Some of you know that I used to do graphic design full time. I love the way that the design skills help me so much in my photography business.
I still do some design on the side. I design mostly beach towels. It’s funny, but when someone finds out that I do that, they are no longer interested in the fact that I’m a photographer, but are WAY impressed and have many questions about how I do it and where they could find one of my designs. Well, you can see some of my work at Costco. These are the ones I’ve seen there so far this year.

Costco usually picks about 12 of the 80 designs that I did for my art director, as well as choosing some designs from some other companies.  I’m often surprised by the ones they select and am often bummed about the ones they didn’t pick.  Like I was surprised they picked the sand dollar one.  I didn’t think it was that interesting.  And there are some AWESOME ones they don’t pick every year.  Oh well.

And to answer the most commonly asked questions…..

How did I get into this?  I worked for a home textile company designing all sorts of towels and other stuff for pretty much every store you can think of.  When the company went under, my art director started working for some other companies.  She got a contract with a factory in Egypt who wanted to bid for the Costco account since she had worked with the Costco buyers for years, and knows what they like.  We’ve been doing this together for 5 or 6 years… I’ve lost track.

How do you come up with the ideas?  Carrie, my old art director pulls research and tells me what kind of looks she is going for.  I brainstorm with her a little and then do the designs.  I hardly ever come up with an idea all on my own.  I’ve designed so many beach towels over the years, I’m sure it’s in the thousands by now.

How can I know it’s one of your designs?  Is your name on it somewhere?  The only way you would know is if I tell you.  They’ve got Costco’s tags and stuff on them.  People often say I should hide my name in it somewhere.  Remember how I design 80 every year?….. yeah… I don’t have time to think about doing that!  Just look for the really cool ones.  Those are probably mine! 🙂