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Thanks for visiting my site! Here you can read my blog, view my portfolio and contact me about a design project. If you can't find the information your looking for, email me at jess@jesshorton.com and I will do my best to help. -Jess

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Inspiration

pinup1 tabcolorfinal Inspiration for art comes from all different places. I take color schemes from duvet covers, textures from vintage fabrics and sometimes I take inspiration straight from a dream I had the night before. I love when Smashing Magazine updates their “Inspiration” blog. Seeing other artists creations helps me to be more creative in my own designs. One of my professors in college told me that in order to be a great artists, you have to learn to look at and appreciate a lot of art. It’s true, the best artists are the inspired ones.

Here is an example of a band poster I did. I pulled inspiration from my love for American pin-up girls.

From Pencil to Vector

speaker_girl_sketch I have always been interested in how things work. As an artist, I am especially interested in how artists work. How they develop a concept from paper to the final product. Most artists have their own structure and way of working. I have found that you can tell a lot about an artist by the way that they work. In fact,  you can differentiate between who is truly an artist and who just took a couple “How-To-Adobe CS4″ classes. I’m hoping to put together a “process” section in my site that shows my ideas from concept to complete. Here’s a preview- A desktop for Hollywood East TV. Speaker girl. xoxo

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Winter Invitation

pinecones_invite A little birthday invite I did for a friend this week. I love the smell of balsam fir. Pine cones remind me of that Vermont winter smell that I love so much. I know that Chris’s birthday is going to be up in a ski lodge in Vermont, so I figured this graphic would be perfect for his invite. He loved it and so do I!

Warm up with this poster

art_fest_poster I did this poster last week for a local art festival. I was getting a little tired of all the cool winter colors I had to use for January, so I warmed up my palette for this project. Also, I love using these watercolor brushes! Found a great set on Deviant Art recently. Anyway, hope you enjoy this poster! xoxo

Logo Love <3

40under40_color Print This is a logo design I just finished up this week. 40 under 40 is a event that is going to be held on the South Shore, so the client thought it might be fun to give the logo a nautical look. I came up with several ideas, and after several edits, these are the two logos they liked best. The ended up going with the one on the left. What a fun little project!

Posters for Winter

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Here are a couple posters I created for the Duxbury Art Associations Winter Juried Show.

The purple snowflake poster is from 2009 and the blue poster is this years. For this years I used this cute font: Peach Sundress along with Marydale. The invitation postcards should be arriving today. I used Overnight Prints, they have always done a really good job with postcards… and pretty cheap too. Enjoy.

Business Card for Levitate

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This is a business card I did last week for Levitate Surf & Skate . He needed something for the surf expo this week so I had to hustle to make sure the design was ready to go to the printer in time. I dressed up the logo on the front with the type and added a water texture in the background…I figured water would be fitting for a surf shop. I used green and yellow because they are the shops colors… the black type gives it a nice pop. I saw the printed product yesterday – lookin’ sharp.

Zombies! Music Video: Graphic design is everywhere

ZOMBIES! from Lou Jannetty on Vimeo.

Back in the day, well…not that long ago, I worked for Plymouth Rock Studios. More specifically I worked for Hollywood East TV. On HETV’s final leg, my good friend Louie Jannetty directed a music video for the Longwalls. After the video was completed, Lou asked me to design a zombie magazine cover to use in the video. It’s only in the video for a couple seconds, but every second counts right? Ha ha. Anyway, congrats to Louie for directing the gnarliest  zombie music video in the universe.

New Logo Design for 2010

bird_love Designing a new logo is like designing a new identity. For my new logo, I wanted a design that expressed my personal style as well as a image that defined what my business is all about- The relationship between the client and the designer. The ability to hold on to who you are as an artist/designer while meeting the expectations/vision of the client is a delicate balance. This new logo is supposed to represent the satisfaction of the designer and the client. For a graphic designer, nothing is better than a satisfied client. Well actually… nothing is better than a client that loves your design as much as you do.

Business Cards

Business Card- Back

Business Card- Front  Creating a business card was something that I researched a lot before I started laying out my own. It is amazing to me how far the design of a business card has come. I have found everything from contact info printed on beef jerky to a perforated card that can be torn down the middle for a divorce attorney. I found that if your business card is unique in even the slightest way, it will find itself at the top of the pile. So here is my new design- simple, cute, and unique enough to stand out just enough.