Since illustration is one of my passions, I decided to launch my own Etsy shop. I designed the logo (after my cat, Colette), created all the art pieces, and took the product photos.

You can visit the shop at etsy.com/shop/ColettePaperCo.

I took a Make Art That Sells course with Lilla Rogers and Zoe Tucker for five weeks on illustrating children’s books. In the class we used a sample text; the one I chose was about a balloon named Bob who goes on an adventure.

In the course we explored character, emotion, poses, environment, and covers. In this intensive class, I learned a lot very quickly. Here are some examples of a cover, a sample page, and character exploration.

For Free Period Press, I created an illustration that is featured in the Collage Kit Magazine. The magazine features photographs, illustrations, and textures to be used in collages.

The Collage Kit (as well as my illustration) was featured in Better Homes & Gardens Do It Yourself Magazine for Summer 2021.

Product photos by Hilary Bovay Photography.

El Paso Behavioral Health System was in need of a brand refresh, focused on their current demographic. For this initiative, I utilized the oranges and reds in their logo along with lifestyle images of primarily young Latinx people.

Creating a variety of flyers, brochures, and a folder, both in English and Spanish, we were able to create fresh pieces that spoke to the community that El Paso represents.

For Desmond’s first birthday, his family thought of an interesting way to use his nickname (Dez) into a Day of the Dead themed birthday party. I was asked to create invites for the event.

From this idea, I illustrated fun motifs to go with my quirky hand lettering. I kept the colors bright in order to keep the event kid-friendly. Coupling the invite with a fun sugar skull seal helped set the tone for the party (and made great party favors!)

The Every Minute Matters sweepstakes was an AccuWeather Facebook sweepstakes that offered a chance to win instant daily prizes and a grand prize vacation for six to Disneyland© Resort or Walt Disney World© Resort. 

For this sweepstakes, I created custom lettering and design for the sweepstakes page, ads, and PR and social images. The concept was to use imagery and lettering to illustrate magical memories that are made with Disney.

Kitty Cottage Adoption Center was in need of a logo and flyer for their Paws for Reading program.

Paws for Reading is a summer program for children to interact with the shelter cats by reading to them. This builds confidence and reading skills for the children, while also providing socialization for the cats.

For this project, I started with some quick sketches and worked primarily on Procreate to illustrate the logo, making final touches in Photoshop and Illustrator. For the flyer, I used InDesign for layout.

I thoroughly enjoyed working on this and am delighted to take part in a beneficial program such as this one. Look at the very end for some early sketches I did for the logo design.

At Universal Health Services, there are many behavioral health facilities that need flyers, posters, and rack cards with a quick turnaround. For those facilities, a storefront was created for easy ordering on select templates.

For the storefront, I have designed for 8 topics, ranging from child and adolescent depression, eating disorders, to PTSD. Each topic features three designs in flyer, poster, and rack card format. In this example, here are some healthy relationships flyers and rack cards designed for the storefront.

Another aspect of this project includes preparing the files for the storefront, so that the client can customize select fields (such as address, website, phone number, and logo) in order to make the piece really theirs.

Kitty Cottage Adoption Center is a nonprofit, no-kill, and cage-free shelter for homeless cats. As a volunteer, I have provided graphic design and illustration services for upcoming events and ongoing needs.

For the shelter’s Kitten Shower event, the community was invited to visit the shelter with the aim of raising money for the kittens that were to enter shelters in the spring.

In order to help the shelter raise money, I illustrated custom tee shirt and hoodie designs for the shelter to sell on the day of the event. The event was a success and I was delighted to see many of the volunteers wearing my designs!

Fun Fact: Since volunteering, I adopted a cat from Kitty Cottage! Her name is Colette and I spoil her daily.

Inktober was created by Jake Parker in 2009 as a challenge to improve his inking skills. Since then, many artists around the globe have participated in the challenge (which consists of 31 drawing prompts for the month of October).

For my first Inktober, I decided to take the daily prompts (which consisted of a single word) and use them with my favorite scenes and characters from the Harry Potter universe!

These are a sampling of my favorite illustrations from this challenge. The rest are uploaded on my Instagram.

Kerry McIntyre Photography had a need for envelope seals to be used in sending packages to clients. The objective was to create a design that would reinforce the brand identity.

Since weddings are the primary source of clientele, I lettered a few phrases that were specific to weddings while illustrating a camera icon for non-wedding projects. The overall look is custom and handmade, with bright colors that will contrast against the kraft paper packaging.

J. Terry McGrath Veterinary Clinic was in need of an updated sign. The previous sign had been used for decades and was very worn and outdated.

Without sacrificing the original idea, I illustrated by hand all of the animals that are treated at the clinic (while rendering it digitally) . In order to print on an HDU (wood composite) sign, I used a limited color palette. This naturally preserved a vintage feel, while I kept the design modern with a slab serif typeface.

This was a fun project and a simple change that will help the clinic’s visibility in the neighborhood. Luckily, the HDU material of the sign is waterproof and will last for years.

The Warm Winter Wishes sweepstakes was an AccuWeather Facebook sweepstakes that offered a chance to win daily gift card prizes up to $1,000 from November 25 through December 24.

Users were also encouraged to share their favorite outdoor holiday photo, using the hashtag #winterwishes.

In conjunction with the sweepstakes, AccuWeather sent a street team to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Balloon Inflation. For the event, I designed a handout card as well as a frame that people could use to take pictures.

The UCAST UWIN sweepstakes was an AccuWeather Facebook sweepstakes that promoted the launch of AccUcast™, an interactive crowdsourcing feature available in the AccuWeather universal iOS app where users can share their local weather updates.

For this sweepstakes, I created the design for the sweepstakes page, ads, and PR and social images. The concept was to use a map with pinpoints, which is the same interface as the AccUcast™ feature.

YourCaster is an app published under AccuWeather Labs. It allows the user to publish forecasts using the video feature on their phone.

In order to merge the idea of weather and video, I designed a logo that included a cloud with the aperture of a camera. 

At the bottom is another logo I designed for YourCaster that did not get used. It has more of a youthful approach.

The StoryTeller® Interactive Touchscreen System is created by AccuWeather and is a solution for newsroom presentations. It includes the touchscreen hardware and software applications.

In the rebrand process, I created a brochure that introduces the system and applications. This included the use of bright color and active imagery to showcase the different types of applications and content possibilities.

I also created new logos and icons for each individual application. These can be found on the updated StoryTeller website, as well as in the user manuals.

For AccuWeather, I have designed several documents that explain and highlight benefits plans and features. This includes a benefits guide for new hires and an open enrollment postcard.