Tom Rodriguez was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota and moved to Phoenix, Arizona to attend Collins College in 1984. He has remained in the Phoenix area ever since and has truly made Arizona his home.

Tom began his graphic design career over 20 years ago, first working for private companies and later as a graphic artist for the City of Phoenix. In 1997, Tom founded his own firm, TJR Designs (www.tjrdesigns.com) in Phoenix, Arizona. Through the years, the range of Tom’s design work has extended from logos, packaging design, and advertisements to promotional materials such as brochures, posters, and even billboards.

TJR Designs has a varied clientele including several small companies and assorted non-profit organizations such as The American Heart Association, Hospice of Arizona, Phoenix Guide Dog Raisers, Brother-to-Brother International, and the All Saints Catholic Newman Center. The most notable of Tom’s patrons is Janet Napolitano (Arizona’s 21st Governor) for whom Tom designed a high-energy logo with a softer feel for her gubernatorial campaign. Tom has since created several promotional pieces for The Tempe Governors’ Ball (benefiting local health organizations) as well as number of promotional materials for the cities of Phoenix, Chandler, Surprise, and El Mirage.

In 2002, Turnapaige and Reed Moore commissioned Tom to design the cover for The Christmas Pickle, a book by Judy Aguiar and in 2005, Tom completed the cover and interior design for Judy Aguiar’s second book, The Heavenly Plan. When Judy approached Tom with The Littlest Camel, Tom wanted to do much more.

A graphic artist by profession, Tom Rodriguez’ first love has always been illustration. While he has frequently used his drawing talents in his graphic design work, The Littlest Camel was his first opportunity to illustrate a book in its entirety.

As a devout Catholic Christian, Tom approached this opportunity with great passion and joy. Tom and Judy worked very closely together to capture the characters’ unique personalities in each illustration. As an artist, Tom enjoys painting in oils, but he considers pencil illustration his forté. Tom first used pencil to sketch and finalize all the illustrations featured in The Littlest Camel. Tom then used the computer and several digital techniques to achieve a layered colorization of each vignette, resulting in a watercolor washed appearance with a rarely achieved depth of color.

Tom married his wife, Julie in 1992 and in 1998, their son Michael was born. In 2007, Michael was eight years old and he watched with great interest as The Littlest Camel came to life on paper, often asking about the fate of the littlest camel and his friends. As a child, Michael eagerly looked forward to reading The Littlest Camel and expressed his hope that someday he would be able to share The Littlest Camel with his own children at Christmas time.