originals :: paper art & design

You’re invited to my first Snapshots! Photography Exhibit at the Kirksville Arts Center. The show is up for the months of September and October, and the reception will be held September 7th from 5:30 to 7:00. Most of the enlarged prints will be for sale and smaller prints will be available as well.  To get an idea of what you will see, click on the Snapshots! tab here on my website.  Please share with friends and family that might be interested.  Thank you!

I’ve been a little preoccupied the last few weeks and I apologize for neglecting my professional responsibilities. I’d like to share a little bit of my personal life with you… my beloved Charlie Brown.

Charlie Brown was my first dog as an adult and an extension of me for nearly 14 years. I was faced with the horrible decision of putting him to rest last week and it was the hardest decision I’ve had to make in my life (so far). Here’s a little something my father-in-law sent me when he heard the news. It makes me smile and cry at the same time.

If a dog was the teacher you would learn things like:
• When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.
• Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride.
• Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure ecstasy.
• Take naps.
• Stretch before rising.
• Run, romp, and play daily.
• Thrive on attention and let people touch you.
• Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.
• On warm days, stop to lie on your back in the grass.
• On hot days, drink lots of water and lie under a shady tree.
• When you’re happy, dance around and wag your entire body.
• Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.
• Be loyal.
• Never pretend to be something you’re not.
• If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.
• When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by, and nuzzle them gently.
• Enjoy every moment of every day.

Live simply.
Love generously.
Care deeply.
Speak kindly.

Rest in peace my Charlie Brown.

Months ago I designed this blended logo and every time I see it I’m very proud to say I did it. Saturday night we went to a wine and chocolate tasting hosted by West Winery at Jackson Stables & Mocha Hut and had a great time. Delicious wine paired with Belgian chocolates… what could be better on Valentine’s Day weekend?!

If you’re following my blog and live in the midwest, you should escape to this little piece of heaven.  West Winery at Jackson Stables is a beautiful place to visit and enjoy an evening of quality time with friends and family.  They encourage you to bring your own picnic basket with snacks and treat yourself to some wine.  They occasionally have musicians play too!  Check out their events schedule on their website.  And tell them Brooke sent you!

Hello Brooke,

Went to Jackson Stables last night and ended up buying a pair of wine glasses because I liked the logo so much. Later, when I got back home, I found your site and just wanted to tell you what a nice job that you did making the combination logo. It is very attractive. In fact, it has a floral bouquet with a hint of oak and yet a surprising finish. Or something like that.

Thanks again for the great glasses and take care,
Kevin Casey

Last weekend was the 2010 NEMO Bridal Expo.  Not only was Originals Paper Art an invitation vendor in the show, I was also a member of the Bridal Expo steering committee and the Kirksville Arts Center Bridal Expo committee! I was stretched a little thin last week.  It was fun… but I’m really glad it’s over for another year. Kristina, Katie and I put together a beautiful booth for the Kirksville Arts Center.  I ordered flowers and cupcakes, designed print ads and favors, and edited and recorded radio ads.

These little favors are printed on light weight vellum, adhered to skewers and curled with scissors (you know the method). They turned out really cute. My theory was the recipient would want to know what the message said and thus unroll the favor. I witnessed many unroll it which made the hours of assembly well worth it! The message read, “We have an elegant venue for your wedding celebrations in downtown Kirksville”.

Here are the cupcakes on the tiered cupcake stand in the Kirksville Arts Center booth at the NEMO Bridal Expo. Unfortunately I ordered too many cupcakes, however, I’d rather have too many than not enough.

Kristina researched chair covers, table design and floral arrangements. The round table dressed up beautifully. The most talked about feature was how the table itself was lit from below. It was stunning with the dim booth space. Many brides thought table design was a service we provided.  Hmm.  Sounds like an opportunity knocking… anybody there?!

Katie is a graphic designer and paper fanatic just like me! She designed the faux menus, place cards and table card to give this beautiful table a personal touch. She also designed our information card that has all the rental information.  It was a terrific team effort and so much fun.

So then, in addition to sharing my party favor design and snapshot photography, I want to plug the Kirksville Arts Center as a lovely space to rent if you have an upcoming event in northeast Missouri. Call Judy at (660) 665-0500 if you have questions about the space. Be sure to tell her I sent you!  Have a great day!

Merry Christmas and short note to my clients and loyal blog readers… I’m going to take advantage of this quiet time and slip away from the office for a little time off between Christmas and New Years.  I’ll be back in the office Monday, January 4th. This is a perfect time of year to make connections with friends and family afar… and THAT I plan to do! Enjoy the season and all that it represents.

Logo design, check! Business Cards, check! Signs, check! Below are three sides of Cynergy Health, each represented with a sign so that traffic of every kind (walkers, bikers, drivers) will see their clinic.  Cynergy Health used Metal Logos as their vendor for sign work… and they did a very nice job.

As you face their front doors we placed logo decals in the adjacent windows.  We chose white for the decals (easy to see on the dark windows) and adhered them to the inside of the window (less exposure to weather elements).

As you may recall Cynergy Health has four practices and I designed a door decal for each of those practices… below is the Cynergy Family decal.

This beautiful work-of-art is the door you enter from the waiting room into the various offices.  We used this same filigree design on the Cynergy Health business cards and plan to use it on many other items as an element for the Cynergy Health brand.

I absolutely love this door! Thank you Cynthia for the opportunity to design for you and help brand your new clinic – it’s been so much fun and very rewarding as a graphic designer. Congratulations on a successful start!

Get outside this weekend and enjoy the final days of summer vacation!

Day one… our first Host Town along with 10,000 of our closest friends and bike riders! Good times!

Day seven (the end of the ride) pictured in front of the Mississippi River! We did it!  We all completed RAGBRAI 2009!

Here’s a picture of my bike odometer… the ride was officially 442 miles… I racked up 456.6 miles in seven days!

Here are a few of my favorite photos from my first paid snapshot photo project!  This is Larry pointing himself out in the wedding picture… he’s the one on the very edge of the photo.  How cool is that? Did you choose a wedding party that will be a part of your life in 50 more years?  Food for thought!  Most of the wedding party was at this 50th celebration!

Here is the lovely couple… Shirley and Carl Baldwin.  I’m not sure I mentioned that it was also a surprise party… and BOY was it a surprise! This is Shirley trying to compose herself… I think she was very touched and quite overwhelmed.  It was an emotional beginning to a wonderful party!

On the left is their lovely daughter, Jill Walker, who put this party together for them.  Look at Shirley… pure love.

I loved Jill’s hand on her dads back… so much affection in this family.  It was a great evening… I felt like family!

For a party that took place in a bar, the exposed brick walls made for beautiful pictures!

I’ve already show this snapshot of the Originals Keepsake Card Box… but it’s a favorite too!  I love the depth captured using the bar and bar stools!  I had one guest ask, “who are you?”, I giggled and simply stated, “Brooke Goans, and I’ve been hired to photograph this special occasion”.  Next time you plan a special event, consider hiring a photographer to capture the moments you want to remember!  Have a great week!

This is a snapshot of the entryway to our new shared office space in downtown Kirksville… aka: the office. It’s The Grim Building on Washington Street. It’s a beautiful building that has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1979.

Our friend and office mate, Janis, will have her office in #9 and mine in #10. Bob and Allen will share #8 which is slightly bigger and has its own door. This is a snapshot of the transome window as you enter the main door to the building. I absolutely love the history and charm of this building and the office space.

This is an inside snapshot of the door to #8… beautiful old doors with textured glass and fabulous old hardware.

Once you enter office #9 you can see my office through the double doors.  It may sound silly – but it was love at first sight.  I knew this was the space the minute I walked in.  So much character!  All that was missing on my wish list was exposed brick.

This is a snapshot of one double door all the way open and it rests next to this heater!  If I remember correctly, the heaters still work and are our heat source in the winter.  Ahh, so cool!  Have I mentioned how great this space is?

Janis has a fireplace in her office!  This is a close-up to show you the beautiful details.  I can totally see her space decorated with a heavy chair and book lamp in the corner nook right next to this fireplace.  Janis loves to read and her business is writing and editing (more on that coming soon)!  What a perfect space!

Just a close-up snapshot of the trim detail, paint colors and new carpet! It closely resembles the feel we just created for my home office back in December!  Even more reason to love it!  Speaking of my home office… it will soon be transitioned into my craft room!  A place where I go to escape work!  Hooray!

For those of you in our neighborhood, I’ll be sure to let you know when I’m settled so we can meet at “the office” for coffee and conversation! One week to go! I can hardly concentrate knowing this space awaits me! Have a great day and four day work week! Miles of smiles.

I’m on the board of the Kirksville Arts Association (KAA). It’s the one organization I’m passionate about and my main pro bono account. I’ve had the privilege of designing a large variety of projects for KAA… but this is the “largest” of all! Our exterior building signs.  They started as just pencil sketches well over a year ago…

Last Saturday Baker Outdoor Advertising spent their day hanging these beautiful works of art!  They’re not your average sign purchased from a sign company… they’re an original by Matt Farrell, metal artist, living right here in northeast Missouri.  I designed the signs and he manufactured them along with guidance from Terry Baker on how to best engineer them for hanging.  It was a team effort… and we had a great team!

This is our wayfinding sign.  It’s approximately 30 feet tall, around 700 pounds and located on the corner so that it can be seen from all directions.  The rusty area will continue to rust… it’ll turn more brown over time vs. the orange color it is now… and the stainless steel letters will continue to shine through the years!  It’s amazing to see something of this caliber come to fruition.  It could not have happened without the generous matching donation of an anonymous donor.

This sign was designed to hang above the doors on the front of the building.  It incorporates the Kirksville Arts Center logo.  The concept was presented to Matt and given creative license to make it pop!

We all knew he’d do an incredible job!  And he did! Pictured below are Allen and Matt positioning the sign.  The remaining members of the Building Committee were on the ground directing them on placement!  Up a little… down a little… ahh, just right!

This sign has great depth built into it… three layers in fact. The white tube you see is an amber LED rope light.  Yep, this sign lights up at night. So cool!

Here’s a picture at the end of the day once everybody was gone.  These two signs are a fabulous addition to the building and now everybody should have no problem finding the Kirksville Arts Center!

Pictured below is me with metal artist, Matt Farrell, before the “arts” sign was hung.  Ahhh, another project laid to rest!  What’s next you ask… keep checking back! My queue is never empty!  Have a wonderful holiday weekend.

If you follow the weather at all you know Kirksville was hit by a tornado on Wednesday afternoon. I was in town at the coffee shop meeting with a potential bride and heard it was headed into my neighborhood. I was paralyzed! Allen was also in town and met me at the coffee shop. We waited for it to pass while making multiple phone calls to family and friends. I was so scared for Allen’s grandma and our puppies. They were all alone… we were separated by this storm… it was awful.

We are quite shaken (mentally), but safe and sound (physically). We are two of the lucky ones. Nearby neighbors lost their lives when the tornado destroyed their home. Our house is five miles north of town… and the tornado traveled between us and town! This means it was way TOO close for comfort. I’ve been a nervous wreck for a few days… and am slowly recovering from the shock and horrible sadness.

The three photos below are taken by Allen the morning after.  For more close-up photos check out Studio | 1004 blog… friend and photographer, Hector Contreras, captured some amazing aftermath destruction photos.

Good morning and happy spring to my originalspaperart.com followers and newcomers!  I spent a good portion of my weekend updating the pages of my website.  I’m constantly working on being up-to-date with my blog entries but the secondary pages have suffered!  So please take a few minutes to see the updates!  Some minor.  Some major.  Please forward my website to family, friends, co-workers and creatives that may be in the market for a freelance designer.

Dr. Cynthia Hayes is opening her own clinic Cynergy Health on May 18th and during a recent visit to Eyedentity Eyewear (Columbia, MO) noticed their marketing materials. She was having difficulties finding the right designer which prompted her to inquire about theirs. The irony of this connection is I designed Cynthia’s wedding invitations a few years ago… she just didn’t know I did an array of graphic design in addition to custom invitations. And so we meet again and we’re currently working through her move, logo design and clinic branding.

Cynthia had her moving postcard concept figured out prior to our first meeting and so photographed the boxes, designed the card, prepared it for print and managed the bulk mailing. What I love most about this moving postcard is the reality it depicts. There is nothing glamorous about moving — or the postcard! It’s leaves you wanting to stop in for the tour she offers. It’s perfect!  Check back to see her logo and exterior sign(s).

Back to work. I’m making great progress this week and must not loose momentum! Have a great day!

This custom birthday party invitation was for my nephew and it’s probably five years old… but it’s been hanging on my wall all this time.  I call that a good invitation… something that is kept for a period of time (maybe even framed) after it’s been received. It was hand delivered to the guests as a scroll. A tube would work for mailing if necessary.

I know my sister-in-law framed hers… what mom wouldn’t? Speaking of sister-in-law… she took the picture of Ethan wearing his grandpas boots (I think) and his great grandpas belt buckle. Very sweet. She’s a talented photographer located in the great northwest, Milestones Photography… check out her blog… tell her I sent you.

This was a group effort! Elaine took the photo, I designed the WANTED Poster, and Allen burned the edges! It was a fun invitation and made for a great turnout! As you know… an invitation is the first thing your guest sees that instantly sets the energy and tone of your event – no matter what the event is – birthday, baby shower, wedding even a corporate event!  Next time you need invitations, consider custom and contact me to make them an original and worth saving!

Hope this post makes you smile! Have a happy hump day!