2009 was a fantastic year for us (me) here at Thirsty Fish Graphic Design. Lots and lots of new work on new accounts as well as new work on old accounts. Looking back I honestly can’t say I would have changed anything. Well…

One thing I did notice in fact was that during the few times I didn’t have material with which to work on pending projects I was in the process of learning new things….nothing new there….that is just kind of how I operate. What occurred to me was that what I was learning was almost always related to something technical – whether it was brushing up on traditional javascript, learning php, practicing this or that….I never just worked on “artwork” be it vector based, raster based or just using the damned PENCIL!!! After all, this is the very REASON I decided to do / be a graphic artist!!!! Don’t get me wrong, learning code and programming stuff can be fun….but personally, I like the immediate gratification of artwork for the sake of artwork. It is much more satisfying to me to make a stroke of the pencil (a real, physical pencil or the pen & pencil tool in AI) and see the result than to have to write 20 lines of code and look at what the browser did to my code before I get the satisfaction! When one considers Microsoft Internet Explorer….well, lets just say that one may never be satisfied (although, stunned at the myriad of ways one company can fuck things up).

All of this being said, I resolve this year to do more artwork for the sake of artwork…both traditional and computer. If it happens to beef up my portfolio at the same time then, so be it! After all, my new 27″ iMAC comes this week so what better time to get started?!? Oh, did I mention my new copy of CS4 as well? Sweet!!!!

I will now post some killer vector and raster art for your enjoyment (and my inspiration!). I hope you enjoy! Full credit to the artists (none of which is / are myself!).

This is about as realistic as I like my vector art
“people” to be. Great work here!

LOVE the subject matter on this one!

Okay, if you haven’t bothered to look at the full size
version of any of the above pictures….you HAVE to
view this one at full size!
Keep in mind this is NOT a photograph!

This next one is in fact raster art (Phew!)

This last one I actually like the best
…mostly because it is readily apparent
that it is NOT a photograph BUT the
painstaking detail is still there
….killer stuff!

Anyone who has done any research regarding Search Engine Optimization will understand why I have a blog attached to my Graphic Design/Web Design business website.  The quick and dirty answer is that any and all posts that I write will, if I am a  decent “post-author” contain “key-words” that search engines will pick up on in hopes that when a person does a search for such things as “graphic design”, “web-design”, “web-design corning, New York” etc. my website will rank for these terms. It is one of a slew of ways to hopefully drive more traffic (and thus more business to one’s website).

However, this post in particular will be more about promoting some of the other designers that I admire. Some I know personally, and some folks I have just encountered their websites by doing my own searches.

Why on earth would I do this? Because, I am realistic enough to understand a few things. First of all, even if I wanted to I couldn’t design every new website from this moment forward that will ever be posted on the internet (duh!).  Secondly, since there is ALWAYS so much to learn and keep current on in the world of web design it is unrealistic to think that one person (or even one web design company for that matter) will have the “know-how” and resources to successfully solve the needs of every client that approaches them, or that they approach. And thirdly, most humbly, there are designers out there that are just so damn good I wouldn’t feel right in not giving them their due. I feel anyone that is a true craftsman/woman should be acknowledged and this is my small way of doing so.

With that said, I will get started. First of all I will call attention to a designer that I do know personally, though have not had contact with in quite some time.  This person’s name is Jeff Kesar and Jeff is a designer in the Phoenix, Arizona area. Jeff has the almost uncanny ability to not only create beautiful design work (web, print and other media) but also the ability to muscle through almost any programming challenge thrown his way with grace.  Rather than cite specific examples of Jeff’s work I will instead just post a link to his website ( I will follow suit with all other graphic/webdesigners mentioned after Jeff as well).  Here is a link to Jeff’s website: http://zartwurks.com

Next up is a lady whose website I found on the “graphic artist guild” website. Her name is Christy Jennings and she is based in Tallahassee, Florida.  I spent some time looking through Christy’s extensive portfolio and I especially love the branding she has done for some of her various clients. Her design is crisp and clean and she has excellent use of color…I am especially a fan of her print work but I admire her web design as well. One thing that I admire in a person or design company is their ability to create modern design without leaning entirely on flash.  Flash is “okay”, but there are often better (more SEO friendly ways to accomplish much of what Flash does), Christy doesn’t seem to fall into the trap. Bravo Christy! Here is a link to Christy’s site: http://www.christyjenningscreative.com

Lastly (for now anyway) is another design company I stumbled upon by perusing through the graphic artist guild website (gag.org if you’re interested). The name of this company is VespaGraphics and they are based in Eugene, Oregon.  Vespa is just one of those teams (not sure how many people?) that has the ability to do so damn much just with color! Some of their examples of web work are nothing short of outstanding. Some may be a lil’ Flash-heavy for my taste (although I am not entirely sure and didn’t dig in really deep to find out how they accomplished some of the effects on their clients sites). But even those websites have absolutely tremendous use of color. Here is the link to the VespaGraphics website: http://www.vespagraphics.com/index.html

That is it for now. I may update this post at a later time. By the way, if you have any design companys/people that you’d like to send my way please feel free to comment or contact me!

Kind Regards,

Marc Croteau

Thirsty Fish Graphic Design