Welcome to my blog, and to my website, marlashawgraphicdesign.com. I hope you enjoy my blog as much as I will enjoy writing and teaching you about all things graphic design... to take the mystery away and make it fun. I know the words design and marketing in the same sentence make many people cringe. Stop cringing and have fun watching your branding and business identity come to life because there are fewer things as exciting as that experience. Really! It's not that scary. And besides, whatever your business, have fun doing all the parts of creating it!
So let’s just start off with me. I’m Marla, from a little fly speck on the map in a central Iowa farming community. 28 in my high school graduation class. I was into 4-H and Home Ec in a HUGE way; am I dating myself? I have lived in sunny Southern California for more than half my life, so I consider myself a native now. I grew up as an only child with an entrepreneurial father (farmer) and a career oriented mother (veterinary biologics researcher; it's where my creativity came from), so I started learning my entrepreneurial skills at the supper table when I was very young.
I changed majors in college four times, "looking for myself." Mind you, this was Iowa State, School of Science and Technology, and we had to take a lot of crazy, seemingly scientifically and technologically unrelated classes just to graduate. An advertising class was one of those classes. Advertising. Ick. I took it and LOVED IT!!!! Did I mention I loved it?! And I discovered I was good at it!!! I changed my major to journalism, because that advertising class was offered in the journalism department. I never looked back. Plus, they liked credits in lots of subjects over in journalism so you could interview and write intelligent articles about lots of different things. And boy, I had lots of subjects under my belt by now! Moving over to journalism was a breath of fresh air. They had cool, creative and forward-thinking professors, award winning photography and design instructors, and a study abroad program. Well, we won't go down the abroad road much except that I did study at the LSE (London School of Economics) in London, England. Really, I did.
Moving forward, in order to graduate I got an internship designing college textbooks for a publisher in Dubuque, Iowa. I had to throw that in because a lot of people love bashing "Dubuque." (It's actually quite beautiful so don't bash it until you've been there.) And who even knew someone had to design college textbooks and here I am IN college? Well, I learned a ton there; even won some AIGA awards. And I have since come full circle, designing books again, with the self-publishing craze going on right now.
I guess my training and skills were "in the pocket" at the time because I landed an art director position soon after I moved to California. Not bad for a 26 year old. The position was at a travel wholesaler to the South Pacific. Yes, I HAD to do some traveling... ALL OVER the South Pacific. Even to islands people have never heard of like Aitutaki and Vanuatu; "Da plane, da plane!" would come in and out once a week... maybe. It was the best job ever. So when the company was bought by the 5th largest hotelier in the world based in Paris at the time, I was very sad. They didn't even ask if I was willing to move to Paris and stay on as art director. And the interesting thing is that because I did my homework, the company's gross increased from a few thousand a year to a few million a year in 3 years! Major exciting!!! (This has happened to a few companies I have done work for.) I am so appreciative and thank the French for the start of Marla Shaw Graphic Design (MSGD).
Then, I had to build my client base. I sold printing for a couple of years while I was building MSGD, and that was a plus even though I didn't really find one lick of satisfaction out of sales. I learned a lot doing this, but I couldn't wait to be designing again ALL the time.
So here I am now, 20+ years into Marla Shaw Graphic Design. Lots of life, career and loss (lost my whole client base on 9/11), learned over the years, but one thing has never changed, my love for graphic design and my clients. Design and my clients have been my glue and the constant things in my life that have kept, and continue to keep, me going.
So no cringing allowed! Come aboard and let's have fun creating what your business looks like together.
Lots of tips to come regarding design, so stop by soon.
Best. Marla