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Cynthia Oswald

Surface Design, Fine Art + Branding for Creatives

Branding

Designing Your Career for Happiness

It was the summer of 2013 … I was approaching 30 years old and I started getting restless. My career was taking off. I was the Director of Web Design and e-Business Development at a high-end printing company. We worked with museums, galleries, and many well-known artists to develop their websites and printed promotional materials. We were in the process of rebranding our Studio’s website when things started taking a turn for me. I began taking notice to what made me most happy. I especially enjoyed doodling during customer service calls. Or when my co-worker, Brendan, would give life to a dying bug by sketching a speech bubble which read, “Where have you been all of my life? It’s almost over …” or “I’m dying to see you!” He would leave them on our officemate’s desk as a warm welcome. The hilarity was perfection. This makes it sounds like I was a slacker, but that wasn’t the case at all. I just knew I could be enjoying my work life a little more. So I started to discuss this idea with Brendan, “You know those people—the people who are always happy? I want to be more like that.” I knew that what had originally attracted me to a creative career was somehow lost over time. I wish I could tell you that I opened an Oreo and voila, my career changed in an instant but that’s not how it worked. Instead I’m going to give you some practical advice and references you can use to design your creative career for happiness.
dead bug illustration Oswald

Step 1. Make a decision to change.

Don’t just accept things as they are. Instead be bold enough to make changes. I have a friend who is an exceptional artist, illustrator, and designer—her talent and abilities far outweigh my own. She’s always commenting on how lucky I am to get the jobs I get. Luck has zero to do with it. Accepting things as they are keeps you small. It’s so easy to get comfortable and let fear get the best of you. If your initial reason to be in the creative field has become lost, it is time to make a change. For each person this will look different. I suggest digging through your local bookstore for some inspiration. What finally kicked me in the rear was Jen Sincero’s book You Are a Badass®: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life. The yellow book cover and the word “Badass” immediately made me happy so I went with it. Jen’s whimsical sense of humor and storytelling sucked me right in and I began taking action.

“When you up-level your idea of what’s possible, and decide to really go for it, you open yourself up to the means to accomplish it as well.”

— Jen Sincero1

Jen made it clear that I needed to make a bunch of uncomfortable life choices and stick with them. So I did.

Step 2. Identify what makes your heart sing.

In a world where we can be “all the things” it’s hard to narrow your focus and your expertise. I knew that I wanted to spend more time illustrating but that’s all I could really muster up. How in the world was I going to transition from a Director of Web Design to creating brilliant illustrations? What do I even want to illustrate? These were—and sometimes still are—the questions roaming in my brain. One way to identify what makes your heart sing is to think back on a time when you created something that made you happy. You love this “passion project” for its final form, and you enjoyed the entire process of creating it. Remember it by writing it down.2 It could be as simple as a napkin doodle or more complex like the invention of a portable computer accessory. You may not be able to recall these moments right away. In fact, I recommend asking yourself this question and then sleeping on it—maybe even for a few weeks. As you recall events jot them down so you don’t forget. Spending time focusing on and remembering what makes you happy will not only help you figure out what you should be doing but it will attract more of what you love in your creative career. For me it ended up being a blend of food and illustration. I landed a part time job where I created watercolor illustrations of food which allowed me to grow my business on the side.
botanical watercolor illustration veggies vegetables

Step 3. Write out your creative goals.

When you have a project to complete it’s easy to create a task list. You envision the final product and then work backwards—creating a schedule based on everything that is needed to get you to the final. When you’re redesigning your creative career to cultivate more happiness in your life don’t worry about having an elaborate Gantt chart. Take time to figure out what it looks like. Create a schedule or a list of goals if you need it, but I like to think this process is a bit more magical than a to-do list. Why not use your intuition to start the process? Ask yourself what you truly want out of your creative career and see what comes up over the next few months.

While I was at a conference in San Fransisco I visited Muir Woods National Park. It is such an incredibly beautiful place. After being awed by the enormous trees and how the light moved through the forest, I visited the gift shop to see what the local artists had to offer. I came across this beautiful little container. The top piece had been carved from the wood of the forest and inside was a little piece of paper that read, “The Legend of the Dreambox (often attributed to Lemuria) suggests writing down your fondest dream, greatest desire, strongest wish on a small piece of paper and putting that paper in a Dreambox and placing it beside your bed. Every evening as you retire and every morning as you rise hold your Dreambox and think of your dream believing with all your heart that it is so. Legend has it if done faithfully … your dream will come true.” Since then I’ve filled out two sheets of paper front and back full of my greatest desires. The first page has 15 different work and life desires that I wrote in 2013. All but 2 of them have been achieved. Ranging from paying off my debt and running my own creative business from home, to meeting/marrying the man of my dreams. I’m not sure it’s the “Dreambox” per-say or the mere fact that I simply wrote them down and had faith they would happen.

Step 4. Work on your passion projects.

What would happen if you spent time designing or illustrating for your own happiness—creating passion projects? Creatives are highly passionate individuals. Otherwise why would we subject ourselves to a career whose financial stability coined the phrase “starving artist”? We live and breathe to create. It wakes us up in the middle of the night. As designers we start our career inspired by our inner creativity. When we fill every last ounce of our working hours on client work we sometimes lose our initial inspiration. It’s worth carving out the time to create for yourself whether you are planning to make money or to simply gratify yourself. Jessica Hische launched her lettering career by working on her “Daily Drop Caps”—a true labor of love. She’s created a successful career by making the time to explore her own interests.

“The work you do while you’re procrastinating is probably the work you should be doing the rest of your life.”

—Jessica Hische3

My own personal projects receive twice the amount of attention as my client-related posts. I don’t know if the audience can sense my excitement or if they genuinely like what they see. Either way it’s clear to me that when I show passion for what I’m working on my customers are excited too. Nine times out of ten I generate more business from those posts. Slowly but surely I’m seeing my project list grow into work that I’m excited about. After 2 years at my part time job I was able to launch my creative business working from home doing what I love. It wasn’t until I took inspired action toward understanding my creative preferences that my career started to shift. While I can’t accredit one specific passion project I have a big list of tiny projects that made a notable difference.

Step 5. Move forward with perspiration and positivity.

Almost every time I create a time consuming piece of art I get to the midway point and think what’s the point? I enjoy the creation process it’s just that I can’t quite see how the piece is going to turn out and I’m not sure if it’s what I initially envisioned. Self doubt and fear start to cloud my judgement. I have to intentionally cheer myself forward. Something tells me I’m not alone here. The good news is that studies show creative people tend to have the ability to delay gratification.4 Thomas Edison conducted 2,004 experiments, using different materials before he invented a working lightbulb. Which explains his quote, “Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.”

So then how do we move forward and perspire? Through positivity. It’s so easy to give up and get distracted. It’s crucial to stay connected to your initial inspiration. When you begin a project envision how it will make you feel to complete it. Write it down so you can recite it when you lose sight of your original goal. Maintaining a positive attitude takes intentional practice. When you hear the tired, old sayings of negativity playing out in your mind use them as a trigger to remember the positive. Overtime it will become much easier. Not only will the attitude shift help you complete more work but you will expand your reach. In Stephen Covey’s book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People the first habit is being proactive. He shares specifically how proactive people have a positive energy and how that benefits their reach—in other words their audience. “Proactive people focus their efforts in the Circle of Influence. They work on things they can do something about. The nature of their energy is positive, enlarging and magnifying, causing their Circle of Influence to increase.”5 When in doubt focus on what you can do right now in this moment and keep moving forward.

Let’s recap.

The first step is identifying that a change is needed. Don’t get overwhelmed by the tiny details of getting from point A to point B. Designers are planners so we tend to turn everything into a project to-do list. Start out by just recognizing that a change is needed and sit with it for a bit. Take notice of the little things that make you happy in your everyday life. Your brain will start thinking creatively for you in the background. Write your perfect day-in-the-life, or list major accomplishments or desires and keep them somewhere close by to review them when you start feeling lost. Start chipping away at your career dreams by working on passion projects that make your heart sing! This will lighten your mood and help your business thrive. Customers love seeing what you are doing outside of work and might even hire you to create something similar for them. Stay aware of the negative self talk and turn those stories into positive ones. When you are lost just do what you can with what you have in any given moment.

When Brendan started cutting out speech bubbles and placing them next to the dying bugs he was certainly living in the moment. The belly laughter that followed will never be forgotten. I’m still confused as to why there were dying bugs in our office anyway? The building was clean. The office was clean. I like to think they were dropping dead in our office to illustrate the impending doom if we chose to stay there. What hints are showing up in your life that it is time to make a change? They could be as subtle as a dying bug or as big as not having your mortgage payment. Make the decision to change and trust in the process.

SOURCES:
1 Sincero, Jen. You Are A Badass, How To Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living An Awesome Life. S.l., Running Press, 2017.

2 Robert S. Kaplan (Author). What You’re Really Meant to Do: A Road Map for Reaching Your Unique Potential. 21 Sept. 2017. Referencing pages 69-70

3 Hische, Jessica. “Procrastiworking Poster.” Jessica Hische, buystufffrom.jessicahische.com/product/procrastiworking-poster. Accessed 18 Sept. 2017.

4 Dacey, John S., et al. Understanding Creativity: The Interplay of Biological, Psychological, and Social Factors. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass, 1998.

5 Covey, Stephen R. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Provo, UT, Franklin Covey, 1998.

Branding that comes together with ease


Over the past three weeks I’ve been sharing the journey of how my wedding invitations came to be. Today I’m sharing the finished pieces, as well as the entire wedding suite and photos of the big day! I was so excited when our wedding invitations arrived! I made Steven open them so I could video the reveal. Perhaps it was a little over the top, but these little things really excite me! As the video reveals I’m not sure Steven was as excited.

Once the invitations were designed we had all the necessary elements to begin creating the entire event package. The illustrations were already complete and I had purchased a couple of fonts that I knew would work well with my hand lettering. My intern, Hannah, was able to work through designing the program, table numbers, and place cards. She repurposed everything I created in new ways to bring together the entire package.

When you have the fundamental elements needed to make up your visual branding package it’s rewarding to watch your brand package come together with ease.

Pictured below are a few of the items we created using my original illustrations, hand lettering, and fonts. There’s no question that these all belong together. Likewise, you want your customers to easily recognize your brand—whether digital or in print. Designing our wedding invitations was a fun way to represent our unity and who we are as a couple. Designing your branding package should faithfully represent your business—defining the business personality and emulating your unique mission. Sometimes it’s abstract and subliminal but it’s still there—pictures are worth a thousand words (or more). Let’s make sure your images are sending the right message! Contact me here to get started.

Cynthia Oswald design

Wedding photographs by Becky Albright Photography

Branding with purpose:
creating and collecting brand materials with your wish list in mind

Steven and I got engaged May 31 and chose September 9th as our wedding date. Yes, that was a little ambitious. In just over three months I would need to sell my house, move, and plan the wedding! I knew that every moment would count so I was intentional about creating elements for the wedding invitation that could be reused across all of the wedding day materials. I had no choice but to let the illustration ideas simmer as I prepped and sold my home. I’m sure glad I did. At first I was thinking about including bunnies and squirrels on the invitation. Yes, I’m a Beatrix Potter fan. However, this isn’t a children’s book—it was our wedding invitation. As the idea for the big day evolved so did the look of the invitation. I decided to take inspiration from the willow tree in our yard and combine it with my innate desire to create decorative, ornamental elements (hence my logo). I got out a fresh sheet of watercolor paper (pictured above) and used every square inch to create illustrative elements (pictured below). These would serve as the “branding” elements for the entire event.

With my wish list in mind I created illustrations that could be repurposed across an entire collection of event items. This is the same way I create for your brand materials. The idea is to establish a collection of secondary brand elements that match your brand style—creating a library of sorts. This library includes items like your logo variations, multiple fonts, images, and illustrations that portray your mission and values. Today I want to share with you some useful tips on how to collect these items with your wish list in mind.

1. What particular styles do you love?

You’ve had a week to think through descriptive words that resonate and start taking notice to your visual preferences (if not, start here). Now it’s time to name them. My favorite designer and business role model is Louise Fili. Her work makes my heart beat a little faster so I decided that she needed to represented. I purchased her “Love” stamp for all of my envelopes and bought a font that she just debuted, called Montecatini. The font was also named after a town in Italy—Montecatini Terme—which I happened to visit 13 years ago. What does this have to do with you? You’ve collected your inspirations and preferences, now it’s time to imbue more of what you love into your brand. Keep collecting those items and make sure to share them with your designer.

2. In what formats will your materials be created in?

Thinking through the entire event package prior to creating the illustration was crucial for saving time. This included my invitation, thank you cards, table numbers, place cards, signage, program, website, cups and more. Before you start finalizing one little part, picture how your brand will be represented as a whole. Is your logo only going to be visible on your stationery? Or will you be creating packaging that features your logo as the main branding element? Do you have a car or truck that needs to have your logo and brand elements prominently displayed? All of these details matter. Think big and then start small. It should be fun to think of the different ways your brand will be represented.

3. Price out the cost to produce prior to designing.

Did you know that postage costs more for square envelopes than rectangular envelopes? These tiny details add up when you are working on branding elements. Small choices make big impacts both in dollar amounts and on our environment so I suggest pricing out different ways to produce your marketing pieces. For me it was important that my invitations be printed on 100% recycled paper. I also wanted to reduce waste by allowing the RSVP to tear off and serve as a mailer. These choices cost a little more up front but resonate with my brand so I could plan accordingly.

Essentially when you are thinking through all of these little elements your brand is coming to life before you even began. This means that you are troubleshooting issues and saving money in the long run—which to me, is branding with purpose. That’s what I’m here to help you do! If you’d like to review your next branding project start by emailing me here. Next week I’m going to share the entire wedding package so you can see it come together. For now, I’m going to go make the BEST COOKIES EVER (recipe here). Happy Thanksgiving!

Branding with purpose: find your hidden gems


In 2017 I’ve worked on 5 large-scale branding projects for events. Of course the most strenuous of the 5 was my own wedding invitation package. Each of the events were completely unique in both formality and intention. Some were fundraisers and others were to bring loved ones together. All of them had purpose, meaning, and were imbued with a specific set of values. At the core there were always a few hidden gems of inspiration that we could pull from to create the perfect illustrative elements for the special occasion. Since this process doesn’t happen in an hour, a day, or even a week I’m going to share with you my process over a series of posts. Today we’re going to think about the hidden gems in your business. Specifically what inspires you—this is where the magic happens.

1. Start by gathering descriptive words

When it came to my own wedding day I wanted to utilize what I had available to me. I envisioned the day organically coming together based on my resources. The main inspiration was my backyard. Words like rustic, earthy, repurposed, creative, vintage, conscious, friendly, warm, fun, relaxed, welcomed, loved, and collaborative all resonated with me. Since the invitation was the first impression of the event I wanted to make sure it reflected those thoughts and feelings.

2. Next gather your visual preferences

Once I was able to identify the descriptive words I was able to start working on the visuals in my mind. Since the inspiration for my wedding came from my environment I was able to collect reference images—like the willow tree below—very easily. My guess is you are surrounding yourself with objects and places that visually inspire you. Over the next week begin observing what inspires you and your business. Start taking notice to objects, people, places, or anything in your world that resonates and record it by snapping a photo or taking some notes.

3. Let it simmer

Sounds easy, right? At this stage let the core inspiration simmer while you start thinking through all of the materials on your marketing wish list. These could be printed pieces such as brochures, catalogs, business cards, etc. or digital pieces like email campaigns, website content, or your social media presence. How could your materials reflect these descriptive words and images that resonate with your business?

It’s easy to rush through this process, but let’s not put the cart before the horse. When you spend adequate time thinking through the details you begin branding with purpose. When you are branding with purpose you’re investing wisely in materials that will continue to work for you long after completion. If you’re feeling stuck or you’d like to review your inspiration set up a call by emailing me here.

How do your values translate in print?


Recently a customer of mine expressed concern regarding the compliments they received on their brochures. “We don’t want our customers to think we spent a lot of money on our marketing materials.” I understand their concern to some extent. You do not need good marketing materials to do great business. In fact, your materials should compliment what you do and be derived from your work. I totally understand not wanting to manipulate your customers through lofty advertising, insincere copy and overpriced print.

However, there are a lot of benefits to investing in good marketing materials to compliment your work and help to inform your audience. This particular customer invested in creating materials that were the real deal. Every piece of content was crafted to draw their ideal customer to their business through sincerity. If you’re trying to attract a specific audience to your business it’s justifiable to invest in marketing materials that will position you in that light.

So what exactly can your printed marketing materials say to your ideal audience? Assuming you have excellent content and a beautifully designed piece that reflects your brand let’s begin thinking through your printing options:

GREEN
My personal favorite option is one that considers the environment while maintaining quality. When you print on 100% recycled paper with vegetable-based inks you will pay a little more. Consider it your contribution to the future. If you’re working with customers who care about the environment this will make a positive impression. They want to know that this is important to you. Visit with my favorite green printing option at greenerprinter.com.

HIGH-QUALITY
When your brand mission and values emulate quality you might invest in a beautiful paper with a 600+ line screen. Just like the materials that make up your product your marketing materials should reflect your brand image. If quality is important then it should come across in print. Often this means working with a local printer or visiting the printer of choice to see it run on press. Visit with my favorite high-quality printing option at brilliant-graphics.com.

AFFORDABLE
If you don’t have a large budget and you still would like quality materials there are many options available for you online. Don’t assume that the cheapest option is the best. Make sure you read the reviews. Paper quality and finish does come across when you’re handing out business cards, brochures, etc. Consider this before going with the cheapest option. Investing an extra $20 upfront could make an impact on who you’re attracting to your business. Visit with my favorite affordable printing option at psprint.com.

These are just a few of the options to consider when it comes to your printed marketing materials. If you have questions, you’d like to learn more, or you are considering working with me on an upcoming project contact me directly here.

7 Steps to Move Through Project Overwhelm

Project Overwhelm

One very good lesson I’ve learned from creating artwork is to enjoy the process. It’s easy for me to envision how I want the final piece to come across, what feelings or thoughts I want to evoke from the viewer, and how the steps I’m going to take will lead me closer to the overall goal. This helps me get past that midway mark—where I feel like the piece is not coming together the way I hoped or perhaps it’s taking too much time. I’ve sat and thought about what went wrong, whether or not the piece was going to be effective, or questioned why I even created it—what purpose does it serve?

I noticed that the time I spent negatively criticizing my idea was not beneficial to the final result. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take a step back and analyze what is working and what isn’t. It just means getting stuck in project overwhelm is useless. If you’re stuck mulling over your idea but not actually moving forward towards completion I suggest that you take the following steps:

1. Picture your project or idea complete. Who is holding it or viewing it? What are they thinking? How do they feel? What is your main objective? Write this down as it is pertinent to the success of your goal.

2. Gather inspiration. Using your descriptive words from the list above start to gather some content. Do your research at this stage. Are there other companies or projects that resonate with you? If so, reference them. Once you’ve done your research create an inspiration board that will help you to visualize what feeling you are trying to emulate. I like to cut magazines apart, or gather content and lay it out in InDesign—you could also use Pinterest.

3. Chunk it down. What materials do you need in order to formulate the end goal? Start with the overall feel and then move through it piece by piece, page by page or chapter by chapter. What components of the project will remain the same throughout and what will change? It could be colors, fonts and layout that stay the same—while the illustrations and written content changes depending on the section.

4. Create a schedule. For example, if it’s a book or a website, when will you need the written content by? When do you need the illustrative/photography elements? When does the final project need to be completed? How can you break it apart into sections that make it less overwhelming? Set up a calendar with reminders and maintain the deadlines you’ve set for yourself.

5. Be realistic. I always underestimate how much time it takes me to do something. Give yourself more than enough time. There is no reason to disappoint yourself by not meeting your goals. If you have a drop-dead due date that is adding pressure alter something else in your schedule that doesn’t have a due date.

6. Be flexible. Details might need to change in order to create the final vision you imagined. There may be one component that you really wanted to use but now that you see it altogether you need to be willing to let it go. It may be too much or perhaps it was just an inspiration but not part of the final piece.

7. Solicit help. I cannot stress enough how important it is to collaborate with others. If you’re a writer have an editor proofread your work—be willing to accept positive as well as negative feedback. If you’re a designer or marketer solicit someone in your network to give you feedback. Working together always produces richer and more meaningful work.

In the end moving forward is always the answer. It’s easy to get caught up in all of the little details that make up the whole. Coming up with an outline or a plan will help you to focus on the bigger picture. Whether you are starting a business, creating a website, writing a book or cleaning your house—I believe this is true no matter what goal you are trying to move towards.