Design Work Life: Cataloging Inspiration Daily

Kansas City has long been weighed down by its geog­ra­phy in the over­all national con­scious­ness. It’s in the heart of “fly­over coun­try,” a met­ro­pol­i­tan area sup­pos­edly bereft of redeem­ing qual­i­ties beyond mag­nif­i­cent bar­be­cue, an illus­tri­ous jazz his­tory and occa­sional sports tri­umphs. But the city’s best kept secret is a thriv­ing arts com­mu­nity that includes a dis­pro­por­tion­ately large col­lec­tion of top-notch artists, design­ers and cre­ative firms.

Today we’ll fea­ture two posts spot­light­ing some of our favorite KC col­leagues and col­lab­o­ra­tors mak­ing waves in graphic design, illus­tra­tion, fash­ion design, mul­ti­me­dia, print­ing and occa­sion­ally, all of the above.

Laura Berglund

A grad­u­ate of KC’s esteemed art insti­tute, Laura now works with our other friends at Design Ranch. We love her great eye and tal­ent with type, in par­tic­u­lar on this brand exer­cise for a food line, but check out her whole arse­nal.

Frank Oviedo

Another KCAI grad, Frank brings edge and just the right amount of atti­tude to all his projects. This a brand­ing pack­age he guided for AIGA Kansas City’s annual award gala. He’s now a part­ner at cre­ative agency Liquid 9.

Matt Chase

Kansas University has earned a well-known rep­u­ta­tion for churn­ing out ready and able young design­ers and Matt does them proud. A recent KC trans­plant to DC who under­stands well how to bring design to large-scale brand­ing projects, he’s also an accom­plished illus­tra­tor, as evi­denced here.

Matt Wegerer

Matt always makes a ruckus with his busi­ness, Whiskey Design. Here’s recently com­pleted iden­tity work for com­mer­cial pho­tog­ra­pher Austin Walsh.

Jordan Gray

Jordan blew our way from Hays in west­ern Kansas and quickly made his name in town and out. We par­tic­u­larly love this wed­ding invite he did for a gui­tar player and his knitting-aficionado bride-to-be, as well as illus­tra­tions for a well-known beer brand. (Full dis­clo­sure, Jordan also helped design our Stir and Enjoy logo and likes to drink beer and watch soc­cer with us.)