Calgary based Graphic design, Illustration, comic, cartoon and caricature

new work

This is a fun piece for the folks over at Outdoor Canada about DIY hunting and fishing trips.

taking a beautiful photograph

This site is a great resource to improving your digital photography and also gives you some interesting tips on doing special effects with lighting.

good design is good for business

People don’t question their need for good design in their everyday lives. The choice of a Mercedes car over a Yugo, an Ipod over a no-name MP3 player. We appreciate when design enriches our lives by improving our experience. If something has been designed to be easier to use or understand, most of us will buy into that.

A well designed website isn’t the prettiest—it’s the easiest to use and the most useful sites that we appreciate. So many times I’ve been asked to “pretty something up” or my personal favourite “get all artsy-farsy with this”.

The GDC, of which I’m a member wanted to change the designation of their members this year from Professional Member to Certified Graphic Designer. One designation batted around was Communication Professional. I like that, because it’s my job to take the problem a business wants solved and work out a solution to that—wether it’s an Advert, a brochure, or fixing their website.

If you think design is a superfluous expense to your business, you’re missing out on an opportunity to grow your business in different ways. Check out this link to the AIGA’s (American Institute of Graphic Arts) brief on the value of design.

new work

Here’s a group of portraits I did for Teresa Johnstone, AD for Wine Access Magazine. Thanks Teresa!

What’s design got to do with comedy?

Michael Beruit puts up an interesting correlation between what stand up comics do and what a designer does. Comparing design to performance makes a lot of sense since design is a form of performance where you don’t see the performer, but you experience their work.