Last summer I designed this postcard-sized brochure for ZanaAfrica, a nonprofit based in Nairobi. The design brief for the cards was challenging in the usual nonprofit sense: a lot of information to be conveyed succinctly, attractively and respectfully on a very limited budget for quick turnaround. The design process itself was, my clients informed me, quite helpful in refining ZanaA’s message and presentation.
For months now I’ve been doing a number of design projects for yoomi, who’ve had their innovative self-warming baby bottle on the market in the UK for a couple of years and are currently rolling out into the US market. This is the front of a postcard I designed for potential retailers; I’ve also designed their convention booths, media kits, Facebook campaigns, you name it. Industrial design of the bottle and warmer itself were done by IDEO, who left quite a great toolkit for me to work with on the US rollout.
This fall I’ve been doing a lot of design work for my friends at Coffee Table, makers of an iPad app that lets you browse and order from major print catalogs (Crate&Barrel, Harrington, Sears, etc.). These are special offer ads that users see when they first open up a particular catalog in the app.
Since 2005 I have been curating and designing custom mix CDs under the Wimbo Zuri imprint. Wimbo Zuri—which means “Beautiful Song” in Swahili—offers music lovers who want to commission a special, personalized gift for their significant others, family members, or friends. A typical Wimbo Zuri mix includes songs selected for their musical, lyrical, cultural, and historic quality. A typical mix features songs spanning several decades, in several languages, joined together by a common theme.
From the 50 States! series of CDs, commissioned for three friends with Wisconsin connections. Challenges for this mix included keeping the dairy references to a minimum, and figuring out how to make Liberace, arguably the most important pop artist to come out of the state, play nice with everyone else.
Annual letter for an alumni organization on whose board I serve.
This past October I attended the Manhattan wedding of pair of wonderful Kenyan-based friends. This CD came together as part of my preparations for my journey east from Portland. Though it almost qualifies as a member of the 50 States! series, in the end I tried to focus on the tensions and the connections between Africa and New York. The mix revolves around two versions of the Nigerian drummer Babatunde Olatunji’s “Akiwowo,” which was covered by French pop icon/iconoclast Serge Gainsbourg as “New York USA,” wherein he replaces the original lyrics with what seems to be a list of random important buildings in 1960s Manhattan. Part of the irony is that “Akiwowo” itself was written in Manhattan, and is Olatunji’s nostalgic recollection of a train-driver he had known during his childhood.
From the 50 States! series of CDs, commissioned for a friend who works in the Skagit Valley, north of Seattle. This mix is notable both for including references to parts of the state far from Puget Sound (Spokane, Pullman), and for including exactly zero grunge tracks, no small feat.
Front-and-back template for a weekly StageGrade flyer to be handed out to Broadway ticket-buyers.
From the 50 States! series of CDs, commissioned to celebrate a good friend’s sitting for the Maryland bar exam. Fun fact: there are a lot of great songs about Baltimore, but they tend to be kind of negative about the city. Design-wise, I worked to make the pattern more complex, adding an assortment of black-eyed susans (state flower) over a background inspired by the decor of the funeral parlor hideout in the later seasons of The Wire.
