My Story/Bio

     Hello and welcome to my site. My name is Mary E. Beil and I am 30 years old. I am a graphic designer with a love for animals and nature which led to photography, I also enjoy making jewelry.

     I've lived in Montana for 11 years. I moved here when I was 19 with my family from New Jersey. We decided to move to a less populated state with safe weather (no tornadoes or hurricanes) and the process of elimination led to Montana. We had never been to Montana before, and had no idea what to expect.

     People from Montana think NJ is a city and people from NJ think Montana is the middle of nowhere. Well, they are both mistaken. I grew up in White Township, NJ which is in Northwest NJ, surrounded by forests and farms, cows, corn and the Delaware River. It is one of the rural areas of the state and not at all a city. As for Montana, I now live in Fort Shaw, 30+ miles southwest of Great Falls (which has everything and some things in multiples). I admit Fort Shaw is no more than a Post Office, Antique store, cafe and some churches, but we like living in the less populated area and on the prairie.

     In NJ we lived on 2+ acres, had a small menagerie of pets ( horse, pygmy goats, cats, dogs, ducks, rabbits, turkey, pot bellied pig, ferrets, hamsters, guini pigs and fish). From around 8 years of age and on I and my sisters raised Seeing Eye Puppies in 4-H for the Seeing Eye in Morristown, NJ. We even appeared in the movie "Harnessing Freedom".  My love for animals continues to this day, our menageria is a bit larger in some areas and smaller in others. We have a few more horses and many more pygmy goats, but now live on 80 acres. I have always been creative and crafty, enjoying art, photography and jewelry making, along with traveling, a little story and poem writing and I love music.

      While in NJ I attended one year of Community College for Liberal Arts. While in Montana, I attended MSU College of Technology for Interior Design, then changed majors, went to MSU Northern in Havre for two years, where I graduated with a BA in Graphic Design. Getting my foot in the door at a design firm proved very difficult, I only had school experience, and without on the job experience, I was being turned away, until 2006 when Hayley and David gave me a change and hired me as their Graphic Designer for Winston Publishing. I hadn't done any Graphic Design since college, which was 3 years at this point, so I quickly relearned and picked up Photoshop and Quarkxpress, this time on a PC. I worked for Winston Publishing  for 2+ years and learned the in and outs of the publishing world. After laying out over 12 magazines: "Latitude", "Peaks & Plains", and the debut issue of "Signature Montana" and countless number of ads for the magazines, and other side projects, such as the "Express" newsletters for Montana School for Deaf and Blind, United Country TriWest Real Estate Brochure "Montana Now", Transtopix newsletter, Fort Benton Brochures, The Runway Salon billboard and postcards, Kaufman's "Girl's Night Out Postcard", The Grand Union Newspaper ads, Logos, business cards, flyers, Winston Publishing Logo and Fort Benton Reunion Logo, Peaks and Signature's masthead. All of the previous I created while working for Winston Publishing, on my own I created a winning Logo for Malmstrom Air Force base's "United for a Secure Tomorrow" event.

     The high stress and overwhelmingness of getting two magazines to print at once has effected my health and state of mind, also a desk job has been ruff on my health.  I feel I have learned all I can here and haven't had the creative freedom an artist  needs to surivive. I am in the process of going freelance and focusing on my photography. My dream job would be to travel and take photos and do graphic design on the side.

      Please look around my site, but I have so many photos I can't put them all on the site, I've put a few, but have to update. I also am available for Pet Portraits. Need an Ad or promotional piece designed, but don't want to pay advertising agency prices. M.E. Designs - small budget BIG DESIGN is for you. Please contact me and we can work out a reasonable rate that will fit your needs. I will be at the Great Falls Farmer's Market this summer with my photography and jewelry, so come down and check it out. My sister also will be there with here wood burned boxes (a piece of artwork, makes a great gift). Thank you for visiting my site. Please email: preservationofcreation@yahoo.com with any questions, comments or suggestions.

I am currently freelancing as a Graphic Designer & Photographer

Please visit my Graphic Design website:

www.m-e-designs.zoomshare.com