Portfolio Archives - Pam Winters Studio

Pineapple Expression

By Pam Winters

Pineapples have been dancing through our minds and hearts in recent years. Based on this trend, I had pineapples on the brain when I met with some coworkers for a craft night. Before long, while chatting with my friends, I found myself sketching a pineapple, and then began hand carving a stamp using the supplies I had with me. As we wrapped up for the evening, sharing our projects with one another, I tested out the pineapple stamp on a piece of scrap paper. Not bad, I thought. Someone suggested the possibility of making pineapple gift wrap with the stamp, so I decided then and there that was exactly what I would do! I mean, even at the height of the pineapple’s popularity, it’s not every day you see pineapple gift wrap, right?

I came home that night, and stamped it again using darker ink. I could see my pineapple vision taking shape. Within the next day or two, I got the image carved the way I wanted, and that’s when the process of surface pattern experimentation really began for me. The pineapple looked good stamped on its own, but it needed something—a bit of color to fill it in. I started with colored pencils, making a few cards for friends that way, before gradually expanding my reach to other tools, including the Silhouette CAMEO and special stamp material for the CAMEO to cut. I now had shapes I could stamp first for the color portions of the pineapple, with the pineapple stamp being layered in a darker (chocolate) color on top. This was happening!

There is something unmistakably special about handmade gift wrap, but it’s also quite a challenge. Encouraged to keep going, I decided it was time to take my art to the professionals for the production side of things. So, I digitally traced a scan of the stamped pineapple image in Adobe Illustrator, for the purpose of creating a pattern to upload to Spoonflower’s website. Soon, my first roll of custom gift wrap made with the pineapple pattern arrived in the mail, and it was literally just what I had imagined!

It’s fun to look back and see how this project unfolded, one bit of inspiration at a time. How many things inspire us every day that we could potentially turn into something we only dream of right now? Please take a moment to let me know what’s inspiring YOU these days in the comments section!

Graphic Design: Easter Event at the Red Door

By Pam Winters

Ads and Signage for a Festive Easter Event

The project pictured here was done for a special seasonal event at the Red Door, located in the Mission Hills neighborhood of San Diego. The Red Door is known for its original seasonal menus based on fresh, local, organic and sustainable ingredients, as well as for offering a unique “casual fine dining” experience. This particular event was to be an all-natural Easter egg dyeing party for children, held at the restaurant and hosted by the Red Door’s chef, Karrie Hills. I met with Kelsey Doonan, the event coordinator, who gave me a rundown on event details, including the specific printed pieces needed. I was excited to start work on these promotional and event signage pieces, which were to coincide with the look and feel of the restaurant’s branding, but also bring to mind the playful fun of spring and egg dyeing, through colorful touches of pastels and watercolor effects.

Kelsey followed up with several digital inspiration boards full of spring party ideas, which helped steer me in the right direction, so that I could quickly create and find the perfect design elements to bring together. Most of the work was done on the computer, including digital brushes I used to create the watercolor effects on the signs. The final pieces were utilized in both print and digital format (e.g., for advertising the event at the restaurant, as well as online). The Red Door has a phenomenal staff, and one of the bonuses of working on this was getting to know many of the wonderful people involved in the restaurant’s day-to-day operations. I was also fortunate enough to work with my sister, Stacey, on this project, as she was brought on to be the photographer for the event; the slideshow above gives a glimpse of the beautiful job she did of capturing the day.

Read about Kelsey’s experience working with me.