16/07/2025
OMG… I haven’t been this nervous since I was a kid going to my first horse show!
Friends, I’ve been working on something for the past 18 months (actually a lifetime) that I’m finally ready to unveil…
I have dreamt of being a horse artist since I was 6.
All throughout my teenage years and early adulthood, I attended dozens of classes where I ‘attempted’ drawing, painting, sculpting, carving, stippling, etching, batiking, you name it… and ALL of my horses, no matter the medium, all looked like deformed Great Danes.
I could see these beautiful images of what I wanted to create in my mind, but my hand would never cooperate. Over and over, I would become so defeated it would cause me to give up. But, there was always something that would bring me back to wishing I could someday be an artist.
The first logo I ever created, many moons ago, was for Vicky Castegren of Hyperion Stud. At the time, David and I turned EQ Graphics into the top equine web development and marketing firm in the country, but logos… we thought of logos with the same enthusiasm we had for root canals.
I couldn’t draw a horse to save my soul, and I certainly couldn’t make a logo.
When Vicky asked me to ‘manage’ the creation of her brand, I happily agreed. I hunted for artists, created contests on 99designs, and eagerly awaited the results. That’s when I realized I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t draw a horse… It was a disaster. My stomach sank when the designs poured in and nothing was remotely even close to representing a farm of this caliber, or any farm for that matter.
But… since I was really comfortable in Photoshop and could use the lasso tool with a ton of copy/pasting and the oldschool ‘warp’ tool, I was able to morph these horrible horses into something I could then take back to the artist and show how pasterns aren’t as long as canon bones, and throat latches don’t grow out of their chests. With weeks of struggling to convey my vision, Hyperion Stud had an identity.
Through that experience, I learned that I could take my own ridiculous looking sketches and ‘warp’ them into the beautiful creatures I saw in my head. That is the story of how EQ’s logo design sector was born. I ultimately became so passionate about branding that during our 17th year, we shifted our entire business to focus solely on branding.
Fast forward to today…
I’ve created the face of more than 2,000 horse businesses around the world. We have clients on every continent, in every discipline and almost every breed of horse (even a Marwari)! It’s been an amazing journey and I’ve loved every second of it.. and, I no longer have to rely on Photoshop's warp tool!
But…
When you draw sooooo many horses, staying creative and performing at the top of your game for every person becomes increasingly more difficult with time.
Many of you know, I’ve always dealt with creative ebbs and flows, and sometimes I go down hardcore. There are times when I can’t design if my life depends on it (which it does). The biggest problem is, I never know when my creativity will spark again, or if it’s perhaps gone forever.
One of these times, about 18 months ago, I hit absolute rock bottom.
David has always been my greatest supporter and he posed a question that ultimately changed everything… “What if you tried creating art for yourself? No clients, no pressure, no revisions, no deadlines… just make something you like?”
I can’t begin to express the gratitude I have for my amazing husband. His suggestion during that rock bottom moment opened the door to the creativity I’ve been seeking since I was 6.
I found I was able to use the vector art medium I’ve mastered with my logos, to create actual art… not logos, not graphic designs… but real, true, tangible art.
It’s still going to take me time to relate to being called an ‘artist’, rather than a ‘designer’, but I’m really proud of what I’ve been working on and I’m so excited to share it with the world.
Today, July 15, 2025, marks the launch of our next chapter, and I invite you to take a tour through the galleries at www.JRobbinsArt.com
We’ve spent MONTHS testing, developing and refining print processes that are now down to a science that fully satisfies the pickiest person I know (me). We’re able to produce truly exceptional pieces that are infinitely scalable since they’re vector.
If someone wanted to turn their entire indoor arena into a floor to ceiling display of art, I can actually make that happen.
In addition, I partnered with Arista Equestrian who was my top choice to bring my art to life on apparel. I wanted to find someone who was equally as perfectionistic and obsessed with quality as I am, and Arista is one of the most loved boutique equestrian brands I know. People who own their shirts become loyalists to a fault, because they’re Just. That. Beautifully. Made.
The coming days and weeks will be filled with reveals and a couple awesome announcements, and I apologize in advance if I overpost… but I’m just sooooo excited to share my life’s work with everyone.
I love logo design so much, and I’m forever grateful for every opportunity I’ve had to brand your businesses (which I will continue to do), but this… this is actually the real me.
My style is bizarrely geometric, modern and COLORFUL. I’m playing with all of the things I can’t do in branding… tons of fine lines… crazy amounts of color and so much going on it’s pure chaos.
Then the other side of me goes back to my roots laid in lines… I’m also making available the simplicity and elegance of the line art I’m known for. We even have the process down to bring my foils to life on a ginormous scale.
I’m so ready for you to see what I’ve been working on and I can’t wait to hear what everyone thinks! I’ll be posting on EQ’s page for a bit during the transition and if you would like to see more of my art, I would love for you to be part of my journey at J. Robbins Art.
Lastly… each piece is a signed and numbered open edition starting with number one. If the stars align and I become really good at this artist gig one day, these early edition pieces may become a valuable asset someday. If you see something you like, it will be hand signed #1 regardless of the size you choose.
Thank you for reading my crazy long post, and especially thank you to all of our for being endlessly supportive, encouraging me to keep forging ahead, and most importantly, sharing your time with me and our amazing EQ community. You guys are awesome and I appreciate you immensely.
-Jackie Robbins
Website->> www.JRobbinsArt.com
FB Page-> J. Robbins Art
P.S. I pray my nerves aren’t warranted like they were at that first horse show I mentioned in the beginning… The school horse I was riding (an Arabian named Two Blankets) decided his bladder couldn’t hold until the end of our class. He parked out and peed right in front of the bleachers when the ringmaster called everyone to line up. Ten year old me was horrified, lol.
