“Through my work, I hope to stimulate contemplation, encouraging my audience to question their perceptions and delve into the intricate layers of meaning embedded within each poster, initiating a cognitive shift through a captivating yet unsettling aesthetic.”
How It All Began
I recall discovering the art of the poster for the first time in the summer of 1974. This was about the same time the Watergate scandal ended, and Richard Nixon was stepping down as president. A neighbor had a collection of posters and other novelties for sale. As an eleven-year-old, you would think I would be interested in the novelties. Still, I was more excited by and drawn to the vibrant and surreal blacklight fluorescent political posters. One of those posters still hangs on a wall in my studio today. I still set it aglow now and again. Of course, I had yet to learn of the significance of the Watergate scandal. To me, they were posters that looked wicked cool, thumbtacked to my bedroom walls. It was the blacklight comic heroes with colors and images floating in an endless space that captured my attention. I often got lost in their visuals for hours, igniting my curiosity. Later, I was drawn to album covers for the same reasons. Like my Watergate poster, the album covers are also framed and displayed. Those images act as visual time capsules, bringing back memories of great music and eclectic fashion.
Storytelling
Concept and visual narratives are central to my creative process. Research has shown that telling a story profoundly affects how we remember information. By infusing concept and visual narratives, I work to create meaningful connections that leave a lasting impression on viewers.
My approach to conceptualization is highly individualized and reflective, rooted in specific ideas, emotions, or inquiries I want to investigate. These initial inspirations often arise from lived experiences, observations, or acquired knowledge. To flesh out my ideas, I delve into research and produce multiple sketches, exploring various ways to express my vision. The choice of materials, forms, and techniques is meticulously made to align with the concept and connect with the audience. I encounter numerous trial-and-error cycles, refinements, and sometimes even fortuitous discoveries.
When a subject may be distressing, I always pay special attention to aesthetics to make provocative yet beautiful images. My work has been described as “grotesque beauty.” This is precisely the aesthetic that I am trying to achieve.
Striking this delicate balance is the goal. I want the audience to confront these challenging topics while appreciating the artistic expression and depth behind the visuals. I believe this is the best way to make your message memorable. The graphic designer in me always looks for the simplest way to communicate, not unlike logo design. For the most part, my work embraces a minimal approach to image-making by stripping away unnecessary distractions and allowing the core concept to come through clearly.
Many of my visuals are created using traditional fine art mediums, which I then photograph. Other posters may be created using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. Either approach requires much ideation before the visual is created. I believe that the execution of the visual is equally as important as the concept and must help communicate it. The visual may need a simple graphic or a lush photo collage to engage and help deliver the message.
A New Direction
I shifted the approach to my work in 2005 after I designed a limited run of 50 posters sold to raise money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina as part of a graphic designer alliance called The Hurricane Katrina Project. This poster, sadly, was the first of eight epitaphs I’ve designed in my career. I was part of Project Sunshine for Japan Posters, Stories, and Poems about Fukushima. I designed a poster titled Epitaph #4: Honshu to help the victims of the Tsunami that devoured their country. Honshu was one of the first posters I designed with an optimistic message…It’s easy to go dark when creating this kind of work. This poster is one of six that won best-of-show in the Project Sunshine Japan International Exhibition and Competition, won a Graphis Posters Gold Award, and was published in their 2013 Poster Annual. Additionally, I had two posters selected for exhibition for the 3rd International Socio-Political Poster Biennale and won two Applied Arts Poster Design Awards and two Graphis Gold Awards. All eight epitaphs have been exhibited, published in design annuals, and won awards.
In 2007, I designed two call-to-action posters, Shattered Dreams and Migaloo, which appeared in the Communication Arts Design Annual 49. Communication Arts is the most prominent annual design publication in the United States. I’ve created work for 22 humanitarian causes, and these works have been exhibited worldwide.
A New Approach
In 2011, I submitted an environmental poster to Segundo Llamada’s 2nd International Poster Competition and Exhibition in Mexico City, Mexico, where my first black and white poster, Plastic Fish (aka Bon Appetit and Sea), won third place. This one poster was career-changing. At this point, I started using black and whiter in my design when I discovered that one color is the most environmentally safe way for traditional poster production. However, posters only work when they quickly grab your attention. Rather than relying on pops of color, my images tend to grab attention through contrast, touching on emotions and creating a dark mood. My work stands out for its unusual approach to visual seduction.
As you can see from some of my posters, working on Plastic Fish greatly influenced how I approached visualizing. Plastic Fish has won numerous awards, including a Graphis Platinum Award twice, and appeared on their 2015 Poster Annual cover. It won the Gold award in the inaugural Ecuador Poster Bienal in the category of social posters. Plastic Fish has been published multiple times in peer-reviewed design annuals and has appeared in many international exhibitions. Plastic Fish’s success inspired me to expand the message and create a poster series. The additional two posters in the *series, Eden (aka Land) and Plastic Bird (aka Air), have also won many prestigious awards, been published in peer-reviewed design annuals, and are exhibited globally. I continued this dramatic black-and-white style with successful posters like Heartbeat. Heartbeat is a poster I designed for the Biophilia Exhibition, where it was selected as 1 of 100 finalists curated from 3500+ submissions from 167 countries. This poster went on to win poster awards and appeared in industry design annuals. At this point in my career, I started to rely more heavily on photography.
During this period, I garnered a strong reputation for my social/political/environmental poster design, which is considered world-class. Because of my reputation, I am sought out to judge many international, national, and regional design competitions. I have been invited to many international invitational exhibitions, opening exciting opportunities to make an impact on a global scale.
Making Posters from Concept to Design, Bloomsbury Publishing, London, England
In 2017, Louise Baird-Smith, Chief Editor for Bloomsbury Visual Arts, Bloomsbury Publishing London, contacted me to see if I would be interested in writing a book on poster design. I agreed and co-authored Making Posters from Concept to Design, which was published by Bloomsbury Publishing in London, England, in 2020. Louise Baird-Smith’s recognition of my impactful work in poster design and her invitation to write a book are a testament to the significance of my contributions to the field.
Making Posters from Concept to Design is an advanced-level academic, interactive publication that presumes the reader understands art and design foundation principles. It has a companion website offering resources and tools to complement the content in the book. Throughout the book, quick Response (QR) codes lead readers to virtual information, such as videos on producing a poster or how traditional posters were made to be physically interactive.
Making Posters reviews how emerging technologies continue to offer designers new tools, allowing the process of making a poster to expand and evolve while maintaining its core purpose. It concludes with an electrifying look at cutting-edge poster design with a gaze into the future, featuring website links to posters with motion and interaction. The book also showcases over 300 full-color posters on varied subjects to reinforce critical concepts reviewed in each chapter. These are some of the most stunning images from many of the world’s most prominent poster designers. Making posters’ front covers uses augmented reality (AR), which I created and designed along with the book’s interior layout, which garnered a Graph is Silver Award for book design. While researching Making Posters, I became interested in and began exploring AR. Starting with Plastic Fish, I created an AR experience. My AR poster was selected for exhibition in the 2021 Ecuador Poster Bienal. I have become passionate about mixing traditional design with the virtual world. Sort of a modern-day alchemist, I mix image-making, coding, animation, music, and sound editing into one captivating experience. My most recent research includes AR and Artificial Intelligence (Al) and their impact on poster and graphic design. I am designing, illustrating, and animating an AR children’s book, My Upside Down World. Using AR to create a magical and interactive experience will captivate young readers, fostering their creativity and curiosity.
The book Making Posters has garnered international acclaim in educational circles, and WorldCat.com indicates that it is available in 109 libraries worldwide. It’s in the library collections of Pratt, Bucknell, Library of Congress, VCU, RIT, Bibliotheque de Universite de Montreal, University of South Wales, University of the Arts London, University of Groningen Library, Universitat der Kunste Berlin, Universitats bibliothek, University of Johannesburg-Auckland Park Kingsway Campus, Queensland University of Technology, Singapore Polytechnic Library and in Canberra Institute of Technology. It was featured at the 2021 Ecuador Poster Bienal, and discussions are underway for another exhibition at the inaugural United States International Poster Biennial in 2024. Owing to the book’s acclaim, I was invited to serve as a panelist at the 2021 AIGA Design Community SHIFTED summer summit titled So, You Want to Write A Book.
In 2022, 1 had an eight-page interview about my work and book in the distinguished Graphis Journal 372 (in print). The Graphis Journal has showcased an impressive lineup of luminaries in the graphic design arena, including names like Alan Fletcher, April Greiman, Irma Boom, Jessica Hische, Karl Gerstner, and Lance Wyman, Louise Fili, Louise Sandhaus, Luba Lukova, Maira Kalman, Massimo Vignelli, Milton Glaser, Otl Aicher, Paula Scher, Paul Rand, Saul Bass, Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, Stefan Sagmeister, Wim Crouwel, and Ellen Lupton.
Most recently, I was asked to be on the United States International Poster Biennial (US/PB) advisory committee. I was invited and accepted into the acclaimed Florence Art and Design Bienniale 2023. In April of 2023, I was invited to participate in an International Invitational Poster Exhibition organized by the Gyeonggi Design Association in Korea, with the theme Between Creativity and Individuality. The poster I created for the exhibition uses artificial intelligence as part of the image-making process.
A Decade and a Half of International Recognition
Since 2007, my poster work has been consistently acknowledged worldwide. I have won over 100 prestigious national and international awards and honors. My work has been featured in 80 peer-reviewed publications and over 100 juried exhibitions in 16 countries, including seven triennials and 19 biennales. I have 25 posters on permanent collections, including three at the Lahti Poster Museum Vesijarvenkatu, Finland, and two at the Center for the Study of Political Graphics in Culver City, CA. As an educator, I have been invited to speak about my book and posters at local, regional, and international events and universities. In 2019, right before the COVID-19 pandemic, I presented at the Exhibition of Excellent Works from International Art Schools and Institutes in Shandong, China. I have also been invited to participate in critiques with students from Pradita University in Indonesia twice, Vanier College in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and a poster collaboration at Warsaw Institute of Technology (WIT) in Poland, which was unfortunately canceled due to COVID-19. I was 1 of 69 designers worldwide selected to participate in the Bienal Internacional del Cartel en Mexico (BICM) collection and exhibition for the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, 1 of 5 American designers invited to the Brand Design Association of Korea 27th International Invitation Exhibition, 1 of 100 Graphic Designers worldwide to create a poster commemorating 49 years of diplomatic relations between China and Italy, 1 of 150 selected worldwide to exhibit work at the Graphis San Francisco Exhibition, and 1 of 100 selected worldwide for The China Printing Design Biennale Invitational, HOW’s Fifth Poster Design top 10 recipients, received 700 Best in Graphic Design from Creative Quarterly, The Journal of Art & Design. I was 1 of 40 selected for the Segundo Llmadada Poster Exhibition in Mexico from over 700 poster submissions from 40 countries.