My Story

I am a graphic designer, who started out in a top notch advertising firm and I quickly moved on to opening up my own graphic design firm.  I designed pretty much everything and anything printed.  Business cards, letterheads, brochures, flyers, catalogs, print ads for newspapers, magazines, newsletters, logos, etc. ... if it was printed, I could design it! 

I started out doing traditional mechanicals and paste ups ... linotype, wax, letraset type, t-squares, triangles - my mechanicals were better than anyone I knew.  I was among the first to learn how to design things on a Mac in college.  Fresh out of college, the ad agency I worked for had just gotten new Macs ... but because I was just a lowly little person in the art department, one of the "staff artists" I wasn't allowed to use the computers.  They were for the art directors, who barely new how to turn them on.  So ... I decided to go out on my own.  Bought my own Mac SE 30 with a huge two page display, a laser printer and I have been in business for myself since!  I could make pretty much any business look good in two dimension.  

Then came the revolution of inexpensive home computers and cheap design software.  Why pay a talented graphic designer with a bachelors degree to create something gorgeous when you can have your secretary create it on the cheap?

I was designing so much on computers, I needed to get back to doing something more creative, something more along the lines of fine art.  So, I started to take watercolor painting classes, I attended workshops.  My most favorite mentor was Zoltan Szabo.  I took a bunch of his workshops and I have all of his watercolor books.  He is a fabulous inspiration and I will always treasure his workshops and the life long friends I made there.  If you love watercolor or if you are thinking about giving it a try, find some of his books.

My husband is an industrial designer.  He opened his own business designing and creating graphics for race cars, trucks, karts, boats, transport vehicles, commercial vehicles and more.  His business started to pick up.  I was helping him, doing my own graphic design work and painting more and more.  Something had to give ... I couldn't keep doing all three.  So I gave up my graphic design business and got more involved in designing graphics for race cars and creating the in-house graphics, web design, photography, bookkeeping, etc. for Squier Design.

My creative outlet for fine art is watercolor painting.  I do dabble occasionally in other mediums as well, however, my favorite is watercolor painting.  I love it and I now share my love for it by teaching watercolor painting classes.  I love to paint and I now have an endless supply of already created watercolor paintings and I keep on painting more!

You can view just a sampling of my art in my gallery:  http://rasquier.com