Jackie Hurd 1/23/15 Jackie Hurd 1/23/15

Moving... Next Week!

You know that surreal feeling? That's how I felt this morning. I sat down to make my list of things to do today, looked at the date and realized that on this day next week I will be helping my husband load a U-Haul. Next week, January 31st (yes the day before Super Bowl) we will be on our way to Kentucky.

Next week, January 31st (yes the day before Super Bowl) we will be on our way to Kentucky. What that means for my business is that while I am in Kentucky is that I will be focusing less on photography and more on design. Doing both creates this weird separation for me. It's like wearing two very different hats. I enjoy both, but I think putting photography back in hobby status for the next two years will allow me to focus on my digital art and illustration. Nothing will change for my design clients, now I'll even have time for more, so if you know of anyone needing graphic design please send them my way!

I am really going to miss Southern Pines, this place is amazing. Some of the things I'm going to miss are the yoga studio, Hot Asana. I love that place! Fresh Market... the closest one in KY will be 40 min. away in Louisville! There's a one of a kind sandwich, a chicken panini made by Nature's Own that I'm not sure I can live without. What I will miss the most is the performing arts charter school that my kids attend. Moving means our dance bill will go up, since at STARS dance is part of the curriculum. I'm nervous about my kids going to public school... Kentucky is one of those states that does not have charter schools. I'm going to miss my friends, but I know we'll be in touch. However, the list of things I am looking forward to has been growing since I found out about the move and I'm feeling incredibly optimistic about this new start. First on the list is that we'll be renting a super cute Cape Cod style home with a pool and a yellow door!!! Check back in around the end of the 1st week of February and I'll post an update on the move with pictures. In the meantime, it's time to pack!

Jackie Hurd 1/19/15 Jackie Hurd 1/19/15

Presence

I started practicing yoga actively about 6 months ago. The instructors vary from class to class but the message has often been to be present. I always thought this applied to the class and never really thought much about applying it to my life.

This past week i’ve had a bit of an epiphany. I’ve realized that since I left my civil service job, I have been successful in growing my freelance business and I’ve prided myself on being available to my clients. Available, is apparently different from being present.

I have not been present. Especially to my friends and family. My mind is always on the next task, jumping from one thought to the next. I was there physically but mentally somewhere else. With that realization, I dug a little deeper into my lack of presence and how it could be affecting me and those around me. This goes pretty deep so I’ll have to elaborate more in followup posts on the topic but in short:

Not being present impacts the quality of everything I do.
Not being present impacts my creativity.
Not being present makes me susceptible to distractions and causes me to waste valuable time.
Not being present affects how I interact with people, particularly those whose relationships I value.

Those are just 4 of the ways not being present has impacted me.

And here’s an example: I went on vacation to Florida this past summer to visit my aunt who is one of my favorite people, I love her so much. I got out my laptop and right away I could tell she was annoyed by it, she knows me to well and she knew I was about to become distracted… I couldn’t even help myself. I just needed to check stuff… email, Facebook, my websites (all things that would still be there when I returned from vacation) … but truthfully, once I opened that laptop, checked my email and started thinking about the things I needed to create, that’s where my mind went, it was all over. My mind should have been there with her, instead I was distracted. The quality of the time we had together was tainted because I was somewhere else mentally.

I don’t want to be distracted anymore, especially when it comes to the people I love.
I want to be present in everything I do.

I’ve started a list of how I can do things differently. I want to put these things into practice before I share them here on this blog so more to follow as I grow in learning how to be present.

I know that by actively being more present in everything I do, I’ll be a better friend/ parent/ wife/ artist… athlete…the list goes on to whatever I want to be.

Presence: The state or fact of existing, occurring, or being present in a place or thing.

What are your thoughts? Can you think of areas where your presence is lacking?

Jackie Hurd 11/1/14 Jackie Hurd 11/1/14

Feeling Imaginative

When I was a kid I was always day dreaming. My imagination was so alive it was almost uncontrollable, especially in 4th grade math class where I missed out on foundational math because I was too busy drawing happy troll looking characters on my desk and giving them haircuts with an eraser or escaping to the away dreamlands that would spill onto my paper.

I added color using watercolor pencils and a wet brush.

This morning I woke up early like I always do to get right to work, I feel like I'm most creative as soon as I get out of bed, before the sun comes up, but to my disappointment, there was an internet outage and the project I was hoping to work on was a website. It was cold and rainy outside. I missed out on the perfect morning to sleep in. For a minute I almost allowed myself to get upset about outside forces interfering with my productivity but then I realized this was the perfect opportunity to do something I've been trying to find the time to do all week; draw something for myself, for fun. So I drew a tree house and as I drew it, I was suddenly back in fourth grade, escaping to a fun far away place where it wasn't rainy or cold.

Jackie Hurd 10/25/14 Jackie Hurd 10/25/14

Loochfest Logo

My little brother, Cory, called me a few months ago and said "Jack, I need you to design a kick-ass logo for Loochfest, I want it to incorporate a pig and a guitar." And that was it, that was his vision.

The beginning, Loochfest logo in my sketchbook

Re-creating my sketch in Adobe Illustrator with the pen tool. That old school color theme up in the corner is the one I went with for a color pallet.

My little brother, Cory called me a few months ago and said "Jack, I need you to design a kick-ass logo for Loochfest, I want it to incorporate a pig and a guitar." And that was it, that was his vision. Last year Loochfest was a small gathering of family and friends out at my bonus dad's* house so I didn't take it very seriously plus I had real work to do. I put it off and put it off and finally (because when I procrastinate it eats at my soul) I called Cory and asked why it was such a big deal this year. We had a good conversation about his intentions for the event. Apparently, he wanted it to grow from a 20-30 person family gathering to a 300+ person charitable music festival. He wanted to charge for tickets so he could donate the money to a local organization that would benefit veterans. He felt like having a solid logo would make the event seem more legit. After our conversation his need for a logo made more sense. I asked my kids if they had any ideas and they immediately came up with a "piguitar". With that I was instantly inspired. Moments later the piguitar was born in my sketchbook. It was pretty rough at first. Once I took it into adobe illustrator and cleaned it up it started to shine. I ran into a little bit of a creative block when it came to the font. Nothing was working. The piguitar needed a handrawn playful font but nothing too decorative or whimsical. I finally found a great font on Behance called Chomp. The font was created by William Suckling of Camberwell, United Kingdom. It was exactly what I needed and with a few adjustments it completed the design. For the colors I went to my favorite source of inspiration, Adobe Kuler and tried out a few different color themes, finally settling on a combination of vintage colors that worked out perfectly. I finished up the logo and Cory was impressed, I think I exceeded his expectations. I'm sure he'll be a return client, especially because he gets design services at the family rate.

The day of the event rolled around last week. When I arrived with my family there was quite a crowd! There was a stage set up with sponsor banners, a multiple band line up featuring reputable bands from all over North Carolina, to include Cory's own bands. Awesomely delicious pork bbq was being served up around the clock with a spread of beans, coleslaw and a few other backwoods selections.

I'm looking forward to next year's event! Apparently my little brother knows how to throw a party.
And now that we've got the logo down, it's time to come up with some Loochfest swag!

I can't forget to mention, all proceeds from this event went to the Randolph County Chapters AMVETS Post 905 & The VFW.

Here are a few not so great photos I snapped with my iPhone. I didn't have my camera with me. My husband wanted me to "relax" and enjoy the event. Attending Loochfest without my camera made me realize that it's really hard to enjoy an event when I'm not behind a camera!

*I should probably define bonus dad because it's going to come up quite a bit in my blog posts. Here's a quick back story.. Jim is my mom's ex husband. However, they were married for my entire childhood, he raised me. At the same time my dad has also always been in the picture and we've always had a strong bond, I love him. I love them both... I have two dads. My dad Dan, and my bonus dad Jim.

Jackie Hurd 10/25/14 Jackie Hurd 10/25/14

Dia De Los Muertos style logo

I designed this logo a few months ago for the Dia De Los Muertos 24 Hour Endurance Challenge. The inspiration of course came from the classic sugar skulls that usually surface everywhere around Halloween. They have become quite trendy here in the U.S. but digging into their origins, the sugar skull actually has a very unique history. They first surfaced in 17th century Mexico when Italian missionaries brought the art of sugar molds to the country. Sugar skulls are exactly what the name is, skulls made from sugar created out of clay molds. These hand-crafted skulls come from a cultural holiday celebrated in Mexico with Aztec origins, Dia De Los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. The holiday is one that commemorates and celebrates the deceased. The skulls are created to represent departed souls, with their names on the foreheads. They are elaborately decorated with happy designs and bright colors.

As with everything, I started my process for this design on paper. I printed out a basic skull and traced the form. I filled it in with different flowers, swirls, and whatever random elements flowed through my pencil and onto my paper. I then traced over everything with a Pigma Micron pen. I do this so for two reasons, one is that I can get a better idea of how the final product will look and the second is when I bring the design into Adobe Illustrator and vectorize it, all the lines can be found by the software. For simple logo concepts this process usually works well and provides a good foundation for the next step but with this one I wasn’t satisfied with the conversion so I ended up tracing over almost all of the elements once they were vectorized and recreating them with the pen tool. To save on time and maintain consistency throughout the design, I also created a few custom brushes for this project. Once I had everything created on the right side, I copied and flipped the elements over to the left side so that everything would be symmetrical.

The beginning. Tracing over my pencil drawing with a pen.

The final result was exactly what I had envisioned, I'm really happy with how it turned out. Another local artist that I frequently collaborate with for detailed woodwork and other engraving products, Lawrence (Itslaser engraving), used the logo to create these awesome candle holders that will be used as finisher’s prizes for the race. He engraved the artwork onto the glass. Turned out awesome!

Jackie Hurd 10/22/14 Jackie Hurd 10/22/14

Color Theming

I took this photo with my iPhone outside of the hotel we were staying in while visiting the Biltmore in Asheville, North Carolina. The yellow and pink of the flowers caught my eye, mostly because it's mid-October and the flowers were still so lively.
Once I got in the car (my husband was driving) I took the photo into Adobe Kuler to create a basic color pallet and finalized it in Adobe Photoshop by matching it with the Pantone Solid Coated book. So here it is, a little color inspiration from Asheville.

Adobe Kuler is a program that I will reference frequently in my Color Scheming posts and one that I use almost daily as part of my workflow. If you'd like to know what the heck it is and how it works here's a video tutorial from Lynda.com.

Jackie Hurd 8/28/14 Jackie Hurd 8/28/14

Birthday Magic

It’s surreal to think that 10 years ago I became a mother for the first time.

Cait as a 10 year old- posing with Rachel

It’s surreal to think that 10 years ago I became a mother for the first time.

10 years ago, I was 20. I was young, I had no idea what I was doing and for the first 6 years of my daughter’s life, I was a single parent. When I look back those early years were really a struggle, I was totally winging it, but she didn’t know it and she loved me anyway. I think that’s how it goes with the firsts for everyone and that’s what makes first borns that much more special. As my Caitie Bug grew, I grew. As she learned, I learned. Now she’s 10 and I almost can’t believe it. Time goes by so fast.

My good friend Rachel, founder and director of the Old Glory Legacy Foundation provided the venue for an awesome party complete with horseback riding and a piñata. Side note: piñatas require LOTS of candy and I didn’t get nearly enough!

This was Caitlyn’s 2nd time requesting and having birthday party out at Rachel’s which I’m totally ok with because the photo-ops are always awesome. Caitlyn always goes with the same theme as well: mustaches and cowgirls (& boys). We grilled hotdogs and s’mores for the kids, not really my kind of food but birthday parties require exceptions. The biggest exception was the birthday cake, I love baking but ran out of time so we went with a Cold Stone Creamery ice-cream cake! It was amazing… I had two slices (another birthday party exception).

Below are some of the magical moments I was able to capture at the birthday party.

I have 3 other kids to throw parties for this year and need some inspiration for awesomeness so I’d love to hear some ideas and birthday stories in the comments below.

And incase you didn't know, I do offer birthday party and event photography services. Visit my events page for details!

Jackie Hurd 8/21/14 Jackie Hurd 8/21/14

Delta Dawgs: a logo re-draw for an Army unit

A logo re-draw for an Army unit.

Since my career started as an Air Force graphic designer, military artwork of any sort is my favorite type of project. I especially love doing unit logo redraws. This one was done for 3-4 ADAR, an Army unit on Fort Bragg. What they originally had was a hand drawn logo (below). The only file they had of it was a low resolution jpg so use of their logo was limited.

To recreate this logo I basically traced over the original the best I could (I use adobe illustrator) to keep it in line with the original hand drawn version. I left out a lot of the additional detail and added some spacing to the text to give it more room to breath.

Jackie Hurd 7/24/14 Jackie Hurd 7/24/14

Logo & Identity for Collette Zimmer Dressage

Read about the inspiration behind my most recent project, a website and logo design for Collette Zimmer Dressage.

Last month my friend Collette and I went for a run. Collette is an equestrian, a Dressage rider to be exact. I am an artist. I quickly realized that Collette who also happens to be training for her first ultra marathon, runs much faster when she talks about horses. So we talked horses, well, she talked horses and I listened. During this running conversation about horses we talked about her plans for the future and those plans of course involved horses. By the end of our run I had her convinced that she needed a website with a blog to showcase her talent and growing career in Dressage.

The inspiration behind the Collette Zimmer Dressage Logo.

A website can be quite an investment of both time and money so I only half expected that I would be building a website for Collette. However, a few days later, Collette was at my kitchen table eager to get started.

Collette was so sure of what she wanted for her website that it only took me a few days to get it built and launched. Realizing the potential that comes with an active blog, she began blogging right away and of course that got her thinking about the next step- an identity for the brand that she now has thanks to the website. She sent me an image of a 17th century painting and asked me to create something similar. At first I didn't notice that there were actually 4 horses interlaced so my first attempt was a flop but not a bad flop and she almost settled. As a designer, I don't like the idea of settling so I had her over for breakfast one morning to have an extended conversation about what she was looking for. During our conversation she pointed out what she had been trying to explain over text messages. Collette's idea came to life as I did a rough sketch over the painting and made adjustments with her input. Soon enough, the lines all fell into place and after a few hours of digital tweaking, the logo for Collette Zimmer Dressage was complete.

The logo works nicely as a stand alone or it can be used in one of the three variations provided. For the font I chose Julius Sans One and thanks to google's font pairing guide I discovered Sacramento. These two fonts look lovely together and are in perfect harmony with this logo. All of this carries over to her website as well as the other business materials that are next on the list of items to create for Collette Zimmer Dressage.

I'm very excited for my friend, she has a lot of knowledge and experience with horses. This is her life, it's her career. Now she has a place to put all of her information, share her stories and attract potential clients who I hope will be wowed not only by her knowledge, but also by the presentation of her brand.

To learn more about Collette Zimmer Dressage visit www.czdressage.com and be sure to like her Facebook too.

Jackie Hurd 6/19/14 Jackie Hurd 6/19/14

Black swans and luck

In the last year or two, I've found myself on a pretty good path career wise. I feel like I'm on my way to success. Was it all of my hard work or was it luck? Maybe both. In connecting the dots of past events I realize my life has been made up of a series of black swan events. Both good and bad, but it's those black swan events that got me to the here and now… the present where I find myself accomplishing the things I thought were impossible.

So what are black swan events? According to Nassim Nicholas Taleb "A black swan is an event, positive or negative, that is deemed improbable yet causes massive consequences"

As said by Basecamp's Jason Fried "When you look back on events, it’s pretty incredible how things come together. Nothing happens independently. Everything is tied to something before it. Sometimes the links are more obvious than others, but it’s healthy to take a few moments to reflect on how many things – and people – had to come together in order for another thing to happen."

Believe it or not, these black swan events aren't just sheer luck, they aren't as random as we'd like to believe. Its just a matter of opening yourself up to them. And obviously, its the positive black swans -- the ones that attract unlikely bouts of extreme good fortune that we'd like to attract, not the contrary. To win the lotto one has to make a conscious effort to drive to the store, hand over the cash and obtain the tickets. Winning is definitely luck, but it would have NEVER happened if this person wouldn't have set themselves up for it. With that said, below are a few of the things that I believe will open the doors for the unexpected bouts of good fortune we'd all love to encounter.

Follow your own style:

Stop worrying about what everyone else likes. I mean, yes take some of it into consideration, but for the most part be original.

Invest in what you love:

Slowly and consistently invest your time in what you enjoy doing. The important thing is a build up. Grow your hobby, build connections and surround yourself with like minded people. Have fun and take a few chances. Have an adventure. Along the way you will open yourself up to opportunities, perhaps one of these opportunities will be the chance to jump into the deep end and make a living out of your hobby.

Be good to others:

Ever hear the saying "what goes around comes around"? How you interact with others can be the ultimate black swan generator, wether it be positive or negative. People love to name throw. Eventually someone is going to say a (hopefully good) thing or two about you to the right person at the right time and what is said may just lead to your big break. So be kind.

Understand that you can't force success. Sometimes it is luck, but that luck has to be influenced. Think of the random (positive) black swans that got you to where you are today. How did you influence them?