Designing for a narrative to create an experience

I've always been obsessed with the power beautiful art and smart design have for immersing someone in a story. People seek out experiences that can do that, revisit it, and share it with their friends. They remember those times when something made them laugh or moved them,  and they look to the same places to find it again. That's the advantage of designing with a narrative to create an experience. That's what gives marketing campaigns sticking power beyond the first few ad runs, and that's what people remember most about their favorite brands.

By applying the principles of experience design to logos, graphic design and illustration we can target and engage audiences in ways that they remember and look for again.

The brands with the most loyal customer base create stories around themselves and throughout their campaigns. Wherever possible they build worlds and allow people to be swept up by them because they know if they can capture your imagination, grow a culture, and build an experience, you'll never want to leave.

Transparency

I find the typical separation of client and designer to be stifling and unproductive; its only real use is in quickly generating work that's "good-enough." The kind of people I want to work with, and who want to work with me are collaborators. They have their own ideas and love pulling up their sleeves. That's why I maintain a high level of transparency about my process, my expectations, and my thoughts on what the best next-steps are.

Collaboration

There is nothing better than landing on a design that makes everyone at the table excited; but it can take a lot of time to get there and it can't happen without collaboration.  Rather than endless back and forth emails, one of my clients' favorite ways I collaborate is through live-review sessions. Using Skype or Hangouts I screen-share and chat with them about my concepts, red-penning the concepts real time, until we all land on a direction we're happy with.

Working with you to discover your needs and align with your vision is one of the most important parts of my work.