Crabby Snacks: Craft Cocktail art and design in collaboration with Straightaway Cocktails for the 2023 Oregon American Craft Spirit Association Convention.

Crabby Snacks:
”A briney adventure awaits in this creative twist on the classic Canadian Ceasar. At the heart of it, a special Jalapeño Lime Flavored vodka, crab juice, & natural flavorings come together for a new beloved drink. Crack one open!”

Art Direction: Cy Cain & Caitlyn Pura of Straightaway Cocktails
Design and Illustration: Jamie Letourneau
Recipe development, canning, and production:
Freeland Spirits
Pilot House Distilling
503 Distilling
Aimsir Distilling
Rogue Ales and Spirits
Straightaway Cocktails
Oregon Distillers Guild

Founded in 2008, Sprout Organics makes veggie and fruit leading snacks and meals for babies and kids with an emphasis on making mealtime fun.

Led by Sprout’s Art Direction and brand guidelines I developed a shareable library of illustrative elements to provide accessible resources for Sprout’s Creative Marketing team. Synced in Adobe Creative Cloud, the team can easily use illustrations across multiple programs for both digital and print media.

Social Media Uses: Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. E-Newsletters, Sprout’s E-commerce site & blog, and Amazon. Printed materials: investor and industry conferences, and partnership packages for influencers and brand ambassadors.

All web design and development created by Human Shapes and Sprout Organics.

A Kids Book About Shame was written and illustrated in collaboration with Portland, Oregon publisher A Kids Book About™ and is available here.

It was featured on Oprah’s Favorite Things of 2020 and continues to impact both kids and adults through an honest narrative and approachable illustrations that invite space for conversation and reflection.

”This is a book about shame. Yep, that messy thing we all carry but we all like to hide. But shame is such an important topic to talk about, especially with kids. Because guess what? They feel it all the time. And they just don’t know how to talk about it. Because even grownups don’t know how to talk about it. Shame doesn’t make us anything less than enough. It just makes us human.” -Jamie Letourneau

First 3 Photos courtesy of A Kids Book About™
Last 3 Photos courtesy of Ashley Perlberg

Branding kit (in progress) for a children’s line of adventure ready supplies + an accompanying children’s field guide including easy plant indentification, space to draw what they see, and tips on learning how to be good stewards for our earth.

Mural concept dreams from my illustrations.

1. Photograph by Parsoa Khorsand on Unsplash

2. Photograph by Sean Whelan on Unsplash

3. Photograph by Nick Chalkiadakis on Unsplash

13 x 7ft Mural designed and executed by myself and Kyle Jones for Mestizo, a Latin American inspired restaurant serving up creative eats & drinks on bustling SE Division in Portland, Oregon.

We were honored to paint a playful and bright mural to reflect the vibrant character of its people & offerings while paying homage to its architecture, whereabouts, and roots.

If you’re ever in Portland, you must visit. We recommend the hand rolled empanadas, banana flower tacos, a Mezcal Old Fashioned, and literally every. thing. else. 👍

Icons depicting the perks of joining an ambassador program for baby and kids food brand, Sprout Organics. Icons live on the application page explaining the program and process of applying.

*Ambassador Program in beta test phase for select applicants.

Kids are smarter than we give them credit for but often need a nudge to let us know how they feel. This game designed by two licensed therapists and centered around Social Emotional Learning, helps kids identify their emotions and problem solve through connective play and conversation. I used a cohesive scheme of colors and imagery to bring together a game that would encourage kids to speak up, understand the value of their voice, the voices of others, and to feel a little less stuck for feeling what we all feel.

For more information visit here

To order a box, click here

Poster concepts for a seasonal product release from Portland, Oregon based Straightaway Cocktails.

*Straightaway Arc logo courtesy of Straightaway Cocktails

I had the great honor of having my book “A Kids Book About Shame” featured on “Oprah’s Favorite Things” list of 2020. I am incredibly grateful to know that with Oprah’s huge influence, the books will reach more kids and adults, allowing the message to grow its positive affects. I’ll be on cloud nine buried in this joy for years to come, unable to fully process the affect. In the meantime you can purchase my book and the 9 other titles on Oprah’s Favorite Things online at A Kids Book About.

Illustrated from a a memory in my head of an actual therapy session but mine was a phone call so I face planted without witnesses.

Fan art for my beloved neighborhood watering hole, The Lift Off Lounge, voted one of Portland’s best top 50 bars by Portland Monthly. I’d like to paint this on the back side of their building; weird siding and all.

My Sagittarius heart yearns to experience new places. Even dive motels in the middle of a desert because look at that sign amiright?

Illustrated in Procreate from a culmination of inspiration and a love for vintage ephemera and signage.

Logo for a therapy practice that helps you navigate life and become unstuck. Stuck? (Emphasis on the question mark.)

The third year for Loom involved heavier amounts of text which called for simpler solid graphics to give such a chunk of text a good home. In sticking with Loom’s branded color scheme and typography, the annual reports, though unique in character, still live in the same family of Loom International.

Continued from the previous year’s ambitions, Loom sought to convey their projects in an a manner that reeled people in to interact, consume, and act. This year they collaborated with a lovely photographer to capture the beautiful human beings they were partnering with in Africa.

Tumblewheel Studios is a 2001 Bluebird School Bus that wife and husband duo, Jenna Reineking and Nick Patton, turned into a mobile art classroom/maker space. With their nonprofit, they bring artist workshops to Northwest Oregon, in an effort to expand arts education throughout the area. (From Tumblewheelstudios.org)

As Covid-19 hit, they looked for ways to continue bringing art to kids. They brought their organization to the attention of art supply stores and partnered with them to fill care packages of supplies to distribute to kids near and far. And this was the playful little marketing piece for web and social.

Merchandise and social content illustrated for Wildhearts Rescue , a non-profit organization that rescues at-risk dogs in South Korea from high kill shelters, hoarder situations, and from the horrific dog meat industry. They transform the lives of so many special pups (and their humans too!)

In late summer 2020, I had the opportunity to foster a particularly special fella named Iroh, a Korean Jindo, who’s front and center! (Vanilla Coyote/Polar Bear). He is the poster child for the very transformative work that WIldhearts, foster families, and forever families provide for these dogs. From anxious and afraid to bouncy and goofy, this boy is finally living the life he deserves. The one we all believed he was capable of.

The sale of all merchandise helps fund operations and in turn, save the lives of even more dogs in need.

Update as of January 2021: After fostering another sweet bean, (as seen in illustration with me), I have adopted! Yeona is my therapy fox and she is living her best life burrowed in a den of blankets 85% of the day and chasing squirrels the other percent.

Loom International helps women and children in need all over the world which means communicating with people from all walks of life. So in creating anything for them, I stick with simple imagery, info graphics, and text to give readers an approachable chunk of info to take in. This is the first of 3 annual reports I created over 3 the consecutive years.

Branding assets for a company who makes dog bandanas from recycled clothing and donates 10% of profits to a local dog rescue organization.

{Currently fictional but who knows, we can dream our dreams!}

A children’s book in the works of how I came to adopt my little dog from South Korea during a season of deep grief and loss. I once heard a friend speak of her animals as gifts sent to bring her to the present. She is exactly that.

Ongoing character studies of my adopted dog from South Korea. Her name is Yeona, which means “Beautiful Baby” in Korean. I like to call her Yonas Brothers despite the spelling error.

Buried in the joy that something so personal could resonate with others and ultimately lead to positive affects on the emotional development of children and the emotional restructuring of adults. I’m talking about my book, “A Kids Book About Shame.” I made this illustration a few days after it was announced that my book had made it onto Oprah’s Favorite Things list of 2020 along with 9 others titles from A Kids Book About. I am still processing this honor and am forever grateful for her influence to expand our books’ reach to more and more people.

Work in progress for a kids book about the meaning of loving one another.

Written by Karyn Thurston

Graphic Design and Illustration by Jamie Letourneau

**Currently seeking collaborative publishers for the wildly talented author and myself. If that’s you, we’d love to chat!

A children’s book in the works of how I came to adopt my little dog from South Korea during a season of deep grief and loss. I once heard a friend speak of her animals as gifts sent to bring her to the present. She is exactly that.

Card game in progress to encourage conversation of deeper connection with one another. Releasing Fall of 2021.

Dogs are my muse, especially the dogs that have gone through the foster program at Wildhearts PDX. Hopefully by the time you read this, all of them have been adopted. But some may still be in foster homes, scoop ‘em up!

A children’s book in the works of how I came to adopt my little dog from South Korea during a season of deep grief and loss. I once heard a friend speak of her animals as gifts sent to bring her to the present. She is exactly that.

A children’s book in the works…

“Down to Earth”

Ike grew up in a sheltered world, never knowing the pain of those outside his bubble of comfort. He spent his days frolicking through clusters of orange clouds, tapestries of noodle grounds, and tunnels of bubbly syrups.

As he grew older he began to wonder of what existed beyond his life. After journeying to the edge of Boratis Forest, he leaned over a cliff of bonzo berries and noticed a small light burning very far below. He didn’t know then, but the light came from a forest on Planet Earth. The light was a fire.

Ike couldn’t shake the feeling that the light he saw, wasn’t a good light. He felt his inner voice say, “Go.” So he put on his favorite overalls, pockets full of snacks and tools, packed a backpack of essentials, and hugged his worried family goodbye.

Somehow Ike knew when the problems of the little ones were too large for them to even comprehend. So he’d scoop them up into his pocket and carry them around until they felt safe again. As soon as they were comforted back to awareness, he’d bring them to the problems they needed to face. Ike remained by their side but he let them confront the challenge they once feared alone. He’d let them know that there was no obstacle too big to at least attempt to conquer, even if they couldn’t quite reach the end.

A few beautiful babes I worked with at Button in Portland, Oregon, pre-Quarantine layoff mania. I miss them dearly.

Button is one of Portland’s favorite consignment shops, offering an array of intentionally curated used women and children’s clothing. They are beloved in the city for not only their unique and lovely selection, but also their welcoming environment and delightful crew of women. It was an honor to work alongside them and under the leadership of the owner, Liz Brooks.

On a daily basis we took turns creating and modeling outfits from Button’s goods to advertise on the ever growing Instagram. There was always dancing. There was always empowerment. These illustrations represent some notable treasures.

Recipes created by Victoria Harris for Portland Syrups, a local company making making low sugar delicious syrups that can be used for cocktails, mocktails, baking, and cooking!

For more creative recipes, follow along on Instagram @Portlandsyrups.

My mind makes a lot of images. These are some that escaped onto paper and eventually my iPad.

Childrens book written by Josh Storie about a little walrus having an identity crisis.

Layout design, illustration, and hand lettering by Jamie Letourneau.

Made with watercolor, ink, and a little bit of digital manipulation.