FullBleed

“I started working in graphic design in 1953, when it was called commercial art,” said Pat Taylor, a lifelong member of ADCMW. Over his career, he’s exercised his branding talents for agencies like Advertising Art & Copy, publications like LOOK Magazine, and the Creative Group, Inc.

He specialized in logo development and magazine design through his company, Pat Taylor, Inc., since 1969. Plus, he volunteered his free time with ADCMW and beyond by helping to build the Washington, DC, creative community.

“In 1971, I moved to DC and started all over again. I also taught at the Corcoran College of Art and Design for 10 years. Later, I received the Honorary Life Member award from the Art Directors Club of Metro Washington and the Fellow award from the AIGA-DC.”

So we wanted to know what someone with such recognition as Taylor — who retired in 2008 — considers the defining moments in his career.

Continue reading…

Illustration by: Kendrick Kidd

In the lovely state of Virginia where I reside, citizens are not required to designate a political party affiliation when registering to vote. For that reason, I’m hesitant to unveil my affiliation to all the designers in the DC metro area.

But, for the sake of this article, I’ll say that if Virginia did require citizens to declare their affiliation, my voter registration card would have a check in the box next to “Republican.”

It wasn’t until college that I realized I was somewhat alone in my political beliefs. During my freshman year, my roommate and every other girl on my floor was a die-hard Al Gore supporter. I never openly expressed my view of Al Gore because I was nervous to be seen as an outsider. Instead, I carried on and didn’t say much during the closest election since 1876.

From then on, I became acutely aware of my place in the political spectrum — especially among the girls who lived in my dorm. Surely, the designers with whom I was studying at the time didn’t feel the same way.

I was wrong, not to mention confused.

Continue reading…

I started to weave Randi Meredith’s answers to our Fresh Face questions into a narrative, but I felt compelled to leave her responses as-is. There are far too many details describing her that would otherwise be dropped … and then you wouldn’t get the full scope of Randi Meredith. Which would be a shame. – Steph

I’m from Shamokin, PA. I lived there for the first 18 years of my life then moved to Chestnut Hill, PA, for 2 years of school. After that I lived in King of Prussia & Phoenixville, PA for 6 years. Then off to Kutztown, PA for 4 more years of school.

I’m 29.

I’m the middle of three children all very close in age and raised by my mother. We are a very close group.

I only speak English but I can read Spanish in context. I love to travel and do so as often as possible. I’ve been in Cambodia, Thailand, Jamaica and took a sketching tour of Mexico. I’ve also traveled through the entire eastern seaboard and some of the mid-west.

Continue reading…

Until very recently, Jamielyn Smith never lived in the same house for more than three years. While growing up as the second of five kids (three boys and two girls) in a family having a father in the Navy, the 23-year-old San Diego native remembers loving to create things.

“I had a subscription to Highlights for Children magazine and would always do the craft projects. I also did all the projects in old rainy day craft books for kids and would get different craft kits and art supplies for my birthday and Christmas.”

But it would be composing photographs that would lead Smith to an ongoing outlet for her passion for creation. At only 11, she started taking pictures with a friend. Then, at 12, she went to visit that friend in Phoenix and took a lot of photos of the city’s landscape. Her parents noticed her talent, and they decided to foster her skills by giving her a Canon SLR camera for Christmas.

Continue reading…

Photo by Sean McCormick

In response to ADCMW interest last year when the Washington Post redesigned its magazine, our own John Foster interviewed WaPo’s Features Design Director, Janet Michaud. Thanks to Janet for taking time to candidly respond to questions from members of the DC creative community, and for giving us all some insight on how WaPo is continuing to evolve its brand.
Continue reading…

Photo by Pat Padua

I should tell you up-front that this is not a Snowmageddon story or a tale of Washington’s winter woes of 2010. No, it’s nothing like that. In fact, the story starts about five years ago when DC winters produced a few dustings of snow each year, and the stretch of non-federal holidays from President’s Day to Memorial Day was what we feared most in the mid-winter months before the approaching Spring. And, come to think of it, it hasn’t got much to do with the weather at all.

It’s about connections. And, of course, I am referring to the Butterfly Effect; a metaphor encapsulating the concept of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory; namely, that small differences in the initial condition of a dynamical system may produce— Wait a second. There’s an easier way…

Just as the story in the film “Juno” “all started with a chair,” this one quite literally started with a pair of earmuffs. No, nobody got pregnant. But I did get a job — for a while.

Continue reading…

Featured Illustrator: Chris Bishop

I’m sure you’ve noticed, but it’s a new year. A shiny new decade even. Publications love this sort of thing as we can hem and haw about the past ad nauseum. But we at FullBleed officially relinquish this power and put it into your hands. Tell us about your decade! We asked the following question to three randomly selected ADCMW members:

What are you doing now that is different than what you were doing ten years ago?

Continue reading…

It’s resolution time, friends, and whether you’re a chronic breaker or never maker, 2010 is a whole new ball game. I realize that we’re 3 weeks in to the new decade but it’s never too late to make your annual vow to self improve.

All too often we make resolutions in order to change a life style or habit that is considered socially unacceptable. There’s the go-to resolution of quitting smoking, something my husband and I did on New Years in 2007 only to go back to smoking in October the very same year. Or working out more, which often ends up in an expensive yearly gym membership that you only go to in the first month.

I make a resolution every year. Some I’ve kept, some I’ve almost entirely blown off. Though statistics show that only 40-45% of people make New Year’s resolutions and 46% of those same people actually keep them, people who do make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their life goals than people who don’t. Think about it.
Continue reading…

For Mort Cohen (http://www.mortoons.com), what started as some childhood doodles blossomed into a part-time career as a cartoonist. To kick off the New Year, we asked Mort to tell the story of how he turned his passion into a lifelong profession.

Why comics?

As a kid, I followed newspaper comics religiously. Additionally, I enjoyed magazines that contained cartoons—I still do. During these formative years, my favorite cartoonists included the great Al Capp, Rube Goldberg, Virgil Partch, and Milton Caniff, among a host of others. You may or may not be familiar with these names, but I assure you that each was an accomplished artist in addition to being a great cartoonist. With them as my guide, I doodled copiously through high school and college, which explains why I graduated magma cum average.

Continue reading…

Photo courtesy Sean McCormick

Russell Heimlich is a lefty. And an only child. And he knows a thing or two about computers.

“My parents really wanted me to be good at computers, so there has been a computer in our house for as long as I can remember. My first computer was a Commodore 64; my parents wrote DOS commands so I could play games,” he said. “As we upgraded computers I learned more and more about them. My dad worked for the government, and he once took me in so I could use Gopher, a pre-Internet computer network.”

Continue reading…