Since 2009 I've been the creative director at the University of Virginia School of Law, working as part of a team that tells the story of the law school. We create and implement strategies and projects to more effectively engage the law school’s various target audiences, including prospective students, faculty and alumni.
At UVA Law I design and make printed and online materials, including event posters, conference brochures and programs, stationery and our website. We make videos, create and implement our social media strategy, and try to deepen our audience's engagement with the school's communities. See more here.
I designed and built the website and branding for Skyline Family Medicine, a small, one-physician startup medical practice in Charlottesville, Virginia. Skyline’s location overlooks the Blue Ridge mountains in Virginia so it was logical to incorporate natural forms, colors and illustrations into the website.
The practice is a new model called “direct primary care” which works directly with patients, bypassing impersonal insurance companies and larger health systems. The branding and website, made on a small startup’s limited budget, reflect the personal connection that Dr. Way has with her patients.
I've designed logos and branding for many other clients too - from publishing firms, non-profits and politicians to documentary films, landscapers and punk bands.
For a year I ran Charlottesville's Second Street Gallery, a nationally-recognized non-profit contemporary art space. We created a new brand style and marketing plan that, along with a more aggressive social media strategy, increased our audience, both online and in person. Our social media following grew by 75% and visitors to gallery by increased by 42% and we received ncreased press attention including television interviews, front-page newspaper features and reviews.
It was exciting to create new fundraising and programming initiatives such as SSG Podcast Series, SSG Kids Activity Books, Gallery Rally and SEE HEAR events with musicians and sound artists. These projects helped us secure support from institutions such as the Andy Warhol Foundation and strengthen the gallery's relationship to Charlottesville artists and audiences.
For six years I worked as the art director at Inkworks, where we made licensed products based on TV shows and film properites such as LOST, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Simpsons, The X-Files and Marvel Comics. I developed and worked within existing style guides to keep the properties' brand integrity strong while delivering compelling designs and presenting that work to studio executives.
The band Seamonster asked me to design the packaging for their album Baldessari, a collection of songs inspired by visual artists. I drew from images of the work of the album's namesake, John Baldessari, incorporating his trademark colored dots while also reflecting Seamonster's lo-fi, sincere sound.
Also available (here, for free) is a downloadable DIY liner notes book companion to the album.
I'm also an artist who shows and publishes books and zines internationally. My work has been featured in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Comics Journal, BOING BOING, BOMB and other publications. I'm a Xeric Grant recipient, a Pushcart Prize Nominee, a Slate Cartoonist Studio Prize Finalist and a three-time Virginia Museum Fellow.
See the things I draw (on my stripped-down bare-bones site) here.
Some other experiences:
I've done freelance jobs making graphics for surfing documentaries, websites for local celebrities and illustrations for an Army JAG magazine.
I worked at Auto Trader magazine, where, at the cusp of old-school methods becoming all digital, we built each issue half digitally and half with collages of tiny photos made with wax machines.
I worked as a designer in a cubicle inside a giant converted warehouse where we let balloons loose on Fridays.
I've taught or given talks at the Fralin Art Museum at UVA, Creative Mornings, the Virginia Festival of the Book, Live Arts, Telegraph Gallery, Poetry Space in NYC and the UVA and UT Austin Art Departments.