My love, my inspiration: My Family

Introducing, "The Love in Your Story"

2009-09-16T15:15:00.004-04:00

Love Original Designs Update!

2009-09-16T15:00:00.005-04:00

I've updated the design and content of Love Original Designs Online.

I'm pretty thrilled about the prospects of the company and the direction I'm taking it. I've incorporated a new division, so named "The Love in Your Story" that follows the mission of Heritage Makers:

"helping you and your family discover, preserve and celebrate your family stories and heritage. We believe in strengthening homes and families with the heritage enriching power of storybooking. Storybooking is the unique Heritage Makers process of combining photographs with personalized writing into one or more professionally bound books. Heritage Makers is the first and fastest growing storybooking company in the world."

I'm currently working on some very interesting projects for myself and for others and building up my client list. I've yet to schedule my GRAND OPENING workshop, but I have scheduled a workshop October 3rd, hosted by a family friend, Ms. Joeann Haynes (Athens, GA). If you're interested in attending a workshop in person or online, or interested in learning how you can make your own creations online, feel free to contact me by email: tluke@love-original.com

Typography Finished - Still a 4.0 GPA!!

2009-09-16T14:43:00.005-04:00

Typography was fun. I was concerned there for a moment that I would get a A-, thus losing my 4.0, but just got by with the A I needed. Whew! The final project for Typography was to construct a 3-dimensional cube, with sides telling of a trait or characteristic that best describes it's designer (i.e. ME!). I was pretty fun. I used an acrylic baseball case for my cube and instead of adhering acetate pper to the surface with printed graphics, I hand drew everything. Tricky at times, but I was pleased with the outcome. Here it is:

Side 1: Kanji symbol for "woman"

Side 2: word "MOTHER"

Side 3: (opposite Side 1) the word "WOMAN"

Side 4: (opposite Side 2) quote, "My dreams came true when I became a _____" [The word "MOTHER" can be seen through the cube to complete the sentence.]

Side 5: the initial "T"

Side 6: my last name in script. "Luke"

We had to follow specific guidelines, as usual, but I felt it came out nicely. I'm thinking about constrcting more cubes and using paints to make unique gifts. Should be interesting!!

I ♥ InDesign!

2009-08-03T11:34:00.007-04:00

My Typography course at the Art Institute is wonderfully challenging! Not only am I picking up valuable knowledge about type, I'm also being led to use Adobe InDesign CS4, which I've never used before! Needless to say, I am LOVING it!

Here are a few of my Project Submissions. We were allowed to use "dummy text" (text fillers completely in Latin) for each composition. We were also limited to using 2 typefaces (one serif typeface and a sans serif typeface).

I put together this composition the other night (while suffering from my short bits of insomnia).

Andy loved it too! I can definitely see myself using this software a LOT more, especially as I consider pursuing jobs in Print Design in the future.

Me and the kids

2009-07-17T21:14:00.003-04:00

Split Decision?

2009-06-26T19:44:00.012-04:00

I recall having a conversation with Andy a couple of months ago about things I wan to work toward, career-wise. I have this profound love and passion for graphic design and all things artsy; a strong and unfulfilled history with psychology/counseling; and a new desire to work full-time in the public schools.

So what do I do? I aspire to do work as a designer of "print" art, be it as an art director for a magazine, a freelance digital artist, invitation designer and consultant, or something else extravagant that I've yet to explore.

Recently, I learned about a couple of means by which I could do consulting as an independent contractor. The first is a company called Heritage Makers. Heritage Makers is an online publishing system which allows you to work with clients to publish digital scrapbooks, recipe books, and story books with ease. Totally up my alley!!! I've never been the type to do things like this, which in my opinion is along the same lines as Mary Kay and Pampered Chef (love their stuff), but I can see myself doing this. And... It's Oprah approved, LOL!

The second opportunity would be to become an invitation dealer/designer contracted through Envelopments, Incorporated. With Envelopmets, Inc., I would be able to design the invitations using my design software and their design studio products (inventory of custom papers, cardstock, envelopes, pocket envelopes and more); and use their services/resources to be a successful vendor of these invitations. How nice is that?! I think it's pretty cool. There's a rigorous application process. I'd have to have my business fully operational by then, but I like the potential!

I feel that working in the graphic design field will open a lot of doors for me to be able to work successfully from the home, while also being able to devote a substantial amount of quality time with my future family. After all, being a mother (and hopefully someday, a wife) will always be my #1 on my list.

So why is this post entitled "Split Decision"? I want to do more than one thing, really. I love counseling and working with children and their families. I really feel that being a counselor/therapist was my true calling. Actively listening to the testimonies of others, whom are reaching out for my help, is a skill that comes naturally to me. I'm quite empathetic in nature, however, so this "gift" of providing quality care to others can very easily tear me apart. I can easily turn on that switch that allows me within the protective walls built up by my clients and I am immediately immersed in their lives plagued of pain and misunderstanding. I can't, however, turn off that switch so easily. This ability is my gift and it is also my curse. I feel compelled to do this line of work, and I plan to return to it once my children are grown and successfully independent members of society. Perhaps then, I will finally pursue my Ph.D. in the field. Graphic Design will always be my outlet, along with muay thai...and of course, spending time with the kids and my Andybear. :)

So where does "teaching" fit into all of this? To be honest, I enjoyed doing a lot of my counseling work in the alternative school in Virginia. I would often visit my clients in school to observe and interact with, alongside of their peers. I never had a complaint and in fact, my clients begged for me to visit as many times as I could. To them, and to their peers as well, I was the "cool" therapist, that didn't label them nor made them feel any less than gifted individuals. Sure, they had their behavioral problems and quick tempers, but I was able the de-escalate them fast, without causing a blow to their self-esteem or "reputations". The teachers felt more respected as well, as I offered to help out in a manner a paraprofessional would. I developed a level of comfort in the school setting that was very professionally satisfying. I began to feel that I could do a good service to schools as a behavioral interventionist (if that's even a word) and an instructor. I would LOVE to teach! Just gotta take that GACE (exam). . .YIKES! Oh, AND land a teaching job, lol. Then I'll do the GA TAPP (program) to become a certified teacher. I've already started to apply!! Wish me luck!

Graphic Design + Teaching . . .then later Therapy + Graphic Design (freelance)

We shall see!!

Fundamentals of Design - Final Project

2009-06-20T13:29:00.007-04:00

I just finished up my Final Project for Fundamentals of Design, and I gotta tell you, I'm more than pleased with the outcome. I received a lot of positive feedback from my professor and peers, but I keep pushing it and pushing it, hoping to make it even better than before.

I really can't tell you how many drafts I had of this project (far too many), lol. I'd print out each version to compare to the last, getting feedback from anyone that passed my room! I'd hear, "you changed it AGAIN???" . . .Can you blame me though? This project is to be of portfolio quality! It's rewarding to hear, "This version really is better than the last because ______" and I'd actually get valid, constructive criticism! I love feedback and it is always welcomed by me.

Now that I'm done with it, I'm really exploring a desire to intern or work as an art director for a magazine somewhere. . .you know, down the road, once I earn my degree.

Here's my cover design and layout:

Final Version

Draft

Here's my Artist Statement:

"As my final project for Fundamentals of Design, I carried the objective of creating the premiere cover of a magazine about interracial relationships. As stated originally in my project proposal, interracial relationships is subject matter that I am involved with in my personal life: being in an interracial relationship and raising two young mutli-racial children. Interracial relationships are seemingly on the rise and while others are thirsting for understanding, these mixed races couples are thirsting for greater acceptance in society today. The final design was successful in it's use of both positive and negative space with and without the added article headlines. The lines created by the joining hands and the arrows creates a natural flow from one end of the image to the opposite end, creating an equal balance of positive and negative space. The composition is semi formal in nature with the use of technical terminology as well as everyday vernacular, while also incorporating real-life images of interracial couples that exist today. The use of shadowing and some layering helps to create some illusion of depth to the cover art, however, the perception of volume was not achieved, nor, in this case, was it necessary.

I combined the focal image of joining hands with the symbolic image of a black arrow and a white arrow meeting together. This image was made more subtle by partially layering over it a duplicate layer with a pattern overlay (the collage of couples). My biggest challenge was to create design that would convey my message through images alone, before words are ever brought into the overall design.

The use of natural color in this piece best conveyed the message of an existing interracial couple, more so than any other color scheme. As reported through peer observation, the use of a monochromatic color scheme did not suggest the unity, balance, nor variety that the natural scheme did. Monochromatic schemes of the different races joining hands, simply suggested two hands of different skin tones or shades, which could occur within the same race, versus hands of different ethnic backgrounds. I also sampled a hue of blue from the focal image for use elsewhere on the cover (i.e. master head/title and banner advertisement). In addition, I matched the color of a feature headline "Hot Topic" with parts of another feature headline "Interracial Euphony Defined." I received a lot of valuable feedback from Professor Adams and my peers to help guide me through the challenges. I am happy to report that the images I brought together in this piece was able to successfully communicate the intended message with my audience."

"You're invited!"

2009-06-20T11:46:00.003-04:00

No, I'm not having any events just yet, apart from Renji's birthday (which I've yet to plan), but I wanted to share some more of my recent work with you all. Mainly INVITATIONS! I've had a couple of Etsy transactions for kids birthday party invitations that were pretty fun for me to make; one of which was a returning customer! I'd previously designed Fancy Nancy and Pinkalicious invites for a lady in Atlanta. Recently, she contacted me again to design invitations for her son's upcoming Legos birthday party! Quite fun indeed! Here's what we came up with:

Success!

Shortly after, I was contacted by a lady in Florida to design custom Strawberry Shortcake invitations. She favored the vintage illustrations of SS, so, like the others, I had to build the invitation from scratch. Here's the final design:

Success!

It's always thrilling to come up with something unique, custom, and have your customer really love it. It's just as rewarding as counseling!

Before I leave you with your feelings of "awww, how sweet", I wanted to show you the invites I made for my cousin, who will have a House-warming party later this month. These were the easiest to make. I just had to fiddle around with the font choices more than the images. According to her, the design was a hit with her friends and co-workers!

Talk about a boost in my design-esteem! I'm sooooo loving Graphic Design!

School so far. . .

2009-04-24T15:30:00.008-04:00

. . .happens to be going extremely well! The computer Literacy course is fun, actually, and the professor makes it her point to ask challenging questions as well as have us perform some unorthodox tasks for it to be a "foundations" type course.

My favorite assignment so far had us create a fundraiser invite in MS Word. Normally, I'd do this kind of thing in Adobe Photoshop, but I was a tad limited this time. I'll admit I was also a tad lost - I hardly ever use Word for anything other than writing papers! Here's what I came up with:

My classmates had a lot of fun with it and loved my creation. Grade: 100%! I was honored when the professor asked if she could use mine as an example for future classes! I can't wait to get to the Photoshop assignments to show them what I can really do!

I'm finally having to face the world of MS Excel. . .Ooooooo. I'm not a fan, but it doesn't hurt to know it, right?

The Adobe Illustrator short course is going well. I thought there would be more to it than it is, but I like the slower pace. I'll definitely need more training than what I'm getting in the short course though if I am to be confident in using that application for work projects.

Overall, A+ for The Art Institute of Pittsburgh - Online Division! I'm loving it!!!

And to Andy, my wonderful man, who continues to inspire me and encourage me, I appreciate you, value you, and I love you like a crazy!

Here during our perfect night at the park.

Step Two: Going back to school

2009-03-29T21:46:00.002-04:00

I did it! I'm officially enrolled in courses at The Art Institute to work toward a degree in Graphic Design! I'm very excited!

I've decided to take the Digital Design diploma program a go first, complete it, then continue taking courses to earn a BS in Graphic Design.

This quarter, I'm taking 3 courses (Computer Literacy, Concept Development, and Fundamentals of Design) and 2 certificate courses (Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator). Whenever I feel confident enough to do so, I plan to take a certification exam through Adobe Systems to become an Adobe Certified Expert (ACE). Definitely would hold a lot of wait in on my resume!

LOD Banner I designed using Photoshop

Re: Computer Literacy - should be and easy A+. I agreed to take it because of the couple of segments at the end that focuses on Illustrator, which I have very little experience with. Every little bit helps and as you can tell, I'm taking this very seriously!

Oh, and check this out: classes are all online! They are expensive as heck, but I can work early morning or late nights while the kids are sleeping! Yay!!!

How Adorable!!!

2009-02-21T02:38:00.003-05:00

So, I'm getting ready to launch my business of custom graphic designs that are translated onto stationary, greeting cards, invitations, etc etc. . .in the meantime, I'm posting examples of my work on Etsy.com. It's going pretty well, and I'm able to learn from others marketing strategies and various do's and don'ts of the trade. I'll have to admit, the experience has been WONDERFUL so far!

I'm amazed at how well others are able to create, manage, and have success in their own small business! One business in particular is Akiyo's My Dear Darling. I have to admit I look at her products daily, as they are soooooo adorable and well-made! I love penguins and owls and she features them beautifully! You've gotta see for yourself! Oh, and you can enter to win a GORGEOUS Red Panda Pillow by My Dear Darling on SimpleMakes.com!

Check it out! :http://tinyurl.com/akmeao

Aside from My Dear Darling, I also love, love, love Things of May body butters, and NeckLush: "designed to keep you warm while looking cool." I can't even describe how hot these look! You've gotta check it out for yourself!

Considering. . .

2008-10-05T03:21:00.003-04:00

I recently designed a funeral program for my great-grandmother who passed at the beautiful age of 94, and my sister commented to me and my dad, "now that looks professional! I can see you going back to school for that and making a lot of money. . ."

That kinda got me thinking: "should I return to school to study graphic art and pursue a career out of it?" I absolutely LOVE to create art, hence the existence of this blog, and I can literally sit at the computer for hours at a time, fiddling around with Photoshop and teaching myself new techniques. Not to mention, I think I have an eye for artsy combos (which comes in handy for web design and scrapbooking) and blends that capture one's attention relatively quickly, I'd say.

To say the least, I am considering it. . .I can't seem to find any jobs as a therapist here in Athens, and I certainly don't want to relocate again.

I designed this party invitation for my cousin just last night:

. . .it (graphic design in general) is definitely fascinating to me!! Can I do this for a living? And would this be a satisfying career change for me? Sure! :o)

The essence of me. . .

2008-10-03T23:34:00.000-04:00

I was born and raised in the Classic City of Athens, GA [Gooooo Dawgs!] and I like to say that I'm a Southern girl lacking most of the accent; Funny thing though, I don't care for peaches nor pecans. . .who would have thought? I love my Southern nature and when I lived in the Midwest for a while, I learned others love it as well. I'm living back in Georgia now, by way of Virginia. I decided it was more important for my daughter to grow up near family and with relatives near her age. It proved to be a wise decision.

My life is RICH: filled with knowledge, love, anticipation for the new, and (most importantly) humor. My motto: I am a woman, designed to be a mother, a nurturer, a supporter; to be warm and soft...in essence, to be beautiful in mind and body. That's the role I've adapted, and that's the role I shall keep.

I like to do quirky stuff like drink cranberry juice out of a wine glass; I love to drink sweet tea while it's still hot; I have trouble making/maintaining a "poker-face" or looking mean when I supposed to as a martial artist; I like how my hair tickles my back, though I admit sometimes I jump, thinking a spider got on me! I love trying different things and being around great people; Family and friends are the most important things in my life and I'm thrilled that I now have a family of my own; and I've recently become obsessed with a website called hungry-girl.com, lol. It's for healthy eating.

Asian Persuasion

I love Asian languages and culture. I'm in the process of learning Japanese and still plan to someday pick up on Tagalog, Korean, Mandarin, and Cantonese as well!

My Family

What gets me through the hardships is the love I feel when I hug/hold my daughter or hear her laugh; the big smiles and little giggles of my newborn son, Renji; and the love and warmth I feel from my very supportive extended family. I can't express how much they all mean to me and how my heart beats for my family.

Fun facts

I worked for Disney twice; I was a musician for 10+ years, a national champion, an athletic trainer (in-training, lol); I love tattoos and I want to get one of something by Kurt Halsey (see some of his art in my photos); I ♥ honeydew melon; I love Starbuck's frappuccinos and any coffee flavored dessert, however, I can't drink hot coffee (gives me a migraine); I don't like the dark - my imagination is way too active and I've seen way too many scary movies; I'm not a huge fan of being online, but I admit, I love playing around with web design; I can be moody, lol; but I'm also probably the sweetest person you'll ever meet. I eat burgers and brats without the bun, lol; YES, that's my REAL hair (that I grew); I'm sensitive, but can be tough as nails when the need arises; I'm a people pleaser, which isn't always a good thing. . .

I get easily confused when 2 or more people talk to me at the same time; I'll admit I'm not the best at multi-tasking; I hate being out in the sun; I CAN'T STAND those who talk during movies; I wouldn't date a celebrity, if given the chance; I love to play Scrabble; and I look forward to being the ultimate housewife someday, lol! Oh, and I'm also extremely ticklish!