In Anchorage, Alaska there is a history with Capt. Cook and his vessel the HM Bark Endeavour.  There is a pet boutique there called HM Bark. I was blessed to be contracted to first vectorize the HM Bark logo, which had been done in PhotoShop previously (needless to say the client could not use the PhotoShop version for collateral marketing materials). Then the client asked for a brand extension for their new pet boutique called AK Bark (AK = Alaska). They love whippets so we had to make a mascot! These were so much fun to build in Adobe Illustrator. Lots of special techniques employed (not special effects, special techniques).

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Sometimes I forget to upload samples of my graphic design work. This piece I not only designed the text, I created the candles with the logos of the two different churches.

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I just finished this illustration for a dog walker/sitter. She will be using these critters on her website. Of course my passion for dogs and my exacting attention to breed specific characteristics helped to distinguish a chihuahua from a yorkie. Lots of love went into this one.

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Mr. Orange is the second in this series of characters for the math card game. What a happy fellow, he gets to join Ms. Banana in their adventures with numbers.

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Meet Ms. Banana, the first of three fruit characters heading to a math card game. I am so honored to get to work with great clients, doing great things for others. This project is the brainchild of a creative mathematics instructor. Using Adobe Illustrator and InDesign we are bringing to life a fun and entertaining method to teaching arithmetic.

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Sometimes I get so excited about a project that I forget to post what I am working on. This little girl is named Charlie and she is the main character in a book about cerebral palsy. She has a service dog named Alexander and together they have many adventures. This afternoon I get to observe wheelchair bound children with cerebral palsy. This will help me get the body movements and facial expressions correct. Trimark Press contracted me for this job. What a wonderful way to make a living.

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Santa is coming and he will have a body and some "friends" once this piece is completed. I just wanted to share what I'm up to these days, besides teaching our new dog, Opie, how to sit, and walk pretty on a leash.

As with all my illustrations, this is 100% vector. There are no fancy effects, or transparency. A few gradients are used, but most of the "shading" comes from the zig-zag of hundreds of triangles.

The Princeton Review has named Monmouth College one of the nation’s best four-year Midwestern colleges in its “2016 Best Colleges: Region by Region” list.

And I am working on a vector illustration of their Wallace Hall which will be cast in metal as a gift coin to students as they graduate. As you can see the entire piece must be rendered in only black and white. In the process of creation, I also ended up with a full gray scale version of the building. Next I would love to work up a full color one.

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    Barbara loved this logo I created for her and she also loved the business card ideas so much that she is using two different layouts on two different cards.

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Unity Fort Lauderdale
held a very successful event for the Fourth of July. "Little Miss Independence" raised over $4,000 for Unity. I had the opportunity to design all the collateral marketing pieces for this special event. What is collateral?

Collateral is the collection of media used to promote the brand and support the sales and marketing of a product or service. It's the tangible evidence of the brand, designed congruent with the brands core values and personality.

That means I designed the flyers, posters, banners, signage, FaceBook posts, postcards, tickets, advertisements, website page and anything else the promoters decided at the last minute would benefit the show.

Here are some examples of the collateral for "Little Miss Independence" :

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What a blessing to get to layout this 56 page memoir autobiography of Sgt. Hack. We finished it up just in time to offer the online version for the 4th of July. The printed version will be available in August, 2015. To get a copy of the online PDF version go to: The Life of a Warrior

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Happy Father's Day to all the great men who show up in our lives, guiding us and protecting us.

This little Labrador Retriever pup can't wait to give you a lick and play catch.

This illustration is for sale on iStock, item number 64529973.

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My client sent me a photo of the sheep hand fans. Pretty nice.

Here's a question for you, imagine you are at the County Fair and it's August and it's hot. All you want is something to cool you down while you wander through the barns looking at the animals and vendors. You come upon a seller of fiber and there are hand fans for sell. Which of these two designs would you buy?

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This is a huge postcard I designed for a local insurance group. They are using the U.S. Postal Service Every Door Direct Mail option to get new customers.

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May 10th is quickly approaching and to honor all the motherly love we share, I took a look at parenthood from a dog's point-of-view. This piece is available for purchase from iStock.

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I forgot to post this baby blue chick. I have been busy with many projects (that's good, yes). He is the brother to the pink chick. He can be purchased as stock illustration at iStock, go to: Baby Blue Chick

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This piece is a refection of what Florida means to me. Moorish tile design in the background. Palm trees, wild parrots, sunshine and of course lots of water everywhere. This is going to become a silk screen print, hence the need to work this up in pure black and white. I'll keep you posted as the silk screening progresses. My aim is to sell the silk screen versions at local gift shops.

Here is the cover for the eight  page newsletter I just finished designing for Unity Fort Lauderdale. You can download the whole newsletter here:

Download Unity Newsletter 4.5.15 web version

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It is official, I got the word last night, I have been accepted in as an iStock contributor for vector illustration. This achievement took longer than I had anticipated because all vector files must be submitted as .eps version 10 files. What's the problem with that you ask. Well Adobe came out with transparency in color stops inside gradients with CS4 (I think), so if any vector elements contained a gradient with transparency then in the conversion to .eps v. 10 those elements rasterized. Ugh! I love using transparency within gradients, it is a fast, easy way to get soft edges and seamless flowing blends. Believe me I tried everything to stop the rasterization.

Finally I went to my "zig-zag" style of art, which I developed when my client's T-shirt printer could not work with files containing gradients or transparency. That's when "Kiss Me, I'm Irish" was born, followed by this one "Hello Hatchling." Yes, she is very pink, but her brother is coming out of his shell soon and he'll be blue.

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I just finished this logo for a local start-up. The client wanted her dog included in the logo. Lots of elements and detail, but I think it works. She will watch your home when you can't, making sure your pool does not turn green and bugs don't over take your space.

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Easter fast approaches and therefore it is time for some Easter Chicks. I am currently working on an illustration with 3 of these little cuties. Stay tuned and you will see why she is pink...

Over the years I have had the opportunity to design many logos. Here is a representative set of examples. They are all vector.

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Three varieties of coffee bean packaging designed by yours truly.

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Keeping a character constant throughout a sequential story is critical. This chimp employs a puppetry technique to move his parts.