Becoming A “Graphic Designer”
This year, I became a “graphic designer.” Well, sort of.
Over the past 15 years of entrepreneurship, I’ve worked with many different graphic designers. They in collaboration with our printers, packaging companies and product manufacturers have helped me bring my vision to life.
But at the start of 2023, we had to face a new hurdle.
And every time we face a hurdle, we can stop and turn around, or find an opportunity to go over or around it.
As mentioned in a previous blog, I lost yet another amazing graphic designer as he changed his career from design to the medical field and made his own leap which meant I had to start the journey again of building a relationship with a designer that would “get me.” This is honestly quite a challenge since sometimes it’s hard for me to express what I envision and I depend on a graphic designer to “see it” with me and transform my chicken scratches to art.
This can take time as a designer needs to get to know you, your style, and your brand and we didn’t have a lot of time. Valentine’s was just around the corner.
So we took the leap and purchased Procreate, Adobe Illustrator, an iPad and an Apple pencil and took the plunge.
And with a loyal chocolate family member by my side and the assistance of our previous designer turned good friend, I began to face my fears and draw. I don’t like to draw. I don’t like to color. And I always got frustrated in art class. I truly love looking at art and appreciate other people’s work, but me putting pencil or crayon to paper was never my thing.
I began with very simple sketches as I always do before turning it over to the professional, but this time, I had to put those sketches in my journal into those programs. As I grumbled while doing this, Tori had fun drawing and coloring and we quickly remembered that she was the crafty one into the details and cleaning things up (which is why she loves making chocolates) and I love the initial conception work and strategy. So together, we went through this new experience of creating png files, making layers, placing the images, editing colors, creating patterns, and laying it over our packaging template to create our very own packaging. (All with “emergency” calls to Stacey saying, “How do I do ____?” and Googling and YouTubing everything we needed to figure out)!
It’s not the best, but after getting over that big hump, that big mental block of “I can’t do this”, and through tons of trial and error and hours staring at a screen, these designs smiling back at me do make me smile. :) We did it!
But you know what was even better than realizing we did it? Doing it alongside some really supportive people in my life and then watching my kids pick up the iPad and try it for themselves with no fear, no judgement, and totally proud of what they could create like a pro! In fact, they looked at me with confidence and said, “Mommy, we can do your work too!” :p Yes, you can kiddos…yes, you can!
All this to say, if you have a mental block that “you cannot” do something, well perhaps you can! It may not be your natural gift or passion, but you can absolutely do it if you need to. And along the way, you may find someone else has the talent you need and loves it more than you do. Make sure to appreciate and love on those doing that work with you. Other people’s work never really look like much work until you have to learn to do the work for yourself!
erin’s tip
Try something you always said “You can’t do” to change that narrative in your head and replace the lie with truth. You can if you have to!
*This design is now on our brand new box of “Hawai`i’s Favorite Flavors” showcasing the local flavors combined together with our dark chocolate to create this special!
