Bio
Tanya Swanson knew when she was a child that she wanted to be a designer—she spent all her time drawing pictures. In 1998, she graduated from Hennepin Technical College with a degree in graphic design. She took her first job working as a production artist for SICK in Bloomington, MN. (SICK is an international factory automation company.) While at SICK, Tanya was promoted to graphic designer. After spending a few years doing much of the same work, she got bored. She decided to enroll in a continuing studies course at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) to study print and pattern design. Tanya fell head over heels in love with creating illustrations and patterns for retail products like stationery and gift bags. A change in scenery was necessary and she set her goals high: to work at Mara‐Mi, a national stationery design company based in Minneapolis. In December of 2005, just two short months after finishing the class at MCAD, Tanya took a job as product designer at Mara‐Mi. The following year, she was promoted to Art Director for XXOX and Paper Prince brands. In February 2008, she spread her wings and became an entrepreneur by starting AppleSass Studio.

What is your style?
Graphic. But not in a dirty kind of way!! Clean. Whimsical. Fresh.

©AppleSass Studio | For sale or license

Describe your work setting.
I work in quite a few settings—in front of the TV in my basement, my home office, the Central Library downtown…I also share an office space with a friend in downtown Minneapolis and enjoy working there in the winter when the skyways are such a perk! I love spaces with big windows in the summer; it’s almost like being outside. And, I am obsessed with iced tea, so I’m drawn to coffee shops like Dunn Bros and the Tea Garden. That is where I spend the majority of my time in the spring and summer. On Fridays, I’m a lazy bones—the first half of my day I grab my laptop and work in bed!

How do you maintain a balance of work/play in your life?
This is tricky. Especially when business is slow, it’s hard to keep on task. I don’t have a lot of structure to my day. Some of the jobs I get don’t give much notice, so I will work nearly 24 hours in a day until I have completely run out of steam. When I get quick turn projects like this I usually just camp out in my basement to save on travel time. On the positive side, the “Friday slide” is non-existent. If I’m done working, my weekend just starts early.

Do you ever have “writers block?” What do you do?
Yes. I go trend shopping. I look for color schemes, graphic treatments and paper formats. I determine what icons are popular. For example, if I’m working on design for girls: are princesses or puppies popular? After trend shopping I go back to work and get a fresh take on my assignment.

©AppleSass Studio | For sale or license

Do you have a creative process?
I don’t necessarily have a structured process that I follow. It really depends on what I’m working on. Sometimes I make trend boards. Sometimes I’m given strict parameters to work within. A lot of the time I just sit down and draw right on the computer, other times I sketch by hand first. When I’m designing patterns, I make brainstorming lists to expand my ideas of which icons to include.

What has been inspiring you lately?
Blogs. I start my day by reading a bunch of blogs. Wedding blogs have beautiful photos and make interesting studies in color, theme, stationery and fashion trend. I read the Print and Pattern blog and party planning blogs. I get email updates from Mod Cloth, Fred Flare, Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie to stay on top of trends.

What is the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?
I walked away from a job offer at Gartner Studios to start my own studio.

What was one of your favorite assignments?
I really like working on Christmas cards. I think seasonal is one of my strongest categories.

©AppleSass Studio | For sale or license

What do you enjoy most about your work?
I love the flexibility of freelance. I’m doing exactly what I want to do—drawing cute stuff is the best part. And being my own boss.

Least?
Money and lack of benefits. I have no start/stop times for work so it can be a challenge to create a work/life balance. The future is always a bit of an unknown.

What do you do for fun when you aren’t working?
Spend time with my boyfriend, Brian, and our dog, Ernie. We love to watch Rescue Me and go to the movies, particularly in the winter. We enjoy the farmer’s market and spending time at the lake in the summer. I am a shopper. I love antique shops, flea markets, craft fairs and, of course, clothes. I like to listen to music on vinyl and follow the New Kids on the Block on Twitter.

What is the best moment of the day?
I feel super satisfied when I finish a design. And it is always very exciting to find out that one of my product designs has been picked up by a store.

©AppleSass Studio | For license

What kind of music do you listen to?
Lots, depends on my mood. 80’s music is good for a pick‐me‐up. I listen to Christmas music when I’m working on Christmas designs to get into the spirit (usually all summer long!). I love my acoustic playlist “Acoustic Jams” which includes Bob Dylan, The Avett Brothers, Thao Nguyen and Cat Stevens. I’m loving: The Shins, Neko Case, New Kids on the Block and I never get tired of the Wicker Park soundtrack. I like mellow music during the workday and RuPaul and Kanye West for a workout.

Is there any designer or artist you appreciate a lot?
Ann Kelle Designs—Kelle Boyd is everything I want to be…but different. I like her fresh, clean look and awesome color palettes. I enjoy Helen Dardik, she’s unique, bright, cute, weird. I’m crazy inspired by Nate Williams. He creates the most amazing and quirky, hand drawn illustrations and typography. *drool*

What is one thing you couldn’t live without?
My laptop. I’m pretty attached to it. I love Twitter, Facebook, email, blogs, Googling and, of course, Adobe Illustrator!

Can art/design change the world?
It can’t make world peace or anything…but I really don’t think anything can. I do think that design changes the world all the time, little by little. That is what trends are made of!

©AppleSass Studio | For sale or license

What is one of the most unexpected things that happened in your life?
I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a surface/product designer when I was in college. I never would have imagined that my designs would be applied to products and sold at Target. That’s crazy to me—I love Target!

Do you have any advice for those pursuing a creative endeavor?
Go for it, dude! But don’t copy people. Try to bring something new to the table.

See Tanya’s complete portfolio at apple-sass.com. And follow Tanya on twitter.com.

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A big thank you to Tanya for being the first person featured in my new monthly series “Interviews with Creative People.” Let’s give Tanya a round of applause for her awesome work! Thanks for sharing with us!

If you or someone you know would like to be featured in an upcoming edition of “Interviews with Creative People,” contact me.

Tweet. Tweet. This is my twitter post from 8:45 PM Mar 31st

The lecture was great. Ellen Lupton is a great speaker, plus she had the whole audience laughing out loud! Best speaker of the series.

Ellen spoke at the Walker Art Center in March for their Insights Lecture series. Seriously, I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard an audience at a design lecture laugh like that. It was awesome. At the lecture, she showed us a sneak peek of her book Design Your Life: The pleasures and perils of everyday things. She co-authored the book with her sister Julia. I knew I had to get the book. I went to Barnes & Noble last week to buy father’s day gifts and sought out the book. And I found it. And I devoured it. In about three days.

The book is wittily written with a conversational tone. And humor is sprinkled liberally on-top. The page layout of the book is wonderful. The short bursts of writing are punctuated with beautiful illustrations making this book a designer’s favorite. Easy to read and understand, this book does not stand upon a design soap box. It’s real. And unpretentious. The authors are obviously down-to-earth and live in our reality. The book entertained and informed me.

It inspired me to recycle all the software, electronic and camera boxes that litter my office closets. I kept the boxes, because…well…what if? Then, while I was reading this book, I came to the following revelation, “What if WHAT!!!” Why do I need the box from my computer that I purchased two years ago? To return it??!!! It was with great pleasure that I organized the instruction manuals into a small plastic box and watched my husband haul the empty boxes to the curb. Then, I used the newly gained shelf space to organize the pile of books lying beside my bed.

My favorite chapter starts on page 101, “The Myth of the Working Mother.” I’m not a mother. But I do think about one day becoming one. And I’m pretty sure I want to be a working mommy. I’m also pretty sure I do not want to be a little league mom. I knew Ellen and I are kindred spirits when I read the paragraph with the heading, “Sports Purgatory.” The illustration next to the paragraph is a baseball mitt flipping the bird. An excerpt from the paragraph reads, “Too much exposure to organized sports can cause bloating, hot flashes, and bad hair days in mothers, while fathers have reported sudden delusions of candor.”

I knew Ellen and I shared similar thinking after I attended her lecture. And now, after reading this book, I realized that we are actually BFFs separated by not having ever met and 1,113 miles.

Go out and get yourself a copy of the book. And visit the site www.design-your-life.org

So, I did it. I beat Jesse at our photo contest, Jesse vs. Lisa. What can I say? My winning photo rules. Today I share some other shots from my roll of film for the contest. The concept for the contest was: light.

My winning photo.

Peony at Lake Harriet.

Shadow of my fence on sidewalk.

I love peonys. This one shot at St Louis Park community garden.

Also at the St Louis Park community garden. Not sure what kind of plant it is, but it looks really cool.

Shadow of tree on building. Shot at 50th and France—Edina.

The sky at sun set.

Leaves on a tree.

Shot at Lake Harriet rose garden.

Walking path at Lake Harriet.

P.S. I love peony flowers. They are only in season for a short time and I’m glad it was while I had this roll of film in my camera. All photos ©2009 Lisa Valley. All rights reserved.

For me as a designer, going on a field trip to visit a print vendor is like unleashing me in Wonka’s chocolate factory. The experience begins as I walk in the door. The smells of the inks and varnishes waft through my nostrils, much like the smells of melting chocolate circulate the air in Wonka’s world. I breathe it in. Weird? Yes. But I love it!

Next starts the tour: all the machines are humming, churning out printed goods. The printing warehouse is a perfect 72 degrees and humidity controlled to reduce static. As a fan of the TV show How it’s Made, you can bet that I love watching the printing presses pull paper and the folding machines fold. Every print tour I go on is as much fun as the last.

But today’s tour was different. I went to Carlson Print Group in Eden Prairie, MN. They have a new toy. It’s a 6-color Roland printing press. This may not sound super exciting until I tell you that it can print in-line with FOIL! Yes, they are printing with ink on foil. It’s definitely one of the coolest techniques I’ve seen in a long time.

Let me tell you how it works. First, the press pulls a sheet and it rolls through the first zone, where a gray colored glue is applied only in the places designed for foil. Next, it rolls through the second zone, where the foil is applied to the glue. Then the sheet rolls through the final zones where ink is printed over the foil. This press can even UV coat in-line and the finished sheet comes off the press bone dry.

The people at Carlson Print Group have put together some amazing pieces to show off what they can do with this printing technique. I’ve taken some photos of their pieces (see below) but the photographs just don’t do it justice. The subtle metallic foil shifts in the light, flashing and reflecting as I rotate the piece in my hands. If you are a business or a designer who is interested in using this technique, give Gloria a call and she’ll hook you up.

Carlson Print Group: 952.886.3400

The second shoot out is now posted to Jesse’s blog. Click here to vote from now until Tuesday, June 23, 2009 at 9:00 pm

Last night Jesse and I wandered the aisles of our favorite super store, Target, picking up the essentials. Everywhere I looked, I subconsciously saw posters and packaging with an arrow pointing up and to the right. I kept asking myself, “What is the deal with that arrow?” The products were all branded “up & up.” And I just didn’t get it.

We went down the Swiffer aisle. Again, the up & up brand stared me in the face. I was so confused by the packaging, was it a Swiffer look-a-like? I didn’t give it much thought because Jesse saw a Swiffer package with an on-pak 75 cents off coupon, so we tossed it in the cart and went on our way. We had everything we needed so we started toward the check out. Again, I saw up & up brand everywhere, but it meant nothing to me.

All day long, I’ve had a nagging feeling, wondering, “What is up & up brand, and why did Target give them so much real estate in their store?” Finally, I googled “Target up and up.” The first link brought me to this article on Reuters. Apparently Target has decided to re-brand their generic products to up & up brand.

Formally, all the generic brands at Target were Target branded. Side by side, the generic Target brand sat next to the name brand. The generic had similar packaging and color as the name brand, but featured the trusted Target bulls eye icon. It was an easy way for me to compare name brand to generic.

With the up & up brand, I was unsure what kind of product was even in the box. The package design was bland and it did not feature a good information hierarchy. The packaging didn’t communicate well. It didn’t speak to me as a name brand, quality product. Equally, it didn’t speak to me as a generic, money saving brand.

To me, the directional change is a brand issue. I’m very surprised to see Target move away from the brand equity they’ve already built up in the bulls eye. They’ve spent many years and loads of money molding the minds of consumers. All the happy brand feelings consumers have about Target was built-in or ready-made for their generic product line. Now they are starting from scratch with the new brand, up & up. And it’s definitely going to be an up-hill battle. I’m interested to see the marketing and advertising they will do to educate their customers on this major change.

The switch to the up & up brand is a bold move for Target. Is it the right move for the company? Either way, it is going to make for an interesting case study.

It was late afternoon and I was tired. Jesse needed some supplies for the studio so we made a quick stop at Office Max. We didn’t find what we needed at the Max and continued on to Staples. I was less than thrilled with having to go to another office supply store. And as you can imagine, my mood reflected my feelings.

But my outlook took a 180 when I caught a glimpse of a beautiful display of bulk candy containers. Could it be? Does Staples sell jawbreakers and gummy bears, too? As I neared the display, I saw the bulk containers didn’t contain candy after all, but what they held was just as good—brightly colored paper clips and binder clips!

I grabbed a plastic container and started to fill it with funky office supplies. Paper clips shaped like stars and cats! Metallic finishes, patterns, bright colors! I felt like Veruca Salt in Wonka’s Chocolate Factory! It was a brilliant display and great concept. Candy colored clips that make paperwork fun!

I bought fun, colorful paper clips. And Jesse found what he needed for the studio.

My Bulk Bucket Filled to the Brim

Cute Clips

These are probably my favorite

Metallic Finished Paper Clips

More Metallics

All day long, I have anxiously awaited picking up my Illford film from Linhoff Photo in Minneapolis (click here for the backstory).

The Solved Mysteries:

1. When were the first eight frames shot? The weekend of October 20, 2006. Yes. 2006. It was a weekend trip with the girls to visit Katie in Kansas City.
2. Did the film go bad? Nope. Pretty unbelievable considering it has been in my camera since 2006.
3. What was shot on the first frames? One: A shot of the Plaza, a fancy shopping district (If you are ever in Kansas City this is a must see.) Two: A shot of my friends by the Plaza (unfortunately Erin blinked, so I’m not going to post it. This is one of the joys of digital, I would have known to take another shot!) Three & Four: shots inside Arthur Bryant’s BBQ (arguably the BEST BBQ I’ve ever had!) Five, Six, Seven: Shots of my umbrella with droplets of water.

The Plaza: Fancy Spanish Style Shopping District, designed in 1922!

Arthur Bryant's BBQ: It was raining and the line was still out the door and down the block!

Talk about hard workers. They were moving fast. Notice the polka dot patterned plastic bag: They use Wonder Bread!

My droplet filled umbrella, photographed just after eating Arthur Bryant's BBQ

Shot taken on May 29, 2009. Beautiful lilacs along my alley way.

The Toby on May 29. I love this shot. What a good boy! (Jesse trained him to pose for pictures.)

May 29: Maple Seed that got caught in chicken wire. Taken in the St Louis Park Community Garden.

If you’d like to view more photos from this roll of film, click here.

All photos © Lisa Valley. All rights reserved.

It’s a tough question to answer. And it’s an issue every designer is faced with daily. Because everyone is a critic.

I’m a sucker for design shows on TV. Candice Olson on Divine Design is amazing. And I’m a huge fan of Project Runway, formally on Bravo. Since Lifetime bought the show, there is a new show on Bravo called The Fashion Show. Even though this new show doesn’t have Tim Gunn, I’m liking it.

The Fashion Show aired an episode on May 21 which brought up an issue I often ponder. While the judges were deliberating, the issue of confidence came up. One of the losing contestants didn’t have any confidence in herself or her design. The other losing contestant maintained confidence, although he knew his clothing piece didn’t hit the mark. Isaac Mizrahi thinks designers should definitely attach their egos to their designs. Isaac said, “…attaching your ego to your design…is a really healthy thing for a designer. They try to say, ‘Oh, don’t take it too personally.’ BULL. Take it very personally.”

In a way, I disagree with Isaac’s comment, and in another way I couldn’t agree more. I obviously have mixed feelings. In all my art classes in college, I was encouraged to grow “thick skin.” Which basically means not to take criticism personally. And in my work as an art director, keeping clients happy and in business is of the utmost importance. I think this is one of the biggest differences between artists and designers. Artists create art for themselves. Designers create design for an audience.

The conclusion I’m drawing is that artists and designers need a dose of both confidence AND awareness. Whether you are an artist or designer, you want an audience to “get it” when they look at your creations. We need to hear constructive criticism to create to our full potential. But while we are listening to this constructive criticism, we need to keep it from crushing our spirit.

So. Should we attach our egos to our designs? Yes. But when we do this, we need to be fully aware that by opening ourself up to criticism we could get hurt.

But we could also improve our skill, craft or idea immeasurably.