Sudi McCollum has an extensive background both as a fine artist and as a designer. Not only has she excelled as a published print artist, she is an accomplished designer in several arenas.
            Having received her degree in fine arts from California College of the Arts, she immediately switched gears and launched her graphic design career. She ended up as an art director at an advertising agency in Palo Alto, California. While at the agency, McCollum received a number of awards from prestigious design organizations including The American Institute of Graphic Arts, The New York Society of Illustrators, The Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles and The Western Art Directors Club.
            Sudi was frequently requested to design posters for some of her advertising clients such as IBM, Sprint and Foremost-McKesson. Enough enthusiasm and requests for her posters arose that she left the agency to form her own publishing company. Her business quickly became very successful and placed Sudi’s art all across the country, as well as internationally. Several of Sudi’s early published prints, which are now vintage collectibles, were commissioned by prominent clients such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Mercedes-Benz in conjunction with the Pebble Beach Resorts, the Pasadena Symphony Orchestra, the American Lung Association and the National Council of Jewish Women.
            McCollum’s limited edition serigraphs, giclées and open edition prints are depictions of plants and animals. Her subject matter, simplicity of line and form and subtle pictorial technique have been compared to those of Japanese print artists of the Edo period.  The most arresting aspect of her art is her striking and inventive use of color. She often employs combinations of hues that the viewer suspects have never been acquainted before, yet the sum is at once harmonious, appropriate and tranquil. McCollum’s frequent use of metallic foils and embossing contribute to a rich and understated elegance. Her use of an embossed artist’s chop, which varies from print to print, adds to the unique character of her work and has become a McCollum trademark.
            While McCollum has continued to keep one foot in the graphic design field by specializing in illustration for package design, she has spent the lion’s share of her time of late designing fashions for the home. She designs dinnerware collections, rug and pillow collections, home accents and accessories influenced by all the art genres that have always fascinated her. French and European country, American Shaker art, Arts and Crafts movement and Japanese and medieval woodblock prints are genres in which Sudi is accomplished. Her eclectic versatility and extensive background keep her work truly unique and fresh.
            In addition to creating such designs for major manufacturers, she now brings her design capabilities to custom design for the home for trade and collectors. A custom wallpaper collection in the Arts and Crafts style for one collector’s home and exterior lighting for another’s home are examples of these projects.
            “I’m doing what I’ve always wanted to do: I’m designing...stuff! I’ve always had this goal of an entirely aesthetic universe. Got to start somewhere. I’m starting with...stuff!” Her deep conviction, that the power of imagination and skill brought to great art and design throughout the ages (whether a painting or pillow, rug or bowl) is to imbue inanimate objects with life and animation. This ability to bring joy, affection and pleasure through art and design is an endeavor that never ceases to interest and challenge Sudi to design in so many different areas.