Owning it from the first look.
Your style.
Your objectives.
Small Hat Studio is all about eye-catching and memorable creative. Our work grabs attention, sets the perfect tone, and delivers your message from the very first look.
Individuals, small businesses, and large organizations turn to Small Hat Studio for highly creative graphic design that lives in the real world. Our work makes you say OMG without making your wallet cry WTH.
I don’t get it.
Where are the hats?
We do wear a lot of hats – both figuratively and literally. Our collection includes a design beret, an illustration cap, a writing fedora, a project manager bowler, a business development porkpie, and a finance visor. But we don’t actually make or sell hats.
Our name was inspired by the saying “Big hat, no cattle.” While the “big hats” spend their time, money, and energy making themselves look impressive, we are busy making great work that helps you shine. In other words, we don’t care about fancy office space and swanky trappings. We focus on doing great work that will do all the bragging for us.
One team.
Many different hats.
Owned and operated by Eric Venegas with the help of Karen Blocher and Alexandra Duron, Small Hat Studio is a creative design firm that combines low overhead, pragmatic business savvy, and high creativity to achieve exceptional design. Check out our creative portfolio section to see what we mean.
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Eric Venegas, MFA, is a multi-disciplinary visual communication professional who wears many hats—figuratively speaking. On any given day and at any given time, he is the owner of Small Hat Studio, a designer, illustrator, art director, writer, production manager, or customer service representative. Eric collaborates with other creatives—including copywriters, photographers, and developers—to achieve his clients' goals as needed.
In Eric’s professional career, he has worked with clients from various industries, including mass-market and luxury retail, luxury automotive, human resources, restaurant and hospitality, fitness, legal, dental, non-profit, and start-up. The creative needs of his clients range from wearables to collateral and packaging, web design to large-format graphics, and everything in between.
For over 25 years, Eric’s peers have recognized him as a seasoned design professional. However, more recently, he has entered the world of academia. Eric is passionate about bringing the same enthusiasm he displays in the boardroom into the classroom to educate the next generation of graphic designers. When he is not designing, Eric teaches at East Texas A&M University, where he received his MFA in 2022. As an instructor, Eric has taught classes in VisCom Branding, Creative Thinking, and Introduction to Visual Communication. His academic research interests include increasing the number of Black and Latinx students in design through art forms such as graffiti and muralism.
He lives in East Dallas with his wife, Katherine, their two dogs, Charlie and Pickle, and their cat, Iona.
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Karen Blocher, BFA, is a creative problem solver. As a graphic designer at Small Hat Studio, she brings fresh eyes and new perspectives to design challenges.
While in college, Karen apprenticed for two years at Brass Tacks Collective, where she worked for a wide range of clients, from Dallas corporations to small businesses and non-profits. Her experiences include such services as branding, social media graphics, wearables, and event collateral.
Karen is a 2023 graduate of East Texas A&M University, where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with an emphasis in Design. In her graduating semester, she studied Cross-Cultural Design to expand her marketability outside the U.S.
She lives in the Midwest with her cat, Nyx.
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Alex Duron, BS, is a multi-talented brand manager and strategist with a discerning eye for design and an unwavering commitment to creativity. She brings over a decade of experience in merchandising, marketing, design, sales, and project management to Small Hat Studio.
Alex’s career began in the fashion industry, working as a showroom assistant in Milan, Italy, where she cultivated a passion for style. She went on to hone her sales skills at Tom Ford, where she served as a wholesale specialist. Later, she transitioned into more creative roles, working in web design, branding, photography, and social media content management. Alex's versatile skill set, adaptability, and dedication to exceeding expectations bring value to Small Hat Studio and its clients. Whether collaborating with the design team to produce captivating visuals or engaging with customers to deliver exceptional service, Alex brings her unique perspective and steadfast drive for excellence to every facet of her work.
Alex holds a Bachelor of Science in Product Development from the University of Arkansas. She lives in Dallas with her dog, Nicolo.
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Melissa Gonzalez is a versatile print production and project management professional with more than 20 years of experience in the graphic design and advertising industry. Skilled in mechanical layout, project execution, communication and customer service, she excels at solving problems and ensuring project goals, deadlines and budget constraints are met.
Melissa took an unconventional path to production, having started out as a Journalism major at Texas A&M University. She found her favorite classes were English, Intro to Computers, Graphic Design and Photography. During this time, she made friends with other graphic design and photography students who worked for the student newspaper, and became intrigued with the industry. Melissa began her creative career as a “Girl Friday” for a photo studio in Austin. She went on to become a production artist for David Carter Design, where she worked for three years, followed by six years at The Richards Group / RBMM, and 13 years with O&H Brand Design. Over the course of her career, she worked in production design for such established brands as the Texas Rangers, Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers and Fossil Rim Wildlife Center, among others.
A busy mom of two, Melissa loves to learn and is always up for trying a new activity, tasting a new food, or exploring a new place. Her diverse hobbies include West Coast swing and salsa dancing, bookbinding and paper arts, baking, and enjoying live music. Her dream is to one day pursue travel, while living in a tiny home or RV.
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Lexi Oliver, BFA, is a talented graphic designer and communicator who loves connecting with people through visual story story-telling. She enjoys blending strategy and creativity to create content that is not only beautiful, but meaningful. Lexi is experienced in branding, social media graphics, wearables, packaging, long-form documents and environmental graphics, and her work has been recognized by the American Advertising Federation – Dallas (ADDY Awards), Graphis, International Design Awards (IDA), Creative Quarterly, and the National Student Show.
Lexi began her design career as a media manager for Rise Soufflé, where she created content for press releases, social media posts, websites, product launches and events. She later worked as a content creator and graphic designer for Hollman, Inc., designing marketing materials and developing social media content to boost brand visibility and engagement.
Lexi holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Visual Communication with an emphasis in Design from East Texas A&M University. A natural leader, she helped establish her campus’s Adobe Creative Community Club, where she was elected Vice President. She also participated in a cross-cultural design study abroad program, where she gained international experience and a broader perspective. Lexi loves traveling and has never met a stranger—she grew up with eight siblings, so she learned how to get along well with others early in life. When she isn’t designing, Lexi enjoys crocheting, painting and jewelry-making.
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Stephanie Williams, BFA, is an award-winning graphic designer who excels in illustration, typography, logo design, poster design and advertising. Her work has been recognized by PRINT Magazine, the American Advertising Federation – Dallas (ADDY Awards), the Dallas Society for Visual Communication, Creative Quarterly, CMYK and Graphis.
Stephanie began her design career as an intern at The Richards Group/RBMM, and later worked as a freelance graphic designer for Central Market, and a brand designer for Trace Element. Before pivoting to graphic design, she was interested in drawing and painting, hobbies she still enjoys. Fun fact: Stephanie’s first exposure to graphic design was in the early 2010s, when she spent a lot of time designing pet pages in the Neopets video game and hanging out in DeviantArt forums.
Stephanie holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Visual Communication with an emphasis in Design from East Texas A&M University. While in college, she played the clarinet and traveled with the ETAMU wind ensemble to Austria. Today, she spends her free time playing video games, attending heavy metal concerts, and learning Russian on Duolingo, where she has a 2,000-day streak. (давай!) She also loves running, weightlifting, kayaking, hiking, camping, travel, karaoke, cooking, Shiba Inus, espresso and matcha.
Doing good work for good people is good business.
See if Small Hat Studio is the right fit for your design needs.