An award-winning freelance art director, designer, and illustrator, his clients include giants like Porsche, Target, Tesla, New York Magazine, and HarperCollins. Recent projects include branding a bioengineering research lab, designing packaging for Serenbe Foods, and illustrating a unique map of the city of New Orleans for AIGA’s 2015 Conference.

A New York Times best-selling book illustrator and designer, Shaw’s work has received PRINT Magazine’s “Best In Class” designation for hand-lettering, as well as PRINT’s Regional Design Awards, HOW Design’s Marketing and Promotion Awards, and recognition in AIGA, The Dieline, and the Social Good Design Awards.

Describing himself as a maker and a builder, Shaw aims to create brand identity systems through individualized attention and personal relationships that help clients create value in their communities and customers’ lives. According to Shaw, design work should be strong, unique, and ownable so that the personality of the brand is specific to the visual identity to fuel recognition.

At the same time, good design should also be simple enough to be a vessel of that message that others can fill in overtime. But more importantly: design should have a level of empathy—a way to convey the emotional traits of the brand’s personality, and to connect in a way that matters and sticks with the audience on a more personal level.

“Good design cannot fix bad content,” stresses Shaw. “Even if the design of a logo is excellent, if the company proves to be of poor quality or terrible service, over time, we will come to observe the brand’s mark as being representative of something negative.”

Aspiring designers should take note!

The post Russell Shaw’s Design Philosophy Includes a Healthy Dose of Empathy appeared first on MyTrendTales.

An award-winning freelance art director, designer, and illustrator, his clients include giants like Porsche, Target, Tesla, New York Magazine, and HarperCollins. Recent projects include branding a bioengineering research lab, designing packaging for Serenbe Foods, and illustrating a unique map of the city of New Orleans for AIGA’s 2015 Conference.

A New York Times best-selling book illustrator and designer, Shaw’s work has received PRINT Magazine’s “Best In Class” designation for hand-lettering, as well as PRINT’s Regional Design Awards, HOW Design’s Marketing and Promotion Awards, and recognition in AIGA, The Dieline, and the Social Good Design Awards.

Describing himself as a maker and a builder, Shaw aims to create brand identity systems through individualized attention and personal relationships that help clients create value in their communities and customers’ lives. According to Shaw, design work should be strong, unique, and ownable so that the personality of the brand is specific to the visual identity to fuel recognition.

At the same time, good design should also be simple enough to be a vessel of that message that others can fill in overtime. But more importantly: design should have a level of empathy—a way to convey the emotional traits of the brand’s personality, and to connect in a way that matters and sticks with the audience on a more personal level.

“Good design cannot fix bad content,” stresses Shaw. “Even if the design of a logo is excellent, if the company proves to be of poor quality or terrible service, over time, we will come to observe the brand’s mark as being representative of something negative.”

Aspiring designers should take note!

The post Russell Shaw’s Design Philosophy Includes a Healthy Dose of Empathy appeared first on MyTrendTales.