your Twitter followers tomorrow, we

would still be doing what we do because if I'm not making, I'm pretty miserable.

Because having an idea feels fucking awesome.

Because finishing something that was your idea feels like success to me.

When I'm in a creative rut or a life rut I think of this poster, feels good

to get some stuff done and I can usually

pull myself out with creative activities or life activities.

Sometimes, like, I have this in my apartment and I keep

it in the living room and it's like, eye shot with, uh.,dishes

so if I'm like sitting on the couch and there's dishes, and

I Iook at this poster I'm like, I should do the dishes.

It's just like, it's helpful for all situations.

So you're ready to work.

You're ready to work hard.

You have this idea and you're ready to get started and you look around on

Twitter, all right, your studio, and you see

everyone hard at work but you're feeling stuck.

Where do you start?

Chances are, you have all these possibilities in your

head about where this idea can go but nothing will

happen if you don't figure out your objectives and start

taking small steps to really let this project take off.

When do you start?

Immediately, if not sooner.

If I let an idea linger too long, it

gets passed down the to-do list and easier to ignore.

You're aren't rushing into anything if you're starting with the small steps

and if you're feeling overwhelmed, break it down into even smaller steps.

More manageable steps.

How do you work hard?

Getting started is half the battle but be passionate about it.

Make this idea important to you.

If you don't give a shit about it, maybe it's not something worth pursuing.

Move on to a new and better idea.

The harder you work in the moment, the less you worry in the future.

So I get asked a lot about how I learned lettering.

I did the cover of this book Little Book of Lettering which was fun and amazing.

Basically having a background in design and then understanding

of type has been very helpful and also, like my

interest in illustration, I feel like lettering can sometimes be

a good design and illustration, think, you know, working together.

But I've always had a fascination with historical

references which is something I use in my work.

I used to pretend, when I was little, that the space under

my stairs in the basement was my little house on the prairie.

To this day, you'll find inscribed on the

wall, the Ingalls and you'll also find TLC forever.

So, I don't know, it's always been a constant battle about what era is best.

Living as Laura Ingalls or a world without knowing not to go chase waterfalls?

[LAUGH] I'm a collector of ephemera, goer to flea markets, I love old books.

Anything with interesting type on it I would pick it up.

I had, when I started out I found this book

called, Advertising Tins and it's just filled with interesting goodies.

It's basically a book for antique collectors, to kind of find the value of

their advertising tin or, what Alan Peters would call i,t anything with badges on it.

Actually when I was, I moved into an apartment in Portland and in the basement

I found this old condom tin, and I looked it up in the book, it's worth $100.

[LAUGH] Found it in the basement, such a good find.

The best way to start to learn something is to really give it a go.

The first attempts are gonna be ugly.

Maybe in a good way.

Maybe in a way that you need to keep going.

But the first, even the first thousand attempts may

be a little off and maybe worth looking over again.

[BLANK_AUDIO]

My process allows me to keep things fresh, and room for new ideas.

It's not rocket science, but I find it helpful

to follow a process, especially when i'm feeling particularly uninspired.

So the first step is doodling and these are some, this is like a random page in

my sketchbook for the poster I did with design

for cancer and I started out writing words cause

I was trying to come up with some copy writing to do and I ended up just choosing

hope, strength, courage, because those are the three words

that kind of, stood out to me most and

it's kinda hard to see on this, projection but, there's

just some like sloppy sketches, some quick ideas, some, like,

little, like, flourishes that I think could work and it

basically just starts in this like doodling slash thumbnail phase.

And sometimes I'll just take the hope and I would just letter

it over and over and over again, its like a little warmup.

And this is the sketch I ended up doing.

I try and do as tight sketches as possible so

when I get to inking, I'm making as little decisions

as possible and I'm focusing on creating consistent line weights

and really just getting a good tight ink drawing down.

And this is the final.

But being more methodical in my process allows me to keep

from stipping, skipping steps just to get to the end result.

It can be tempting to just ink it up and start adding color and

texture but it may result in a

poorly drawn illustration without an emphasis on concept.

Following these steps, especially when I was getting started has, allowed

me to get better by spending more time with my illustrations.

I do sometimes have projects that are more spontaneous

when I have a clear vision of what I want.

Similar to that, eyes are the,

window to the skull.

I forgot what the heck it was.

When I have a clear vision of what I want.

But it never hurts to do more exploration.

So this is my recently published Hand Lettering Ledger with Chronicle Books.

It's a helpful journal to anyone interested in lettering,

to practice and guide creating your own hand drawn style.

I go over the tools I use.

Basically, I keep it pretty simple.

The, some of the terminology that you use,

I think like, when I'm doing lettering, I keep

it very like, do-dads here and random squiggle

here and it's good to have some better, terminology.

When I'm working with clients they don't really know that

terminology, so squiggles and do-dads is kinda what we use

but I do sometimes drop some knowledge and say like,

oh the dot of an eye is called a tittle.

Did you know that?

And I have a bunch of examples and processed images in

the book, I created like 100 custom illustration for this job.

And, while the copy writing is pretty

random and nonsensical, I really like, I love getting projects where I

get to do some copy writing, because, as a

letterer, it's surprising how little I actually get to do.

I'm usually told what to letter.

So, a lot, there's a lot of references.

And does anyone know Mr Show?

Sketch comedy.

Scams and Flams is from that.

Just like random things like that.

For the sign painter style, more than just a steady hand.

Just something I kinda came up with that was fun.

And there's also tips throughout the, books.

So you can explore different serif styles, different ways to draw drop shadows.

So, in my Skill Share class, I emphasize trying

new styles to fit what works best for your concept.

So, this is the warmup I did for my Skill Share class.

In my quote, it was, I had the word, electric.

So, I basically just went with the lightning bolt theme.

It's a good exercise for beginners.

When I'm starting out a new project, I'll often

explore as many styles as possible and I kind

of have, like, ten go to styles that you

can work on and find reference material pretty easily.

Refine sketches.

Ink drying.

And then the final image.

And when I do color, I bring everything into Illustrator, kind

of rearrange, tighten up anything that needs to be tightened up.

Sometimes when you scan in your image, it looks different when it's on the screen

stark black and white rather than the warm, cozy sketch in your sketchbook.

So I like to print out I, I'm re-drawing and

drawing, over and over again, for a lot of my projects.

This is how I like to think about learning lettering, because

drawing horses from memory is much more fun than tracing them.

If you traced a photo of a horse, it would look unoriginal.

It wouldn't have that life that drawing from real reference might have.

Even if you're drawing reference from a horse in a pasture or a

horse like in a photo or several photos, like the Google search idea.

If you traced a horse you might think, oh, like that's

how a horse's head is shaped, and you learn it right away.

But if you draw a horse from memory, or draw it when it's standing out in

the pasture, you'll make one awesome drawing of

a horse no one has ever seen before.

I think the same for letters.

If you trace letters, you might be able to understand proportions

quicker but you miss out on creating your own original work.

I can spot letterers who have learn this

way because it's hard to shake that stiff look.

Blocking con positions and kind of unimaginative, layouts and concepts.

I love looking at letters.

I love observing them out in the pasture, flea markets, old signs.

Anywhere I can pick it up, I look at it, observe it and

I kind of go back to my sketchbook alone and work with those ideas.

This method won't make you an instant beautiful

letterer but it will lead to more original work.

Because creativity is magical, not magic.

This is a quote by Charles Lynn, who did this really great TED

Talk about scientific studies of the brain and listening to and composing music.

He's a scientist and a musician, so it's pretty great.

People don't want to learn.

They want to be good at something the first time they try it.

Cause everyone sucks at first.

But they should.

That it takes time to discover your style till the switch goes off.

Cause there are no short cuts, there is no singular

piece of advice that will make you better at anything.

Show your work.

Share your enthusiasm.

Show the work you wanna be hired for.

Art directors are looking for a body of work they can rely on.

Share your enthusiasm you have for the project.

Someone who is really passionate about what they

do, someone who will be pleasant to work with.

With clients, you want to show you best ideas and

share their enthusiasm for the project because they're bringing you on

to have their idea come to fruition and they're counting

on you to care about it as much as they do.

And that's something that is really important to,

kind of, have great calient, client relationships because when

you discover that your, your level of enthusiasm

is way lower than theirs, that's a bad relationship.

Being asked to be a part of other people's passion projects

is one of the great ways to learn this way of working.

Allen Peters mentioned ARTCRANK yesterday and I'm gonna do that as

well, because Art Crank is awesome, I love bikes, I love posters.

When I moved to Portland, that's when I discovered ARTCRANK,

and I went to every show and it was amazing.

It's great to be able to feed off the energy someone has for their project and

you want to create something really great to match their level of enthusiasm.

So when I was invited to be a part of ARTCRANK, I got,

I, I was, I was feeding off the passion Charles had for ARTCRANK.

And I was siked to make something amazing for

this project cause a ton of people show up.

Everyone's just like devouring posters, and beer, and

bikes, and it's just a really great show.

So, when I discovered, like, having this energy towards this project,

I realized that's something I should do on all my client work.

It shouldn't be like grunt work.

You should be excited about any project.

Whether it's like a weird editorial piece or some

ad campaign, you should really be excited about working with.

One way I keep my level of enthusiasm in my work is coming up with new projects.

New personal projects.

This is something that I just started very recently.

You might recognize this phrase.

This is from the Simpsons.

And it's a project I started where I'm, I decided to

design the book covers that kinda show up in the Simpson's jokes.

So this is the big book of British Smiles and it's supposed to

scare Lisa about getting braces because you don't wanna have a British smile.

Big crooked teeth, and it's hilarious.

A Child's Garden of Cons by Griffty McGrift aka Abe Simpson.

So I'm calling this, and these are the only two, covers I've finished so far.

I'm [INAUDIBLE] they're not even posted.

I think I actually posted a little preview of this but,

I'm calling it the Springfield book repository because I like the Simpsons.

I like book covers.

I want to design more book covers and I want to watch more Simpsons.

I can explore different styles, concepts, and can be a little goofy.

It's really just for me.

Like, this is my version of Bart Simpson and Santa's Little Helper.

And incorporating more illustration in my work is something that I want to do.

This is a project I recently finished for

Heartwork, which is an art benefit for Target House.

I was really excited to be brought on to

the project and the theme of the show is hope.

There's no art direction behind it.

In the past, they had this theme of elephants because elephants stand for

hope and I was like, well, this is the perfect opportunity to draw elephants.

Elephants knees and toenails, I love.

[LAUGH] I just can't get over, like, when

I draw their little toenails, I get so excited.

So it was geared towards children, so I was

like that is the perfect opportunity to really have some

fun with illustration, and different kind of colors and

a different color palette than I may be used to.

And I've discovered doing work for kids is

just a delight because it is a little different.

You can be as goofy with it as possible.

These are some projects I did for Sesame Street, where

I was asked to create several quotes, by the characters.

And I really like to capture the essence of the

character in the lettering, and

incorporating it around their illustrations.

So personal work is a great way to promote the work you wanna do.

New styles, new mediums, allows you to try new things.

Helps avoid creative ruts.

I created this sketch on a particularly

hot day in Portland,which, honestly, was probably

just reaching 90 degrees,so, not really hot

in any kind of southern terms for sure.

I was dreaming of popsicles kinda taunting

me, in my sweaty non air-conditioned studio.

So I kinda just did this doodle.

It's seriously like two inches by two inches big, which is

why it looks so blurry and you can barely see it.

The next day when I was feeling a little bit cooled

off, I decided to take my little sketch and finish the illustration.

I posted the illustration online, made it downloadable as a desktop.

Just wanted to share some work I did recently.

And I ended up getting, good, feedback.

I mean, I mean, kind of popsicle that has like

a, this nice lean going on and, and curse words.

It's like people go crazy about that.

[LAUGH] So I got an email from an agency wanting to take this essence of this

character for some packaging that they were pitching

to this frozen food company called Wicked Kitchen.

So they had me design these characters that had like, some attitude, and.

some, and paired with some expressive hand lettering.

I created several characters to go with the different flavors.

These are just some of my favorites.

And while they actually didn't go forward with this concept, they actually

used it on their food truck, which is like traveling cross country.

Kind of giving out samples and stuff, so that's fun, but

they didn't get it on the packaging which is kind of disappointing.

Because this shrimp is just one of the favorite things that I've ever drawn.

>> [LAUGH] >> His little boots just kill me-

>> [LAUGH]

>> I just [SOUND] I pinch him, he's such a cutie.

So this is the food truck that is you know, super colorful.

The character is kind of all over it.

And what is even more hilarious, is the pissed off chicken.

He's going like that?

They created him into a mascot.

Like, someone created this outfit and I couldn't get a good picture.

Because they just have like, I just only saw like,

Instagrams, like, this is like on a oil stained parking lot.

They have no good pictures of this truck, which is disappointing.

But this mascot is so creepy.

It's hilarious.

Because the illustration sort of has this folk

art slash Beavis and Butthead style to it.

Kind of like more apparent in the mascot, and I love that.

[INAUDIBLE]

This is a Christmas card I made for my dad in 2011.

My dad is a financial advisor.

And every Christmas, I do his Christmas cards so he can send it to his clients.

And in 2011, I was approached by Target to make it into a gift card.

And, I told my dad, I was, like, Dad, you're.

Your Christmas card might be made into a Target gift card.

These are the sketches I sent off with some reiteration to

the original design, some other sketches that had a similar feel.

And they ended up going with this one.

And my mom called me every time someone

from her work gave it to her for Christmas.

She was like, my daughter made that.

I love.

Impressing mom is so important, you know.

Got to keep mom happy.

So basically you want to keep busy, until your busy.

Anytime I have some down time in the studio I

feel like I'm making another project, working on something new.

You wont have clients magically just emailing

you, coming asking you to do work.

You will be broke, taking on jobs that pay very little.

So you need to make work, you need

to satisfy your creativity because creative blocks are bullshit.

The best way out of a mental block is to ignore it and make it.

Keeping a sketchbook is good for this reason.

You know, we're designers.

That's why we keep these sketchbooks around.

They're not just to like put on our shelves and not fill up.

You, we should be doodling, thinking, writing, reading.

ideas should be flowing.

They don't have to be good.

Just put them down there.

To stay enthusiastic.

I like to create products.

Be an entrepreneur.

We all have the right skills as

designers to do this, creative thinking, smart design,

and the tools and resources and just

general wanting to make stuff with our hands.

So don't be afraid to make your ideas come to fruition.

I started a collection of handmade goods

with my boyfriend, called Winter Cabin Collection.

It all started by this idea of crafting a window

display for my friend's shop in Portland called Wonder Lust.

So we were discussing this window display over drinks.

And the second whiskey in, this project just got bigger than we had anticipated.

We started talking about creating products.

And rather than just cutting out some snowflakes

and doing some signage for the window display,

we were like, why not create a line of products around the theme of Winter cabin?

It was September when we had this discussion, and we set

the date for the display to be installed, and for Thanksgiving.

We made blankets, banners, wooden arrows, satchels, boxes, totes, bandanas.

A crazy amount of products.

They were all limited edition, of course, but it was so amazing to really

like, print these wooden boxes that, I'm

just obsessed with collecting vintage boxes like that.

And kind of put your own spin on it,

provisions, stow what you need, prepare for the best.

And kind of like, you know, nailing these boxes

together like, like they did back in the day.

So these are some of the products we made in the win, in the window display.

This is us.

Well this is me this past winter at Renegade Brooklyn.

We decided to continue making products because

we felt like it was pretty successful.

We kept the name Winter Cabin because it's catchy.

And even though I don't have a cabin of my own, I do want one so it makes sense.

I don't know what Winter Cabin will lead to.

But for now, I just like making things.

Things that are handmade, hand sewn, hand printed, hand cut, hand lettered,

It satisfies my craftiness, because I do spend a lot of time on the computer.

Even though a lot of my stuff is all drawn by hand.

I am obsessed with making things by hand.

Projects like this remind me that there's never a dull moment in freelance.

I like this cover.

It's, you know, fun and fine.

But, the reason I'm showing this today is

because I got an email from my art director.

It was the final cover meeting, with all

the editors and the execs of the publishing company.

They almost wanted to change the title of the book, which would

change the design and the direction, and therefore this idea would be trashed.

At the end of what seemed like a long meeting, my

art director told me all of this whole story in an email.

The exact quote was,

the, an, an executive stood up and said, if

you change this cover, I will kill you all.

>> [LAUGH]

>> No one was murdered in the making of this book cover, I can assure you.

They decided to stay in this direction.

That meeting, I wish I was there.

How intense.

I love design that inspires murder.

[LAUGH] >> [LAUGH]

>> So you know, it's always exciting.

These are some labels I did for.

Cocktails for miama, Miami Cocktail Company.

And it was an emphasis on natural ingredients.

And, again, I thought, I love this, how this project came together.

But what was really great about this project is how

much we obsessed over the listing the ingredients on the bottle.

Because, I, each, like they wanted to like scrap

the label and actually like only have the ingredients,

which I thought would have been great, but we

spent a lot of time finessing this, these ingredients.

There's little illustrations.

Each word is like slightly different, and I really love when

people notice those kinds of details because it's so important to me.

So every project is an opportunity for a potential job

or career path, but one project doesn't necessarily dictate your career.

Don't let expectations pressure you into

approaching a project with pre-conceived notions.

Let your inspiration create a spark that

develops something it just, something complete new.

Leave room for play, stay honest, keep creating the

way you create and things will work out, eventually,

hopefully.

Thank you.

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