I thought I would update with some new design work that I've done. It's been a crazy busy year since I graduated and looking back I've done more than I thought! I hope to share a bit more starting with these t-shirt design concepts for Bryce's Lawn Service. They wanted a shirt design they could use to give new lawn service customers. They wanted to highlight a "Live for the Summer" theme as BLS took yard work off the to-do list.
Information Design—Old World Third Street
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I've had a few people look at me funny when I say information design is what I enjoy doing if I get to choose my own project. To most information design is a quagmire of numbers that seems to elude any form of comprehension. But for me, it is a challenge of communicating something very intelligent and in-depth in a simple and attractive way. So for my passion project I documented the movement on a busy street in downtown Milwaukee for 18 different hours of the day, 7am-12am. Each hour I recorded the movement of traffic, taxis, buses, trucks, and bikes, as well as how many people visited each of the 14 establishments lining the street and who they were. What resulted was a series of "dials" representing each hour and a way to visualize and understand the movement and activity of the street at each hour of the day.
One Last Student Design!
I don't know if graduating has really sunk in yet but if this doesn't help I don't know what will. The fact that I can just crank this out in an hour or two when 3 years ago I'd still be thinking about what to do says a lot about how I've grown as a designer. It has been an awesome journey and I really can't wait for whatever opportunity may come next.
Party With a 'Stache
A poster for a mustache party celebrating Movember at a local downtown bar, The Library Club. I referenced old circus and traveling show posters to come up with a concept for the creative. Where else would you find some burly man with a terrific 'stache? Old circus posters are a visually rich design aesthetic and the typography is fun energetic and the whole poster seems to become one big piece of artwork. Mine follows it to a point but is nowhere near as organic and beautiful as the originals.
If you didn't know, Movember is a reason to grow a mustache as well as a way to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer. If you would like to donate to my team visit http://us.movember.com/mospace/5503017. I am supposed to put a picture of my progress but I am assuming you've seen enough weed fields in your day to get the picture of my mustache.
Nothing Like a bit of School Spirit!
For the past three years whenever I attended a sporting event at my school I was always disappointed by the lack of students that would show up. I wanted to change the atmosphere but I had no real solution and the challenge just seemed overwhelming to change the culture. So what better time to start doing something about it than your last semester of school right? Hence, the Pack Loyalty Scorecard.
This isn't a groundbreaking cultural upheaval in the Stritch sporting event world but it's a step in the right direction. Students receive credit or points for attending certain events, dressing up, and staying late which can then be turned in for rewards. Shawn Wagner, Stritch Sport Management senior, is the brains behind the idea. He facilitated working with the sport management department to get the athlete photos and print the design. We're both hoping it will make an impact on campus and encourage students to come out in packs and support the Wolves!
Ramblings on what it means to be a graphic designer...
I've had this thought going through my head lately and if anyone else has gone to school as a graphic design major assuredly you've been asked the same question. It's surprising sometimes what people think I do. "So is it like technical drawing and auto CAD?" they'll ask. I try to explain it pertains more to marketing and advertising using graphics and typography. But is that really all a graphic designer does? Everyone has tried their hand at that using powerpoint or publisher. What makes a designer different besides doing it as a career? To be most blunt, a designer has ideas. Not just what image should be used where, but conceptually innovative ideas. Take for instance David Carson. A former eighth-ranked surfer in the world, with less than a few months of design classes to his name, conceptually changed how people view design. He art directed the magazine Ray Gun and used it as an experimentation with typography and design. He dropped page numbers and it was the first time in magazine history that an inside story jumped to continue on the front cover (Bierut). Barcodes were no longer confined to the lower corners of the page but placed within the design. His work was considered by some as anti-commercialism.
It was this bizarre, divergent, and extraordinary design and ideas that made the magazine so appealing, along with an apropos subject matter of cutting-edge social icons in music etc. But Carson was not the person to create something and then sit back and watch it succeed. His goal was to always do something different. He never used the same approach for two openers (Bierut). This is what separates a graphic designer from someone who designs commercially for a living.
Graphic designers are thinkers.Good graphic designers are great thinkers. Great graphic designers are revolutionary thinkers.
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