Joseph Valadez is from San Antonio. He went to the University of Texas at Arlington and graduated in 2018 with a Bachelors of Science in Information Systems. Joseph enjoys spending time in the small towns of New Braunfels and Gruene, Texas, where most of his family lives. He moved to Austin in late 2020 to start working as a Systems Analyst.
His time spent out of work consists of running, kayaking, camping, fishing, and many other outdoor activities where most of his inspiration arises. Joseph paints mainly with acrylic and watercolor while also exploring other types of art such as sculpting and ceramics. Joseph says that his most recent and invested painting started when he moved to Austin.
“Gruene Hall at Dusk” took approximately 150 hours, and was completed in March of 2021. “Gruene reminds me of a place where I have shared great times with friends and family. This piece was painted for my daughter which encouraged me to bring out my best work.”
“The prints that Miller IDS provided have portrayed every detail that my original painting has. Dana Burton has kept in direct contact with me during my process of scanning my artwork and made sure that I received the highest quality prints. Dana and her team make this process easy and stress free. I can trust Miller IDS with my artwork and I am looking forward to continuing working together.”
Waterloo Turf Co. brings 5+ years of local turf and installation knowledge to every project site they step foot on. With several hundred thousand square feet of turf installations under their belt, they know how to maximize your space and capture your perfect yard.
Waterloo Turf is held to the highest quality standard on the market backed by their manufacturer’s 15 year warranty. Every Waterloo Turf product is built to be safe and guaranteed to be lead-free, making it great for families, kids and pets. From general lawn replacements to pet systems, custom speed putting greens and playgrounds, Waterloo Turf has everything you need to create, envision and build your dream backyard!
We can print your business’ marketing collateral, not just your exhibit boards and business cards! We produce name tags, brochures, flyers, booklets, and more!
For Waterloo Turf, we produced and printed a variety of business collateral. We printed business cards, turf tags to identify samples, flyers, and a contour-cut (non-rectangular) foamcore sign for customers to be photographed with.
We really appreciate customers like Waterloo Turf reaching out for these supporting printed documents! What can we do for you?
Having grown up in Monroe, Louisiana, CoCo Zentner’s artwork stems from her many days spent soaking in the culture, food, and nature of her southern surroundings. The vibrant atmosphere of her upbringing contributes to her heavy use of color, which plays a significant role in her art.
CoCo is constantly seeking to bring light and beauty to often-overlooked subjects, reflecting a detail and depth resonating with many collectors and designers alike. She paints primarily in oil and watercolor while also exploring different mediums such as oil pastels and charcoal.
“I have loved working with Miller IDS & Dana over the past few years. They are able to replicate my artwork precisely each time and always in a timely manner. As an artist, it has been a joy to see my work come to life in a different form all due to the Miller team.”
Born in Houston, Collins was reared on his family’s small ranch in north Texas during the heart of the great depression. His youth was almost idyllic, roaming freely through the woods and streams of the beautiful Trinity River valley.
Art was a compulsion from his earliest days, often to the detriment of his scholastic efforts! After several educational false starts, and military service during the Korean war, he yielded to his artistic urges and completed his formal education at UT Austin in 1956.
He immediately began a 52 year career as a freelance illustrator and graphic designer. Busy years followed, with a great variety of commercial clients, but in his early 40’s, painting became an important part of his work, and he participated in many prominent shows throughout the Southwest, as well as enjoying some gallery representation.
Collins’ eclectic subject matter reflects his rural upbringing, as well as impressions and experiences encountered in career of many decades.
Now painting and showing at a reduced pace, he still delights in hitting the back roads in search of new impressions to bring back to his easel and record….the compulsion still lingers!
We submitted these seven pieces of work on behalf of our customers for judging in the Print Industry of America (PIA) MidAmerica’s “Graphic Excellence Awards” or GraphEx. Five won Best of Category and will move on to being judged at a National Level.
As you take pride in your work, we take pride in producing your work! We are proud of ourselves and of you for these beautiful pieces. Thank you to these amazing companies and individuals who trust us to produce a phenomenal product.
We will keep you updated on the National awards when they are announced.
For more information on our Graphic Printing services, please contact Elesha at CSSR7@MillerIDS.com.
Plank Seafood Provisions (Flagship Restaurant Group) just came to Austin and is located in The Domain. FRG reached out to us after our first successful restaurant project with them, Anthem. Ryan, our graphics account manager, worked closely with FRG to bring their vision to life with another successful launch of their newest project, Plank.
For the interior windows, we printed a chicken wire pattern onto a clear vinyl adhesive to give the illusion of chicken wire embedded in the glass, adding visual interest.
Ryan came up with a solution for a graphic detail in the entryway tile that is low commitment but still eye catching. Plank wanted to feature a design in their entryway but didn’t want to commit to a permanent tile design. Ryan printed small vinyl circles the size of the individual penny tiles, outlined the design of an anchor, and attached the vinyl covers over each individual tile, creating the anchor. The vinyl covers were heat-applied to the flooring to create a smooth, strong, and long-lasting bond.
We also printed and installed a custom fish mural, which Haylie also designed, on their outdoor patio, and large-scale removeable adhesives, one for a wall and one for the ceiling. The constellation ceiling mural was custom designed by Haylie Rousek with FRG and features the typical astrological constellations, accented with personalized designs. Haylie added in the shape of Texas, an anchor, a ship, a fish, and a whale, adding to the nautical theme of the restaurant. Haylie also designed a large ocean mural for one of their walls, that shows crashing white waves.
We can now print promotional items such as pens, coffee mugs, face masks, and more!
We are always looking for unique jobs we have done to share with our customers, and this is definitely one of those. This really unique opportunity presented itself when sports nutrition company, Nutrabolt (C4), reached out to us to produce challenge coins to grow their military presence.
Traditionally, a challenge coin is a small coin or specially cut medallion, with an organization’s insignia or emblem pressed or embossed into it. The challenge coin is carried by the organization’s members, or put on display. They can also be collected by service members and law enforcement personnel. Historically, challenge coins were presented by unit commanders in recognition of special achievement by a member of the unit.
Nutrabolt wanted a way to create brand awareness and brand recognition on military bases, and decided to lean into military traditions in order to do so in a special and memorable way.
Nutrabolt is getting ready to roll out their C4 yellow cans in the military through their beverage distributors. The idea of creating a challenge coin came from one of their distributors who covers several military bases. They plan to present the coins to distributor sales teams covering the bases, as well as store management on-base. The challenge coins will be used for displays, incremental placements, and as a tool for brand recognition that falls in-line with military customs.
We love getting to work on special projects like this one, and really appreciate when customers come to us with creative ideas we get to help bring to reality!
Sarah Wilson is an Austin-raised photographer and cinematographer. Her passion for photography and storytelling was born here, at Austin High. Sarah pursued a classical photography education at NYU’s Tisch School and remained in New York City throughout her twenties. She started as an intern and assistant for some of her photography heroes, including Mary Ellen Mark, Ken Schles, Robert Clark, and James Evans before creating her own body of work.
Since 2000, Sarah has worked professionally, balancing personal projects, documentary films and editorial assignments. She has worked for The New York Times Magazine, Time, The Atlantic, Mother Jones, Texas Monthly, and others. Her work has been acquired by the Harry Ransom Center and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. Sarah is also teaching Expressive Photography at ACC’s Department of Professional Photography, encouraging students to pursue personal projects, alongside their commercial work.
As a documentary filmmaker Sarah has served as Director of Photography and Producer, working alongside her husband, Director Keith Maitland, on the films, TOWER, an animated retelling of the 1966 UT Tower shooting, and A SONG FOR YOU: The Austin City Limits Story. Both films premiered at SXSW in 2016. TOWER received three SXSW awards, a Critics Choice Award, and the Emmy for Best Historical Documentary. Their newest documentary, DEAR MR. BRODY, was set to premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival and the Telluride Film Festival—but both were cancelled due to COVID-19. Sarah said, “We are excited that the film was featured at the SXSW virtual film festival last week.”
“I like to photograph people- I love telling stories…but I also like to be in the lonely West Texas desert, photographing in the stark landscape.”
Essentials Q&A
What pulled you to honor and highlight these women essential workers?
As the pandemic set in and our community was asked to shelter in place, I quarantined with my immediate family. As a photographer, my work was not deemed essential, but something about the word ‘essential’ really spoke to me. I became especially grateful for the workers that were keeping our community safe and moving forward. I started to think about the women workers, many of whom were juggling responsibilities at home, while facing this public health crisis due to their ‘essential’ work. Inspired by these women, I felt an overwhelming need to recognize their courage, so I started taking portraits of essential women workers in Austin, on location, outside, at their workplace. As the body of work started to expand, I decided to submit the work to the City of Austin Museums and Cultural Programs grant, called ArtsResponders: Social Practice Responds to COVID-19. I was excited that the project was selected, but that was just the beginning.
How did you find these specific women to photograph?
In partnership with the Dougherty Arts Center and ArtsResponders, we put out a call for entries for people in the Austin area to nominate the essential women workers in their lives. We chose 15 honorees to photograph out of over 100 nominations, and instead of having an indoor gallery show, we decided to present the work as large-scale wheat-pasted portraits on the sides of participating buildings throughout Austin.
Any plans to do another project in this same style?
I think I caught the wheat paste bug! Now I feel like everything has to be big and public!
How did you decide on wheat paste?
With the ArtsResponders grant, I needed to keep my budget low, while at the same time creating a public art exhibition. Weatherproof photographic materials can be very expensive to print, and just as expensive to install. While brainstorming presentation solutions with Annie, my rep at the Dougherty Arts Center, we came up with the idea of wheat-pasted portraits. I was definitely inspired by the artist JR, and his large-scale wheat paste installations. I decided we needed some large-scale portraits of women workers here in Austin!
What has the feedback been like on the photographs?
We’ve had a very positive response to the work, through the local news media, on Instagram, and word of mouth. Yesterday on Instagram, I saw that a nurse had taken a photo of herself next to the large-scale portrait of an ICU nurse. In the comments, she said that seeing these 19ft tall portraits made her feel that her hard work on the frontline was also being recognized. This is what I intended- that each of these portraits would come to represent the thousands of women in our community who have worked so hard to keep our community safe and moving forward. This project is a big thank you!
How did you choose Miller to print the photos?
I chose Miller because I’ve been a customer on and off over the years, and the location was very convenient for me. I did some research and found out that Miller could print 36” x 48” on a lighter weight paper, which works well for wheat paste. After the first round of test prints, I learned that Miller has very quick turnaround times, and has a super-friendly staff. It’s a treat when Larry brings my order out to the parking lot…what a nice guy!
Anything else you want to add?
Another exciting aspect of the project is the Instagram site, @essentialsatx. We not only feature photos of the large-scale portrait installations, but we also post the images and stories of all the nominees even those that weren’t selected. It’s starting to become a great online community and a way to honor these awesome women.
Our friends over at Hemlock & Heather reached out to us to see if we wanted to be part of their efforts to help with the disaster relief after our unprecedented weather this month. We of course said yes and the limited edition Texas Strong Wall Hanging was born!
Before we get any farther, Hemlock & Heather is only taking preorders through tomorrow, March 2, so if you want one, order now! 100% of the proceeds from the Texas Strong Wall Hanging will go to I Live Here I Give Here‘s Disaster Relief Fund.
After the winter storm that hit Texas hard, Kris and Kelley of Hemlock & Heather knew they had to do something to help those who were devastated by the unprecedented weather conditions and its aftermath. So many families, so many businesses were without electricity, heat, and water in freezing temperatures. So, they got to work on that Friday morning sketching out a concept for a Texas Wall Hanging that they could sell to support relief efforts.
“The idea behind the design for this 8″ Texas Strong Wall Hanging was simple: we wanted to convey hope and strength. So, we married retro colors we love to the suggestion of dawn breaking on a frigid Texas.”
Because, “Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.” – Victor Hugo, Les Miserables
We are so glad to be apart of something directly helping fellow Texans, and are thankful to work with such great customers, and now partners, like Hemlock & Heather!
Kate Fitzpatrick is a painter and illustrator whose work focuses primarily on animal portraits and animal stories. She is originally from Indiana and studied film in Georgia. She spent years working in reality TV in Los Angeles before eventually making her way to Austin to focus on working full time as an artist. Fitzpatrick said the art scene in Austin has been incredibly rich and supportive.
She is a lifelong animal lover and that is evident in her work. She is fascinated by animal behavior and true animal stories, from elephant funerals to humpback whale calves breaching for the first time, and much more. These stories inspire her paintings and illustrations. “I love color, thick brush strokes, paint texture, and gold dots, which find their way into everything I do!” Fitzpatrick said. Her paintings are acrylic on cotton canvas or cradled wood, and her illustrations are highly detailed pen and art marker on heavyweight paper.
View her available work in person at Art For The People Gallery in Austin
See more of Kate’s art on her website and on Instagram.
There’s never been a better time to upgrade to an HP DesignJet large-format printer. Whether you’re producing high-quality color photos, POP signs, backlits, CAD drawings, GIS maps, or presentations, there’s an HP DesignJet printer that’s the perfect fit for your business.
Like many other businesses, we are conducting business through curbside service and delivery. We wanted to bring advertising outside where our customers are — plus show off our graphics printing and installation capabilities.
We decided to update the exterior of our Metric store location with a custom mural printed in-house on our HP 1500 latex printer. We used Drytac anti-graffiti lamination to make our mural durable and easy to clean. To prep the wall and give our mural the best chance at adhering long-term, we first had to power wash it. We opted for a fresh coat of paint so that the colors would pop. The final prep was to let the paint “gas out” for 2 weeks.
We wanted to thank the sponsors of our mural for their support in our Metric makeover. Thank you to Alonzo Suarez of ASM Painting for power washing our wall to get it prepped for the entire process, Clements Paint for supplying our new coat of paint, Tom Page for installation services, and our very own Vittoria Mottler for the incredible design!
The majority of the mural was all hand cut by our graphics production team, and the music note details and logo were cut by our iEcho router. Considering the face of our building endures some pretty heavy sun exposure, we don’t anticipate seeing any quality changes for the first 6 months. After 6 months, we may start to see some minor fading, but the mural itself, under normal weathering circumstances, will remain intact. The adhesive on the vinyl melts into the textured surface of the concrete, so there shouldn’t be any lifting happening (under normal weathering circumstances) for at least a couple years.
As far as the design goes, we wanted to include the ever-growing Austin skyline with the silhouettes of recognizable buildings across the entire background of the mural. We featured a lot of iconic Austin imagery, because Miller is an iconic staple in the Austin print community. The graphic elements are all representative of Austin and Texas as a whole, which we think all Austinites and Texans can appreciate. The blue color scheme comes from our logo, and a pop of new color represents another aspect of Miller growing and expanding, especially in the Graphics Department.
We featured 6th Street, not only because it is famous in Austin, but also as a nod to our long-standing time on 6th Street before relocating to East 7th. We included the quintessential phrase, “Keep Austin Weird” accompanied by a dancing taco, because us Austinites love our tacos. We paid tribute to our home of 100 years with “512 Home” written down the door, and “We Love Austin” further down the wall paired with a horseshoe — because all Texans ride horses. Being in the Live Music Capital of the World, we had to include some music notes dancing across the skyline. We hope that those who drive by our building find some joy from our mural and may be inspired to change up their space with our help.
We had so much fun coming up with all the design aspects, prepping the space as a team, and sharing it with our community! If you want to add a fun graphic element to your building, space, office, even home, reach out to our graphics team; they would love to help!
Anna Lisa was born in Laredo on the border of Texas and Mexico. There, her father planted many fruit trees including tangerine, orange, lime, peach and fig. She spent many days playing under and in the tangerine trees in her backyard. She spent hours drawing in the shade of the trees where her mother set her up with a large pad on a bench and Anna Lisa on a small chair. Anna Lisa says she’s been a creative as long as she can remember — whether it was drawing, dancing or creating in other ways. She continued to draw through her high school and college years, recreating images from magazines and doing portraits on request. Anna Lisa left Laredo at the age of 16 and moved to central Texas where she attended college at Texas State University in San Marcos.
Over time, her love of visual art was set aside for more “practical” studies and ultimately a corporate career. In 2008, as part of her personal renewal, she returned to the garden to draw. Anna Lisa said, “Although I lost my sense of time while I drew, I found myself and inner harmony through art. I felt like a child again. I was experiencing the world with new eyes”, and she hasn’t stopped creating since.
She loves to work with pastels because “the colors are unparalleled – pigments at their purest!” She also calls pastels her adult crayons and has explored the medium voraciously from the moment she picked them up. Upon moving to her current property, she spent the first few years creating art through landscaping. When there was no more room for real gardens, her gardens and its inhabitants began to extend into her artwork.
Anna Lisa’s artwork embodies the patterns of nature, particularly botanicals. She is driven to create paintings which reflect nature’s captivating beauty, and it is her artistic mission to transport nature’s beautiful design to indoor living spaces. As a lifetime Texan, the various floral and animal inhabitants of the Southwest, specifically Big Bend, New Mexico and Arizona are frequent subjects of her work, as well as the Sonoran and Chihuahua deserts.
“My heart is with the agave. I am moved by the stateliness of the agave and the seemingly endless variations in size, colors and shapes. I enjoy the colorful and dangerous beauty of cactus, the undulation of the agave leaf imprinted by the now unfurled leaf, and the poignant swan song beauty of the agave flower. But, I am also enamored with tropical flowers particularly those in Hawaii and Costa Rica.”
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