By Way of Introduction

Hello Steemers!

Having just discovered Steemit today, I decided to give it a try.

At this point in my life I am a "semi-retired" Graphic Artist. For seventeen years it was my pleasure to own and operate a sign & graphics business known as "Concept One, Creative Services" in the small city of Lufkin, Texas. "Signs, Graphics, Airbrush" was the grouping of words used on all promotional items to describe what I did.

Living in a small city prevented me from turning down any project large or small. From wall murals 20 feet high by 70 feet long, to airbrushed t-shirts, cars, trucks, tractor trailers...and even guitar straps, stuffed animals, and notebook covers. Signs of every size, shape and material, hand painted, airbrushed, and computer assisted cutting with transfer application occupied my time. Many times I got no sleep for as much as 24 hours at a stretch trying to meet a deadline.

During those years I also maintained random side gigs along the way when necessary to make ends meet. Eventually I closed down that business and went into the construction arena full time always doing selective graphics on the side. It was a nice change to get a budget-able paycheck and have someone else carry any risks. It was also refreshing to my creativity to finally be able to turn down graphics projects I'd rather not get into.

I'm still in the construction and maintenance industry part-time while continuing selective graphics. The "TMP" in my moniker are my personal initials, and the "S/G" at this time stands for Saturday Graphics, hinting at the sideline nature of my current design work. The "S/G" originally stood for Studio Gallery. I spent a year renovating an old building here in our downtown area and offered fine art pieces as well as the usual graphics I had always done, while at the same time posting and selling my designs online in the "Print-on-Demand" sector.

When the online part of my graphics started outperforming the studio gallery I realized I was much better off just designing and posting rather than having inventory, machines, materials, overhead, and business hours to worry about. I wasted no time closing down the gallery and converting my graphic efforts totally online.

And so, that is where things stand for me now. There is a lot to do in building an online presence, and currently being only semi-retired I can not devote as much time as I need to. Once I fully retire and start collecting from the great social security ponzi scheme I can spend more time posting and interacting.

Nonetheless, Steemit caught my attention because back on 10/17/15 I had made a design playing on the words "Self Esteem" & "Selfie" as well as "Steam". As of today, 9-2-16 I have it available on 49 projects over on redbubble.com.  Click here to browse my  "Selfie Steam" design.

You can also find me on Facebook "TMP s/g FB", and Youtube "TMP s/g YT".

Looking forward to seeing how Steemit turns out!