holly-tarquinio

Inspired to Create

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Every year, Quarter Horse News enters the American Horse Publications’ award contest, where we submit our best content from the year prior to be judged. Winning is a sign we’re hitting the mark in delivering the excellent publication we strive to produce. Keep reading for QHN Senior Graphic Designer Holly Tarquinio’s thoughts on the process, the year behind and the year ahead…

Reading through last year’s issues for American Horse Publication submissions has my brain spinning. Spinning with excitement and inspired to create more and do more.

Maybe my head is still a bit loopy from fighting off a head cold all week, while finishing up another issue of QHN. Or maybe just remembering the past year and reminding myself of all the good that came out of it has my creativity swirling.

For the QHN staff, 2014 was a rough year, to say the least. But through it all we managed to produce some inspiring and informative work. Articles about the horse community coming together to build a memorial gymnasium in Weatherford (that has now had its first game) and educational articles about sustaining a successful horse business and the event coverage – my gosh, the event coverage (how exciting was the NRHA Futurity tie?!) – have all got me excited about this new year and what we can accomplish. We even managed a redesign of the magazine. As the graphic designer, that alone made my head spin. We endured tough losses, personally and professionally, but we also produced good stuff. That is exciting to me.

Going through it all over the last couple of days reminds me of all the talent I’m surrounded by every day. It has reminded me to not take for granted how blessed I am to be who I am and to be able to work with such talented and good-hearted people. Turning out two issues every month, it is often difficult to find time to reflect on where we’ve been. But, through all the stress of the tough times, it’s remembering the good stuff that keeps me pushing onto the next obstacle. For me that’s the next issue’s layouts, getting back to my own art aspirations, spending more time helping at my in-law’s ranch, or even just making more time to pursue my own passions with parrots and educating others about them.

What I will do is take this creative energy and use it as best I can to continue to produce functional and beautiful work and improve upon what we’ve already done. I will try my best to harness the energy to focus on dreams/goals that are important to me. And maybe my excitement will rub off on few people and get their brains spinning too.

butting-heads-htarquinio“Butting Heads” by Holly Tarquinio