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Erica Mays | Brand & Experience Designer

I’m a creative professional in the DC Metro area, making my living doing what I love: designing to help people, and for social change! I’m incredibly passionate about this work, and would be happy to talk about what we can create together. If you need a logo, branding package, website, or the complete user experience process, let’s chat! To get in touch, please visit my contact page, or shoot me an email at [email protected].

Design Thinking, from start to finish

One of the most useful things you learn in art school is Design Thinking. Planning a brand, website, or digital service always starts with research, and lots of it. With adequate insight into your target demographic, including user personas, user interviews, and focus groups, we can get a better idea of what resonates with your people. After planning and research, I always begin designs with pencil and paper. You’ll be there through every part of the process, as we move into digitizing your logo, or making a prototype of your user interface or website. Once we’ve made all the revisions we need, you’ll get a final deliverable that’s polished and ready to use, with all of that planning behind it. Intuitive, user-centered designs are the way forward as we move into an increasingly digital world!

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    If you'd like to chat about my process, hiring me for a project, the meaning of life, or just want to say hello, drop me a line at [email protected]
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  • ericamays.art

    Spring in dc is stunning—and offers so much insp Spring in dc is stunning—and offers so much inspiration for any botanical artist. I’ve been struggling to paint lately. My creativity has gotten lost in the stress of these tumultuous times. I’ve heard in adversity, artists thrive and uphold communities. So I’m trying my best, getting outside, exercising, eating healthier, sleeping more. Anything to find the energy to keep fighting back, and hopefully one day soon get back to creating. I hope these blooms inspire you the way they inspired me, at least to start thinking of things we can create to feel fulfilled and whole. Art, community, relationships. If you can, please call your reps, attend local protests, and donate if possible to causes you care about. It’s a lot but I’m doing my best! Please join me, and take care.
    Mixed some new ink with watercolor, and I’m happ Mixed some new ink with watercolor, and I’m happy with the results. This palette is soothing and dreamy to me. Not sure what these will end up evolving into but I’m trying to enjoy the journey
    Finally finished swatching all my watercolors and Finally finished swatching all my watercolors and inks! I only have a few gouache paints to add and my complete collection will be done. It’s so helpful to have these swatches for inspiration, I picked 4 colors to make these moody space/cloud backgrounds using the swatches and I’m really happy with the tones and shifting colors. Mixing watercolor with ink is new for me and challenging, but I learned a lot doing these sketchbook pages! The gold is very powerful, I want to learn how to dilute it to my personal preference so it’s less sting in this composition. #watercolor #ink #gouache #space #clouds
    I was so excited to find a good purpose for this c I was so excited to find a good purpose for this cosmic art, it was my first success mixing gold watercolor into a wet on wet background in the way I liked. I loved this color scheme, I think I’ll try to find more excuses to use the same palette again. #watercolor #cosmic #art
    Playing with my shimmery fountain pen inks using w Playing with my shimmery fountain pen inks using watercolor brushes uncovered interesting textures and color combinations. The inks behave very temperamentally, even more difficult to control than watercolor. They really have a mind of their own, and the way they settle is really beautiful and free. Thinking I’ll make some kind of resistance artwork using them this weekend. So far my favorite is by Ferris Wheel Press, it’s “Unfettered Flight,” a light blue ink with pink and gold shimmer. #ink #watercolor
    It’s nice to have Nova helping me select a weddi It’s nice to have Nova helping me select a wedding palette, she knows a lot about color theory. Her expertise however, is convincing my partner that I haven’t already fed her dinner. Anyway… I love making up fantasy plants, merging two existing ones, and just playing around with leaf shapes. Had a lot of fun experimenting with this palette
    Happy holidays, y’all. The past few months have Happy holidays, y’all. The past few months have been pretty tough, but I’m not giving up! This year I wanted to design a holiday message that resonated with how I’m feeling in this moment. I hope you all are eating delicious food and getting to spend time with people who fill your cup ♥️ sending love and warm wishes your way, and the hope for a brighter future, and the strength to fight for it. Take care of yourselves in these dark Winter months, my loves.
    Playing in my new watercolor sketchbook while my b Playing in my new watercolor sketchbook while my backgrounds dry. Unrelated, I have perfect cats #watercolor #traditionalart
    Got a new watercolor sketchbook, been doodling in Got a new watercolor sketchbook, been doodling in it
    Joined a group challenge to make art for at least Joined a group challenge to make art for at least 15 minutes every day in December. Let’s see how it goes! I love starting paintings and playing with texture and color
    Swipe to go backwards in time. Had fun with this o Swipe to go backwards in time. Had fun with this one. Obsessed with the one on the right with the pink underpainting. Also just with the underpaintings in general, they are so much fun to do and feel like a tether to solid things. I picked bright warm colors like I saw on my trip to Mexico and it really paid off. Would love to have the budget to travel more often one day and try to incorporate what I see into art.
Making these helped me perk up a bit, this month has been hard. I find myself falling back on Sam’s speech in The Two Towers, because there’s good in this world and it’s worth fighting for. Art has definitely been a good coping mechanism… don’t ask me about the bad ones 😅 DoorDash take my money
    My favorite parts of painting are probably the ver My favorite parts of painting are probably the very beginning and the very end. Obsessed with how these underpaintings turned out. I finished these tonight and will share the result tomorrow when the light is back. #gouachepainting #underpainting #orange #pink

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