Leading the way is OUT! I remember getting the contract from Candlewick a few months ago and having to pinch myself. I printed out a copy and hung it on my bulletin board so I would know it was real! Candlewick was one of my dream clients when I switched to full time freelance. It was such an honor that I got to work with them when I hadn’t even been in business a full year!

I was tasked to design the cover as well as create concepts for each of the powerful attributes that would be used to describe each figure in the book. Sort of like little badges that the women had earned by displaying the trait. When I received my copy of the book, a few days later they sent me LITERAL badges with the designs on them! So cool!

Needless to say, everyone at Candlewick were total rockstars to work with. Super kind and helpful with great feedback. When I handed in the first round of finals they had no revisions! Which has NEVER happened to me!

In my previous life as a logo designer, I used Adobe Illustrator daily to make graphic, minimal designs to tell the story of the company. As an illustrator you have a few more variables to work with but its essentially the same stuff! As much as I love painting I always really enjoy making graphic works and using Illustrator. I love the problem solving aspect and when Im using illustrator, I love getting a good playlist going and letting my fingers dance over the hotkeys. I get into the same a state of flow doing graphic design as I do Illustrating. Such a good feeling. I’m so thankful that I have 2 years of professional GD under my belt. I learned so much about process, shape, business, deadlines and many more valuable skills. I would say to any new illustrator fresh out of art school, theres no shame in not illustrating your first few years out of school! Even when Illustrating you have to design before you can paint! Wherever you are in your journey you can learn something new everyday and apply it to illustration.

Below are some of the sketches I did for the buttons. When I use to make logos, my first step was always to look up descriptive words and synonyms that helped me brainstorm about the identity and voice of the company. I jotted those on my sketch sheet and added a color scheme so I could start to visualize how value would effect the composition. Once they chose the sketches they wanted to see finalized, it was on to Illustrator!

Im so glad I got to work on this project. Its been a blast and its cool to have collaborated with such great folks! so far almost all of the books I’ve had the privilege to work on have had to do with women’s empowerment in some way. It has given me so much purpose as an artist to be a part of telling such inspiring stories. I hope this leads to many new generations of women in politics! Your voice is power!

You can check out Theresa’s other work on her site theresahowell.com as well as her instagram and Twitter.

The portraits inside were done by Kylie Erwin and you can check out more awesome portraits on her site https://www.kylieakia.com/

I had the distinct pleasure of working on a series of Illustrations for GYK Antler’s end of year client gifts last month. I was excited to work on the project because I have a lot of unapologetic pride in businesses that operate out of new England. I believe that, large or small, localizing business is one of the top ways to strengthen the community. Some of their clients included born and raised New England giants like Dunkin Dounuts, Timberland and Cedars Hummus. While these corporations distribute and operate on an international level, I know people in my community as well as friends and family who have been personally and positively effected by their existence.

GYKA wanted an original piece of art that could be printed, framed and sent to their clients as a sincere thank you for their partnership. They really wanted them to to be a genuine token of gratitude and needed the item to be of the upmost quality to reflect that. (They originally wanted the illustrations to be letter pressed; bless their souls!) Unfortunately, letterpress did not complement our timeline nor our edition size. So, I had them printed on thick cotton paper to look as handmade as possible.

A few days before Christmas, I had a few facebook notifications from old coworkers. They had shared a link to an Adweek article. When I recognized that the title was; Inventive and Creative Agency Holiday Cards 2018, I selfishly, couldn’t help but scroll through to see if my illustrations made the cut. I stopped to read the paragraph about Droga5 since my boyfriend (a multi media designer in marketing) and I always geek out about their work. Then, almost directly beneath them, I found GYK Client Homage. I was elated just to see the work recognized but when I saw that they mentioned my full name, I ran into the living room to show my mom. I had to explain what Droga 5 was and what a big deal it was to be mentioned in the same article as them but, I think She understood the weight of it from my voice being many octaves higher than normal.

It’s been 4 weeks since I went full time freelance ( I hope you read that in Steven Page’s voice) And, not going to lie, It’s-been-WORK. I’ve made many mistakes and pushed myself to my limits. I knew in my heart that it was the right choice to go self employed but, I’m always glancing shiftily around for validation that I’m on the right track. Shortly after sharing the news with my mom, I received that holy validation in the form of an email from the project manager from GYKA. She shared the link to the Adweek article as well as a retweet of the project from a prominent editor in the marketing industry. She wrote that the gifts received overwhelmingly positive feedback many appreciated how thoughtful they had been. They where so thankful for my part in bringing their vision to life I could barely contain my happiness.

Starting out as an illustrator, self esteem is fragile. You take a lot of “bad” clients because you don’t know any better and end up doing a ton of work without receiving any kind of positive feedback. I think many refer to this time as “earning your stripes.” I’ve learned a LOT from making mistakes which has led me to taking better and better clients. When I receive positive feedback like this, it makes me go even more boldly in the direction of my dreams.

It’s the little things. Thanks GYKA!

Check out the article here

Leading The Way

IM IN ADWEEK! WTF!