Etsy Update

February 04, 2025 in 2-D Design, 3-D Design, Advertisements, career, Custom, Graphic Design, Illustration, personal, eCommerce

Ah!

My Etsy shop has been open since 2013. I prided myself on being a 5-star seller, but was recently punished by a recent patron giving me 4 stars because the keychain she bought broke! She was using it as a zipper pull, and while I can argue, “that’s not how that works,” I gave her a coupon and told her I was sorry. It doesn’t fix my rating, which is now a 4-point-something.

For years I went by “Mes Petites Dessins,” which, when spelled correctly in French (it should be “Petits”) means “my little designs”. But as time goes on, I’m trying to really make my personal brand cohesive. While it’s not important my Etsy shop match my design persona, I wanted it to.

I bought myself a new portable lightbox for product photography and I went ham this weekend rephotographing a good amount of my finished goods.

This quick post is just to reintroduce my Etsy site in hopes of garnering more traffic (and sales!). Happy browsing (maybe shopping?)!

The new banner I have up on my Etsy. I chose to keep it extremely neutral to allow my product photos to take the spotlight.

Logo & Design Quickie Mashup: Food Trucks at Centennial Park

May 06, 2022 in 2-D Design, Adobe Illustrator, Advertisements, Custom, Design Quickies, Freelance Work, Graphic Design, Logo Design, Social Media

For those unfamiliar, Centennial Park is an area in Wildwood Crest where different events are held like outdoor concerts and festivals. When there’s nothing going on, it’s nice to go sit under the canopy and enjoy the sights.

Iconically, though not as iconic as the beach balls at the Wildwoods sign, Centennial Park has large letters around the back end of the canopy that spell out C R E S T, in case you forgot which part of the five-mile long island you’re on. I wanted to capture this in the logo, but without “Crest” actually being in the name, I had some brainstorming to do.

Good Seasons: The Fresh & Convenient Alternative to Traditional Salad Dressing

January 17, 2022 in 2-D Design, Advertisements, Custom, Graduate School, Graphic Design, Logo Design, Package Design, Paper Engineering, Print Design, Social Media

By changing the core messaging and positioning of Good Seasons from being a delicious dressing mix for your family to excite their dinner salads, we turned it to it being a delicious all-purpose seasoning mix here for your convenience. We played on the low cost and ease of use of the product to pitch our ideas. Although we understood nostalgia played a big part in the percentage of the target audience who was already hooked, we needed to leverage that to give the brand edge—not your mom’s good seasons! We harped on the fact Good Seasons’ packaging and logo was in dire need of an upgrade and its overall presence needed to broadcast much further than just on the store shelves.

Short Blurb: Adobe MAX Day 1

October 20, 2020 in Illustration, Logo Design, Social Media, 2-D Design, 3-D Design, Advertisements, Custom, Graphic Design

I have never been to a design conference.

I’ve always wanted to go to one, but when you see how much they cost… <___<

Anyway, one COVID blessing, I guess, is Adobe MAX being FREE this year! Just need an Adobe ID, and the conference is your oyster!

I, so far, have watched the keynote. Conan O’Brian was hilarious (vice presidents of vice presidents), but the entire presentation was amazing and definitely got me yelling at my iMac the same way I did for one of the last PANTONE presentations I watched. (This is a positive.)

Some things to be aware of:

+ Illustrator for iPad

+ New Recolor Artwork panel

+ An improved way to create patterns

+ Photoshop updates including the Sky Replacement tool and Neuro Filters

I highly recommend watching the keynote, as it’s CHOCK full of information and excitement!

Also, Adobe understands the importance of coloring, so they put together a coloring book for all of us to enjoy.

So…enjoy!

EMCHI Nail Products Color Brochure

October 05, 2020 in 2-D Design, Advertisements, Custom, Freelance Work, Print Design

EMCHI Nail Products started as a small brand launched from a full-service nail salon in Williamstown, NJ. After a couple years of establishing themselves as both a salon (operating as The Arts Beauty Salon and Spa) and a designer/manufacturer of high quality dip powders, EMCHI found their color portfolio bursting at the seams with 180+ selections.

In order to promote their color offerings, EMCHI approached me to help with designing a new product brochure for them. I visited the salon (pre-COVID) and was handed two items: EMCHI’s current brochure and a custom cut roll fold from a nail lacquer company they use as a supplier. The directions were simple: take the directions from this brochure, put it in a new one with all 180 color swatches and do something like the custom diecut roll fold.

Right.

So over the course of two weeks, I had some back and forth with Nicole, a nail tech at the salon and also one of the managers at Emchi, who was sending me the color photographs piecemeal. Eventually I received all 180 colors, as it was really everyone waiting for the photographer and his editing of the photographs I would also need.

I found designing the diecut version to be really fun and interesting!

Dieline for the original diecut roll fold.

About a month later, the product was complete. At the request of Nicole, I reached out to a few printers to get estimates, however it was here we reached a bit of a wall that needed to be climbed over.

The cost was too much. What I had to explain was that for anything diecut, the first run will be expensive, because they have to make the die, but every run after that will be cheaper, so as long as you keep that shape.

They weren’t going for it, and understandably so—it was a big cost. So, to keep the dollar signs down for a bit, we moved to a rectangular format.

After all was approved…

I was asked to make it into a square format.

Okay, no problem!

This is the final, final, FINAL version. It’s also the version they include in all orders you make online.

However, it’s already outdated, as they are WELL over 200 colors now and are continuously releasing new products and adding on to the spectrum. They’re rapidly growing and maybe in the future we can revisit the diecut option!

Etsy Update

EMCHI Nail Products Color Brochure

Just say it.

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