inspiration
Graphic Design Portfolio Examples to Inspire You + Important Tips
Newly graduated? Actively seeking employment in the field? Super comfortable in your current position?
No matter what your status, the Go Media team suggests you regularly work to keep your design portfolio up-to-date.
Seasoned designers, we know that this task may seem daunting. However, in order to show beautiful work, you simply have to put the time in. Being methodical about adding work is far easier and more effective, in our view. Slow and steady always wins the race.
We have launched a couple blog posts about what your design portfolio should include. They are:
How to Have the Best Graphic Design Portfolio on the Block: 3 Tips and
How to Create a Graphic Design Portfolio
Here are five of our most important tips.
- Only show your very best work. Your portfolio should be well curated. Less is often more.
- Cover all of your bases. If you have excellent work in branding, print, web, illustration, show us. Well-rounded designers are few and far between.
- Tell us a story. We love case studies! Show us your thought process from start to finish. Include illustrations, notes and various rounds. Address failures & successes along the way. We love to see how designers move throughout the design process. No matter what the outcome, we will respect you for guiding us along your path.
- Put as much time into your portfolio as you did completing the project. If you took eight hours to create a logo for a client, take roughly eight hours to work on that respective portfolio item. Dedicate yourself to mocking the logo up on multiple templates until they look perfect. Write, rewrite, proofread the copy to go along with your portfolio item. Construct a thorough case study as referenced above. If your logo appears in a store, restaurant or other location, go out and photograph it! Take time editing the photos so that they are professional in quality. Gather testimonials on your work if possible. Don’t stop until you’re proud.
- Show that you can work with clients & meet deadlines. Students, this one is for you. If you have not yet had experience in the field, ask your friends and family if they need any design work. This will get you some freelance work in the door and show us that you have experience, no matter how minor, working for clients. Get ready to illustrate the work you’ve done in your portfolio, as well as discuss how you communicated with them and managed to meet important deadlines.
Here are some portfolios that have inspired us with notes about why we enjoy them.
Ekaterina Oloy
Los Angeles Based Illustrator, Artist and Visual Storyteller
What We Love: Katia’s Portfolio is instantly spellbinding. Each project is accompanied by a full case study or accompanying materials that help you relate to Katia’s
work. This is the standard that all other portfolio’s should be judged against.
Skinny Ships
Design and Illustration by Richard Perez and Jennifer Derosa
What We Love: The cleanliness and fun spirit of the work. It makes you want to work with them.
Hom Sweet Hom
Hand Lettering by Lauren Hom
What We Love: High-quality, vibrant work that hits you in the face!
Great brand consistency
Ron Draper
Artist and Designer living in the UK
What We Love: Nice high-quality, bold imagery. Some portfolio items tell a story of Ron’s process.
Jordan Metcalf Studio
South African Graphic Designer
We love Jordan’s copy. As you know, we love a story and it gives more substance to his work.
Chuck Anderson
No Pattern Studio – Chuck Anderson
Artist, Graphic Designer, Photographer, Creative Director
What We Love: Chuck’s Portfolio is filled with over-sized, juicy imagery.
The quality of his presentation, in our opinion, is simply on another level.
Kate Moross
Designer
What We Love: Kate’s bold and captivating presentation
Erik Marinkovich
Lettering Artist and Designer
What We Love: Clean and crisp overall. The work is breathtaking! Copy is simple and straightforward.
Creative Mints
A Boutique Human-Centered Design Agency from Prague
specializing in Branding, UI and Illustration
What We Love: Creative Mints shows a beautiful variety of work in their portfolio
Go Media’s Online Portfolio
We couldn’t let you leave without bragging about our own graphic design portfolio!
Here at our Cleveland Graphic Design and Web Development Firm, we love showing off the work we do in the areas of not only design and web, but print, illustration and web marketing.
Our Rich Wonder portfolio item is a great example of one of our case studies. We used illustration to help us
explain our thought process through the project.
We hope you enjoyed this post and it inspired you to add to your portfolio today!
- Categorized: Graphic Design
- Tagged: how to create a portfolio, inspiration, portfolio, portfolio tips, student designers, students
90’s Graphic Design Mood Board
The 90’s were a magical time – a time of the Docs, Game Boys, and the sweet, sweet sound of AOL dialing-up. As everything that was once old is new again, the 90’s are making a come back.
Design trends from this era can be found in posters, album covers and fonts. As artist Dave Perillo has shown, even some of our favorite old friends are back in action. Deservedly so.
What about 90’s design is worth reintroducing, you ask? We created a mood board of sorts to answer this question and hope it helps uncover the truth. Below you’ll find 90’s posters, graphics, album covers, products, and other elements that may inspire you to create your next design piece enhanced with 90’s elements. We have arranged the elements in four categories. We hope you find this helpful. Enjoy!
90’s Design
1 – Color like WHOA.
The 90’s was at once a wave of color and a dash of grunge. But for this moment, at least, we are rejoicing in glorious brilliance of it all. Think Pretty in Pink (literally), color pops, neon lasers and this 90’s cup design that kind of grows on you after awhile. Totally unapologetic!
2 – Chunky Fonts.
If you take a broad look at fonts in the 90’s, you will see a lot of thick lines and truly unique fonts driven by theme. Oh – and we loved a drop shadow!
3 – Photo Posters
The focus around many of the posters or album art in the 90’s was around one simple graphic or photograph. Many of these are iconic posters and I think their simplicity speaks volumes.
4 – From Bold & Vibrant to Black & White (and Red)
Though this era gave us a lot of pink, we also saw a lot of stark contrast – black & white – sometimes with pops of red.
What did you love most about design in the 90’s?
For more 90’s Graphic Design, head to the Go Media Pinterest Board.
- Categorized: Graphic Design Inspiration, Web Roundup
- Tagged: 90's, design, inspiration, posters, prints
Stop and Follow These Super Fun, Empowering Illustrators on Instagram
Follow these Illustrators on Instagram
Hate social media bringing you down? Hate scrolling and slowly feeling down about yourself as the posts roll by? Follow these ten illustrators on Instagram we suggest below and you’ll perk right up. We promise!
We are all about inspiration these days. We have started a Facebook group for creatives and hope you’ll join. Head to the We Are Weapons – Go Media Creative Crew on Facebook and request to join in on the conversation.
A few more notes before the inspiration begins:
- If you love this post, check out our post entitled: Girl Power: Follow These 34 Female Creatives Now
- Make sure to follow Go Media on Instagram!
selfcareisforeveryone
A space that honors the importance of choosing self-care over self-harm.
ladieswinedesign
Empowering creative ladies! Started by @jessicavwalsh
powered by awesome ladies worldwide in over 200 cities.
recipesforselflove
hellomynameiswednesday
THEY/THEM pls | queer trans artist & activist
onbeinginyourbody
A way of being | A space for embodied wisdom
positivelypresent
Original artwork © Dani DiPirro
DC-area artist + author
tylerfeder
illustrator trying her best
gemmacorrell
infamous anti-socialite and pug lady
bethdrawsthings
florencegiven
London Based Artist & Social Issues Advocate
- Categorized: Graphic Design Inspiration, Web Roundup
- Tagged: illustration, illustrators, inspiration, Instagram, social media
70’s Graphic Design Inspiration
70s Graphic Design: Ideas from our Pinterest Board
As you may have noticed, companies and designers have been drawing inspiration from of our favorite decades lately. Graphic design inspiration from the 1970’s is all the rage. There is something about the thick lines, bold color choices and simple layouts that really speaks to us still. So today, we are throwing down some vintage inspiration from this decade in hopes that it inspires your next project. Enjoy!
For more 70’s graphic design and 70’s inspired design, head to our Pinterest board.
For more 70’s graphic design and 70’s inspired design, head to our Pinterest board.
- Categorized: Graphic Design Inspiration, Web Roundup
- Tagged: 1970s, 70s, inspiration, pinterest, posters, vintage
21 Hand Lettering Artists to Follow on Instagram
Hand Lettering Artists to Follow on Instagram
Wandering around Instagram, we found some really beautiful examples of hand lettering that we thought we’d share. We thought they might inspire and ignite your next project. Enjoy the hand lettering artists to follow on Instagram and please click on each image to learn more about the artist who created the individual piece.
For more hand lettering inspiration, check out our post “Letters We’re Loving: 30+ Hand Lettering and Typography Inspirations” and
one of our most popular articles, “100 Top Resources for Typography and Hand-Lettering”
Elizabeth Gray (thegraytergood)
Lisa Quine (lisa_quine)
Pierre Boisson (pedrodelabedida)
Katie Made That (katiemadethat)
Loren Klein (lorenkleindesign)
Talita Marques (marquestalita)
Maxime Bolis (maximebolis)
Saori (_lil.something_)
Jessica Renna (jessicarenna)
Michael Moodie (michael_moodie)
Loz Ives (idleletters)
Shauna Parmesan (weneedtotalkproject)
Tiffany Dewitt (livelongandletter)
Annick Martin (annick.martin)
Indysign (theindysign)
Jessica Nam (jessicanam)
Tearapart Intajak (tump_tearapart)
Emmy (redpolarbear_)
Devin Rista (devinrista)
Joanna Walters (jopeydopes)
Deirdre (the designer) (deirdrethedesigner)
- Categorized: Design Community, Graphic Design Inspiration, Web Roundup
- Tagged: hand lettering, inspiration, Instagram, lettering, type, typograhy
Branding Cleveland’s Own Forest City Shuffleboard
Cleveland Design Firm Go Media helps to develop Forest City Shuffleboard brand
Based on the success of their original shuffleboard business in Marblehead Ohio (the Erie Social), owners Jim and Kari looked to elaborate on their concept by venturing to the city of Cleveland. As the branding began, we quickly realized a tweaked direction based off the original concept could be fruitful, and thus we arrived at the vintage varsity aesthetic. Orienting visuals to the feel of late-century gymnasiums and sports movies helped develop the voice of the concept. To further cement the brand voice, we decided to rename what would have been Cleveland Shuffleboard, Forest City Shuffleboard — A throw-back, nickname oriented approach which was the cherry on top of their new brand.
Wall Cards
Website
- Categorized: Go Media, News
- Tagged: brand, brand development, branding, cleveland, forest city shuffleboard, go media, Graphic Design, inspiration, logo, sports, sports branding
Inspiration of the Day: Here’s to Princess Leia
Princess Leia Fan Art
Our hearts are broken over the loss of Carrie Fisher, so today we’re honoring her in today’s Inspiration of the Day post. Please enjoy this work we found on Dribbble and Behance created by artists we admire, which honors her and the characters she played so eloquently.
Hero image, Princess Leia, by ttya on Dribbble
- Categorized: Graphic Design
- Tagged: art, design, Graphic Design, inspiration, princess leia, star wars
100+ More Poster Design Inspirations
100+ Poster Design Inspiration
Hey designers, want way more inspiration? Attend our all-inclusive soul-fulfilling three-day design retreat, WMC: Off-The-Grid, this October 5 – 7th. To learn more, head to wmcfest.com.
Every Wednesday, we scour the web for the best in inspiration from designers killing it at their craft. Please enjoy this incredible art and join us on Pinterest, where we’re dedicated to collecting our own work, as well as the work of those we most admire.
Today, our focus is poster design inspiration. For more, check out our past posts, including:
50+ Gig Poster Designs We’re Obsessed With
Instant Inspiration: Exceptional Gig Poster Designs
40+ Cool and Inspiring Poster Designs
50+ Inspiring Poster Designs
Enjoy!
Click on each poster for more information >>
Which poster was your favorite? Let us know in the comments section below!
- Categorized: Design Community, Graphic Design, Graphic Design Inspiration, Web Roundup
- Tagged: band posters, gig posters, inspiration, movie posters, poster, poster design, posters
Inspiration of the Day: 11/2/2016 – Pin Design
Pin Inspiration
Every Wednesday, we scour the web for the best in inspiration from designers killing it at their craft. Please enjoy this incredible art and join us on Pinterest, where we’re dedicated to collecting our own work, as well as the work of those we most admire.
Today, our focus is pin inspiration. Enjoy!
Cover Image by Alexandra Cook
by Jacob Boyles
by Justin Mezzell
by Justin Mezzell
by Amy Hood for Hoodzpah
by Drew Melton
by Drew Melton
by Aaron Eiland
by ∆ Studio–JQ ∆
by Jeff Finley
by David Sizemore for MailChimp
by brian hurst
by Joanna Behar
by Spencer Charles
by Joanna Behar
by Cameron McMaster
by Dan Draper
by Joey Ellis
- Categorized: Design Community, Graphic Design Inspiration, Web Roundup
- Tagged: inspiration, pin, pins
Inspiration of the Day: 10/5/2016 – Inktober
Inktober 2016 Inspiration
Every Wednesday, we scour the web for the best in inspiration from designers killing it at their craft. Please enjoy this incredible art and join us on Pinterest, where we’re dedicated to collecting our own work, as well as the work of those we most admire.
Today, we’re kicking off this month with inspiring work from artists participating in Inktober, a drawing event created by Jake Parker whereby artists are challenged to do one ink drawing a day for the entire month of October according to the following prompts.
Are you participating? If so, share a link to your work with us in the comments below. We’d love to be inspired by you and follow what you’re working on, too.
Onto the work!
by Renée van den Kerkhof
by Sarah Sugarman
by Nevena Katalina
by Rolling Rook Studio
- Categorized: Design Community, Graphic Design Inspiration, Web Roundup
- Tagged: dribbble, inktober, inspiration
Inspiration of the Day: 9/28/2016 – All the Kawaii
Kawaii Inspiration
Every Wednesday, we scour the web for the best in inspiration from designers killing it at their craft. Please enjoy this incredible art and join us on Pinterest, where we’re dedicated to collecting our own work, as well as the work of those we most admire.
Kawaii is the name of the game today. How will this inspire your next design?
Header image by Clémentine Derodit
Have a great day, everyone!
- Categorized: Design Community, Graphic Design Inspiration, Web Roundup
- Tagged: cute, illustration, inspiration, kawaii
Inspiration of the Day: 9/14/2016 – DIY Business Card Designs
Business Card Inspiration 2016
Every Wednesday, we scour the web for the best in inspiration from designers killing it at their craft. Please enjoy this incredible art and join us on Pinterest, where we’re dedicated to collecting our own work, as well as the work of those we most admire.
Today we’re going to narrow in on folks who added some handmade love to their business card designs. How will this inspire your next business card design?
- Categorized: Design Community, Graphic Design Inspiration, Web Roundup
- Tagged: business card, inspiration
Inspiration of the Day: 9/7/2016 – Beverage Packaging Design
Beverage Packaging Design Inspiration
Every Wednesday, we scour the web for the best in inspiration from designers killing it at their craft. Please enjoy this incredible art and join us on Pinterest, where we’re dedicated to collecting our own work, as well as the work of those we most admire.
Today we’re going to narrow in on killer beveraging packaging design inspiration. Let’s take a look at what our fellow designers are doing over at Dribbble, shall we?
Cover image and beverage design packaging designed by your friends here at graphic and web design studio Go Media.
Have a great day, everyone. See you next Wednesday for more inspiration!
- Categorized: Graphic Design Inspiration, Web Roundup
- Tagged: beer, beverage, beverage inspiration, design, dribbble, Graphic Design, inspiration, packaging, web roundup, wine
Monday Morning Motivation: Talks that inspire us the most
Every so often, we all need to pull up TED.com or YouTube and find a motivational talk to give us the strength we need to get through a challenging day or simply for a breath of fresh air. Today, we’re sharing some of our favorites with you. Please leave a comment below and let us know which speeches light that spark for you. We’d love to check them out.
——
The surprising truth about what motivates us
adapted from Dan Pink’s talk at the RSA
——
Stefan Sagmeister’s
The power of time off
——
Joe Smith’s
How to use a paper towel
——
Andrew Solomon’s
How the worst moments in our lives
make us who we are
Malcolm Gladwell’s
The unheard story of David and Goliath
Simon Sinek’s
How great leaders inspire action
Robert Waldinger’s
What makes a good life?
Lessons from the longest study on happiness
——
Amy Cuddy’s
Your body language shapes who you are
Monica Lewinsky’s
The price of shame
Margaret Heffernan’s
The dangers of willful blindness
These Are Things’s
How we learned to stop worrying and enjoy the ride
Ira Glass
…On Storytelling
——
Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo.
Michael Pollan’s
Edible Education 101
Dan Gilbert’s
The psychology of your future self
Dan Gilbert’s
The surprising science of happiness
——
From TED’s Radio Hour:
Brand Over Brain
From TED’s Radio Hour:
The Power of Design
- Categorized: Graphic Design Inspiration, Web Roundup
- Tagged: go media, inspiration, roundup, speech, talk, ted, web
My love letter to Weapons of Mass Creation
[Notes from the road: As I begin my journey back to Scranton – heading east on route 80 with a long road ahead – I have plenty of time to process all the amazing memories dancing around my brain from a very inspiring three-day weekend. And even though my head’s still spinning, I wanted to get down as many thoughts as possible while they were still fresh.]
The Quick Pitch
Not only am I beyond thrilled with my experience at Weapons of Mass Creation, I’m making it a personal goal to tell as many people as possible about this gem. Whether you’re just out of design school, working full-time but doing a side hustle, or a few years in to running your own shop, you need to attend this conference. A 3-day all access pass to the fest only costs 120 bucks (It’s a very budget-friendly conference) and on top of that, they’re always running deals (if you’re into that sort of thing). I got 50% off for being an Arsenal member! The workshops are extra but are also very affordable (ranging from $30-$60) and all talks are included in the price of admission. Bottom line, in a world full of email communications, Skype meetings and Slack hangouts, this is a chance to spend some quality time with a ton of amazing like-minded creatives.
My Personal Journey
This was my first trip out to Weapons of Mass Creation, and for those who don’t know, WMC is a Cleveland based 3-day conference that celebrates design, entrepreneurship, and creativity. The festival is presented by Go Media and is the result of a lot of blood, sweat and tears by an amazing group of folks including Heather Sakai (@sakaipower), Bryan Garvin (@bryangarvin) and countless other hard-working volunteers. For the past few years, I’ve heard wonderful things about WMC Fest, mostly through my dealings with Go Media and their design resource site Arsenal, but for one reason or another, I never made the trek out. This year was different.
When my family and I relocated to Scranton in 2015, I left a ton of great creative friends back in Philly, and while I’m still in the process of carving out a network in my new home, I knew that this was one thing WMC was known for. On top of that, after a topsy-turvy first year of running Variant, I was feeling over-worked, creatively exhausted and burnt out. So not only was I hoping to connect with members of the community, I was also jonesing for some inspiration, advice, and positive energy to recharge with. So after a nudge from my lovely wife, I decided this was the year to make it happen.
While I wasn’t able to go to attend every workshop and talk, I tried my damnedest to cover a ton of ground and what follows is a spin through my experience. Let’s dive in.
Workshops
Between Friday and Saturday, the fest offered a diverse collection of workshops including – to name a few – Meetings with an Impact, Creating a Killer Portfolio, and Going Big with Lettering. (See the full list)
“DON’T FOLLOW YOUR PASSION,
FOLLOW YOUR EFFORT”
– Mark Cuban
I decided to spend the bulk of my Friday attending the workshop “How to Start and Build a Profitable Design Business” run by Partner, and Chief Experience Officer of Nine Labs, Brad Weaver.
Brad is the man. Extremely passionate and knowledgable, he offers a direct and sometimes sobering playbook on what it takes to become a successful and sane creative owner. That sane part is crucial! He breaks it down into some key steps, and while he peppers in basics of getting up and running – like registering for a corporation, tax IDs, etc. – the real meat of his talk focuses on becoming profitable. This includes tips for building out your network, calculating shop costs, price bracketing, contracts, all things I found truly helpful. And while I walked out feeling encouraged that I’m doing a fair amount the right way, I did feel there are some things I could be doing to sharpen up my operations. My key takeaways were not only reassessing my value, but making sure I’m locked in on my shop costs, so I can work towards increasing profits. I got a ton out of this workshop and encourage anyone thinking of starting a creative shop to check it out. If you can’t get out to see one of his talks live, don’t worry, the dude wrote a book on it!
To learn more about Brad, you can check out ninelabs.com, follow him on Instragram (@bradweaver) or other social sites (@sbradweaver)
Speakers
One thing that sets WMC apart from some of the bigger conferences is the speaker schedule. Instead of trying to jam as many talks as possible into the weekend they left a bit of breathing room, which meant I could pretty much see everything I wanted throughout Saturday and Sunday. Nice!
“SO MUCH OF THE CRAFT IS MUSCLE MEMORY”
– Sean Starr
Bright and early Saturday morning I decided to check out “Coffee With a Sign Painter,” a Q&A with legendary sign painter Sean Starr (@starrstudiostx). I went honestly just because I was curious and turns out he’s not only crazy talented but a really awesome down-to-earth guy who’s been doing this forever. He’s a craftsman who’s spent years perfecting his trade, and takes it really seriously. I loved hearing his story, his process. It was just refreshing to hear a creative craftsman talk so passionately about his trade. Bonus: I added a new documentary to my queue, “Sign Painters: The Film” which Sean is a part of.
“LIFE IS GOOD, WORK IS HARD”
– Jillian Adel
Next up was art director and letterer, Jillian Adel (@jillianbadel). I’ve been a fan of Jillian’s work since we connected back in 2015, right around the time she relocated from NY to LA. Her story, entitled “The Upside of Frustration“, centered around getting sick and tired with her daily grind and “boys club” surroundings in New York and deciding to reboot, invest in herself, and move to California. It’s a very brave, very inspiring story. She talked a lot about getting started, putting a ton of energy into marketing herself, and figuring out who she was and what kind of creative work she wanted to do. Great talk! She’s awesome person and a wildly talented creative. You can find more about Jillian Adel over at her site.
“IF YOU DON’T HAVE TIME TO DO IT RIGHT,
WHEN ARE YOU GONNA HAVE TIME TO FIX IT?”
– Jeral Tidwell
Jeral Tidwell (@artboytidwell) was the next speaker of the day and is a well-known illustrator who gained a ton of notoriety in the 80s and 90s from his work in the skateboard scene (Or as he likes to say, making money drawing a skull, eating a skull, eating another skull). I walked in a few minutes late, but got the sense he was just going to wing it. The title of his talk was “Copyright, Analog Art, and Thinking Like a Bad Ass“ but you could tell almost immediately he wasn’t going to stick to that. To hear him tell it, he decided to speak more candidly after walking around Ink Wars the night before, and hearing folks saying things like, “I would never be able to do that,” “I’m too scared,” and “Wow! They’re so talented, I can’t do that.” All those moments of insecurity bouncing around the crowd made him stop and think, so he decided to shift things a bit and use his platform to address it. He admits his “I’m too stupid to know any better” approach to work/life has done right by him, and spent the majority of his talk using that philosophy to encourage everyone to not let fear get in the way. “Stop saying can’t, forget about what everybody else thinks, and just go off and be a bad-ass!”
The back half of his talk focused on his current journey after another wild idea. After years of being a successful illustrator, he and his wife are now building a free art school in an under-served area in Louisville, KY. They sold their house, moved into this vacant 15,000 Sq. ft. warehouse, and are working their asses off to create this public space. Here’s a guy that just decided he wanted to do something good in the world and instead of overthinking it to death and talking himself out of it, he just said “Fuck it” and is now working to make it happen. How inspiring is that?!
Amazing talk. Raw and extremely empowering. Despite the fact that he was spinning through this stuff as it came to him – or at least that’s the way he framed it – it was really well put together. You can follow Jeral on Instagram and check out his work site Humantree.com. Hopefully he’ll add some progress updates in the near future as the school project develops.
“FIND A PROFIT IN YOUR PASSION”
– Mark Brickey
Mark Brickey (@Markbrickey) hosts a podcast called Adventures in Design and his “Staying Free as a Freelancer” talk focused on finding a profit in your passion. After years of working as a successful freelancer, he took a step back and realized how frustrated and overworked he had become, basically feeling like he traded in one boss for twenty. So he set a new goal of becoming client-free and walked us through the three C’s that helped him – calculator, calendar and checklist. Now Mark makes a living hosting the AID podcast as he travels the world talking to successful independent creatives who have carved out their own paths.
“THE DAY I GOT FIRED,
I WAS ON MY WAY TO A JOB INTERVIEW”
– Jay Wallace
“The Stake Is High” was my first talk of the day on Sunday and featured Jay Wallace (@JayGWallace), an Ohio-based designer, illustrator currently working for the MLS Soccer team, Columbus Crew SC. Jay shared his short, sweet, and sharp personal success story about transitioning from side work to doing what he loves full-time. What really resonated with me about Jay’s story was his mantra about never settling and staying hungry. Even if you’re at a job you like and have settled into, reminding yourself that “This is not my end-game, this is not the end of the line for me.” There is nothing wrong with constantly challenging yourself to do the next thing and Jay definitely walks that walk. Do yourself a favor and check out his work, I have a feeling he’s destined to do great things.
“LET’S BRING BEAUTY BACK”
– Stefan Sagmeister
I’m going to out myself and confess that up until this year I had no idea who Stefan Sagmeister (@stefansagmeister) was. Having a background in film, I sometimes find myself in a bit of a disadvantage when it comes to the design world. Turns out this guy is a design rock-star. He’s been doing it a really long time (including a long run in design for the music industry) and has become extremely influential. I first heard of Stefan and his firm Sagmeister & Walsh through his documentary “The Happy Film” which premiered at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival. I loved the mission of the film and was very much hoping his talk would cover some similar ground. He did not disappoint, and was by far my favorite speaker of the conference. His talk was on “Why Beauty Matters“ and focused on the importance of not only looking for beauty but how is makes us feel. Not just in terms of our quality of life (Eg. searching for things that are beautiful, finding meaning in beauty) but also in how we translate that into our own creative work. Honestly, there’s too much to try and cover here, so I’m planning on a separate post. He also has an ongoing photo series where he celebrates the beauty of album art and posts daily shots of four covers from his personal collection to his Instagram account. Definitely worth the follow.
“FOCUS ON BEING BETTER,
BIGGER WILL HAPPEN ON ITS OWN”
– LL Bean
Wilson Revehl’s (@wilsonrevehl) talk about “Go Media’s Best/Worst Year“ used the story of Moby Dick to illustrate the trials and tribulations his design shop went through pursuing a high-profile international client. Stocked with both professional and personal life-lessons, Wilson did an excellent job despite the heavy subject matter. I’m sure all small business owners can relate to his story as we’ve all that “What if we land this huge client? moment. “Should we take it on? Can we quickly scale or should we stick with our slow and steady approach?” And while it was definitely sobering at times, he offered up some wonderful advice, shared some empowering moments and left me with a ton of great takeaways. You can find more out about Wilson and Go Media over at their site.
“WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE DECIDE TO IGNORE THE CONCEPT
OF WHAT SOMETHING “IS” OR “SHOULD BE”…
– Isabel Urbina Peña
Artist and type designer Isabel Urbina Peña (@Bellera) closed out WMC 7 with a beautiful talk entitled “Everyone Else was Already Taken,” which included highlights from her journey from Venezuela to New York, finding her design style and eventually discovering a unique way to present her work to the world. It was very refreshing to hear that while most of us spend our time creating for ourselves and clients, it’s almost as important to focus on presenting that work in a way that enhances the personality of the project. You can find out more about Isabel over at her beautiful site.
Vendor Village
The Dropbox Vendor Village was an overwhelming gathering of inspiring creatives, all of which were super cool. Great conversations with a ton of killer creative folks doing amazing work. Highlights for me included:
Snakes + Aceys – On top of being awesome people, Hannah and Anthony of Snakes + Aceys also create incredible apparel and posters. I grabbed their “Land of the Free” tee as well as their Weapon of Choice poster series created for WMC.
The National Poster Retrospecticus – Based out of Austin and featuring more than 400 hand-printed posters by over 125 of the most prominent poster designers in the USA, the NPR tour was alone worth the price of admission. Not to mention, JP and Andy are hilarious. I picked up two prints from Daniel Danger, a Primus 2015 tour poster and the Retrospecticus Rock and Roll Hall of Fame tour poster from 2014.
Charlie Wagers – Another super talented artist who creates gig posters and enamel pins through his co-venture, Lost Lust Supply Co. I picked up his gorgeous Ray Lamontagne tour poster, and a couple of his enamel pins.
Eleven by Seventeen – Keith is a poster designer who’s recently branched out into the world of alternate move posters, very much like myself. So obviously we became best friends. Super great guy.
Also this…
Letterpressing prints with Cranky Pressman • Tons of awesome swag from Jakprints including some delicious creative juice • Hands on screenprinting of a WMC shirt courtesy of Real Thread • Jeff Finley and his Starseed Supply Co. • Flying destroyer disk by OK Pants • The super ladies representing Cleveland’s economic development program.
When planning your trip to WMC 8, definitely be sure to bring a little extra spending money, because I guarantee you’re going to find something at the Vendor Village that’s a must have.
Parties, Podcasts and other highlights
- Crashed the VIP party on Friday night in order to be a guest on Bryan’s live recording of We Are Weapons. Listen to it!
- Watched in awe as a group of talented illustrators competed in Ink Wars. The theme? A mashup between Superman and the awkward teenage years. In the end, Katia Oloy (@ekoloy) was awarded the prize belt.
- Attended the live recording of Adventures in Design with Mark Brickey. The evening’s guests were Jeral Tidwell, Jamal Collins, and the Fest’s Emcee Aaron, better know as Ok Pants. (Side note: Aaron did a terrific job. He’s a Cleveland-based designer and you can check out his stuff here.) The highlight of the night was learning about Jamal Collin’s work with the Boys and Girls club in Cleveland teaching them to things like Photoshop and exposing them to the possibilities of being creative professional. Amazing work. Follow @Jayworking if you want to keep up with the wonderful work Jay’s up to.
- Teaming up with some other South Jersey natives to take on our dreaded foes up in North at the Jak Prints official after party.
Fourth St, Cleveland. Home to a ton of great restaurants including Mabel’s BBQ and Greenhouse Tavern. Cleveland Rocks!
Cleveland is a great town and reminds me of Philly in a lot of ways. Great sports town, awesome food, cool people. Plus Cleveland’s riding high thanks to the Cav’s big win this year, and getting some national love courtesy of hosting the RNC. A few random tidbits:
Eating a hotdog topped in Mac n Cheese, bacon and fruit loops thanks to Happy Dog • Catching an Indians game at Progressive Field (They played Wild Thing!!) • Walking around the spectacular venues at Playhouse Square • Heading over to 4th street and grabbing some wings @ Greenhouse Tavern (No, I didn’t try the pig’s head)
Wrap it up Gary
Bottom line, I would encourage anyone that’s a creative looking to learn, be inspired and hang out with tons of like-minded folks to check out Weapons of Mass Creation next year. Somehow – surprisingly – they’re struggling a bit to stay alive and I think it’s because of their grassroots approach. They’ve done a great job of keeping the conference small and intimate without help from huge corporate sponsors, and while that makes the festival extremely special, it also puts some financial strain. So please do whatever you can to support them. It’s a very worthwhile design conference put on by an amazing group of people and I could not recommend it more.
To learn more, donate, sign up for email updates or see if there’s a way to get involved, head over to wmcfest.com.
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Thanks to Gary from Variant for this incredible write-up! Please visit Gary over at his official site, or get social with him over at his Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. – the WMC Fest team
- Categorized: Graphic Design
- Tagged: brad weaver, cleveland, community, conference, Creative Truth, design, go media, inspiration, Isabel Urbina Peña, Jay Wallace, jillian adel, Nine Labs, playhouse square, stefan sagmeister, Weapons of Mass Creation, wmc
Inspiration of the Day: Cleveland Cavaliers Finals 2016 Designs
Located here in the heart of Cleveland, we can’t help but to be huge fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Sunday, June 19th was a momentous day for our entire city. The curse was indeed reversed and we became the champions we were (kind of) patiently waiting to be. We’re still high on life over here and the following designs have us feeling even more so.
Found on Behance and Dribbble, shout-out to our fellow designers for their incredible talent. Note: header art by: Magdalena Orpych
- Categorized: Design Community, Graphic Design Inspiration, Web Roundup
- Tagged: cavs, cleveland cavaliers, design, Graphic Design, inspiration, poster