Slidell artist makes worldwide
splash with winning T-shirt design

Slidell artist Valerie Strecker hopes her art can do some good and change the world for the better — that and get a little recognition in the process.

In fact, helping others through her art is Strecker’s motto. On her business cards and in her presentation of designs, she writes, “My passion as a designer is to affect positive change in the world — both humanitarian and environmental.”

Today, Strecker found out her T-shirt design submitted to the ONE non-profit organization, was picked by more than 50,000 voters who saw the design online. The design, the shape of the African continent covered in newspaper headlines about poverty, won out over two other entries that made the finals from more than 600 entries. It will be printed on 25,000 T-shirts to be put out for Christmas. Sale of the shirts will go to fighting extreme poverty and hunger in Africa.

A friend told her about the contest at the beginning of November. She is a big fan of ONE, a program started by Bono of the band U2, and so she decided to enter. She had to work fast, because the deadline was Nov. 6. But she said when she gets into a project, she gets very focused, and she was able to turn in her presentation and design a half-hour before the deadline.

She was informed that she was one of the three finalists last week. All three designs were put up on the ONE Web site and the public voted on their favorite. Voting on the designs ended Tuesday, and Strecker was informed she had won at 4 p.m. Tuesday.

“I was ahead in the voting by 46 percent,” she said.

There is no prize for having her design picked, but that is just fine with Strecker.

“The real prize is the recognition,” she said. “It’s worth it just to get your name out there.”

Also, she likes the idea the shirts will be made in Uganda, Africa with 100 percent African cotton, and that all the proceeds go to fighting poverty.

Strecker is a home-schooled, self-taught graphics designer who comes from a family of artists. Valerie, her mother, Cindy and brother John own the graphic arts company Flying Fish Art. Cindy teaches art at her house, and John is a budding cartoonist.

This is not Strecker’s first time doing T-shirt designs. She has done designs for several other non-profits in New Orleans, and entered one design for the California group, the Surfrider Foundation that promotes saving beaches and the country’s coastlines.

She said she won the contest with enough votes, but the foundation had to go with another design.

When not designing T-shirts for good causes, Strecker and her mother also do brochures, business cards and other products from their home business Flying Fish Art. Strecker has even done the design work for a board game called Fantasy Football.

“I really like working with bands, surfboard designs and non-profits,” Strecker said.

She and her mother make a good design team. Strecker is the computer whiz and Cindy submits ideas and suggestions.

“I bounce ideas off her, but she pushes all the buttons on the computer,” Cindy said.

To see more of Strecker’s art, go to www.flyingfishart.com. To find out more about ONE, see the winning design or donate to their cause go to www.one.org.