Here's some real fun! This graphic was created for a series of educational podcasts for the Friends Council on Education. I actually created two screens, a sign-on and a sign-off screen. My client wanted her image only on the exit image and requested a "bemused" expression on William Penn. She also wanted to be standing on top of city hall in Philadelphia with his stature! Wow, I think we've got it!

Here's what my client had to say: Liz, I just love these images!!!  They are fabulous. You got me PERFECT.  I can't believe it, actually! BEYOND loved it. ~Ginny

sign-off screen


sign-on screen (no client image)


~enlargement of main image

How nice! I was featured in Mitzavh Market!

Here's what they wrote, "Liz Oliner is an artist. Not with food, balloons or cakes, but with a good old fashioned pen and paper (and a computer!). Her company, Oliner Graphics, creates photo-inspired art  that makes for fabulous and personalized welcome signs, sign-in boards, invitations, place cards and so much more. We recently met Liz at the Celebrate! Party Showcase in Teaneck, NJ, and were very impressed!

Visit the Onliner Graphics Website to see samples, to "watch" Liz draw and to read her graphics blog.

Here's the original I based the work on.

People wonder why I wanted to stop working for agencies in the city and go on my own. This should be shown as a warning video to graphic design/illustration undergrads.



Note: I noticed this you tube video didn't pull up on my husband's PC due to lack of a plug in. So my apologies if this post didn't show properly.

Oliner Graphics participated in its first trade show yesterday. It was very fulfilling and very exhausting. I was extraordinarily busy and didn't get to sit down for 5 hours. There was a giant inflatable man (see below) across the floor from me which was quite distracting. The whole family came and wore my graphic t-shirts and they functioned as walking billboards which proved to be highly effective. I met other great vendors too that I can highly recommend, balloonartistry.com, Sarah Merian, who owns a photo/video company, and "two really fun jewish girls from Brooklyn" Karen & Sharon (917-359-3377) at partymavens.net.

Ok, now we're really having fun. I took a tabletop poster print (11" x 17") mounted it on foam core, cut out the portrait and made a foam core spinner for discounts and prizes. My beautiful assistant is also holding some of the "Oliner Cash Coupons" with her graphic on it that go with it.

Parents! Take a look at that portrait graphic over the spinner. Those tabletop poster prints are fabulous for using in many different ways at your own event. If you request it, I'll be happy to flip the art so that you can place the portrait on both sides of the same piece of foam core and stick it in your centerpiece! There's a great idea!

I'm setting up for my first trade show and thought I'd show you how big the portrait posters are and how cool they look next to a standard 12 year old boy. Once again, I took this image with the lowly mac camera (at 6:30 am, very bad light!) on my computer and it needs to be flipped. Why does it do that? With all the programming they have why can't that camera take a right-facing picture that I can use without me having to go into photoshop to horizontal flip???

I'm also back to programming again. I love it, I could easily transition to "geek" if I don't watch myself. I'm revisiting a site I made called Lauren's world. Here's the link if you'd like to see it, (click here!) I set this up when I first started programming and my daughter and her friends loved it. Trouble for me was it was too clunky and time consuming to use as an actual product on my site. I'm trying to reprogram the games now using frames (maybe a bit old fashioned, yes) and tables and importing it into my current Rapidweaver page layout program so that its more insync with my site. The goal is to take these pages and make an effortless web page for each of my Bar/Bat Mitzvah kids so that they can have their own Flash RSVP gaming page with their order.

I'm trying something new and am going to be showing samples at the Celebrate Showcase tradeshow at the Double Tree Hotel in Tarrytown, NY on Sunday. I just got off my site ordering poster samples to make up my booth. If you're going to be there stop at my booth and I'll be happy to give you a $20 off coupon on a portrait!

This is an image of the foam core stand I made for the Bike Montclair Charity Drive. Its a great organization and encourages the use of bikes and building of bike paths throughout the town. I'm donating my basic portrait package and they're going to raffle it off.

Here's the event! Try to attend!

November 15, 2008  12 PM - 3 PM
3Sixty Cycling Studio | 131 Glenridge Ave. | Montclair NJ | (973) 746-3663

Treat yourself to a 45 minutes spinning class on new, computer-equipped bikes in the loft-like space of 3Sixty Cycling Studio. Your donation of $25 or $50 to P4P or Bike Montclair will reserve a bike in one of three classes on Nov. 15, between 12 PM - 3 PM. To donate, visit www.p4p.org, www.bikemontclair.org or email smortier@p4p.org. 

Buy Holidays gifts by Montclair artists, cycling related items (safety, spinning gear...) and books (maintenance, skills, advocacy, adventure, health, novel) while tasting fair trade coffee and tea and other treats.

All proceeds will go to the organization of your choice, so please join us in support of Bike Montclair and Pedals for Progress for an afternoon dedicated to the future of biking.

My latest email blast art. Yep, that's me.

I put up a monthly ad in my town's local online paper http://baristanet.com
Its a small rotating ad only 130px x 130 px and it shares space with two other rotating ads. It starts in September. I'll see how it does. The below images are enlarged versions of the rotation samples.

I was working on a client job for a book cover and doing some illustration tests to see how I could best portray a woman "breaking through a glass ceiling". So here's my one test, that I liked so much I've decided to put it on my business cards. I needed an image on those anyway.

This will be placed behind Diane at her latest book signing.

Team members can buy apparel and gifts here, http://www.cafepress.com/olinergraphics/4875903

Oh, right, this is supposed to be a graphics blog, I best leave Hillary (the Goddess and better candidate) for a moment and show some of my recent work...

Here's the updated cover art for another powerful woman Diane Dutton of businesswomenspeak.com



I've been working on this book cover for awhile. I've been playing with the glass and the backgrounds to get the eyes to focus in on key aspects. Look hard and you can see the new logo I designed too. (Its on the left) Its been a fun project.

Here's an example of some design extremes.

Below is what the client probably wants...that school sports logo thing. I put a shield in there and made it clean and graphic but, let's face it we've see its like before. I'm sure the kids will prefer this. To be fair the focus on this graphic must be on the school represented by the M and less on the crew team. But please be patient and scroll down a bit...



and you'll come to how designers think differently than regular people.

This graphic is more focused on rowing than the school. I was thinking the 1920s, art deco, the time of rowing. Women in long shift gowns watching the races on a summer day in philadelphia. A quad pulls the perfect feather as it glides across the finish — clean, smooth and controlled. Ahhhh. You can sense the motion.

These are some of the rough sketches I provided my client on which we based our book cover illustration (Beyond the Glass Ceiling). I don't always provide the rough sketches, sometimes I sketch on the computer and give rough idea outlines that way.




I've been here myself. I remember being broke right out of college and going to a temp office. I sat next to a guy in the office with the same background, grades, school, everything. We could have been brother and sister. While I'm waiting, I was shocked to be brought in for a typing test while he was led in to be directly interviewed for a marketing research position. I remember asking why I was taking the typing test and if everyone was required to take one (meaning the guy), they just sat me down and turned on the timer.


I bet Hillary Clinton feels like this below image all the time. Where, oh where, did those 70s feminists go?


This image was pretty aggressive but fun to draw. I keep thinking, "what's going to happen to those guys when she breaks the glass". Ouch.




This was my "king kong" concept. This woman is climbing the corporate ladder being attacked by men swirling around her. This was a tricky one to sketch out and I actually had to shoot photos of my girlfriend on a ladder waving around Barbie dolls to get an idea of the perspective.

Ok, this top one's my favorite. I like the negative image representing the ES and the circle representing the online. This use of the negative space is a powerful tool as it gives me one more way to pull in the observer. The yellow (for power and strength) portion of the image represents the ying/yang balance of business. The segment missing from the left ying is part of the E and leads the eye to the right to see the name of the company. So clear, so clean.

This image is my "link in the chain" concept. Part of the work eso performs is publishing so I incorporated that scratchy lettering like an old printer. The circle represents the "online" internet part of the company.



I love this below one. The swoop at the top represents the "e" the "s" is obvious in the curve and the "o" is the curves.



Here's a graphic negative of the yellow logo--pretty cool too.




I put some color in it too. I could have fun with these designs forever.

Well, I've been working on that book cover for Diane Dutton. If you've been here before you've read how I did the test image based on myself. Diane has a fabulous website named http://www.businesswomenspeak.com/. She provides straight, clear ideas concerning how to get your voice heard in a male-dominated financial field. This cover is for her book called, "Soar Beyond the Glass Ceiling: Lock in on the secret weapons gauranteed to rocket your career." If you're interested, you can purchase the book with the old cover and title at this address: http://www.businesswomenspeak.com/womenladder.htm

These are my new cards. I felt that instead of just my logo I should put one of my images on them. Yes, that's me, Liz Oliner, flying through glass to meet the urgent need of your graphic emergency!!

Here's another great idea. Your portrait image can be merged into a signature icon to place at the footer of all your emails.

My client has a great sense of humor. Because I'm realizing that people seem to respond more quickly to personal images on the web, I suggested that we pose her (my client) in various guises. Here she is as "Mom". I had her pose and then when drawing the image put the crazy hat, pearls and mom glasses on her. Not to mention I considerable aged her, really she looks about 29. I then went with the idea of the "Uncle Sam wants you" theme and there ya go. My goal with this would be to create a collection of images that her clients could look forward to when they logged in.

I did lots of work for the Garden Club of Montclair Yearbook when I was focusing on charity organizations.

I must credit my friend Julie G. for the title of this logo. Everyone loves this. If you would like this for your own temple please email me at lizol@comcast.net and I will happily put your temple's name in the text for no extra charge and provide you with a store site at my main products site.

No, I didn't create the cover art. What I did do was...



Kept looking? Good for you. What I did was create those giant blow ups featured of Demi Moore's face. They just wanted some printouts but instead I created a series of images that progressively focused on her eyes. They were supposed to convey the feeling that Alec Baldwin was obsessed. Do you see it in the upper right hand side of the box? The director loved it and put the scene they were in on the TV commercials and the back of the box.

Around this time I had also begun creating screen images for pilot TV shows. If they were filmed banging on a computer and something was on the screen...well, that was my stuff. Not very exciting or creative to produce but, I have to say, people were always more impressed when I worked in the film industry than by a really "hot" pharmaceutical brochure. (No, I never met Alex Baldwin and Demi Moore, I was shut away in an internal room with all my machines.)

Good grief this was 1996! I had just gotten pregnant with my second child which basically knocked me out of the work force.

Here's another version of the Take 10 Now cards. Of course, I also created the logo. The "0" is supposed to represent a clock with the pink pie shaped wedged representing a ten minute span of time.

And How About This!:

Less than two hours from the moment I met Liz Oliner she had a complete
feel for my business and the energy I wanted to project. I had a
completed business card in my hand less than one week later, and was
thrilled as I watched my client list double at the first event I was
able to give them out. I love the image, my customers love the image.
I couldn't be happier with Liz's work.

Rory Cohen, Co-Founder

The Take 10 Success System

www.take10now.com

I met Rory one fine June day, such a positive, amazing person. We hit it off right away as did our dogs. We are both proud owners of Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, the best dogs in the world. She immediately commissioned me to create an image for her business cards for her amazing business "Take 10". Her image was snapped on my porch after she had just been on the beach. You can see how much fun she is and it was a pleasure to draw her.

Take 10 has as its focus the concept of taking ten minutes each day to fulfill your life's dreams. I tried it and I can honestly say her advice is amazing and it shockingly seems to work. Check out her site here and on my link page. http://www.take10now.com. For a fantastic review of their company click on this link http://www.entelekey.com/entrep1.html.