About Sheryl Checkman

Sheryl Checkman is an award-winning designer with more than 25 years' experience in applying innovative yet pragmatic solutions to the full range of communications and design challenges. Before opening Checkman Design, Sheryl was Vice President & Manager, Design Services, for the public relations agency Burson-Marsteller from 1981-1992. Prior to that she was an Art Director at the The Barton Gillet Company, a marketing communications firm. Sheryl graduated from Cornell University and attended a Masters program in Communications Design at Pratt Institute as well as a three-month design program at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. She graduated from the High School of Music & Art in New York City. Sheryl is an avid skier and scuba diver. She swims, plays tennis, practices yoga and enjoys taking pictures, both above and below the water. She adds her creative signature to her photographs by creating Digital Fine Art which she currently exhibits in her online gallery. She recently launched a line of inspirational sports-themed T-shirts under the name Life is Balance®. In addition to her design work, Sheryl also creates custom photomontages for a variety of corporate and consumer clients.

We all win if we pay it forward. My day at the NYIGF…

Posted on February 2, 2011 by Sheryl Checkman

It’s a good thing that I decided to go to the NYIGF (that’s the New York International Gift Fair) on Monday rather than yesterday or today. If I hadn’t, I might be writing this as a popsicle right now. Looking outside of my window, all I see is snow covered with ice, tree branches covered with ice and my poor rhododendron, covered in ice! Today is a good day to stay inside and write a blog post.

I went to the fair at the Javitz center on Monday in search of a sales rep for me Life is Balance® line of t-shirts and to gain some inspiration. Walking through the miles (and I mean miles) of exhibit booths I was inspired by all the small businesses out there moving forward with their dreams. I want to be one of them. Soon. There was so much to look at that I needed to focus on what I came there for or I’d never make it out alive. I was specifically looking at booths that sold t-shirts. I met a few independent designers who, after I told them that I was looking to break into the business, readily offered advice. I assured them that I was not out to steal their designs. A designer myself, I would never stoop to knowingly knocking off someone else’s work. That is just low. One can get inspiration from other artists work (it’s been done for centuries) but what makes art unique is the way an individual designer expresses his or her vision. One designer, part of a mother-daughter team selling beautiful tees at Star Luna, pulled her business card away from me when I told her I was a fellow designer. She assumed that I was looking for designs to knock-off. It was only after I showed her a sample of my trademarked line (nothing like what she does) and assured her that copying another designers’ work was equally offensive to me, did she give me back her card. I am after all, a t-shirt junkie and I might want to buy one of her shirts! It is sad that there are people out there who would steal another designer’s concept rather than come up with something original on their own.

Anyway, my point here is that rather than refusing to talk to me, I found some very candid, helpful, and yes talented t-shirt designers willing to help me out with information and advice. One of them was Suzanne from Peace Love Mom. Her t-shirts represent a celebration of motherhood. The designs are sophisticated and the shirts are beautiful! Another designer who I spoke to was Supermaggie. Maggie and her husband design and print their shirts at their home in Austin, Texas. I’m going back to her booth on Thursday morning and buying one of her shirt designs!
Another t-shirt designer, Andreea Ayers (Tees For Change) has been very helpful to me as well. She was not at the Gift Fair but, I contacted her online after finding her ebook on starting a t-shirt business. Very willing to answer questions and share resources with me, she told me that is happy to help others achieve the success that she has found because she believes in paying it forward.

I left the Javitz Center exhausted but energized at the same time. I want to thank everyone who has been paying it forward by speaking to me. I intend to pay it forward as well. Go visit their shops and buy a shirt. While you’re at it, buy one of mine too. It’s just good karma. And that’s what balance is all about! Who knows maybe my rhododendron will survive the ice storm.

No pain, no gain? Trying to keep balance skiing.

Posted on January 26, 2011 by Sheryl Checkman

A Yard Sale at Mt. Snow.

I went to Mt. Snow, Vermont this weekend to ski, chill out (and considering the frigid temperatures, I believe that I succeded). I’ve been working non-stop on my new t-shirt business so a weekend away, in the fresh air and snow was just the right balance that I needed in my life. Saturday started out as a beautiful, sunny day. It was cold, but without any wind, it was a perfect ski day. Now I am a pretty good skier, although I haven’t skied since the beginning of December and haven’t worked out much in the past month due to a nasty cold. I started my day skiing with friends on intermediate trails on the front of the mountain, terrain I know so well I can almost ski it blindfolded. No sooner did I make my first few turns when I noticed something off about my skiing. I could barely control my skis. Turning on hard pack felt like ice and I could not get an edge at all. Was I so out of shape that my skiing could have gotten this bad? Every turn was an effort and I kept having to stop to rest. This couldn’t be me!

Coming down Ridge Run, I felt my skis cross in front of me and I found my self heading head first down into the snow, hard! My friend Bill stoping behind me couldn’t believe how hard that I fell. Nothing but my ego bruised (so I thought) I got up and continued skiing. My next fall proved to be more of a yard sale. Again my skis tips crossed and I found myself separated from my skis, once again sitting in the snow. So unusual was this for me, that my friend Susan, felt the need to capture this with her camera.

At the end of the day I decided to take my skis into the ski shop and see if it was really me or the ski. When the ski tech took a look at the bottom of the skis after I explained to him what had been happening all day, he told me that it was no wonder that I was falling. It seems that my skis were sharpened too many times and in doing so, the edges were higher than the base, so I was actually skiing on two boards with no edge at all. The skis had been throwing me off balance! Well that certainly made me feel better. I left them overnight for stone grinding, where they grind down the base to match up with the edges, and headed to the bar for a much needed glass of wine!

Life is Balance "Keep Your Edge" Ski and Snowboard t-shirt

The following day, setting out on my newly tuned skis, I discovered that I wasn’t in as bad a shape as I had thought. It was like night and day. I was skiing just like I used to ski – effortlessly! Hallelujah!

It was only when I got home and woke up the next morning, unable to move that I realized just why I don’t like to fall in the first place! Oh well, nothing is broken and the spasms in my back will eventually go away (soon I hope) and I am looking forward to the next time. What I learned from this experience is that while the activities like skiing may balance our lives, it takes well-maintained equipment to stay balanced!

Finding Balance through Yoga in Goa, India

Posted on January 24, 2011 by Sheryl Checkman

Life is Balance yin-yang design yoga t-shirt in yoga class in Goa, India

A yoga participant wear the Life is Balance "Set Your Intention" t-shirt during her practice in Goa, India

According to Lonely Planet, “Swaying palms, white sands and sparkling waters: the three essential elements that attract 2 million visitors annually to Goa’s balmy shores are plentiful in this tiny, glorious slice of India hugging the country’s western coastline and bounded by the Arabian Sea.” Goa is located in south India, and used to be a Portuguese colony, it became a part of India in the 60’s. It is mainly catholic, but there is also a Jewish community stemming from those who came here in the 15th century to escape the inquisition.

Life is Balance inspirational t-shirt in Goa, India

Helen Noakes (front) with two students, one wearing a Life is Balance tee.

Life is Balance has found it’s way to this beautiful slice of India by way of my friend Monique Nerman a fellow scuba diver and fabulous artist, who brought one of my Yoga t-shirt designs as a gift for her friend Helen Noakes, a Chavutti Thirumal (Indian Rope Massage) and Scaravelli Inspired Yoga instructor who is currently teaching in Goa, India. According to Monique, “I wanted to bring Life is Balance to Goa, because a lot of people who come to Goa, are looking for alternative ways to find balance and new ways to look at life… she teaches yoga in a fun and interesting way. She wants you to discover yourself through her yoga classes, her motto being: be juicy.”

Now back to the t-shirt! I was very excited to learn that a Life is Balance “Set Your Intention” tee was worn during a photo shoot for the next update Helen Noakes website. The shoot took place at Chikoo house, which is near one of the “hippie locations” from the 70’s, when both European and American hippies hit the road via Istanbul to Pakistan, Kathmandu (Nepal) and then down to Goa, to start the “Hippie Goa Tribe.” The “Full Moon Parties” in Goa became famous on the traveler route in Asia and soon there was a whole community of alternative people living in Goa. Nowadays Goa is a much more health oriented place. People come here to teach and learn Yoga and there is a vibrant alternative expat scene, and lots of parties on the beach. What a perfect setting for Life is Balance to make it’s introductory appearance!