Designing engaging and aesthetically pleasing digital experiences is what I specialize in. While I primarily utilize content management systems like WordPress for website creation, I am proficient in making adjustments using CSS and HTML (or collaborate with a developer).
I've made print ads, signage, posters, event programs, newsletters, packaging, press-kits, badges, ids, brochures, postcards, jumbotron graphics and spent years working as a graphic designer and art-director on newspapers and magazines.
Crafting compelling digital content—meticulously editing text, images, and graphics for web platforms—is my favorite puzzle. I also like a good challenge retouching photographs, creating illustrative collages or when i get a chance to bring out the paint.
In 2013, a team of three people developed the Stanford University homepage and primary directory pages. I was the sole Visual Designer on the team. Working with my boss Scott Stocker we decided to continue the use of a brandbar header and footer but update the design to show the new Stanford wordmark, and look and feel. The idea being that one day it would spread so that most Stanford websites have global header and footer.
The homepage and directory pages were designed to be mobile responsive, ADA compliant, and to include more space for social and multimedia features. This was a new era in our office and it was fun to collaborate with an ADA specialist. The design was called the “Cardinal theme” and spread to many different sites at Stanford. Eventually Stanford Web Services was formed and they developed templates in Drupal to serve the community. It was the 3rd redesign of the University homepage that I’ve been part of.
A long time ago when I first started working for University Communications, Stanford had a website with a BLUE background, shortly thereafter it was changed to reflect the Stanford colors and later in 2002-2008 we introduced the idea of a brandbar header and footer.
That design became a theme for templates available to the Stanford Community. It was called “Stanford Modern” and was based on the homepage design. I was the sole Visual Designer on that.
I was also part of the team that worked with a vendor on the version which was released in 2008.
In 2013 it was time again and it became the “Cardinal” theme, featuring a larger red global header and footer... same idea as the original brandbar but updated ux and visual design plus featuring the new wordmark etc. etc.
During several years I also helped shape, maintain and improve both the “Jordan” and “Wilbur” themes made available to the Stanford Community (first with an outside vendor and later Stanford Web Services).
Websites that were my responsibility when working for University Communications:
stanford.edu | facts.stanford.edu | news.stanford.edu | events.stanford.edu
In the fall of 2012 Stanford University updated its wordmark and developed an identity toolkit for departments and campus units. I was part of that team working with an outside vendor. My role later was to help with further improving the brand- and style- guidelines online to better function as a toolkit for the University. In this massive change I also provided support to campus units in their adaptation and implementation.
In 2013 I created signatures of 4 out of 7 schools, including the graphic design of the hierarchy of the departments and labs (School of Earth Sciences, School of Engineering, Graduate School of Education, and School of Medicine). Part of this process was also to advise on how to adjust websites, templates and printed materials. Sometimes my role would be more hands-on, for example I created all the Print templates for the Commencement materials; badges, programs, parking passes, signage for reserved seating, etc.
Working with Stanford Web Services we created a new website for the Stanford Department of English. With focus on Service Design we conducted a series of discovery workshops. To meet the goals of a unique visual identity within the Stanford University identity guidelines, myself and another designer at SWS created three custom design options for the department to consider. The options were built on the foundation of colors and fonts provided by the identity guidelines that I helped create for the university. Each design captured a quality or character that the department expressed interest in. The design chosen by the department “sophisticated, minimal, modern” brought an idea of a visual metaphor, the bookmark, to the design.
As a member of Stanford University Communications, I had the opportunity to design advertisements for Stanford in the event programs of three prestigious college football bowl games: the Orange Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, and Rose Bowl.
I was hired to create an illustration of poppies for Pottery Barn Teen Inc. The flower graphic design was sold online, printed on white tables in orange, green and pink.
I worked with Linda Paulson, Associate Dean and Director, MLA Program, on the Victorian Reading Project for Stanford Continuing Studies. I designed and developed the website, marketing postcards and ads that were illustrative collages, and the serialized printed novels. The eight books were presented in facsimile, along with notes and commentary designed to enhance the reading experience. Paper issues were mailed weekly to subscribers; others were invited to read the same issues on the website. The goal was to reanimate, for modern readers, the Victorian encounter with serialized books, read as they were intended to be — one issue at a time. The project spanned three Dickens novels, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, and Hard Times, and continued with selected Sherlock Holmes stories, including a complete novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles.
For three years in a row I designed and managed most of the printed collateral for TEDxStanford; the event signage, badges, program, t-shirts and other marketing collateral. In 2014 the event sold out in 14 minutes. The same year when working with University Communications we collaborated with Stanford Web Services (Stanford’s in-house Drupal shop) to improve the site so it's easier to maintain.
Back in the retro age, a video game magazine was as essential to the gaming experience as the console and controllers. With no high-quality websites and very little TV presence the only way to find out what was coming next was to read about it in a game magazine printed on paper. I designed concepts, layouts and final art for the magazine Game Players. With editor Chris Slate we debuted a major rebrand and redesign, becoming Ultra Game Players. This was really fun to do and the most obvious change in the magazine was the graphic design.
Earlier versions of Game Players featured a colorful design meant to appeal more to children and pre-teens, who were understood to be the primary consumers. It sure was a fun way to get creative in Photoshop and come up with crazy background designs, although those layouts almost made the text illegible. But as the age of both the video game market in general and the audience increased, we opted for a cleaner, more stylized design.
Articles and designing certain section layouts were my responsibility and I remember being influenced by the Designers Republic packaging designs of the game Wipeout. At the time UGP was ranked no. 3 in the country and had 200,000 subscribers. I also designed the magazine's media-kit packaging (I made a mistake calculating the thickness of the spine with all the extra materials in the package. Live and learn!). For the marketing department I also designed the new ad series of the magazine.
Using Wordpress, Squarespace, Square Online, Godaddy templates or other content management systems is something I enjoy. The type of businesses I've worked with to create content and a website for, range from Chefs to Investment Advisors. Each project requires a unique solution tailored to the client's goals. It's my favorite kind of puzzle.
Arias Organics | Island Queen | Vashon Wine | Restless Artisan | Wiengren Design | Focus Capital | Pirates Soccer Boosters |
I was the visual designer that worked with the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health to create a new website called kidsdata.org, a website for finding data about the health and wellbeing of children. The designs focused on the user experience, brand, color and typography with an easy interface to visualize specific regions, years, and data types to feature indicators of child health and well-being. The site was nominated for a Webby Award in 2005 and 2006, and another site I designed for them, kidscal.org, was an honoree in 2005. The Webby Awards (colloquially referred to as the Webbys) are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over three thousand industry experts and technology innovators.
Not using a Content Management System but instead building with my limited developer skills I made another site for myself as an example of my level of proficiency using HTML, CSS, JS, and Bootstrap. I'm also fluent in Swedish, understand and speak a little French + German and a million years ago I earned a BA in Industrial Design with a focus on Graphics.