confessions of

I really enjoy graphic design projects, however I only discovered this a few years ago.  It’s become one of my favorite creative outlets, for example I created the posters above. I have no formal training, anything I know comes from what I have read in books, by trial and error and by studying the work of professional graphic designers. The tool I use is PowerPoint, which I am sure isn’t the norm for the “pros”.  Actually it works well for a amateur like me since it is designed to put words and images together on a page/slide and is relatively easy to use.  I guess PowerPoint was the natural tool for me since I do a lot of work in presentation design/delivery (my other creative outlet) making slides.

I  mainly do projects for cat rescue/activist groups.  The group I do the most work for is the Tuxedo Party of Canada. You may have heard of us because we have run cats for political office, probably our most famous campaign was Tuxedo Stan for Mayor. I  also do work for a small business, Inner Space Concerts.  Inner Space sets up house concerts that gives professional classical musicians an opportunity to get out into the community to play, and get paid for it!  Classical musicians do so much pro bono work in their communities, it’s nice to be able to support them in an income making endeavor. These very intimate concerts are amazing experiences, it’s cool to play a small part in their promotion.

Over the last few years I have created a lot of different things: logos, posters, Facebook banners, greeting cards, certificates and faux magazine covers. All of them have been challenging in one way or another. As a amateur I am sure I take 10 times the amount of time a professional would take, but that’s OK, for me it’s a great opportunity to be creative.

The main reason for this post is that some of my friends and colleagues (from my day job) don’t know about my “hobby”.  So today I’m “coming out of the closest”, here is where I keep what I think is my best stuff.  https://www.pinterest.com/joe0823/  I hope you like it. I think everyone has a creative streak, some people never seem to find an outlet for theirs. I am happy I found mine.

I would love to hear what you do to exercise your creativity.

Joe Pops

RTBB

Jan 29 2016