illustrations, oh my

Once upon a time...a young, bright-eyed, would-be photojournalist from small-town Alabama designed a brochure for a tiny NGO in Nepal. I never thought in a million years that I would be a designer. I never thought I was a photographer either, but that's not this story. What I always wanted, more than anything, was to tell and to hear stories.  

Over the years, I've learned that the way we tell stories is just as important as the stories told. In the South, a good storyteller is as good as gold. My youth pastor could tell a story about a burrito that would leave you in tears. My Uncle Handsome relays stories with a southern drawl that drips with honey. His stories tell me who I am and where I come from. The way he delivers a story about my daddy and how he impressed all the girls, is just as important as the story itself. It's an art.

My designs, photographs, videos, typography, my media - I want them to tell stories. I may never be able to tell a story through graphic design with the finesse that my Uncle Handsome does. But I think the vehicle and the message should drip with honey like Uncle Handsome's stories. 
 
I love communications because I never stop learning. Here are a few of my first attempts at illustration. 

Here are a few characters I made for CCF. We're heavy on the great photography. Our CEO and founder is such a great photographer, so a few illustrations of people seemed like a good next step. I'm still working on these. This was one of the hardest things I've ever done. It took me nights upon nights, after work, to figure out how to do faces. I still don't think they're right. Let's call them a work in progress, for sure.

Above left, are icons I developed for CCF's new website. There are 6 major project areas with colored icons for each project area. I made a line version as well but I want to showcase those when I publish the website, which will be soon. For these icons I made several illustrations for each project area. Now, when I need to design a flyer for example, I can use illustrations as needed to make the media more dynamic. 

These are trust badges for our Sponsorship Department for the new website. I think we need 3 more badges as well for the jobs and volunteer board pages. I'm looking forward to developing more of these as we need them for the website and other materials. Below is a personal project I'm working on where I illustrate friends' faces. This is the first one...hopefully more to come.