Many years ago I designed note pads along with my artistic children for teachers, friends and family as holiday gifts.
It all started in 1992. I sat in my basement studio making an illustration to place on the corner of a note pad, to give as holiday gifts. Drawing is my favorite thing to do, so this was not a chore. My local printer gladly helped me lay out the art to send it to print. These were the old days when the cutting and pasting were done with scissors and glue. The school teachers were especially appreciative of the utilitarian gift.
Year after year I received wonderful feedback from the folks that received these lovely and useful gifts. Each year I sat down to prepare a drawing for the note pads to have them ready by the holidays.
As a child and teenager, I recall my Dad’s use of note pads.
He used the small version of the traditional yellow, ruled legal pad. There was always a pad on the desk or counter-top with a grocery list or to-do list. He was ultra-organized. As his daughter, I admired and imitated this pattern of daily life. Indoor play-time for me was acting like an office worker at a desk or waitress with a note pad, taking a lunch order.
Many years after the inception of the yearly tradition, I began to make custom note pads. Yup, you guessed it, I made some for the Father I adored! He really loved using these special note pads. (He was in his early 80’s when I made the two note pads in the slideshow below. They include photos of when he was just a young lad of the age of 11!) He remained a very organized man until the end, utilizing my note pads as his favorite form of note taking.
Upon an unexpected job lay-off in April of 2014, I began to produce the note pads as the back-bone of Dancing Frog Press. I continue to produce a note pad as my holiday gift each year, lovingly pouring my heart into the design.
Dancing Frog Press: connect…give…love.
