When the Stone Soup story is interpreted through an entrepreneurship lens, the full flavors of community and collaboration unfortunately go to pot. I am often asked how I came up with the name Stone Soup for my business. I refer to the popular children’s book, first published in 1947, which was based upon an even…
Inspired by my muse – my bulldog Violet – I created this Doggo Lingo infographic (and a few animated GIFs, just for fun). What is Doggo Lingo? It’s how dogs “talk” online, of course! If you are interested in: 1. Live sketchnoting OR 2. Illustrated infographics, like this one – – I’ll happily be there to make your next event,…
[Note: this post is an abridged version of a paper I wrote for a Graphic Design History class from November, 2020 while I was pursuing an MFA at Indiana State University. The project topic was to focus on graphic design in the service of social issues by writing a paper and an accompanying Pecha-Kucha-style slideshow…
As the decade draws to a close, I was inspired to create a personal visual annual report on the past year. In putting this report together (which I drew on an iPad Pro) I learned that self-tracking “the quantified self” is a movement that started even before this past decade. I guess I was never…
Here’s an interesting – and challenging – project I recently completed: the How to Plan Your Meeting or Workshop process map. This step-by-step infographic provides a color-coded, single-page pathway to the significant components of an important meeting or workshop. Background This past spring I earned a certification as a Structured Professional Facilitator with the goal…
HOW Design Live is one of the largest annual gatherings of creative professionals in the world. In the past I’ve been an attendee and a speaker, but this year in Chicago I made a special appearance in the Expo Hall by doing live graphic recording. At an “Interaction Wall” I captured attendees’ thoughts in response…
Julia was great at keeping the conversation focused and not swaying opinions and worked great with both our internal team and our clients. She was organized and professional – not to mention, clients really enjoyed the workshopping process. I was hired by an award-winning creative graphic design agency in New Jersey this past year. Two…
How to use the four principles of graphic design to create images that engage audiences and make your organization look good As a 20+-year professional veteran of the graphic design field – most often working with nonprofits – I believe an organization’s marketing materials need no, require good design. In my experience good graphic design has…
Can you answer ‘yes’ to any of the following problem statements about your logo? My logo has too many colors and it’s difficult to see or make it look good on different backgrounds My logo has a complicated colorful gradient which is too expensive to reproduce My logo looks blurry when I try to print…
I’ve spent most of my professional life involved in visual communications, but that’s not what I studied as an undergrad (environmental education, at Hampshire College) because I didn’t even know what graphic design was then, and I was terribly intimidated by the “art students”. By my late twenties I had taken a single life-transforming class…
