My design philosophy is derived from my design mentor, who taught me everything she knew:
Good design is clear, concise communication.
Successful communication happens when the audience hears exactly what you meant to say. An effective design brings the message to a place where your audience can consciously and unconsciously perceive your entire message, from the words to style to the brand promise, all at once. Therefore, my first step in every project is to understand the audience completely. Then I organize the information and messaging to align with my client’s goals. (I find this process quite inspiring!)
I know it’s weird, but I have no desire to get into management. I want to be the one making things, collaborating with a team and clients, solving the puzzles, and outputting impeccable files. I enjoy the production work of formatting and setting styles from documents/webpages in progress, fixing spelling and grammar errors as I go. I’d much rather help the team achieve their KPIs than decide what they should be!
I also enjoy travel, photography, trend research, amateur armchair marketing strategy (everywhere I go), taking classes, camping, crafts—making stuff! Analog design!
Ann Hammer 