A Design Portfolio
I’m a graphic designer who loves to tell stories through my designs. I believe good design pleases the eye, grabs attention, provokes thought, makes sense, flows well, solves problems, communicates clearly, controls the gaze, connects the elements, excites the viewer, sells the subject, shows the story, differentiates and meets constraints.
Specialties:
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PAGE LAYOUT
& DESIGN
Newspaper page designs created
in Adobe InDesign
INFOGRAPHS &
ICONOGRAPHY
Visual storytelling and
information sharing
DIGITAL & VECTOR
ILLUSTRATION
Illustrations created in Adobe Photoshop & Adobe Illustrator.
MARKETING &
BRANDING COLLATERAL
Advertisements, brochures, logos
and tradeshow materials
PHOTOGRAPHY & PHOTOMANIPULATION
Photographs, photo editing and composites
ETC
Covers, posters, vector product designs and more
Page Layout & Design
I love the newspaper industry because of the limitless number and variation of stories being told, but it is a difficult industry for daily innovation due to its stringent style guidelines, traditional design values, very real space constraints, limited staff resources and hourly deadline pressures. While most newspaper pages are stuck in tradition and trapped by the constraints of time and space, I always want my feature cover designs to truly pull the reader in and tell the story as much as the photographs and copy tell the story. Design is not separate from storytelling; it is storytelling. Many page designers are constantly racing against the clock just to correctly format articles before deadlines rush by, but my decades of experience designing magazines and newspapers (ever since junior high school) have resulted in an extraordinary efficiency when it comes to text formatting, element placement and idea generation. That efficiency allows me the time to work with the supplied photographs and materials and create complimentary cutouts, graphics, collages and designs that truly stand out and make an impact with readers — all within the roughly 30-45 minutes allotted to me for cover pages.
Editors from Wilmington, North Carolina to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma have told me that readers notice my designs; they’ve received emails and letters complimenting them for going above and beyond in grabbing their attention. And in the news business, when a reader goes out of of their way to thank you for doing what you do, that’s a big deal.
Digital & Vector Illustrations
I love creating illustrations using Photoshop and Illustrator, which are my favorite creative “mediums.” I’ve been using Photoshop for decades, but I really started using it for drawing and painting back in 2013, when my home and creative space were destroyed by a historic flash flood. I was living with friends in their spare bedrooms without a personal space that I could use to paint, sew, make and experiment in. I’ve found that having a creative outlet is incredibly important to my well-being; in difficult times, it’s my creative drive that gets me out of bed in the morning. So I turned to my laptop and started really diving into Photoshop and Illustrator in a much more in-depth way than ever before. Along with my friends, it’s Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator that got me through that difficult time of loss and helped me start over — and eventually led me down this path of art and graphic design. I just wanted to do what I loved, and having had the experience of losing everything and rebuilding gave me the courage to start my career as an artist.
Photography & Photomanipulation
Before/ After editing gifs
*Quality of images has been lowered to make GIF animation possible.
Photographs of People: Newborns, lifestyle, pets, etc.
Landscape Photography Sample Gallery: White Sands National Monument
It’s rare when I’m without my camera (a full frame Canon 6D with multiple lenses). I love nature, hiking and traveling and capturing the moment and essence of a person or place is important to me. I believe it’s the camera’s job to capture a scene as it really was - warts and all. But it’s the photographer’s job to convey the feeling and soul of a scene or person, to preserve the memory of it as optimistically and beautifully as possible. That’s what I try to do with every photograph I take and edit.
Infographs & Iconography
One of my favorite things about working for Local Plant Source, a tech start-up in the commercial plant and landscaping industry, was creating infographics to help describe the LPS brand and why it was important to growers, landscape architects and contractors, as well showing why green spaces are so important to people and communities. As a visual storyteller, I truly appreciate infographics and iconography and how quickly and easily they can convey information to an audience.
Marketing & Branding
Contract and freelance work has given me the chance to work on everything from advertisements and brochures to email newsletters and social media content to tradeshow booth backdrops and branded office murals. One of the best learning experiences I’ve had is when Local Plant Source began developing a subsidiary product to help landscape architects discover the right plants for the right project and locate the right growers and suppliers. I jumped at the chance to work on the new product’s logo and branding development. Lead by a consultant, we discussed user identities, what the product would do, how it would make clients feel and the main message we wanted to come across when the product was being discussed. During a brainstorming session, I supplied the name — EMPLANTED — and was then tasked with coming up with a variety of colorscapes, logos and taglines for executives to choose from.
ETC
While I truly enjoy designing everything from book and album covers to event posters, one of my favorite projects in my career has been designing a collection of mosaic tile kitchen and bathroom backsplashes for Waterjet Works, one of the premier waterjet companies in the country. The complete collection can be found at www.waterjetworks.com/store.
I also do enjoy writing and creating just for the purpose of creating. Please feel free to check out the rest of this website, www.mightybeautifulartstudio.com, for samples of my poetry, artwork, photography and prose!