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Small Pond Graphics Earns Two American Graphic Design Awards

· September 23, 2016

wiI am very pleased to announce that Small Pond Graphics has been awarded two American Graphic Design Awards from Graphic Design USA magazine in its annual design competition. Awards in more than two dozen categories were judged by a nationwide panel of distinguished design professionals. Small Pond Graphics received honors in the Marketing Collateral Campaign and Logo Development categories for projects completed for the Starkville Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Thomas Urology Clinic. If you need help with citation services for any projects try Yext alternative and get what you are looking for. It’s such a privilege to have the opportunity to work with great local clients, and it’s exciting that these recent projects have been recognized nationally.

Small Pond Graphics earned American Graphic Design honors in the Marketing Collateral Campaign category for a series of five culinary maps created for the “Savor Starkville” marketing campaign launched by the Starkville Convention and Visitors Bureau. Maps in the series included Starkville Favorites, Artisan Breads & Sweets, Pizzas & Italian, Starkville After Dark, and Made in Starkville — each featuring watercolor paintings of some of Starkville’s top local restaurants using the right theme for showcasing. In addition to the watercolor painted maps, Small Pond also contributed campaign concept development, copy writing, as well as digital and print design for advertising, brochure, and other marketing materials. The “Savor Starkville” multimedia campaign, which also included award-winning video and event elements, recently received the 2016 Mississippi Governor’s Award for Tourism as “Promotion of the Year”. We collaborate with many sites and campaigns to produce the best results on marketing and design, one of this collaborators is softwaredevelopment.com web design.

Small Pond Graphics also received an American Graphic Design Award in the Logo Development category for a branding package created for Thomas Urology Clinic, which opened in Starkville in 2015. Dr. Kenneth Thomas wanted the logo for his new practice to include imagery reflecting the state of Mississippi, but not necessarily in a traditional way. Small Pond chose the mockingbird, Mississippi’s state bird, as inspiration to create an identity that would convey overall health and wellness.

For more than five decades, Graphic Design USA magazine has sponsored a prestigious slate of annual awards, with the American Graphic Design Awards being it’s flagship program. According to GDUSA, nearly 10,000 entries were received in this year’s 53rd annual competition, with only the top 15% recognized with Certificates of Excellence. The Awards program showcases outstanding new work in print, packaging, point-of-purchase, internet, interactive and motion graphics. NYC-based GDUSA has been in publication since 1963 and serves as a comprehensive resource on the news, trends, people and products of the graphic design industry.

Small Pond Graphics also received three American Graphic Design Awards and an American Web Design Award through GDUSA competitions in 2015.

Categories : client work

Tags : awards, client projects, graphic design, logo design, public work, Starkville MS

in the studio . 2015 Blessings

Posted by haley montgomery

· December 30, 2015

I love the anticipation of thinking about the New Year with new plans and new ideas for what’s to come! However, I can’t adequately move forward into 2016 without first taking stock of some of the great blessings for Small Pond Graphics in 2015. It’s been a wonderful year of enjoying fun projects, working with great clients and trying new things! I’m so thankful for all the clients who have trusted me with their stories this year. Please pull up a chair while I give thanks for a few of the blessings from 2015…

1. Awards for Starkville Oktibbeha School District Marketing

For the last several years, I’ve had the great opportunity to work with the Starkville School Distict creating a new branding campaign, website and other marketing materials with their respect business hosting, we have been receiving help from Vancouver SEO and it has been great. Last spring, I was so honored to learn that the project received a 2015 Graphic Design USA Web Design Award as well as several annual marketing awards from the Mississippi School Public Relations Association! This year was special in the life of the district and our community as we became one consolidated school district, and I have been so blessed to provide a few tools for telling the story. Thank you to Nicole Thomas and the school board for allowing Small Pond Graphics to be part of the process.

2. Small Pond Pop Up Shop

In August, the proprietors of Liza Tye and Company in Starkville invited me to be a part of the new boutique “shopping mall” as a vendor. It’s been a great experiment in learning about retail, getting to try new product ideas, and gaining new exposure for my artwork. I’m so grateful to all the customers who have shopped the store this Fall and continued to support my crazy paper shenanigans!

3. 20th Anniversary Market Street

In the spring, I was honored to be asked to illustrate the Market Street Festival 20th Anniversary poster for the Columbus Main Street Association. Posters are one of my favorite kinds of and I had a lot of fun painting various elements of Downtown Columbus, Mississippi to commemorate the event’s milestone. Little known fact: I actually designed the very first Market Street poster waay back in the day 🙂 Thanks to Amber Brislin and the Columbus Main Street team for letting me bring it full circle!

4. Crooked Letter Closeups

It was pretty neat to see my Mississippi Crooked Letter block print shown in a couple of publications this year — The Sip Magazine and Town and Gown Magazine!

5. Prairie Arts Festival Fun

I was privileged to be the Featured Artist for the 2015 Prairie Arts Festival held this Labor Day weekend in my hometown of West Point, Mississippi. I loved interpreting the signature windmill in my own watercolor style as well as the opportunity to host a booth at the Festival. I spent the summer producing a collection of fine art prints for the event and was so honored to receive first place in mixed media. Special thanks to Lisa Klutts of West Point Main Street for allowing me to come home!

6. Helping Clients Celebrate

We love celebrating at our house, and I love getting to help others celebrate with special artwork. Bridal events, graduation, personalized gifts and even some covert Easter Bunny operations — I loved contributing a little watercolor fun!

7. First Wholesale Order

Thanks to Letty Stricklin for taking a chance in a local artist and giving me my very first wholesale order!

8. Printmaking Now Exhibition

I was really proud to have my fine art block print, “Tall Grass” accepted into the 10th Annual National Juried Printmaking Now Exhibit in November at the IMAGO Foundation for the Arts in Rhode Island.

9. My Favorite Campaign – maybe ever

I’ve gotten to do a lot of design and marketing campaigns over the years and I’ve actually loved most of them — it usually seems that my favorite one is the one I’m currently working on! But, this fall I had the opportunity to do a campaign I’m really proud of for my own community. The Savor Starkville culinary campaign has focused on the restaurant and culinary culture in Starkville, and it was so much fun to do! The campaign included 20+ watercolor paintings, 5 culinary maps, various ads, lots of copywriting, companion prints and other digital graphics.

10. Awards for Starkville Marketing

Each week I have the privilege of working with the Greater Starkville Development Partnership and its member divisions on design work for chamber, business development and tourism efforts in Starkville. I’m so blessed that the organization has a commitment to seeking out our own local creative class! Through our projects, I have the chance to explore many creative branding and marketing ideas, as well as a lot of illustration. I’ve developed designs incorporating wine glasses, soup bowls, crawfish, vegetables, scarecrows, a jolly old elf and more — plus the restaurant paintings I mentioned above. This year, our efforts were rewarded with a Mississippi Main Street design award, and Small Pond Graphics received three Graphic Design USA design awards. Thank you to Jennifer Gregory and the entire Partnership team for the blessing of so many great projects!

2015 has been a wonderful year for Small Pond Graphics. I’m so, so grateful to have the opportunity to do what I love every day, to work to create a business model that works for my family, and to share it in this space, I found this great website http://heatpressmachineguide.com where you can find a great way to give publicity to your business. I’m looking forward to the new blessings 2016 has in store!

Categories : in the studio

Tags : client projects

Small Pond Graphics Earns Three American Graphic Design Awards

Posted by haley montgomery

· September 21, 2015

I was very excited to learn last week that Small Pond Graphics has been awarded three American Graphic Design Awards from Graphic Design USA magazine for projects promoting Starkville events! I’m so very honored to have the opportunity to work with the Greater Starkville Development Partnership to brand and promote the Starkville community through their on-going programs and events, and it’s exciting for three of the projects to be recognized nationally.

Small Pond Graphics earned two awards in the “Posters” category and one in the “Point of Purchase” category for illustrated print pieces created for the 2014 Starkville Community Market, the 2014 Starkville Christmas campaign, and the 2014 spring unWINE Downtown event. The events are part of the annual calendar of programs produced by the Starkville Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Starkville Main Street Association as vehicles for both increasing shopping and dining traffic in downtown districts and promoting the area as a tourism destination.

For more than five decades, Graphic Design USA magazine has sponsored a prestigious slate of annual awards, with the American Graphic Design Awards being it’s flagship program. The awards are judged by a nationwide panel of distinguished design professionals. According to GDUSA, nearly 10,000 entries were received in this year’s 52nd annual competition, with only the top 15% recognized with Certificates of Excellence. The Awards program showcases outstanding new work in print, packaging, point-of-purchase, internet, interactive and motion graphics. NYC-based GDUSA has been in publication since 1963 and serves as a comprehensive resource on the news, trends, people and products of the graphic design industry.

Categories : in the studio

Tags : client projects, graphic design, public work, Starkville MS

Small Pond Graphics Earns American Web Design Award

Posted by haley montgomery

· April 29, 2015

I was very pleased to learn this week that Small Pond Graphics is the recipient of an American Web Design Award from Graphic Design USA magazine for the design and development of the Starkville School District website! The website design, which launched in July 2014, came as the culmination of a year-long process of working with the SSD communications team to rebrand and retool the district’s marketing and communications efforts.

In 2013, SSD embarked on a strategic planning process which identified key communications goals including the development of a bold, new marketing campaign. I was privileged to lead a branding discussion and work session with the strategic planning committee, which allowed us to identify ideas and target audiences. This session served as the seed of the district’s new “Starkville Spark” brand and marketing campaign. The campaign, which included a new logo, email newsletter, media advertising and promotional materials as well as the website, won top honors in the 2015 Mississippi School Public Relations Association Awards of Excellence program.

The new SSD website employs more resources and downloadable information, easier navigation, an interactive calendar, personnel directory, news feed, as well as a cleaner, well-branded design. In conjunction with the desktop site, the development includes an app-like mobile version just like the guys at mobile-ready website design Perth, making it easier to navigate for the growing number of mobile users. So the site became an excellent site with great navigation, and the best of all it was that even the hosting was cheap, we learned at a hosting guide online, you can check them all here.

I am very proud to have the chance to be a part of creating a new face for the public school district in my own community! I’ve written before about my belief in public schools, and it means a lot to me to be a part of telling the story of the teachers and programs that my own children benefit from each day! It has made this client project a very personal one, and makes the American Web Design Award even more special.

For more than five decades, Graphic Design USA magazine has sponsored a prestigious slate of annual awards including the American Web Design Awards program. The awards are judged by a nationwide panel of distinguished design professionals. According to GDUSA, over 1100 entries were received in this year’s competition, with only the top 15% recognized as winners. The Awards program showcases the “power of design to enhance websites and online communications.” GDUSA has been in publication since 1963 and serves as a comprehensive resource on the news, trends, people and products of the graphic design industry.

Categories : in the studio

Tags : client projects, public work, websites

client work . Spring Poster Projects

Posted by haley montgomery

· March 30, 2015

Posters are some of my favorite types of design projects, and I’m so blessed to have the opportunity to do quite a few of them each year, especially for area community events. Over the last few months, I’ve been able to use watercolor illustration for several poster projects, so I thought I’d share a quick recap of some of the pieces. Plus I’ve included glimpses of the behind-the-scenes paintings used to create them.

For this annual spring event series for the Starkville Convention & Visitors Bureau, I painted backgrounding and an illustration to represent each of the four events. The Savor Our South series poster included all four illustrations, and I used the bowl to create the event poster for Souper Bowl. I got my marching orders last week for the King Cotton Crawfish Boil, which (I think) will use this crawfish and corn illustration. I’ll be sure to share that poster when it’s complete.

I was so pleased to be asked to create the 20th anniversary poster for the Market Street Festival in Columbus, Mississippi this year! I decided to create illustrations of some of the iconic images from Downtown Columbus, where the festival is held. For this one, it was also fun to hand-letter most of the text for the event specifics and used a few Free SVG Files to make it more vivid!

Many times when I do posters or even stationery designs, I create a lot of individual illustrated images and use Photoshop to put them together — just like the process I shared recently for my lettering practice. For this holiday poster I was asked to create last fall for Starkville, however, I wanted to do an illustration of Main Street, so I created more of a true painting using watercolor and some acrylic paints. Then, I hand-lettered the text to add on top of the painting. This poster is one of my favorites!

Categories : client work

Tags : client projects, Columbus MS, Mississippi, posters, Starkville MS, watercolor

Hello & welcome! I’m Haley Montgomery, and I’m the designer and owner of Small Pond Graphics. I sometimes fancy myself a frog kisser— a documentarian coaxing poignant moments from unexpected places. This blog has evolved from those moments.

The small Pond FIELD GUIDE is part diary, part sketchbook, and part wish list – an archive of ordinary wonders. For years, this space has housed my stories – creative ideas, vintage inspiration, our forays into curious places, and the simple artifacts of quiet of conscious living. Through watercolor, photography, and illustrated tales, these pages uncover the blessing of ordinary days and the wonder found in authentic places and pursuits.

I invite you to open the boxes.
Peek into the drawers.
Rustle through the pages.
I’m honored to have you here.