Deneen Pottery is a second generation family business established in 1972 in a two car garage by Peter and Mary Deneen in Saint Paul, MN. Their goal has remained unchanged: create functional, beautiful, hand-thrown stoneware for our clients. They collaborate with companies both small and large, from coast to coast – through manufacturing handmade pottery mugs in the USA.
Originally Deneen brought me on to solve a filing format issue they were having. They thought this project would take 4-5months. After 2 or 3 weeks I solved their filing problem and I asked what’s next. We created a position which involved Graphic Design and Social Media Management.
My main position there involved a client sending anything from their logo to a picture of a waterfall. From that I would create a black and white image to press into a clay emblem. It took on new meaning to me to set something in stone. I developed a deep grasp of the design elements, illustration, and logo design through this process. The glaze would run into every crevice and I needed to pay attention to all the design elements to create that depth and contrast in every piece.
Another role I had was to create many print marketing pieces for the company over my tenure. These were used in everyday functions as well and large advertising efforts. I was also tasked with taking on the social media presence of the company. In a couple months, I increased their audience from two followers to over a thousand. It was a fun opportunity!
Podiumwear Custom Sports Apparel
The role I played was to provide a bridge from the customer’s vision to the design on their apparel. Working with clients ranging from 3M to Mike. Who’s Mike? Mike doesn’t really know exactly what he wants in a custom apparel suit and he tells me to make “something cool”. My job would be to guide him through the design process to find a design that make us both excited to see what it will look like out in the wild.
Australia's Winter Olympics Lead Designer
The second part of my job was to develop an image that would portray what the kits would look like on the body. With little guidance and knowledge of 3D, Podiumwear gave me a 3D program called Marvelous Designer now called CLO3D. I quickly taught myself this program and begain creating 3D images for the customer to view our products. They could now see exactly what it was that would show up in the mail
Another part of this position was production. This was a very time consuming task for the production artist. I kept asking myself - How can we make this faster? My experiences earlier in my career informed me that there had to be a way to improve these processes. I found ways to cut production down by 70% in my first year at the job. We didn’t have to hire that new second or third production artist. When we did need new employees, I was sought out to train in my efficient production process. I was the go to for knowledge in the Creative Suites, 3D and production flow for the whole design team.
The fourth part of my position involve developing the actual product. I worked closely with the lead product developer, which was something I took a lot of pride in. I provided advice on functionality and design of the clothes and the product developer would turn that into a new cycling jersey or cycling bibs. I was then able to ride with the new product and give my feedback. This was a a rewarding aspect of the work to be able to see a product through development to production.
