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My creative activity and my professional practice are often indistinguishable. I work for clients who seek my expertise as a visual communicator to solve their design problems and to meet their needs for any given project undertaken. These solutions are often more complex than the client first imagines, so a complete package incorporating many separate propositions is key to solving the problem as I help to delineate it during the process.

The nature of my work is intellectual and aesthetic more than it is technical. Technical aptitude and appropriateness is vital to the success of a project, but only thoughtful execution and precision will ultimately garner true success. A primary example of this achievement is the creation and development of the Covenant Christian School logo and web site. While the school wanted easy maintenance and user-friendliness, it also wanted to convey something about the character of the school and its distinctiveness. Therefore logo I designed is classically oriented, stressing the traditions of Rome and Greece as they apply to the school’s teaching philosophy. The web site uses graphics, colors and typefaces similar to those used elsewhere in the identity system, but also incorporates Cascading Style Sheets and XHTML to provide an easy framework for maintenance by unknown or less than technically savvy staff in the future. The structure of the site was also reorganized to improve the usability, while providing multiple access points for the most frequently demanded information.

My work for the Rickert-Ziebold Trust Award uses my conception of design and my technical knowledge to improve an established project. The design is a redevelopment of an existing format, adapted to accommodate larger images by halving the number of folds, but leaving paper, color usage and budget unchanged. The underlying grid structure creates a flexible structure for the unknown imagery of future editions.

The success of my design work is measured by the degree to which the completed project meets the client’s need for effective communication. My solutions strive to be intellectually apt and aesthetically appealing, yet able to provoke attention of the appropriate audience and convey information succinctly and accurately. The series of LiveFree Clean Air Club Night graphics and advertisements achieve this goal by targeting the 18 to 25 year old college population, with a short, precise message. The bright, bold colors of the sky evoke the pure, clean atmosphere of an event without cigarette smoke. Playful and open typography convey a message in a fashion readable from great distances. The Shawnee National Forest brochure is a balance of aesthetic form and practical information directed to a wide audience bracketed by environmentalists on one end of the spectrum and hunters on the other. The demography of the audience was a feature of the problems to solve for that project. After the redesign, the feel of the brochure is softer through the use of hand drawn fonts, natural colors and irregular transitions between photos. These features, combined with uncoated unbleached paper, are a departure from the typical rectilinear forms and coated stock. The need to showcase the appeal of the Forest is the prime point conveyed.

The poster, postcard and brochure for “A Modern Institution” exhibition, while simple on the surface, utilizes a complex grid and precisely define typographic hierarchy for the layout of text and images. The choice of colors—and lack thereof in the imagery—pays homage to the predominant graphic stylistic period in which the exhibition spans with its artifacts. The design conveys the clear message of the project: Delyte Morris was conscious that the prestige of the university could be enhanced by modern design, and the exhibition documents the University’s history and the valuable, yet aging objects still to be found on the campus.

I apply my design principles to both object and experience, and find them suitable for all media forms and dimensions, including the surface, environment and time-based works. The multimedia documentation of the “A Modern Institution” exhibition uses interactive digital media to replicate the feel and decision making process of visiting the exhibition. The media allows me to showcase intangibles in a way that no other archival format allows. Visual consistency and clarity of interaction are key traits used to convey the message of the exhibition.

Finally, I believe that design should be accessible by a wide range of viewers and clients. Often those with the least resources are in the greatest need of design services. Great ideas and business are hindered from advancing and growing because of the impression design (or lack thereof) gives. The project I did for the Illinois Archaeology Association is a prime example of the balance between intellect and aesthetics. The poster was developed to promote the awareness of archaeology to viewers who are unfamiliar with the discipline. With a youthful and diverse group in mind, the images and colors attract attention and project the similarities the representatives of different cultures of the audience likely share.