It’s Friday, and time for another Feature Friday post. I am so excited to bring you more about Elif of Sahin Designs! Elif is a 25-year old graphic designer from Turkey, and this is her second feature at TDP (you can find her first feature from July 2016 HERE)… and whereas last year we used our feature series to help you get to know some fun trivia about your favorite designers — this year, we’re using our designer feature series to give you a little peek into our designers’ creative spaces, and more insight into their creative processes.
Here is a peek at Elif’s super clean, simple, and modern creative space…
About her space, Elif says, “I love having small dishes on my desk to put my wood chips and excess label prints in. They remind me that I should take a break from the work and do some crafting! And let’s be honest, they are also very cute to look at (can’t resist wood)! I also love that I turned my desk to a white space. It really keeps me focused on what I am working on, and white brightens my soul. And I can’t do without my little “office-assistant”…the blue chimp (which was a gift from Mailchimp) adds that childish joy to my working space and indeed helps me out with a very important job: holding the charger cable. You can’t imagine how important that job is!”
We also asked Elif to share a Top 5 list with us that is representative of herself and her life right now… and she gave us a list of her Top 5 Current Favorite Things…
- Organization — “I can’t stress enough the importance of organization in my life. I am a multi-focused person that I love to work on handful of things. The negative side of having different interests all at the same time is not having the time to fully complete one of these works. And it’s a real challenge for me to keep focused and get the job done! On top of my design life I have an MS degree to complete, which makes everything complicated. So organization is the key to do all these things together and trying to improve my organization skills is my number one priority at this time.”
- Breaking the habits — “When you love your job, there is no force on earth that can keep you from doing it! I love my job and I’m a workaholic. Can you blame me? Designing was my dream job, but I know it has to have limits. So breaking the bad habits — like over-working myself — is one of the things I am working on. In this breaking-the-bad-habits list there is also drinking water, exercising regularly, and giving myself some “me” time.”
- White-Gold — “My latest and greatest favorite color combination of all time!”
- Illustration & Calligraphy — “These are the things I try to develop my skills about at the moment, and I am crazy about both.”
- Family — “This year was a tough one for my family; health problems, unexpected events, promises and future plans… all made us closer and united more than ever before and I am grateful for the improved relations & connections in the family.”
Overall, Elif defines herself as a graphic designer because has interests in every aspect of design, not solely scrapbooking. Her design style is minimal and modern with a tiny touch of eclecticism. She believes that quality of a finished product is more important than the quantity, and when she designs scrapbook goodies she sticks to the basics and focuses on how each collection could be used to make an outstanding scrapbook layout. Her products are versatile and easily lend themselves to digital layouts or hybrid projects, and she is especially adept at putting together interesting color palettes.
Here are some of my favorite products by Sahin Designs (it was hard to choose just a few!)…
And here is a look at just a few stunning pages that use Elif’s gorgeous products…
I hope you’ve enjoyed learning more about Elif Sahin. To celebrate her week as our Featured Designer at the digital press, the entire Sahin Designs store will be 30% OFF all week long (the sale will end at 11:59 ET on Thursday 3/9).
Additionally, Elif has a special Free-with-Purchase offer for everyone this week! Don’t miss out on this opportunity to stock up on your favorite products from Sahin Designs… and you can snag her gorgeous “Sunday Morning” Kit for FREE with any $10+ purchase — this week only!
About the Author Celeste has been married to her college sweetheart, Terry, for 20 years. They have two teenage boys, Adam and Sam. They keep her busy chauffeuring them to and from clubs, scouts, band practices, and other activities. Celeste works full-time in the Insurance industry, and her days are filled with numbers… so she fills her evenings with patterned paper and design! Celeste is a self-proclaimed “crazy cat lady.” She lives with two male brown tabbys, Milo & Gibby, and a gorgeous, long-haired calico named Girlie. In her spare time, she reads on average 50 novels a year and watches far too much junk on television.