Frogs and princes. I’ve always loved that story — the one where the girl isn’t afraid to pick up the slimy, croaking, web-toed frog and give him a big ol’ kiss. There must have been something inspiring in that little toad, something that made the girl see the prince potential in those multi-colored, eye slits. That’s kind of how I see great design work. It’s potential is there in all kinds of shapes and forms and patterns and sounds and budgets. Sometimes, it just requires a little extra attention to the details to bring it out. That’s kind of how I see ideas, too. The tiny, warty ones can turn big and spectacular when the right person applies a little love and attention (and great design) to them.

Many of you may know that I have worked as the Art Director of Dux D’Lux Advertising for the past 16 years. Recently, the Queen of Dux took to calling me the company “creative wizard.” Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to spread my creative wings quite often and tackle many types of projects and client accounts — corporations and start-ups, non-profit and for profit, big and small. I’ve done a lot of frog-kissing, you might say. And, sure enough, I found a lot of princes.

I’ve worked with countless small businesses through the years. I’ve just never started one. Until now. Since the Queen is retiring and Dux D’Lux is closing its doors for design and agency services, I’ve decided to hop out on my own with a new company — Small Pond Graphics.

Why the small pond? Well, I AM a small girl in a small town, but we all live in a small world. The pond is getting smaller and smaller by the day. I’m ready to embrace all the uniqueness that small pond provides. The truth is; I like small ponds. As I wrote for my website, small ponds are where most of us begin our unique circle of impact. Small ponds are places where individualism and an individual approach to marketing and services can be most beneficial. They are places where the same old formulas don’t necessarily apply, where those ways of doing things can actually get you lost in the sea of competition. I like the idea of finding the unique aspects in frogs of all persuasions and offering that individual attention that helps the prince shine through. This small world we swim in needs a relationship-focused approach to service and solutions. I like the sound of that.

Since, I’ve never done this small business thing and since I’m sold on this individual, relationship-based approach, I’ve decided to launch a blog as part of my Small Pond “ecosystem.” I hope it will help clients get to know me better and learn about my design sensibilities. If you’ve read EyeJunkie, my personal blog, you know I’m prone to long-windedness, but I hope this foray will offer a little more eyecandy and inspiration to seek and recognize the prince potential all around us. The small pond is teeming with life well-designed, well-read, well-done and well-lived. I’m calling the Small Pond Graphics blogging adventure Plop! and I plan to use it to chronicle my foray into entrepreneurship and offer up some (hopefully) daily design inspiration.

Thanks for reading the inaugural Plop! post and for indulging me in a little meandering on the art of launching a new design company. Stay tuned for more pond pursuits!