field guide
Revamping
As you may have noticed, I’ve been taking a hiatus from posting for the last two months — a summer break, of sorts. During that time, I’ve been focused on the launch of some exciting projects in MY small pond, which I’ll share more about soon. There have been some great collaborations and marketing strategies going on in my to-do list.
On July 1, I also celebrated the one-year anniversary of Small Pond Graphics. As a little birthday present to the Pond, I’ve spent the last few weeks fine-tuning a new website design for this little adventure. You’re looking at the updated Plop! with links up there in the menu bar back to the re-vamped smallpondgraphics.com.
One of the things I’m proud of with this new site is an updated collection of portfolios showing more of what I do on a weekly and daily basis. My goal with the new design was to put more of the creativity and design work front and center. I literally love what I do, and I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to spend my time working with so many creative and innovative small businesses, non-profit organizations, retailers, restaurants, etc — folks who are generally very passionate about what they do as well.
I’ll admit that putting these portfolios together was a personal triumph for me. For the most part, they represent work that has been completed solely in the first year of Small Pond Graphics. Choosing projects to include was like a walk through my first year in business. I couldn’t help but be overwhelmed with gratitude and excitement about what’s still to come.
The portfolios are organized by project type and I’ll be continuing to update them as favorite projects are completed. I hope you’ll enjoy the quick sampling here and then take a moment to browse the links below.
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View more portfolios:
Logos & Branding | Print Design | Print Advertising | Brochures & Publications | Email Marketing | Digital & Social Media | Websites
The Courage to Make Change
“I want to make changes. Not let change happen around me.”
I read that comment this week, and it rocked me. I write a lot about change, it seems. I guess it comes from being in an intense season of change over the last year. That whirlwind can sometimes blur your vision where change (and everything else) is concerned. So the comment rocked me. It stopped me and made me re-examine the subject.
It’s one thing to accept change. Even to want it. It’s quite another to make it.
So often we look at change as this ethereal force happening all around us that we are left to compensate for, overlook, grab hold and ride, or be blown away by. Take your pick of one of those positions; the navigation is the same. It’s out of our control. Some unknown and seemingly rampant tide is in charge, pulling us along for the ride. And we are relegated to letting it happen.
I haven’t written about courage (my 2010-11 theme word) in several months, but I think the decision to”make change” certainly requires it. To reject the mentality that change is out of our hands and firmly take the reins of responsibility ourselves takes courage. (Why does a rodeo bull-riding metaphor come to mind?)
It takes courage.
The courage to imagine something new and different — to see it.
The courage to see it as possible.
The courage to see ourselves as worthy of this new possibility.
The courage to recognize our own value.
And our own values.
The courage to ask questions.
To take stands.
To dare to be bold. Even brazen in our pursuit of that possibility we see.
And the courage to move and step and act and speak.
Just as “making change” in the mundane sense is exchanging currency like dollars for coins, to make change in broader strokes requires a more prominent exchange. We exchange this direction for that one — the one that more closely aligns with the destination (and journey) our souls require. We exchange someone else’s priorities for our own — the ones we own in that secret place that comes alive in our hearts when we know we are where we need to be. We exchange the superfluous for the necessary — that list of essentials representing the lowest common denominator for our unique life of joy. We exchange the ever-abstract big picture for exquisite details — those nitty-gritty, real-world specifics that characterize the life we MUST have each and every day.
Those exchanges can never happen by chance in the billowing tide of an ethereal “wind of change.” No, those exchanges only happen with intention, with choosing, with moving and acting. With making change.
And that takes courage.
One Year
I’m celebrating the one-year birthday of Small Pond Graphics today! It’s been a year marked by new things, for sure. New starts. New day-to-day activities. New creative environment. New skills. New collaborations. And, thankfully, new clients. I’ve had the opportunity this year to spread my wings a little. My task has been to do the very things I so often help clients do. Differentiate myself. Own my unique offerings. Determine what I’m passionate about in this industry. Establish my own voice. Tell my story. And do the work.
As I acknowledge the milestone of one year in business, I’ve been thinking over the story of Small Pond Graphics — what I want my company and my design life to be about — and I keep coming back to two ideas that continually get me hopping.
It’s a small world.
You only have to enjoy a 140-character Twitter conversation with a web designer in Australia on a Thursday morning to realize it. You only have to look at countries and businesses and people half-way around this ball pushing through the same struggles and successes to realize we are all companions in this journey called work and life. So many times, we eschew small in favor of bigger and better. But, what I’ve seen with the growth of social media and the changing climate of our digital lives is that this new technology is moving us smaller and smaller with the ability to share the details of life and business with folks we would never have imagined just twenty years ago. In fact, the social marketplace we inhabit is becoming more and more like the word-of-mouth Main Street of black and white movies. The Main Street is just a global one now.
With these realities comes the fact that we all start small. Small is inevitably the beginning of big. Giving attention to the small things and doing them well is the foundation for bigger things — bigger services, bigger markets. I want to cultivate in Small Pond Graphics an appreciation and attention to small things, seemingly small clients, small details. I want to be excellent, not “even” in, but especially in the small.
Frogs can be princes.
In my very first blog post here, Prince Potential, I was thinking about the old tale of the frog and the princess — more specifically, her willingness to look past the wartiness of the creature to see his potential. And, her willingness to risk a kiss to make it happen. Yes, it’s a great fairy tale, but there’s something about it I want to capture in the real life of my business. So often we live in a world where WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) is paramount. I think that’s a shame. It defies one of those remarkable things about entrepreneurs and great thinkers and just humans — the ability to exceed expectations, to offer well beyond what has already been conceived. I want “what you get” from Small Pond Graphics to be much more than what you’ve already imagined. It’s how I see my role with my clients. One of my passions has always been to apply creativity, good design skills and even a few new thoughts to a client’s “big idea” — to help it achieve fruition with it’s best face on. In essence, to give marketing and visual wings to someone’s dream. No, not every project requires that kind of flight. But, I do believe every project and every client deserves that kiss of uncommon imaginative attention. I want Small Pond Graphics to be about giving it. Every time.
So, you’ve been privy to my own evaluations and ramblings on this Small Pond birthday. Thank you. And thank you for your support and confidence during this first year in business. I’m looking forward to another year of finding princes.
Summer Daze
It’s Summer time, and I don’t have anything profound to say about that fact. Nope. Summer just seems to defy profundity and position itself squarely in the camp of carefree. And, I guess that IS a little profound. Sometimes in the thick of real life, carefree is very elusive.
Who can’t smile at gumballs? Aren’t they the the epitome of instant sweet-filled and quickly-fleeting summertime carefree moments? I took the photo in this month’s desktop wallpaper image one Sunday afternoon earlier this month. That day, I did just what I imagine I did as a child on a summer weekend afternoon. I gazed at the scrumptious offerings inside a window, but was too drawn by the possibilities of the moment to stop and go inside. Summer daze gone by — when the endless opportunities of free time were almost overwhelming. And the absence of time constraints almost made me dizzy with possibilities.
I love that feeling. And, even though my constraints are a little more rigid in this grown-up June and July, I hope I can still capture a touch of that daze. Just a touch of that carefree heart peeking in the window, but too busy with loving life to bother with dropping in the coin. Enjoy my personal glimpse of summer, and feel free to download to use in your own devices. *wink*
