I just received my new business cards and am very happy with how they turned out. The artwork and logo were done by hand and scanned in, and the cards designed in Illustrator, Photoshop and Canva. Opening the box and taking them out reminded me of how, when I first started this business seriously in 2019, it felt weird going from making art solely for enjoyment to building a business and learning about marketing and algorithms and branding.

I knew then that no matter what, I wanted to make it meaningful and to have a story behind it. Hence, the name Art by Aruba came quite naturally. It’s pretty self-explanatory: My name is Aruba. I make art. It’s an alliteration. I had used it on and off since at least 2012 so it stuck [funny story – recently at a market a fellow vendor thought I was selling art from the country Aruba and was very excited until I broke it to him that no, I’m Aruba and I make my art here in London]. 

My logo? That’s also deeply personal. I know it may just look like an 8 point star. It’s actually an Islamic geometric star I drew by hand and then edited and coloured in Adobe Illustrator. I love Islamic patterns and have since I was 13 and my sister came back from her honeymoon in Spain and showed me the pictures her husband [who is very talented at photography] had taken of the incredible architecture and mosaics. The 8 point star in particular happens to be the shape of the mosque in Sarnia. For me it’s not only a place of worship and community but a place where I got more actively involved in anti-racism and interfaith efforts. It’s where, because of those efforts, that I first met my husband. He learned that I was in charge of community outreach and interfaith and anti-racism efforts, showed genuine interest in the work I was donig and I was so excited [becuase that was so rare] that I eagerly started explaining all of the ideas I had and work we were doing and how he could help out…I was talking so much that he had to [very nicely] excuse himself because I almost made him miss prayer. Oops. We still laugh about that and the mosque is also where we later got married [I even have an 8 point star pattern engraved on my wedding ring]. And it’s where I first sold some hand painted frames for charity as ‘Art by Aruba’ in 2012, and later in 2018 sold prints of my art for the first time, planting the seeed of this business. 

The star in my logo is turquoise and shades of blue, my favourite colours, and the lettering is my own handwriting. So there you have it, the story of my logo. Hope you enjoyed learning a bit more about the meaning behind it!