• What’s the skinny on you? Tell us your story.
Hailing from the great Wasatch Mountain Range of Northern Utah. I grew up dreaming that some day I would be able to ski just like Glen Plake. Other than skiing as much as I could, I lived a pretty regular childhood. I struggled through school but always excelled in the arts including both drawing and music. The day after graduating high school, I moved to Colorado where I performed with the Blue Knights Drum and Bugle Corps.
After Drum Corps, I returned to Logan, Utah to attend Utah State University where I pursued my bachelor degree in Fine Arts with an emphasis in Graphic Design. During my time at USU, I had the chance to spend a semester abroad in Switzerland, the design mecca of the world. While in Switzerland I absorbed everything that I could about some of the world’s greatest designers.
Within mere days of graduating from Utah State University, I received my first graphic design job with the Square One Printing team. After two years of learning the ins and outs of the printing world, I joined up with an old college buddy and started a local design studio called Advent Creative. After building a studio from the ground up, I was offered a position with Impact Payments that I just could not turn down.
Which brings up to date. Along with working for Impact Payments I also do freelance work. I run all of my freelance work under the name One Arm Creative, for all of you that have met me, you will understand the thought behind the name.
• What is it that drew you to a life of graphic design?
My whole life I have been surrounded by the arts. My grandmother and my mom both are very talented artists. Being surrounded by such talented artists has allowed me to develop the ability to think through problems with a creative approach. Throughout my life I have had a passion for expressing myself through the arts. The graphic design industry has allowed me to continue to do so. Being in the design field also allows me to make a difference in people’s lives and the world around me.
It also helped me a little when a certain person in my life told me that I should look into a different major because only people with two hands could be designers. Because of this, I have a very strong drive to prove everyone wrong.
• Where did you collect your design education?
I feel I have been collecting my education from the day I joined this world. The bulk of my graphic design education has come in the last 10 years. I began studying fine art while I was attending high school at Mountain Crest. Unfortunately, I was heavily involved in the music program, which pretty much took up all of the art credits I was allowed to take in high school.
After high school, I moved to Denver to pursue my passion for music, but I also discovered that Denver was a great source for the visual arts. For the next four years I would take advantage of the great source as much as I could. After aging out of the Blue Knights I returned to Logan, Utah to attend Utah State University.
I spent the next five years learning everything that Utah State University had to offer in the graphic design industry, which took me to Switzerland to study about the vast history behind design along with the history of the country.
I strongly feel that I have really developed my personal style and have truly learned the design principles. We all must understand the basic design principles before we can reach our greatest principles.
• Are you a team player, or are you a solo creative?
I have to say that some of my greatest projects have come from working with a group of colleagues. Over the past few years, I have developed a network of designers, writers, and developers that allow me to bounce concepts and projects off. The most important part about creating your own network is knowing that all the members of your group will give you an honest opinion. Not only can you bounce ideas off them, but you can learn all kinds of amazing techniques and styles by just working with them and hanging around them.
• Are there any qualities you wish for in a project, or, describe your dream job?
Being a designer has to be my dream job, I love the fact that everyday I wake up I know there is going to be something new today. As a designer my projects range from designing a brochure to designing a website or interface design.
I would love to have the opportunity to work for a company in the action sports industry. I am drawn to the action sports field because it is something that I love to spend my free time doing. I think we should all work toward designing in a field that we have love.
• What primes your creative pump? Where do you find your best inspiration?
Like all the great designers past to present, it’s impossible for me to walk down a street without analyzing every type treatment, color combo and layout. My mind is constantly with ideas just waiting to be unleashed on my next project.
Priming the creative pump has to be the hardest thing about being a designer. An important element I was taught while attending Utah State University, was that as a designer we should subscribe to one if not two design annuals that best fit your style or approach to design. Over the years I have been drawn to HOW Magazine and Computer Arts. Along with the vast amounts of design blogs that are popping up everyday on the web, I make a habit to follow a number of design blogs that talk about everything from web design to typography.
I am a very strong believer that we have a chance to learn something new around every corner. So keep your head up and your eyes wide open. Your next inspiration is coming at you. Inspiration goes hand in hand with always learning new things in the design industry.
• We have all had projects that didn’t go well or were quite the challenge. What have you learned from these scenarios?
This has to be a very true statement. I think that every designer in the field, has at some point, had a project go south. It is a very hard thing to handle. As I look back at the worst projects that have gone south, they have been caused by not checking spelling and not taking time to truly understand the main purpose of the project that you have been asked to work on.
There is much more to a design project then just taking the content and making it look good. You need to understand who the target market is and what approach they are most commonly drawn to.
• If you happened upon enough cash flow to retire today, what would you do? I would retire from my current job and would love to have a clothing company that is directed to the action sport industry. I love to design graphics for clothing, but along with designing clothing, come pretty much everything else. Not only do you need a strong physical presence, you also need to represent on the web strongly.
When I am not working on the brand position of the company, I would spend the rest of my time with my family enjoying the great outdoors.
• Any advice you care to divulge to students who are currently in training? There are two things that I feel I have learned after leaving Utah State that I wish I would have learned while in school. The first would have to be learn and understand the history of designers and the methods of the past. I strongly feel that some of the greatest tools out there have nothing to do with current technology. A friend of mine always says that "the people who are going to make a difference in this world are the ones educating themselves allow them to become great thinkers."
The second thing that I wish I would have learned more about while in school would have been a basic understanding in marketing strategies. Marketing and design almost go hand in hand in the real world. You always need to know who your target market is and what is the best way to reach them. There is so much more to design than just making things look nice. If it does not get your target to take action then your design has failed.
• Last chance, is there anything we missed you’d like to impart?
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