Twenty years as a creative professional, three years into solo freelancing, and six years after quitting my last agency job, I do three types of design pretty well: map illustration, publication layout, and brand identity. I also write well (English BAs are useful!), design music artwork, and enjoy creative world-building, but I tend to explore those skills with passion projects. This is what all of that looks like, portfolio-wise:
Map Illustration and Design
Maps for Publication and Location (2017-Present)
I specialize in map illustrations as static image assets. As a publication designer I know how these images will be used, either by the author themselves, their layout designer, or their print vendor—and I can optimize each map for physical or digital format. For publications, I help authors convey their intent with a compelling, easy-to-understand reference map: a stylized USA for Jacinda Walker’s Innovation Magazine article “How Designers Can Impact Diversity in Design”, a sci-fi Boston for Lee S. Hannon’s novel Coligo (2021), and Iron Curtain-era Europe for Jarmila Turnovsky’s Ruptured Lives memoir (2023). For locations, I create intuitive and accessible reference tools that help users find out what they need to know and get where they need to go as quickly and easily as possible: Florida National Park units for the Miami NPCA (2022, for Keirtography), Santa Barbara City College campus maps (2017/2023, for Tight Ship/Keirtography), and Nest Realty’s Wilmington, NC Welcome Map (2023, for Keirtography).
Creative World-Building
Custom Maps, Gazetteers, Character Design (2019-Present)
I did it all for The Nua Gazetteer, a fantasy-atlas passion project released as a PDF in 2022 and print-on-demand book in 2023. It combines my publication design experience, artistic mapmaking skills, English BA/journalism background, and love of table-top role-playing lore. After a year of design, two more before that for custom cartography (in my unique found-texture style), and three decades of world-building, I was thrilled to finally self-publish a fantasy homebrew setting gazetteer (plus fictional history-vignettes and a dash of character design) based on ideas I first thought up as a teenager circa 1991. While tackling everything (development, maps, illustration, and design) isn’t how these books are usually made, that’s how I did it for this thing. Ideally, other game masters, players, or even authors will find lots to work with here—but if not, I still have a template for future similar work.
Publication Layout
Magazines, Journals, Reports, Novels (2005-2022)
I have extensive publication layout experience (whether at agencies or freelance) for both print and pixel projects—almost two decades of design for research journals, magazines, annual reports, and paperback novels. Out of the many I’ve done, this skill served me especially well as part of long-term project management (Gifted Education Communicator with BBM&D, 2005-2012), design and layout for my own self-published novel in 2012, overall account management (VSI research report design with BBM&D, 2010-2013), organization and wrap-up (Foodbank of Santa Barbara County annual report design, with Oniracom in 2016 and Tight Ship in 2017), and swooping in to save the day on urgent rush jobs (Good Jobs First research report design as a freelancer in 2022).
Brand Identity and Style Design
Brand Identity (2012-2020)
During my career I’ve created countless logos and other brand identity pieces—most as part of an agency design team, and some that I loved which never made it past various stages of the project—as well as managed, refined, or redesigned many other brands’ existing identities. I would be happy to elaborate on why the eight marks shown here are each special for their own reasons, but it’s not a coincidence that the three best are pieces developed or refined in-house for their respective entities. From left: Keirtography (self-directed, 2020), Tight Ship (with Tight Ship, 2017), Applied Survey Research (with Tight Ship, 2018), Startup Mashup (with Tight Ship, 2017), Oniracom (with Oniracom, 2016), La Buena Vida Catering (with Tight Ship, 2018), Santa Barbara Symphony (with BBM&D, 2012), and UCSB’s All Gaucho Reunion (with Oniracom, 2016).
Brand Style Guides (2011-2018)
I’ve created style guides for events, companies, and organizations of all sizes—and many more than are displayed here. Traditional brand books set identity guidelines for usage (logos, colors, type, graphics) and messaging (values, language, audience). Some also include direction for photography and printing. For marketing managers or communications directors working with third parties or vendors, these remain great tools to maintain brands. I created the guides shown for Venture Strategies Innovations (with BBM&D, 2011), Oniracom (with Oniracom, 2016), Santa Barbara City College (with Tight Ship, 2017), and Applied Survey Research (with Tight Ship, 2018).
Music Artwork
(1997-Present)
I sneaked in through the design industry’s side door in 2004 thanks in part to my album cover designs, which I’d been creating for my own rock bands the Mojo Wire (1996-2001) and Honey White (2002-2007) for several years already. I’ve since created album artwork for others during my time at Oniracom (2013-2017), but I continue to make more (and better) pieces for my own solo projects (in 2008, 2015, and 2020). Some are digital-only, and some are physical releases—but I placed them all in physical release mockups because it’s fun, because I can, and because it worked well for this reissue-retrospective compilation post.
