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This is a different flavor of post from my usual photography-rich travel stories. I know I don’t post a lot of my design work on here, but I am in fact a graphic designer as well as a photographer, and this is a fun project I wanted to share. For the past several months, I’ve felt myself needing a personal project… something of a self-assignment that would eventually amount to a decent body of work.  I also wanted it to be something that meant something to ME. The first, and obvious, thing that came to my mind was a cohesive collection of travel photographs (I AM constantly traveling) but I realized that something like that would be a really long term project. For example, I’d like to eventually create a photo book with fine art images of the southwest U.S., but in order to do that, I need to spend a LOT of time there, making repeat visits in all kinds of weather conditions. This will take a while, and I wouldn’t be in control of every aspect of it. So moving on from that idea, I tried to think about what I was passionate about… outside of travel, that is. When the answer came to me, I almost felt silly that I hadn’t thought of it ages ago. Animals. I adore animals. Heck, I even have a degree in animal science. I don’t use it, but I have it.

Dogs have always been a part of my life and I’ve always felt connected to them. To say I am a dog person would be an understatement. I really think they have this whole life thing down pat, and they are truly the masters of unconditional love. I just love the following quote:

“A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than you love yourself.”  ~Josh Billings

I decided that I wanted to take on a project where dogs were the sole theme, and, for a couple of reasons, I chose to make this a design project and not a photography project. What I came up with was a series of vintage-style posters featuring the different breeds. They’re all so different, and they all have their own quirks, so I knew it would be fun to come up with a custom image for each one. I am going to gradually add to this collection and I expect the whole series will take quite some time, but I like that. This is what I needed.

Here are the first couple of posters I’ve created so far. I will gradually add on to these and create a gallery and a book. Enjoy!