Cynthia Oswald

Surface Design, Fine Art + Branding for Creatives

Watercolor

Blend more of what you love into your work!

About 5 years ago I came across the book What You’re Really Meant To Do: A Roadmap For Reaching Your Unique Potential by Robert Steven Kaplan. In one exercise he mentions the idea of identifying what makes your heart sing by looking back to an early memory of doing something that made you really happy. It could be anything from talking to a stranger to exploring nature. I gave myself time to think through a number of memories that make me happy. I still remember the first time I decided I to pursue a career in the arts. I was in third grade and I drew an impala for a project illustrating Kenyan wildlife.

The common themes in my memories were creativity, nature, and people—specifically seeing the good in others. What I learned is that I could incorporate more of what I love into my work in two ways. First and foremost, making opportunities to work with customers whose mission and values resonate with my own. This would make it easy to see the good in what they are doing and support them 100%. Secondly, I could use my free time to explore projects that are meaningful to me. This doesn’t necessarily transfer to a monetary value but it does help display who I am in work and life—which ultimately helps my brand story.

Last year I made a commitment to carve out time to work on projects that interest me just for the sake of exploring. I started with creating a pattern collection—something I’ve desired to do for years now. Below is a short video that illustrates the pattern-making process I went through and some of the story behind in case you’re interested. I’d love to hear about what you are doing to blend what you love into your work. Feel free to share!

Passion Projects from Cynthia Oswald on Vimeo.

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

Giving everything a second look

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Recently I’ve started to see that when I take the time to really enjoy the moment and soak up my surroundings I’m able to see opportunity everywhere. More often than not we are chasing after our next accomplishment and we are missing the most important part—the process. As an artist and a visual communicator it is easy for me to want to put the cart before the horse. I’m often driven by the final result. It dawned on me over a year ago when I was on my biweekly jog, I was so concerned with getting it over with I wasn’t seeing my surroundings. Albert Einstein was spot on with his statement “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” I think sometimes it takes difficulty to get to the point where you understand opportunity lies everywhere, even in the mundane. All of those crazy things on your schedule that you want nothing to do with, start appreciating them, start seeing them for what they are—opportunity—I’m certain in doing so you will be amazed at the results.