The past two years have been consumed with Beanie collecting, writing and meeting a lot of wonderful people.
Although I am still overwhelmed with this craze, it never ceases to amaze me. I'm continually meeting many talented individuals.
As I surf the net daily for various topics, I'm always fascinated with the enormous amount of graphic designs. Graphic designs are extremely important to any site; they represent a warm welcome feeling that says "Come on in and view our site."
While attending a show in Durham NC. I had the pleasure of meeting one very special graphic designer. This woman's talents go way beyond mortal. Her work is not only creative it's spectacular.
Many sites get credited for their graphics, but it's very rare that the designer ever gets acknowledged.
Carrie Patten is in my opinion, one of the best graphic designers I've ever met. I have asked for an exclusive interview so that I can share her talents with my readers.
BIO:
My name is Carrie Patten. I live in San Antonio, Texas with my husband, Paul. I am going to be the big 30 in Dec of this year. I still have not decided for sure what I want to be when I grow up, but I think I am narrowing the choices. I have 5 dogs all strays or from the pound. Dogs are my big passion in life and I would have been a vet but I could not take having my heart broken on a daily basis. My dogs are my children. They are funny, sweet, and fill my heart to the rim with unconditional love. If I were rich I would have my own "No Kill" shelters.
I was born in Kansas. The years of my youth were split between Kansas and Arkansas with a brief 14 month layover in Amarillo, Texas. I am happy to say that I grew up with mid-western values and still live by them today. Being a good person is what I try to achieve on a daily basis, someone that God would be proud of to call his own.
I was born with a birth defect call ABS-Amniotic Band Syndrome. It caused tight bands of scar tissue under the skin around my arms and legs. Because of this, my right hand did not develop completely and I have somewhat limited use of it. I am lucky because a lot of people with this condition lose arms, hands, legs and feet before they are even born. I believe it was this disability that helped me with my artistic skills.
My mother told me that as a child I always tried to do everything with my right hand. I was born right-handed. Because of my disability I had to learn to become left-handed. This forced me to develop the other side of my brain-the side associated with artistic ability.
Are you a Beanie collector?
Yes I do have a Beanie Collection. It is not nearly complete. I do not have any of the really old retireds. I won’t buy a beanie to keep for more than $6. I used to buy and sell beanies on the secondary market. I can remember a time when my closet was filled with 1000’s of beanies! My favorite beanie is Tuffy followed by Twigs in a close second.
I am fascinated with your wide range of skills. Where did you learn how to become a graphic Designer?
I have had no formal training in the field of computer generated graphics. I began with crayons like everyone else. In first grade, I drew an elephant that won a blue ribbon in the art contest. Then I won a poster contest for the American Dental Association. There were other awards here and there. During my school years I was always drawing something.
Not long ago, I learned that a man, whose children I had babysat for, kept pictures that I drew of his pet bird while at their house. He had them put away in a box for over 13 years! I didn’t even remember him or drawing the pictures. (I hope they were good!) He ran across them again when he moved and asked my father if he wanted them. That is how I found out about it.
My mother was bound and determined that I was going to study art in college and use my gift to make a profession. When I was in 8th grade, I wanted a bicycle for Christmas. My brother got the bicycle and I got a nice drawing table. She meant well but I hated it.
I started as Finance major at Fort Hays State University. I didn’t want to be a starving artist when I grew up. But number crunching just doesn’t go over well with us artsy-types! I finally gave in and switched to an art major. I studied the basics of drawing and design composition—all on paper. At that point, I never even dreamed that you could make artwork on a computer.
I never finished the degree and I stopped drawing all together. I got a real job in the real world. It was not until 8 years later that I bought a computer and discovered the Internet. My love of art was re-kindled when I saw all of the neat graphics people were making on the web. Everything I have learned about computers and graphics is self-taught. It’s all good OLE trial and error, mostly error! Experience is the best teacher for me. ( I have a hard time sitting still in a classroom.) I like to go at a fast pace when I learn or I lose interest pretty rapidly.
I started out only designing graphics and websites for personal use and was encouraged by other people to try it professionally when they saw my work. Are you happy now, Mom?
Please give a description of how you originate your ideas?
This is a hard question for me to answer. When I start a project, I never know what it will look like when I am finished. That is the truth. I may have general colors in mind, but I am as surprised as anyone is when it is finished. The picture sort of unfolds itself as I go. I don’t want to sound corny, and I am not comparing my work to a masterpiece by any means, but I understand when the sculptor says that the work of art was there in the marble all along, he just had to uncover it for the rest of us to see.
Please describe the type of equipment you use and what purpose it serves.
When you are dealing with graphic art you can never have enough memory or enough space on your hard drive. Unfortunately, I don’t have near enough of either. My computer needs an upgrade badly. I am using a 133Mhz Pentium with 128 megs of RAM.
I have a color flatbed scanner that enables me to take pictures and photos turn them into digital information - a graphic.
I have a Wacom 12X12 digitizing tablet. I allows me to draw pictures on my computer as I were using a pen and paper. This is a lot easier than trying to draw a picture using a mouse.
I also have a Canon BubbleJet 7000 for printing.
My main software is Adobe Photoshop 4.0 for editing photos and drawing. I also use Xara 3d, Paint Shop Pro, Thumbs Plus, Adobe Image Ready, Corel 6.0, Fractal Detailer and Ray Dream. In the future I hope to learn Quark Xpress.
I understand that you have the ability to design web pages, business cards, banners and more. Please describe some of the processes and how long each process takes until completion.
I start out by talking with the client and finding out what kind of image he wants the work to project. I talk about colors with them. If they already have a website up, I visit it. If I am re-working a logo or a business card I study it. Then I start designing. I think I have pretty good taste, I make what I would like. Hopefully, the client will like it too. I haven’t really had to deal with anyone that is too different from myself so most of the time I have been able to produce good results. The client that would scare me is the one who would want something very formal and blah, like a government agency. I think in rainbow colors and would have a hard time toning it down.
The time it takes me to do a graphic depends on many factors, mainly whether or not I am in the "zone", where my creative juices are flowing. Average time is 1-8 hours.
Please provide links into areas on the Internet where your work can be viewed.
Well the majority of my work is at http://www.beaniephiles.com.
Please don’t miss the Peace and Bongo Wedding section at http://www.geocities.com/RodeoDrive/8645/index.html This project took about 2 weeks to complete.
I have done a neat little graphic for http://www.SarcasmCity.com which will be posted in a few days.
The website at http://www.amertch.com is all my work. Nothing flashy but it is what he wanted.
I recently reworked the web graphics for Ruby’s Bean Patch at http://www.ifu.net/~white/beanie.htm. They are in the process of switching them over.
I also have a page of misc. graphics I have made posted here. It is sort of an online portfolio.
Http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lakes/1572/index.html
If anyone is interested in contacting you about designing work for them, how can they reach you?
They can email me at lovegraphics@geocities.com
After viewing the above pages, I'm sure you will agree this woman is one in a million. I have never attempted to design a graphic nor do I intend to.
Many websites have outstanding graphics; these graphics are designed for your viewing pleasure.
The next time you send a message to a webmaster, thank them for the special graphics on their page. For the many website owners whom design your own pages, I applaud you! Your work has not gone unnoticed. I have spoken with a few of you and have committed on your site designs, keep up the good work.
Carrie has designed many items for me and I highly recommend her work abilities, fair pricing and outstanding turnover time. If you are in need of a graphic designer, why not contact her today? You'd better hurry! I'm sure her work schedule will increase after this article is read by many.
This article was written by:
Janie E. Daniels
August 19, l998
Copyright registered.
