Being a Designer

Last week’s blog focused on being an entrepreneur, so this week’s blog focuses on being a designer.  A bit of history on me first.  I was one of those kids in school who had to have new markers, crayons, pencils and paper for the start of every semester.  And then once I had all my new shiny materials I would only use them on projects that I saw fit.  A greeting card that I would make, a special drawing for mom or pages and pages of patterns that I designed.  What I did not know when I was young was that I was already showing my passion and love for design.  My parents encouraged me in everything that I wanted to do, but the career of graphic designer never came up…it was what I was I just did not have a title for it then.  Fast forward what seems like a thousand years and I am here.  The owner / designer of Confections by Shara’s Paperie and Shara’s Paperie.  My dream job is what I get to do every day. 
 
So what do I do everyday?  The list is long (and admittedly sometimes boring), but today I am going to concentrate on the designer part, not the everything else.  When we want to introduce a new pattern the first thing that I do is open Adobe Illustrator, look at the blank screen and be convinced that I will not be able to come up with anything.  Happens every time…I should be used to it by now.  But then something will pop into my head, maybe a color I saw, a piece of clothing that I loved or even just the shape of something around me and the ideas start popping.  I get as much onto that Illustrator screen as I can while the ideas are flowing.  This is the part that I love!  After awhile I can see that parts of my creation that can work and those that can’t.  Then the tweaking and honing begins and I end up with a finished design.  Even then there are some that I love and know will look fabulous on our personalized products. And there are some that are awful which get hidden in a file on the server.  Regardless of what happens with the pattern I never tire of the creative process.
 
And the best part?  Seeing my work on our personalized products that are so well received by our fabulous clients.