This Lord & Taylor ad may be old but it’s not outdated. I love the whimsical, hand-drawn, black and white artwork that I see so little of today. I’m keeping this ad to remind me that in this digital world of computer graphics and photos, smart hand-drawn artwork will always stand out from the crowd.

See how the headline becomes part of the fun and helps to turn this ad into a real eye-catcher? I can almost hear those yappy dogs now!

If this is the first you’ve heard of my 28-Day Creative Challenge, you may want to learn what it’s all about by reading: My Challenge: 28 Days To Clean Up My Creative Morgue. It’s a short post, only one paragraph – I promise.

Thank you to all my readers, especially those who left comments on my earlier posts, for  giving me the encouragement I needed to take up illustration again. This Mother and Child drawing is the first thing that I’ve done in years! Just between me and you, what you see here wasn’t my first attempt — I had to start over a few times because I’m pretty rusty. It’s still not as good as I had hoped, but perhaps with practice I’ll get better and quicker too.

I plan on starting a series of similar pieces that can be used as clip art for events and holidays throughout the calendar year. This piece is my gift to you for being so supportive. Feel free to download it – just click on it.

Thank you to the bloggers who participated in the first “Blog Sharing Day” at the Komjati Design Facebook page. I had the opportunity to read and comment on three very interesting blog posts that were submitted. I’m going to give them a shout out and if you have time you can read them too. They are: It’s Hip To Be Square by AdTex Advertising, Sausage & Potato Packets by Helen’s Helpful Hints, The Wise Sage and A World of (Upholstered) Imagination by Furnitureland South.

Thank you Toastmasters Medina Club 941 for patiently listening to my speeches, for your compliments and especially for your kind suggestions for improvement. The speech that I gave last night has put me at Advanced Communicator Bronze level! Anyone interested in seeing Toastmasters at work should attend the Toastmasters Area 33 contest being held on Saturday, March 12, at the Medina County Library. Doors open at 9:30 a.m., it’s free and the public is welcome to drop in. I’m rooting for my Medina club’s president, Bob Moyer to win. Go Bob!

If you have questions about advertising, branding or graphic design, call me at 330.769.0344.

This artwork was drawn when I was working as an art director at a small advertising agency. They needed a quick illustration for their client “The Original Cookie Company”, remember them? I think that they are owned by Mrs. Fields now, but don’t quote me on that. This illustration, created for their countertop sign at the mall is the very last thing I’ve drawn with a Radidograph pen in nearly 20 years.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Rapidograph pen here’s a photo of my old ones recently rescued from the attic. Last week I bought crisp vellum paper and shiny new Rapidograph pens at Hobby Lobby to replace these. By the way, Hobby Lobby, if you need a new logo give me a call.

When I got my new pens home I was so excited to fill them with ink and, of course, made a sticky, black mess of it – all part of the creative process. I’ve also ruined the first piece of expensive vellum paper I started on. I guess now that I’ve made my first mistake I no longer have to fear making it and am free to move forward. At least that’s what I’m telling myself. I hope to have something to show you by the end of the week. Oops, did that sound like a commitment?

Recently while going through some of my old files I came across the artwork that you see pictured here. It’s hard for me to believe that I’m the artist who created it. It’s been well over 20 years since I traded illustration for graphic design and my Rapidograph pen for a Mac computer. These illustrations are from my first real “art  job” after graduating from of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in 1978. I searched for many months for work as an artist and was working as a teller at the local bank when I got my first big break. I was hired as a fashion illustrator for Uncle Bill’s, a now defunct discount department store based in Cleveland, Ohio. I remember that they paid me a nickel over the minimum wage.

Not long after finding these illustrations I began searching for my old Rapidograph pens and discovered them hidden away in the attic. They were yellowed, ink smeared and dull, but finding them stirred in me a passion that I thought was gone. A long buried need to feel them in my hand again, to touch them against virgin paper and watch it spring to life with each sure, steady stroke of my pen.

The question in my mind is, after all these years, can I still do it? I would like to know what you think, should I give it a try?

A coworker once walked into my cubicle at Sterling Jewelers and informed me that she could do my job if she had the software. My reply was that I had been a designer long before they had even thought of the software (see my 1983 hand-drawn newspaper ad layouts above).

Today this “anyone can do it” attitude runs rampant among advertisers. I can’t stress it enough, design is more than pretty pictures and cool software. It’s a complex tool used to change consumer perception and behaviors and I’ve yet to find that keystroke command on my keyboard…