Video: WGI President Dawn Burlew talks about Opening Weekend
Dawn Burlew, track president at Watkins Glen International, talks about track’s Opening Weekend, highlighted by laps around the track April 5, 2025.
- Strategic Graphic Designs, launched in 2013 by Herbert Smith Jr., settled into its fourth location at 213 W. Water St. after stints at the Arnot Mall and other sites.
- Smith, a self-taught graphic design artist, started with a passion for drawing as a child and expanded that interest into customizing coffee mugs, jackets and other items.
Herbert Smith Jr. dreamed of taking a childhood talent and turning it into his own graphic design business.
He just didn’t know launching the business would be easier than finding the best home for it.
Smith, an Elmira native, started Strategic Custom Designs in 2013 at a location on Mt. Zoar Street in Elmira, and since then relocated the business to Main Street in Elmira and then the Arnot Mall in Big Flats before finally settling on his current site, 213 W. Water St. in downtown Elmira.
“This is my fourth location and hopefully my last,” Smith said. “I really like this spot. Business is starting to pick up now. It was like starting all over again.”
Smith, who said he is entirely self-taught, has been interested in graphic arts most of his life. It just took a while for it to dawn on him he could turn that passion into a career.
“I’ve always been interested in graphic design since I was a kid. I had a knack for drawing,” Smith said. “I was doing it for myself, then I started doing it for other local groups. It started as a hobby, and it turned into a business. One thing led to another. I couldn’t believe it. It never gets boring.
“I wouldn’t have ever imagined that all I was doing throughout my younger years would have led me to one day owning my own business,” he said.
So what can a custom graphics artist offer his customers? Well, just about anything.
“I do custom t-shirts, door magnets, I do coffee mugs, cups, I customize hats, a little bit of everything, logo designs, business cards,” Smith said.
Strategic Custom Designs is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. More information about the business and its offerings is available at strategiccustomdesigns.com, or facebook.com/StrategicCustomDesigns.
“I believe that it’s important to enjoy what you do,” Smith said on his website. “I enjoy what I do, and I enjoy helping you enjoy what you do.”
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