Yeah, the process isn’t always pretty. Oh my gosh. Yes that is my actual desk and my actual iMac desktop (with a gazillion files open).

I took my portfolio site down awhile ago and set a date for a relaunch. “April 1st,” I thought. It seemed far enough away. So much time to get super awesome clients and photograph my work professionally…maybe even get pictures taken of myself so I look really cool and pretty?!

April Fools Day, ME. I had no idea the irony behind my little relaunch date. Future me was playing a joke and I’ll admit, it’s kind of funny.

Am I proud of what I’m showcasing at www.allisonlehman.com? Yes of course. Did I work hard? You bet. Is it everything I hoped it would be and is this portfolio complete? Not a chance.

But isn’t that the beauty in the process? That as an artist, my portfolio will never be finished? I’ll never have that moment where I say, “I will love this body of work forever and now I can retire and play golf.” (Golf? No, I meant get spa treatments.)

So my hope is that you can take a look at my work today and appreciate it and maybe visit again down the road and see it evolve.

Through this process, I’ve also realized that not only do I want to share gorgeous and handsome things here on my blog…but I also want to share my more of my random thoughts. Thoughts on freelance clients, finding your style, trying not to be EVERYONE’s designer, and how it’s okay to just have hobbies. Those posts will be coming very soon.

As for now, take a peek at my process and let me know what you think.

Everyone is a graphic designer these days and sometimes our culture forgets that it takes a lot of work. Not every designer just live traces everything and slaps on some generic font. I’ve started and completed so many projects this past year and the process is difficult. I thought I’d share a few of my “draft” vs “final” snapshots so that you can see the process. Enjoy!

^ This project is a current one. It’s always interesting to see where a project goes when the designer and the client have two completely different visions. I actually really like both versions.

^ This project has been completed and it took me awhile, as the designer, to understand what the client was looking for. Sometimes communicating through email isn’t good enough and because of this project, we began using Skype to talk voice-to-voice.

^ This wedding invitation set has not even been revealed on my website, blog, or Facebook page yet! I’m excited to show you all the entire set because it’s one of my favorites. The couple really knew what they wanted but even the most detail oriented people have so many options to choose from.

Hopefully I’ll be able to share things like this more often. No Monday Link Love today. I posted a lot links via Twitter last week. Check them out here along with some of my other favorite tweets by others.