Recently, Mary and I were invited to breakfast at the home of our good friends Connie and Earl Yost. Also joining us that morning was their daughter Toni Peck. Toni lives in Florida, where she has raised two children while also running her own graphic design business.
Toni’s skills are a legacy from her well-known father and local artist Earl Yost. In fact, this skill was passed down from Earl’s father to Earl and now to his daughter. Over sixty years ago, Earl’s father came home from work, sat down with Earl at the kitchen table and, over an oil lamp, taught him the skills he needed to become an artist.
Toni and her sister Amy began their lives here in New Martinsville. As sometimes happens, families change and they moved with their mother to Florida. Toni and Amy returned to New Martinsville every summer for several years to live with Connie and Earl. She had fond memories of those times with her mother and father and our community. It was also around this time that she knew she had artistic ability. While she hadn’t learned it from her father, she had basic artistic knowledge that was part of her inherited talent.
At age 13, she entered a street art contest in Winter Park, Florida. When the judges finished, she received second and third place ribbons for two of her pieces. Puzzled why she hadn’t won, she asked her teacher. His answer: “How about we see if we can get you a scholarship to art school?” Luckily, there was a small nonprofit art school just down the street called Creaidé School of Art. This was her first formal training in the creative art world.
Toni explained that in art school she learned that art is a perspective that appears distorted in certain circumstances but accurate in others, namely anamorphic art. You take an object and pull it very close to the eye where it is abstract. This experience gave Toni the freedom to see art. Before that she had created art but it never looked good because the eyes or the colors were not right. Anamorphic art taught her that it does not have to be perfect. It taught her to look at lines and planes of images. Today Toni is a member of the board of the Creaidé Art School.
Toni has been in the graphic design business for over thirty years. In 1995, at the age of 25, Toni went back to school to improve her skills. At the time, the school was full of people who needed a specific skill to get a job. These classes were attended by unemployed housewives or people on state-funded unemployment benefits. She soon realized that graphic designers were a dime a dozen, some were very good and some not so good.
It’s one thing to call yourself a graphic designer, but it’s another to sell yourself in such a competitive field. She saw an ad for a small plastic extrusion company. They made bags for fertilizer and ice. She set up an interview and was offered the job. The next day, Universal Studios also offered her a job. She had accepted the job at the plastic company and didn’t want to quit. So she stayed with the extrusion company.
She was artistically gifted and had gained even more skills in graphic art at school. But creating a design that would fit on a sack of soil and not wrinkle or bunch up when filled was a whole new art rule. Toni used to create a fixed concept for a product. Clients would see it on the wall and give her suggestions on how to recreate the image. Today she uses what is called a move board. The image is displayed on the screen and the client can touch and move an element or change its color. This gives the clients and the artist much more flexibility in creating the product image.
Toni explained that today, after thirty years as a graphic designer, she is more flexible in her dealings with companies. She is under contract with several companies and gets paid even if they do not require artistic work.
Today, Toni goes beyond just being a work of art. She creates the words and story around the graphic designs. She creates all the packaging for the product. Toni was clearly excited about designing the entire product. The manufacturer makes money from her design and rewards her for it.
I asked if all her work was graphic and Toni explained that she also draws illustrations. One client wanted a variety of bird illustrations in real detail. Another client wanted illustrations of pests. She wasn’t keen on drawing ticks and bugs. Still, it was what the client wanted and he was very happy with real looking bugs.
Recently she was commissioned to design a new cow image. The image will be part of a mulching product that has been around for 50 years. Toni explains that the new cow image paid very well. She also said that if it is still on customers’ bags in 50 years, it might not seem as much.
As we finished our conversation, I asked Toni what she wanted to accomplish before she retired. It only took her a moment to answer: “I would love to return to New Martinsville and do an art show with my father, Earl Yost. That would be great.”
