Interview with Shauna Lair – ArtFields™ Logo Contest Winner!

It’s a beautiful spring evening in Florence, SC when Shauna Lair arrives home from her new job at SGS International, Inc. [in McBee, SC.], a global leader in digital imaging and design-to-press graphic services company where Shauna now serves as Production Artist. As a recent graduate of Francis Marion University, with a degree in Visual Communications and Graphic Design, Shauna says she is “learning the ropes”.

Shauna grew up in Ohio but moved to South Carolina at age 10. She considers herself a “happy transplant”. She is proud to be a southerner, but stays true to her Ohio roots at the same time. Shauna didn’t always realize her artistic talents. She knew at an early age that she was creative, but never thought there would be a practical use for it. As a matter of fact, for her first degree, she majored in English. As a teen, she enjoyed theater and started drawing people and objects. At Francis Marion University, she learned how to take her literary ideas and channel her talents into practical graphic design work.

This March, in her senior year at Francis Marion, Shauna entered our logo competition that was open to students at Francis Marion University in Florence, Coker College in Hartsville and Coastal University in Conway. She won the competition and has created the logo for the upcoming festival called ArtFields. Set to run from April 19th-28th, 2013, ARTFIELDS is an Art Contest that will take place in Lake City, SC. We will be bringing together people from all walks of life and innovative ideas with a 10 day event series of great art, food, music and fun!

When we asked Shauna what her inspiration was for the winning logo design, she said her first step was to get all the literal translations out on paper. She drew paintbrushes, fields, and grain; and got them all out of her system. Then she went back to the boundaries set by the rules of the contest. “A light bulb went off”, she exclaims. She envisioned a field of dreams. An unkempt field that had tons of dandelions where she could pick up and blow the seeds away with a wish. She thought about how these dreams could go anywhere and broad enough to take people with them; as art should be.

Shauna doesn’t necessarily consider herself an artist. She considers herself a designer, “a problem solver, who is creating a visual solution to a problem”, she says.

If you’d like to be inspired by Shauna, visit her blog at shaunalair.com.