Guest blog: Karla Basulto
Hey, Local Laundry fam! We hope everyone is having a lovely and warm Sunday and a great start to your upcoming week. Today we have a very special blog post from our friend Karla Basulto of Fresca Designs. Karla is one of our community t-shirt designers. To support our March initiative and charity with Federation of Calgary Communities, we wanted to hear from Karla about what goes into designing community t-shirts, how she continues to build community and her story as an entrepreneur and graphic designer. Scroll, read & enjoy!
Let's dive into it!
When I arrived in Calgary, the serene landscapes and beautiful mountainous views surrounding the city, simply took my breath away. I knew instantly, Calgary is where my new family would plant its roots. My son took his first steps here and my family has flourished.
Hello! I am Karla Basulto, Calgary is my home and graphic design is my passion.
Local Laundry was one of my first Calgary based clients back in 2016. It is meeting great people through the city that has helped me grow my graphic design and web service company, Fresca Designs. When I met a fellow entrepreneur, Connor Curran of Local Laundry, he described his company’s mission and I knew it wasn’t just ‘another gig’. This was about contributing to the community, an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. I am incredibly grateful to have helped create some of Local Laundry’s YYC Community T-Shirts and to help people represent their homes with pride!
With my first projects in Lake Bonavista, Victoria Park and the Beltline, I dove in, exploring the communities hands on. I walked up and down the streets, I learned what each neighbourhood had to say. Every area of Calgary is unique for the people who live there and call it home. As a graphic designer, all I hope to do is best represent my clients and I took the same approach to each community.
With pencil to paper, I doodle, hand drawing allows me to develop an organic concept, and search out the design that best represents the message. Designing is like finding the perfect song when you feel a particular way. The tempo and lyrics seem to have been made with you in mind.
After identifying some shapes, imagery and concepts, I take it into Abobe Illustrator ... and stare at it ... a lot. I work and re-work, tweak and un-tweak (yes that happens!). A living design grows organically as I build the message my clients need to convey. Digital mediums create the ability to work efficiently to refine and deliver the message. Not all the inspiration comes from staring at a screen though; It’s experiencing the community first hand, research and talking to people.
Meeting individuals from the community of Haysboro were inspiring. People from the neighbourhood drew and described what was important to them, proud of their little piece of Calgary. It is the love they have for the place they call home that inspires me the most about this community, and about Calgarians in general.
I’m super thankful to everyone out there representing their communities, cities and Canada, with the Local Laundry brand. No matter what community you live in, YYC is a beautiful city. Calgarians are amongst some of the most Canadian Canadians and I am proud to rep YYC / CAN be wearing my Local Laundry gear!
Tune in next week to see what we have on the blog! If you or someone you know would like to be a guest blogger on our blog drop us a line! Chat at chaaa next week Canada - stay local!
