Taken to the Graphics Wood Shed

I've been doing very limited graphic designs for a while now and they have all been for my personal use.  I'm not a professional graphic designer and never plan to be.  I taught myself a little Photoshop in July and I have been non-stop designing marketing materials for myself ever since.  I am proud of that fact.  See, you can teach an old dog new tricks.

Here are just a few of the examples of designs I created recently.  My art show marketing postcards, my banner and this adorable marketing image to share on my social media accounts.  All turned out just the way I wanted them to; colorful and humorous. I think they are just a perfect fit for my artwork.

The past 9 months have been amazing.  I'm loving the Photoshop I have learned and it allows me to create so many things.  Photoshop has taken my artwork to a whole new level  Now let me remind you, that I have had no formal training in either art or graphics so everything you see here is created from basically my gut feelings and my creative eye.  I just found out that BOTH HAVE BETRAYED ME!

Not only have I created my own monthly studio newsletter and marketing cards, I am always busy designing things for the Art House LV Gallery here in Las Vegas.  I am one of two volunteer directors at the gallery so you can just imagine how many hats I must wear.

One of my favorite marketing themes as of late, is to use images of members of my family and add them into different funny settings that then advertise the gallery.  Here are just a few of social media marketing images I created for the Art House LV Gallery.

I have also published several newsletters in the past 9 months to promote the gallery.  Here you can see the front and back pages of my most current newsletter.  I love the bright colors and how I have the daisy wrapping between the two pages.  I was so pleased at how this turned out....That is until just the other night when I was chatting with one of the younger gallery photographers and to my complete shock and dismay he said to me, "I have hesitated to tell you this, but since we are discussing the newsletter, I just thought you should know that no one in the graphics field uses COMIC SANS as a font anymore. It works for what you are doing but really shouldn't be on the gallery website or marketing materials."

At that moment, I felt as if my whole world had changed.  I mean COMIC SANS has been my standard go to font for everything.  I even have it set up as my default font for my emails.  How could I not know this?  I'm just now learning that it is right up there with the font Papyrus. Yes, I did watch the SNL skit regarding the Papyrus font being used on Avatar.  I think the humor was lost on me at that moment.

I came home from the gallery and in a moment of weakness I posted my misery for all my Facebook Friends to read.  That is when I received my enlightening to the errors of my ways.  These friends held nothing back.

If you think you might like my art, please check out my Etsy Shop or my website gallery and please don't tell me if it is also in COMIC SANS font because I haven't checked there yet.

FACEBOOK DISCUSSION THE OTHER NIGHT REGARDING COMIC SANS FONT:

ME:  I'm just a bit upset right now. I was just informed that graphically speaking, Comic Sans as a font is just a bad choice. That is like my go to font. Now I have to rethink everything.

LG: It's art, art is at the discernment of the viewer. That being said art may be judged by the viewer but that judgment shouldn't be pressed on others.

VT: This applies to everything else in the except comic sans.

           ST: Did they recommend a different one? lol!

Manage

ME: Not really...um just left in the void of graphic space. It's lonely out there. Lol

Manage

LB: The most likely reason you were told so is that it’s one of the first fonts use, and overused in books & other graphic design platforms. But who care? It works great with what you’ve been doing.

Manage

VT: Literally any other 100k fonts would be better.

ST:  All this time everyone stayed quiet! 😂😂😂😂

VT: The thing with comic sans, in my opinion, is that when we started doing graphics in the late 80's, you had a choice of about 3 fonts. Comic sans was the "coolest" one. So to still be using it gives the illusion of not progressing in the last 30 years.

VT: Jules, do you use dafont? Lots of fun choices. Try "eponymous" or "century gothic"

ME:  VT,  I have downloaded a few fonts from there but it is overwhelming. Rest assured I will be getting out of the 80's now. This all steamed from a conversation I had with XXXXX last night about the website. I've only been doing graphics for the past 9 months or so and I just had no idea. Well I have been EDGUMACATED now!

LG:  Again opinions lol

KA:  Agree LG Some people are still hippies!!! BE YOURSELF. Font snobs!

What Adjectives to use to Describe Your Art

Words can paint pictures in your mind as strong as the visual images I can produce with my paintbrush and I just love how writer Whitney Huggins describes my art work here in this blog interview she did a few months ago.  Sometimes it is really difficult to describe your own style and find the write creative words to promote yourself.  Whitney nailed it here.  I love this quote: "Her pieces are nostalgia-inducing and poetic. They embody the secret, inner worlds of childhood".

Here is the link if you want to read the short blog post about me.
https://arthouselv.wordpress.com/2018/02/16/artist-profile-julie-townsend/


So March was a busy month and proved to be my most profitable month ever as an artist. I plan on blogging in more detail about the specifics of that in this next week when I finish up my financials Today is April 11th and I have to consider how I can keep that momentum going now that my show “I Dare You Not to Smile” has been boxed up and stacked in the corner of my studio.  It is a dilemma that many artist face.  How to generate excitement and keep the sales rolling in?  I think the secret is to keep yourself in the public eye and try to keep growing your fan base.  How do you do that you ask? 

I’ve already decided that I will bring my solo exhibition to the Art House Gallery in Las Vegas for the month of May.














I’m going to be at the Galleria Mall on the weekend of April 14th and 15th with a booth set up in center court along with other artists from the Las Vegas Artists Guild.

I also have the Helldorado Art Show and Auction on  Friday evening, April 27th from 5 pm- 8 pm I will be at the Elks Lodge at 4100 W. Charleston Blvd.  I have entered 4 pieces of art in the show and am excited to be a part. 

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The Clark County Fair coming up very soon.  It isn't what I would call a strong art event, but it is a Townsend family tradition to drive the 50 miles out to Logandale and spend the day at the fair.  Having my own art in the exhibit hall makes the trip more enjoyable for me and this year I have on several occasions ran into people who recognized my art from out there so I think that there are thousands of people who look at it over the 4 day period and so that is worth it to me to make a couple extra trips.




This is definitely coming up to a very busy time so I have to buckle down and try not to retreat to my "Secret, Inner Worlds of Childhood".

Shake Off Those Winter Blues

“No Winter Lasts Forever.  No Spring Skips its Turn.” (Hal Borland)  As this week brought a cold wind from the north that blew across the valley, just saying the word "Spring" brings warmth to my bones and hope of new creations.  I may just be writing this blog post while wearing my heaviest winter coat but I can’t help but feel the stir that a new year brings to ones creative juices and fills the palate with warm and bright colors.  Rest has finally brought an end to the exhaustion of the holidays and my attention can once again can be focused in the direction of the studio.  There are canvases to paint and sketchbooks to fill.

I'm shaking off the distractions of 2017 and finally emerging from the season of sneezing and sniffles to starting out 2018 with a breath of fresh air and the beginnings of my new spring collection. I just couldn’t wait to show you what I have been working on.


My first task at hand is to get a number of new pieces ready that I can showcase in March for my solo show that I am calling "Dare You Not to Smile".  This show will be on exhibit for the entire month at the Boulder City Art Gallery.  As the title of the show suggestion, I am looking to create more pieces that are whimsical, colorful and humorous in nature.  I'm sure you will not want to miss it if you are anywhere in the area.   As soon as I have my reception date worked out I will be sure and share more on all my social media channels.  You can follow me @JulieTownsendStudio on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to keep informed as to where my art can be seen on exhibit.

  

The last piece of news I wanted to share was something that I'm pretty excited about.  I am hopeful that with just a small investment this will prove to be a solid move for getting my name out there in the Las Vegas art community for 2018.  Here is a 1/4 page write up on the Art House LV Gallery, myself and three other gallery artists that was published a few weeks ago in the winter edition of Artisan Magazine.  I thought it turned out rather well and so I thought I would share the link with you if you wanted to check out the whole 2 page spread.  I'm on page 18.  Winter edition "Artisan Magazine"