Freelance Work

2017  |  Interactive PDF Design

Fair & Square

A handy guide to local festivals and similar events

Wouldn’t it be great if, just as you were wondering what to do for fun, someone gave you a list of festivals to enjoy? Enter my client, In The Know Upstate.

The example here is one of the festival guides I designed. Its major feature is a system of icons I established to categorize each event by its primary theme (e.g. music, food, arts & crafts, and so on). For each event I set up a customized short link pointing readers to more information. These links not only save space, but they allow readers to print the document and later use the links without having to reopen the PDF.

View in fullscreen mode for best results.

CLIENT  In The Know Upstate

LAYOUT DESIGN  Garison Plourde

PROJECT OVERSIGHT  Stephanie & Anna Acker

2017  |  Graphic Design

Ads for Ads

My client, In The Know Upstate, promotes local businesses by offering them advertising space on their website (which caters to a local audience). I designed these ads to be strategically placed across the website. The goal was to promote their advertising services in more than one place on the site without the message seeming redundant. So I customized the visuals for each graphic.

CLIENT  In The Know Upstate

LAYOUT DESIGN  Garison Plourde

PROJECT OVERSIGHT  Stephanie Acker

Agency Teamwork

2013 - 2015  |  Graphic Design

Flipping Tables

Rotation indicators for mobile devices.

In web design it remains a challenge to fit certain types of content (like tables with numerous columns) into the small width of a mobile phone in portrait view. There are many possible solutions, but each one has tradeoffs.

One solution we often used at Ronningen Design was to instruct website visitors to rotate their phones to landscape orientation to be able to view the content. Some would say this is a last resort.

According to the Nielsen Norman Group, users can be annoyed when they’re told how to hold their phones. Also, while rotating a phone opens up more horizontal space (to fit those pesky table columns) it reduces the vertical space. That can sometimes create new problems. Honestly, I don’t remember if 2013 web standards allowed for a better solution.

As this issue recurred, I gained some insight into the challenges of data visualization and usability. In web design, available space fluctuates, which doesn’t happen in print design. At small sizes this can impact how we present information. If we consider user goals—What is the user trying to do? How does small space make this more difficult? How do proposed solutions help or hinder?—we will be better prepared to decide how to make tasks easier.

CLIENT  Ronningen Design

DESIGN  Garison Plourde

PROJECT OVERSIGHT  Nicholai Ronningen

2013  |  White Paper / Interactive PDF Design

Putting Value on a Priceless Experience

An authoritative report on the financial dimension of summer camp

This paper presents research done by the end client. View in fullscreen mode for best results.

CLIENT  Ronningen Design

LAYOUT DESIGN  Garison Plourde

PROJECT OVERSIGHT  Nicholai Ronningen

2013  |  Graphic Design

Elevator Pitch

The main content area of the end client's website is structured like an open magazine spread. The right and top left images display within these main content pages (full-page, and half-page respectively).

The red graphic below is a placeholder. The website’s blog index has a thumbnail image pulled from each post. When no photo is available, this graphic serves as a stand-in. For context, the Indian head symbol is the end client’s logo, and maroon red is one of their primary brand colors. The background image is an illustrated map of their facilities (which is not my work).

CLIENT  Ronningen Design

DESIGN  Garison Plourde

PROJECT OVERSIGHT  Nicholai Ronningen

2015  |  Graphic Design

Pleasant Turn of Events

I designed these web graphics to advertise two events at the end client's summer camp.

CLIENT  Ronningen Design

DESIGN  Garison Plourde

PROJECT OVERSIGHT  Nicholai Ronningen

2013 - 2015  |  Graphic Design

The Maine Idea

Rebranded tagline and guide graphics

Shortly before designing these graphics, I helped update the look and feel of the end client’s website. The old identity made heavy use of yellow and other vibrant colors. Now the goal was a more earthy, organic, outdoorsy appearance—in harmony with the connotations of camp life and the elements of nature that characterize Maine. I redesigned the high-profile tagline graphic, and later designed a new graphic for a proprietary concierge. Both graphics are used frequently on web pages and print materials.

CLIENT  Ronningen Design

DESIGN  Garison Plourde

PROJECT OVERSIGHT  Nicholai Ronningen

Personal Work

2012  |  Graphic Design

Let’s Get Political

I designed and posted this graphic to Facebook in 2012. As much as the police have come under attack in recent years (I'm writing this in mid-2018), this was not—and still is not—a comment on that specific controversy. The famous Bastiat quote illustrated here, first published in 1850, has a timeless nature to it. It speaks more broadly to human government's immoral use of force and failure to do its duty.

DESIGN  Garison Plourde