Signmaking at WFM

Berryfest, Cherryfest, Dad's Day, Summer Fresh, July Fourth, daily signs, recipes, calendars, print outs, posters, A-frames, glass writing, floor writing... 

It is easy to get overwhelmed and stressed out in our office. Nobody (expect Teagan and Amy), truly understands the amount of requests we get a day. The ever constant flow of people and personalities popping in with ideas...Oh the stories I could tell. 

This fast paced environment is NOT a bad thing. It is great to be challenged and always have something to do. 

But here is the thing. Making good & beautiful creative work for the store takes time. If someone comes in with a graphic that is 2" x 3" and wants it to be redesigned to a 22" x 26" poster, that takes time. If someone wants a logo designed, that takes time. If someone wants a team member portrait done, that also takes times. But that "time" is not available in the ever changing retail world. 

So I often find myself sacrificing the quality of work in order to check more things off for the day. 

This post has nothing to do with the good people of Whole Foods, it is more on what I have learned working in a creative role in the corporate retail world.  

1. There will always be frustrating misunderstanding between the corporate, business-minded non-artist and artist. 

2. The creative things you make at work are not your own personal art. Separate the two. Yes they came from you - but you need to know how to handle yourself when someone tells you "that's lame, redo it"(eh hem).

3. There is never enough time in the day so don't over promise. This is my weakness. "Yes, of course I can make an 8' fish out of cardboard by tomorrow".......

I have certainly learned a lot the past year and a half and I have 1.5 months left to make the most of this opportunity. The times I DO spend a little time getting lost in the magic, I constantly tell myself "I can't believe I get paid to do this" (Which what I got to do this week!). Such a blessing. I'll get off my soap box now. Additional work I've done can be found here. 

Love drawing flowers, especially on cardboard. It's the easiest surface for me to work on - sucks up the marker.  Its just like drawing. Work in progress

Some fun floor writing! Gets scratched up a good bit.