Paper Dolls

Are you pondering a new direction?  Sometimes you have to look back before you can move forward!

Revisit your formative years.  What were your favorite activities as a child?  Were you building, exploring, reading, role-playing or competing in sports? 

In an era of computer-generated graphics and all things digital, my friend and former ad agency colleague, Celesta Segerstrom, is forging an incredible career focus through gorgeous and painstaking hands-on design .  She is making exquisite fashion ensembles out of various kinds of paper -- white doilies, colorful fashion publications, brown bags and tissue paper -- for the display windows of Clotheshorse Anonymous, a leading Dallas re-sale shop. 

She calls this new medium --what else -- Paper Dolls! 

"I've been an artist all of my life," she says, "even drawing portraits for friends as a small child." She loved playing with paper dolls, but went one step further -- designing and drawing her own creations for the cardboard models of her girlhood. 

Celesta grew up in Menlo Park, Calif., now heavily populated by high tech innovators and venture capital investors.  Her father was a brilliant dentist and oral surgeon -- deft with his hands and detail-oriented.  He encouraged Celesta and her two sisters with artisan projects, tools and handiwork.  

She went on to study at the prestigious Art Center College of Design, then headed to Madison Avenue to work on major brands for Proctor & Gambol, Colgate-Palmolive, Clairol and AT&T.  She has been an art director, new product development entrepreneur and creative director. After leaving the ad agency world, she continued to take on art commissions, as well as pursuits in real estate development.

Celesta is a creative problem-solver...so the message and the medium of re-cycle, re-purpose and re-sale are congruent with the Clotheshorse Anonymous brand.  It's The Perfect Fit! 

But it doesn't stop there.  She is part of the team doing interactive display windows for children in the downtown Dallas Neiman Marcus store.  She creates custom props and sets for Magic Moments Parties & Events. 

Update 4/19/11:  And she just completed a prestigious commission.  She designed hockey great Brett Hull's denim jacket for the 2011 DIFFA Dallas Auction.  The package of the jacket, access to Hull VIP Suite and a kid's day camp slot with Hull was the top auctioned item at $14,000! 

So, bravo to you, Celesta.  What an era of renaissance and creative resurgence -- all wrapped in a clever package of strategic purpose.  It's a re-mix that is literally fabulous!  To see more of her designs, visit her Facebook page.