Liam's Blog Takeover!

Hey all! This is Liam, and I'm doing a blog takeover for the day.

I just graduated from West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia, and I have been looking for jobs for months as I prepare to launch into the workforce. I am looking for work in graphic design or any other creative field, as I received my Bachelors in graphic design with a minor in painting, and I would love to make my living doing something creative. I have four years of experience using Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, Audition, and XD. My proficiency in these programs earned me my diploma, and I am confident in my skills as a graphic designer. I do artistic commission work as well, and I am currently looking for work in New York City, Pittsburgh, PA, or Columbus, OH. If anybody has recommendations or job openings in these areas, please let me know. Thank you!

Starting off, I would like to show you all some of my work. I have a very large portfolio, and rather than post it all here, I'll just give you a taste of the things I do. 

PAINTINGS

"Grounding Forces, Fig. 1." 2022. Acrylic on canvas, 24" X 24"

This is an acrylic painting of recording artist Donald Glover, or Childish Gambino. I chose to do stylized, blocked shading rather than a smooth blend to diversify my style.

"Grounding Forces, Fig. 2." 2022. Acrylic on canvas, 24" X 24"

This is an acrylic painting of the late musician Malcolm McCormick, or Mac Miller. These two artists have been essential in my growth as a creative, and I wanted to make tributes to them. Mac Miller is even more inspirational because of the amount of work he created in his short lifetime. His life was cut short by an accidental overdose, and it taught me that life is precious, able to change at any moment. 

"America." 2021. Oil on canvas, varying dimensions

This collection of work, simply titled "America," is my take on the current political and cultural climate we live in. These paintings were done from stills of the "This Is America" music video, based on the song of the same name by Childish Gambino. Each painting has its own meaning and putting the three together tells a story.

"RUN." 2022. Acrylic on canvas, 24" X 36"

This is an acrylic painting of the recording artist George Miller, or Joji. It depicts Joji running through a limosine in one of his music videos by the name of "Run." I used his expressive face and pose to imply the struggles of mental health and the feeling of running from your own irrationalities and anxiety.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Visual Metaphor Project. 2020.

This was a class project that took a dive into what I could do with visual metaphor, and I chose to illustrate the message of staying away from junk food. The junk foods I picked were soda, pizza, and candy (lollipops to be specific). I took photos of pizza, blueberries, watermelon, and a clementine and cut them out in Photoshop. I then combined these foods to imitate the junk foods they were replacing, showing that eating healthy food can taste just as good as most junk food, while being better for you. I brought the project home by using the slogan "Health Always Tastes Better."

Smithsonian Sample Magazine Spread. 2021.

This was a particularly fun class project. I dive into this more in my portfolio, but this project was essentially my biggest launch into designing a magazine layout and really paying close attention to typesetting and image placement. We were tasked with desiging a conceptual magazine about an exhibit at the Smithsonian, and I chose the Hall of Deep Time, focusing particularly on the large dinosaur and fossil exhibitions. These are just two text-heavy pages from the magazine, the whole magazine being 40 pages long cover to cover.

"'Faces" Album Cover Poster. 2022.

This poster was done as a fun side project in between classes. I focused on making a typographically interesting poster of Mac Miller's latest release, the EP "Faces." I chose an image of the album cover, and created a poster from it.

"Wildfire Foldable." 2021.

This booklet is an informative foldable that outlines the impacts of the devastating 2021 California wildfire season, and the reach that some of the fires have had across the state. 

"Born of Rebellion" Exhibits. 2022.

These exhibit boards were made for West Virginia’s “Born of Rebellion” traveling Civil War exhibition. The exhibition details the founding of West Virginia and the impact of the events of the Civil War. My professor hosted a competition in the class to find the best designers for this exhibition, and the winners would design the actual traveling exhibition. I was on a team with three other graphic designers in my class, and out of five teams, ours was chosen to move forward. This exhibition will be traveling across the state of West Virginia, and I am honored to be a part of it. 

Along with this multi-panel exhibit, I designed an additional three-panel exhibit which provides more information about the lawmakers and Abraham Lincoln’s hand in making West Virginia a state. The first exhibit stands at 7.5' tall and 14.5' wide, and the second at 4'  tall by approximately 11' wide. This was my first foray into designing at a larger scale, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I designed the three-panel exhibit on my own, and my group members collaborated with me on parts of the larger exhibit.

So there you go! A good sample of my body of work as an artist and graphic designer. I hope this gives you a better understanding of the work I do and the aspirations I have as a creative. I always want to make something that I am really proud of, and I am eager to be able to make a living doing that. I've been told that it's tough to do. Even one of the spreakers at my graduation acknowledged this, telling us that we were "bold to choose a career in this field." I took it as her saying, "Hey, congrats on graduating with a degree in graphic design, but good luck finding a job." No ill intent obviously, but it made me realize that I have a long road ahead of me. I'm ready for it, though. Thank you all for reading, and I hope to talk with some of you soon!

To contact me directly, please email  liamht99ATgmailDOTcom  (You'll have to put in the @ and the . ---this format is to foil bots).

Liam

floating free for now, but hoping to tie up somewhere.