Projects, Illustrations & Doodles: A Look Back at 2019
As a graphic designer, no two projects are alike – and I love it! The variety not only makes my work interesting but it also keeps me on my toes. I’m constantly being challenged to sharpen my creativity and imagination.
Like many of you, I’ve been looking ahead to 2020 and what it means for my business. But, before I get too deep into the new year, I wanted to reflect on the projects of 2019. We often get so caught up in the day-to-day work, deadlines and demands, we forget to pause and look at the amazing work we did in the last 12 months.
I use the phrase “top 5” loosely. I’ve worked on many great projects this year but these were all especially enjoyable for one reason or another. They also capture the breadth, depth and variety of the type of projects I work on.
Top 5 Design Projects
Town of Mount Pleasant Annual Report: Annual reports can quickly become overwhelming and loaded with information. We opted, instead, to keep this report layout clean and consistent. The town provided great photography, which made my job easy. I created a custom illustration of a shrimp boat for the cover to tie in an important element of the town’s identity and history. You can see the full report digitally here.
Southeastern Wildlife Expo Brochure: A long-time client, I love working with this annual festival. This year, we redesigned the VIP brochure to have a double-folded gate and three stepped inserts.
Animated Video: Animated explainer videos are huge projects, but work great as a blend of simplicity and storytelling. For this project, I also loved the style of the illustrations.
Personal Posters: I did two poster projects for a fellow in town. It was a bit of a puzzle to make all the pieces fit together nicely.
This was an atypical project for me, and I really enjoyed the challenge. Here’s one of them.
HUB Logo: This logo project brought together some of my favorite things: children, Charleston, church and a very specific and limited color palette. It was a fun project for sure!
Top 5 Illustration Projects
Camp Map: I love camp. I love illustrating maps. When you put these together, it’s a good day at work.
Baby Shower Invitation: This postcard invitation was extra special: celebrating my sister’s first baby! The theme was jungle, so I created a fun jungle pattern for the front. And, on the back, I added some simple, clean typography.
Tecklenburg Magazine Cover: Lately, I’ve been combining a lot of digital and analog drawing. Here’s a good example: the cover of the December issue of West Of featuring a portrait of Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg, who was just elected to a second term.
Heyward the Horse #2: I’m plugging away on my next Heyward the Horse book – and it’s almost done! It has been a real blast getting to the illustration phase. Keep checking www.heywardthehorse.com for more info.
Inktober: This isn’t a paying gig, but I committed to drawing a person every day for 31 days in October. It was definitely harder than it sounds, but also incredibly rewarding. You can read more about that project here. Or see all the drawings on my Instagram account.
Bye bye 2019
There you have it – a small sliver of all the projects I’ve worked on this year. Now I’m getting excited for 2020 and what’s sure to be another year of inspiring creations.