Touch

It is a proven fact that babies need to be touched to survive. Touch is one of the most powerful ways to make a connection with another person. We benefit from the comfort of a friend's hand on our shoulder during a tough time in life. Touch teaches us lessons, it connects us. Everything we do or say has the power to touch someone's life in a positive or negative way. Design has that same ability.

Poster - Sketch - Research

Poster

Daisy

Rooster Illustration

Smell

Close your eyes, take a deep breath and remember the smell of a spring day after the rain. Fresh, clean and crisp. What about those smells that are associated with Thanksgiving? Can you smell it now? There are smells we recognize without anyone saying a word. Those smells tell us a lot. If a match is lit in another room, it won't be long before someone asks, "Do you smell something burning?" We make such strong associations with smells. Good designers can bring about those same connections. Take a deep breath near a rose bush in the summer. Smell!

Logos

Hippo Illustration

Icons

Taste

Taste the fullness of life. Savor the flavor of a spring day. Taste and experience as many cultures as you can. Sample the seasonings that multitudes of individuals have brought to America. Enjoy the spice of life. Remember what it is like each time you taste a new food. What leaves a bad taste in  your mouth? A design can leave us with those same experiences. It  can refresh us like the taste of ice cream on a hot summer day or it can shock us like the taste of a lemon. Order something new off the menu. Taste!

Hear

Some people think that silence can be deafening. I think that we can learn best to hear in the silence. In the silence we learn to listen to ourselves. When we are silent we learn to hear what others are trying to tell us. Designers have to take time to hear beyond the noise. Listen to the other side of the story. Hear life. Listen to the sound of your beating heart, to the wind blowing over the grass or to the calm after the storm. Listen to the whispered secret.

See

Are we born knowing how to see or is it something we need to learn? I think we have to learn how to see. It is easy to walk through a crowd and never really see the faces passing by. Life has a very fast pace but a good designer takes the time and makes the effort to see life. See the possibilities, the smiles and the frowns. Look at a spider's web, a snow flake and an acorn. Watch the sun rise or set, a child at play or an ant working. Observe the good, the bad, the ugly and the beautiful.

COME TO YOUR SENSES

See
Hear
Taste
Smell
Touch
Design

I feel like graphic design is one of my senses. It is part of who I am. I love the process of solving a problem with design. It is exciting to be able to help someone communicate through the use of graphic design. Design incorporates the senses and what we learn from them. It is part of our everyday lives and has the power to motivate, shock, inspire, sadden or wound us. Design can communicate where words fail. It can reach beyond barriers or create them. I find design that works towards the good of others most rewarding. Design that can bring people to their senses in any given situation is a great thing.

Philosophy: Be excellent at what is good.