We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Katie Goodrich. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Katie below.

Katie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s the kindest thing anyone has ever done for you?

I am an introvert who doesn’t always have the energy to self promote or speak up. Luckily, I have very supportive and loving friends, family, and chosen family.

I’ve had tables selling artwork at a few local events and my husband will be by my side the whole time. He sets aside the entire day, helps build and tear down the table, and brings his extroverted energy to fill up conversations when I need to recharge. I am so grateful for his help and energy.

My close friends recently attended FanExpo with me after I won the t-shirt competition hosted at the end of 2022. They all wore shirts I had designed and told everyone who complimented the design about my work and where to find it. Honestly, my friends and family do a better job of advertising and sharing my work than I do. Every time they do this for me, I feel so special and grateful.

Katie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m Kadusaurus, a combination of Kadus (my nickname) and a dinosaur of course! I am a nerdy dinosaur enthusiast on a mission to bring joy to others with my artwork, jokes, and puns. I started drawing when I was a little kid and would create super heroes based off of trading cards I had collected, combining powers and features to make new heroes. I still have these drawings hidden in my studio!

Some of my recent commissions include logo and branding work for photography studios, logo design for counseling practices, family portraits, and pet portraits. Recently, I have been exploring human centered design in my digital work and the techniques are blending into my personal life and how I organize my tasks and projects.
I got into graphic design in college after I discovered all of the opportunities visual communication could open up. My journey with graphic design quickly led into user experience and user interface, but I always bring illustration work with me. I have learned a lot on the job and have had the opportunity to work on illustration and icon work within design systems at three financial institutions so far.

I want to capture the beauty of the moment. I love doing this for family portraits and pet portrait commissions. There is beauty in everyone and creating that for a friend or acquaintance is a unique journey. I am open to digital or physical commissions and think each has a special impact. Outside of commissions, I create fun and humor in my work like some crossover pieces I’ve done. Artwork also helps capture moments in life and look at them in a different light, which I find really helpful.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My goal is to bring more happiness and light into people’s daily lives. There is so much to deal with every day, why not take a moment and laugh about Jabba the Hut as a huge donut!? How much fun would it be to draw a step by step dance routine to the intro of a tv show and have the choreographer who created the dance really like the illustration and share it to others? Often, I’ll be giggling about an idea and I have to get it out of my head and onto paper or a digital format. If I can get someone else to crack a smile or a giggle because of something I create, it means I’ve brightened someone else’s day and that brings me so much joy. Creating little moments of sunshine and impacting a minute of someone’s life to be fun and memorable and different is a daily goal.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

To support other artists and creatives, let them be different! Let them explore their imagination without judgement and let them make a mess if they need to. One of my favorite professors from college gave us a task one class to create something, anything, on your canvas without limits. I was having a stressful week and was very unhappy with what I was making, so I ended up literally hitting my canvas with a stick over and over to let out some frustration. The professor came by to check on me, saw me destroying and smashing the canvas and very calmly said, “I love it, keep going.” I don’t think that canvas survived, but I felt very motivated and ready to create something new. That professor could have said any number of things, but the support and push to keep exploring this strong feeling I was releasing was what I needed to feel accomplished and know I wanted to do more.

Other great ways to support artists is to share their work with others, wear their merchandise to events, or if you can’t afford to buy something at the moment, tell them how much you like what they are doing or what it means to you. On a recent family reunion, each family member had purchased one of my Threadless t-shirts and they all wore them on the same day. I’ve had friends purchase stickers and share them with their coworkers, later sending me photos of computers with silly dinosaur stickers I had had drawn permanently stuck to their work computers. I love getting photos from friends with their kids or themselves wearing something I’ve created.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.katiegoodrich.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kadusaurus/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-goodrich-99347020/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/kadusaurus
• Threadless Shop: https://kadusaurus.threadless.com/