Sometimes the best way to convey information or establish a brand look and feel is to create strong standalone illustrations. Vector and photo illustration are where my creativity really come out to play, and they're some of the pieces I'm most proud of.
The Center for Irish Music kicked off its very first Gaela fundraiser in 2011 as a young cultural organization, and I helped them establish a look and feel for the event that featured their distinct brand colors and the intersection of traditional music instruments and Celtic knotwork graphics. That first year I illustrated the fiddle—and all the rest followed until they had a full instrument set!
The Mississippi Park Connection's annual reports feature a lot of numbers, and so in 2016 I illustrated the Mississippi River as it runs from Minneapolis to St.Paul and used it as a framing device for that year's program success numbers.
For a story about microbes in the summer 2015 issue of Solutions magazine, rather than try to make microscope images exciting, I illustrated a cast of characters to tell the story.
Find out more about the window clings and photo illustrations from Hidden Obvious branding campaign on that portfolio page. Beyond the vector illustrations, I created each of the photo illustrations featured throughout the materials.
Every year the Minnesota State Fair is one of the University of Minnesota College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences biggest public events. Since the fair sits right across the street from the St. Paul campus, I illustrated a logo graphic with a combined skyline of instantly recognizable landmarks.
Speaking of the State Fair, in 2015 CFANS created an event where people could build and race stock cars out of locally-sourced vegetables. We built a 15-foot racing track painted to look like the iconic MN State Fair slide, and we were featured on local news every day of the fair that year! The Veggie Cup logo and graphics were completely original.
The Visitation Merrie Market gala event has a new theme each year, but they are always tied to heart of the school. One year the theme featured superheroes, and one of the characters I created was Super Dawn—modeled after the Head of School.
The 2010 Visitation Merrie Market was a special one. It celebrated the 400-year life of the order that resided in the convent on school grounds—and it was one of the final events before the sisters retired and the convent closed. To honor those nuns with elegance and respect, I illustrated the simplest iconography of a nun, combined with a detailed cross specific to their order. The name of every nun to dedicate herself to that convent in Mendota Heights served as the background.
