Design Spotlight: Patty Cimlov-Zahares

I am a graphic design professional and art director who was always too busy with design and art direction, to do any illustrations (other than logo designs). Drawing is something I loved to do when I was younger, but for several decades I wasn’t drawing much. As art director and designer, I do rough sketches or comps, then hire professional illustrators or photographers for different projects.

Now, with more time on my hands, I’ve been having fun getting back into doodling and creating simple illustrations for my greeting cards and also for several of my design projects. For an illustration like this one, I start out with a rough sketch, usually on post-it notes or a small pad of paper, using ink pens (as I hardly ever draw with pencils), scan it, then trace and tweak my drawing in Adobe Illustrator, further enhancing it in Photoshop.

I created these toucan love birds for a wedding card and am waiting for approval for the same card for gay and lesbian couples. I photographed the background and blurred it, so the focus would be on the toucans. There are also gay and lesbian versions.

I’m a native Californian who lives and works in Silicon Valley and relaxes and plays in the water-front community of Discovery Bay with my husband, Mike and our Golden Retriever, Riley (also a subject in many of my cards).

Check out my web site with my portfolio

And a children’s book that I wrote and illustrated

I’m inspired by other artists here at GCU and love seeing their creations. Thank you for putting the spotlight on me!