I’m an independent designer and director available for branding, product, and graphic design projects.
Looking for my recent work?
View recent portfolio selections here.
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Looking for an archive of past work?
View work from 2004 - 2016 here.
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Questions? Thoughts? Wonderings?
Contact me at:
ross@shapesatwork.com.
What disciplines do I offer?
Branding
Creative Direction
Branding Research
Identity Design
Brand Guidelines
Packaging
Graphic Design
Typography & Iconography
Infographic Design
Graphic Illustration
Book, Annual Report
Environment & Wayfinding
Exhibit Design
Tactile Media
Motion Design
Interactive and Product
Responsive Website Design
Digital Product Design
Wireframes & Prototyping
High Fidelity UI Design
Data Interaction
Interactive Animation
Development Coordination
Research and Planning
Product Discovery
Design Workshops
Content Planning
Audience Research
Experience Design Audit
Why should you hire me?
You’re hiring the principle.
Hire an agency and you might get Jr Art Director #25. Hire me and you get a two decade, award winning veteran who’s worked across all roles of the product, branding, and visual design spectrum. I've worked as design contributor at large and small agencies as well as in-house start ups, fortune 500 companies, and NGOs/non-profits. I won’t say I’ve seen it all ~ after all, we haven’t met yet.
Workshop Ethos
I encourage a collaborative workshop model approach with my clients so that we're side by side during the most critical stages of discovery and concept exploration.
Audience-first Design Approach
“People goals” beget “business goals”
A happy, empowered, and catered to audience just makes for a plain good business practice. I’ll guide you through the design process with a focused eye on your project’s intended objective and connected consequences with (and beyond) your audience. Your brand, message or digital product has a place in the world – I’m mindful of how it interconnects within it's habitat in a lasting manner.
Projects Kept Simple
It doesn’t matter if your project is a complex web app or a local print campaign, it needs to be simple to understand and easy to access (Yep… That pesky KISS Principle). I help the people I work with to create products and messages to be lean, effective, and iteratively flexible. We’ll learn about all the plausible characteristics of your audience and develop a clear MVP foundation that can be explored, validated, and scaled to whatever comes natural.
Not convinced?
As best that I’m able, I encourage an intent focused approach that blends human ecology and research driven product design principles.
Over the past 17+ years I've been able to work in the service of a diverse group of people as a in-house and freelance designer and art director (mostly) doing just that.
Apart from my work as a freelance designer and director, I am the owner/operator of Shapes At Work LLC and a partner in The Reiter Group, a food & bev group in Denver Colorado.
Education
Ringling School of Art and Design
BFA, Graphic and Interactive Communication
1999 - 2003College of The Atlantic
Human Ecology Graduate Studies
2009 - 2010 incomplete M.Phil
Awards
As any designer doing this for a long time, I’ve received awards for my work from Print, How Magazine, and the AIGA.
Misc
Attempting to force my two daughters into careers as comedians
Served in Health and Water (WASH) Mission with Peace Corps Bolivia 2005 - 2008
Transplant to North Carolina with my family via New York City. Downeast Maine native
Environmental conservation, natural sciences, social sciences, economics, and anthropology geek.
Baseball Fanatic: Red Sox, Mets
Woodworking, kayaking, and gardening hobbyist