Let reason be the soil in which creativity takes root*
and grows to nurture your concepts.

* Paraphrased from a quote by early 20th century architect John Wellborn Root.

My personal design philosophy follows that of the 20th century Modernists (the Bauhaus school, Mies van der Rohe). Form should follow function. Details matter. Every visual element must serve a purpose. I worked for Holabird & Root, an esteemed architecture firm, during the earliest "formative" years of my career, and I still draw comparisons between architecture and graphic design.

Of course, we are living in post-modern (some would say post-post-modern) times, in which working from a modernist base often needs further consideration and processing to generate design solutions that are effective within the cacaphony of messages today.

My philosophy comes from the best of two worlds. In college I receive solid academic training in the tenets of 'good design' from a Modernist perspective. Later, I built up real-world experience, dealing with real situations and real people who have no idea what Modernism is, and don't care (and for whom it does not and need not matter). All the while, I am a lover of "looking"—relishing an awareness of what's going on in the world around me and considering how best to let it inform my design.

I'm mindful of all this when I talk to clients about their needs and desires, which are, after all, the driving forces behind each project. I make their ideas real, and if they don't have any ideas, I can help there, too.