"12 Designers on Writing"

Nancy Bernardo (New Orleans)
Nancy Bernardo, trained as a graphic designer (MFA, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago), currently resides in New Orleans and teaches design at Loyola University. Her work focuses on the relationship between text and interpretation of messages. The messages she experiments with are from observations in everyday life as well as appropriating image and text from the Victorian era through the 1950′s. She uses typography to visually enhance and communicate alternate meanings.

Chelsea Conboy (Seattle)
Chelsea Conboy is a Seattle-based illustrator and designer. She grew up in Southern California, went to high school in Las Vegas and studied literature at the University of Nevada, Reno. Her first foray into graphic design was a college job with a small on-campus design studio, designing posters and print materials for school events. Not wanting to stray far from the Pacific, she moved to Seattle after college and immediately took a liking to the persistent moss and salty air. Chelsea cut her teeth in the Seattle startup world and struck out on her own in 2009 with Double Felix Industries, a creative studio. Chelsea works primarily in a digital medium, but strives for the craftsmanship of traditional printed arts. She finds inspiration in the uncharted regions between nurture and nature.

Karen Ganz (Seattle)
Karen Ganz was born in Riverside, California in 1963. She received a BA from the University of California, Berkeley in 1984 and MFA from the University of Iowa in 1988. Her work is influenced by 1900 - 1920s cartoon and comic strips. She works mostly with large, constructed canvases and collage, using ink drawing overlaid with paint. Her paintings and drawings invoke a sense of nostalgia, humor and concern for the predicament of "the common man". Her work has been shown in over 40 exhibitions and in several public collections—notably a 110 x 5 foot set of paintings at the North Terminal of Sea-Tac airport. Her work is in the collection of Microsoft, Seattle Art Museum, Tacoma Art Museum, Boise Art Museum, and the True collection. She received a residency at the MacDowell Colony and has been awarded numerous grants and purchase awards during her 20 years in Seattle.

Louie Gong (Seattle)
Louie discovered the power of art to express ideas when he used crude, but well placed, graffiti to effectively woo a girl. Around the same time, he started seriously exploring Northwest Coast Salish art by painting drums in preparation for the 2006 Canoe Journey. He started seeing the world in crescents, ovals and formlines. In 2009 he found his groove as an artist when–on a whim–he took a sharpie to a pair of Vans. The resulting merger of Coast Salish art and pop culture perfectly represented his complex cultural identity. While many are drawn to his work because it represents the confluence of multiple worlds, others simply appreciate Coast Salish art or the shoes’ freshness and originality. Either way, Louie is honored that people find value in something he loves to do.

Ness Higson (New Orleans)
Nessim Higson runs IAAH (I Am Always Hungry), which functions on the core belief of good design = good business, and that design has a responsibility to not only contribute to the economic market but also to the social fabric of society. The studio has been recognized nationally and internationally by organizations including, but not limited to, Communication Arts, Print, Graphis, DGV and was recently named a "young gun" by the Art Directors Club of New York.

Melanie Innis (New Orleans)
Melanie Innis is a designer and founder of Mac Stanley & Co., a multidisciplinary design studio in New Orleans, LA. Melanie spent her childhood tearing it up in her father's print shop art room and her early design career submersed in the world of print design. Now, she's primarily focused in interactive design and obsessed with studying user experiences alongside her biggest support team, Mac (the cat) and Stanley (the dog).

Jeff Kleinsmith (Seattle)
In 1990, Jeff Kleinsmith moved to Seattle and started freeloading around the offices of local music rag The Rocket. He was drawn to artists and designers like Lisa Orth, Art Chantry and Mike King, and was influenced especially by the design of The Rocket. He worked there for four years, including a year-long stint as art director, until Sub Pop hired him away as their first and, as of yet, only in-house art director. In 1992, Kleinsmith started BSK Screen Printing in his basement with two friends which later became Patent Pending Printing. In 2000, Patent Pending Design was formed as a creative outlet for producing and marketing silkscreen posters and freelance design work. His work has appeared in design books and magazines too numerous to list, ditto with gallery shows. He is currently working on a monograph tentatively scheduled for release in 2010.

Lizzy Margiotta (New Orleans)
Lizzy Margiotta was born in Florida, but lived most of her childhood on North Island of New Zealand. She received degrees in both Advertising and Graphic Design from Loyola University New Orleans. Currently she designs for I Am Always Hungry studio in New Orleans and Sandbag in LA. Biggest influences include Swiss design and surf culture. She sees design as a tool that when used properly can cause outstanding effects.

Daniela Marx (New Orleans)
Daniela Marx is a designer and an Associate Professor of Graphic Design at Loyola University New Orleans. She is currently on sabbatical researching, reinventing and revisiting the power of design in the city of New Orleans.

Jeffry Mitchell (Seattle)
Jeffry Mitchell's exhibitions, both solo and group, have drawn critical praise and include the Contemporary Northwest Art Awards at the Portland Art Museum, 2008, Western Bridge, 2006, the World Ceramic Biennial in South Korea, 2003, the Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, 2001, DiverseWorks, Houston, 2001, White Columns, NYC, 1997, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, NYC, 1992 and the Seattle Art Museum, 1990. His works are in the collections of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Contemporary Museum in Honolulu, the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, the Philadelphia Art Museum, the New York Public Library, the Portland Art Museum, the Seattle Art Museum, the Tacoma Art Museum and Western Bridge among others.

Carlos M Ruiz (Seattle)
Carlos Ruiz never went to art school. In fact, he openly admits that he never studied graphic design techniques, doesn't know a thing about computer design programs and doesn't even own a computer. With a good eye for composition and a bit of intuition, he often designs posters while riding the bus and completes layouts within an a few hours using sharpies, collaged images and copy machines. His black and white and two-color posters are simple in the sense that they are bold and raw, pixelated and hand-drawn, possessing an organic edge that is rarely seen in the work of contemporary designers. When he's not designing a poster or drawing in his sketchbook, you'll likely find him smoking, listening to garage-punk records, or drinking his coffee black.

Justin Shiels (New Orleans)
Justin Shiels is a creative thinker, artist, communicator and self-proclaimed New Orleanian. 

Daniel R. Smith [curator, "12 Designers on Writing"]
Daniel R. Smith is a designer, artist and sometimes curator. He graduated from the University of Washington in 1994 with a BFA in Graphic Design and a BA in fine arts. Currently Design Director for Tether, a design firm and gallery in Pioneer Square, he has worked for NBBJ Architecture, Experience Music Project (EMP) and Starbucks Coffee Company. His work has been chosen for inclusion in Seattle City Light’s public art collection and EMP’s permanent collection. Curatorial projects include The Seattle-Havana Poster Show, The Seattle-Tehran Poster Show, The Seattle-Moscow Poster Show and Thunderbitch: Women Designers in Northwest Rock 1966-2010.

Tom Futrell [co-curator, "12 Designers on Writing"]

Tom Futrell is a designer and educator living in New Orleans. With 10+ years of print and interactive design experience, Tom has worked with a wide range of clients that include Centurylink, Intel Labs, Louisiana Economic Development, New Orleans Tourism, Seattle Arts & Lectures, and the University of Washington. His work has been recognized by the American Institute of Graphic Arts, the American Institute of Architects, and the American Advertising Federation. An active member of the New Orleans design community, Tom is an adjunct professor of design at Loyola University of New Orleans and also serves as Development & Community Outreach co-chair for AIGA New Orleans. Tom received his MFA in Visual Communication Design from the University of Washington in 2008.