From Points to Pixels—Marketing Digital Content in Print Media

By Kris Travis | Oct 24, 2016

We’re in a weird spot right now—digital content is an essential part of any marketing campaign, but we’re also still producing a lot of print materials. We can build beautiful, comprehensive campaigns, but the way these two types of media interact with each other is a little awkward. I was recently working on some print […]

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Beautiful Product Packaging on a Budget

By Kris Travis | Sep 29, 2016

Between Kickstarter, Etsy, Shopify, Amazon, e-commerce plugins, etc., it’s easier than ever to sell products direct to consumer. However, many solopreneurs and startups don’t have big budgets for product packaging, and yet they certainly want packaging that reflects the quality of their products. There are some creative options to consider that allow for custom branding, clean […]

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Visual Design for Social Media: Basic Tips & Tricks

By Kris Travis | Aug 29, 2016

Over the past few years, I’ve seen more and more design requests for social media assets. Now that it’s pretty clear how visual posts result in greater engagement, brands are working hard to make posts creative, eye-catching, and image-based. That’s great! But sometimes it seems like no visuals at all would be better than the […]

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The Future of Design

By Kris Travis | Jul 28, 2016

What is the future of design? This question is a constant for most designers. 99U put out an article that posed this question to a number of design experts and visionaries, and they provided their thoughts on what we might see in the next 10 years. A few things stood out to me: The changing role […]

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"Boring" Brands find Big Success through Smart Design

By Kris Travis | Jun 15, 2016

Branding a product or service that’s less-than-sexy has its challenges. This great article in FastCo Design highlights some key ways a number of “boring” brands have hit it out of the park with their digital communications. Brand and web design play key roles in their success. Here are a few of my favorite takeaways, along with […]

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Your Brand as Art

By Kris Travis | May 18, 2016

Over the weekend, I got to check out the newly remodeled SFMOMA. The remodel is beautiful, as are the numerous exhibits (too many to take in on one visit!). I was really excited to check out the “Typeface Interface” graphic design collection, and it got me thinking about other ways a company can share its brand […]

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Passion, Practice, and Teachability

By Kris Travis | Apr 26, 2016

I had the opportunity to check out a number of cool events during last week’s 2016 Design Week Portland, and especially enjoyed hearing Dana Tanamachi’s talk, “Perfectly Imperfect” on Wednesday night at PNCA. It was inspiring to get a glimpse of her background in design, her unexpected successes, and to hear her thoughtful reflections on her evolving work and […]

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2016 Design Week Portland

By Kris Travis | Mar 31, 2016

It’s comin’ up quick! Design Week Portland is “a week-long, city-wide series of programs exploring the process, craft, and practice of design across all disciplines.” April 15-21, all four corners of Portland will see a flurry of design-related talks, events, workshops, studio tours, and shows. This is a huge week for designers, but also offers […]

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Moodboards: Feeling Your Way Through Brand Discovery

By Kris Travis | Mar 7, 2016

Once relatively exclusive to the fashion design industry, moodboards are everywhere now–design, architecture, politics, education, therapy…basically anywhere one’s brand or identity is a work in progress. I use them a lot in the design work I do, whether for a brand identity project, or to determine the mood of an internal campaign for an already […]

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Video Backgrounds in Web Design

By Kris Travis | Feb 10, 2016

Not everyone is doing it…yet. But video backgrounds in web design can be incredibly impactful and compelling in drawing the visitor into a brand. Longtime concerns over load times and usability are on the decline as web technologies improve every day, opening up new possibilities to creating an immersive brand experience online. Here are a […]

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Design Trends for 2016

By Kris Travis | Jan 14, 2016

Happy New Year! Do you have any big design plans this year? A rebrand, some new print materials, perhaps an updated website? I’ve been curious about what design trends to expect in 2016, so I looked around to see what the internet creative hivemind is saying. Here are some recurring predictions I noticed: Monochromatic Color […]

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Free Holiday Fonts

By Kris Travis | Dec 3, 2015

‘Tis the season for festive holiday cards, gift tags and party invitations. In case you’re going the DIY route, here are a few lovely and free holiday fonts that inspire the spirit of the season (without getting too hokey).* Enjoy! *Please note copyright permissions–all are free for personal use, while only some are free for both personal and […]

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