I designed this bright, geometric, abstract landscape mural for the side of my studio on Michigan Avenue in downtown Ypsilanti. With a facade grant from Ypsi’s Downtown Development Association, I was lucky to hire Narooz Soliman of Narooz Paints to help me repair some damage to the building, to lend his very keen color-mixing eye, and to paint what are obviously the cleanest lines in town.
I used flagging tape, a very simple pattern, and a whole lot of hours to bring this fence to life.
This is a personal project done in collaboration with my mom, Kathleen Ankerson. It is the collection of letters, photographs, and war memorabilia saved by her father, Frank Plain, who along with his two brothers, fought in World War I, then called The Great War.
This project was a huge undertaking. My mom and two of her sisters organized the contents of Frank’s collection in chronological order. She then transcribed the more than 100 letters and postcards. With the help of my wonderful student, Liz DeRensis, we scanned every single document, letter, envelope, photograph, and postcard, front and back. I retouched each of them in Photoshop before I began designing the book.
Because of the intimidating scale of the project and its and loose deadline, I had a hard time moving this towards completion. But in 2020 when when COVID-19 kept me and my kids inside for the better part of the year, I dug in, in earnest. As I worked, I got to learn about the war, about family members of whom I knew nothing, and I discovered a parallel universe where Marjorie, one of the main letter-writers to Frank, speaks of being very sick with the Spanish Flu. When she is finally well enough to go back to her small college in Wisconsin that October of 1918, she writes “I found that the dormitory was in quarantine and none of the girls are allowed to leave the campus. So I have not had much use of the car, in fact can’t even go to look at it.”
8x10 inches
150 pages
This booklet promotes each of the six disciplines in the Digital Media Arts department. It features photography by the college’s students, along with lots of student work in graphic design, web design, digital video, and 3D animation.
6x9 inches
48 page
With 826michigan I had the extraordinary pleasure of interpreting imaginary planets concocted by the wonderfully weird brains of third graders at a Detroit Public School.
Illustration and book design
40 pages
The Ann Arbor Velo Club asked me to design a colorful, high-visibility jersey that evoked the Ann Arbor cycling community and their commitment to building a vibrant, diverse, and inclusive community of cyclists.
My design solution is explained on the AAVC’s website: The term “intersectionality” refers to the multiple identities an individual can hold, from gender identity to race to sexual orientation to ability. This jersey graphically represents those intersections, while also suggesting multiple paths crossing and converging - a visual nod to the community we love to explore on our bikes.
Book design for Nick Tobier’s Looping Detroit, a compilation of essays, poems, and photography by Michigan-based creative practitioners including award-winning Detroit novelists Lolita Hernandez and Michael Zardoorian; poets Gloria House and Walter Lacy; music producer Cornelius Harris; Chace “Mic Write” Morris, front man of the Detroit hip-hop trio Coldmen Young; and radio producer Zak Rosen.
120 pages
Published by the University of Michigan; learn more about the project or buy the book.
Book design for a collection of fictional and real-life community superhero stories written by sixth-grade students at Estabrook Learning Community. This collection features students' original stories of the superheroes who call Ypsilanti home. It also includes interviews with real-life superheroes who live and work in Ypsilanti accompanied by students' reflections on what it truly means to be a hero to your community. Cover illustration by Jermaine Dickerson
216 pages
Illustrations for short stories and poems written by the bright, creative young people at 826michigan. Check out the awesome pieces that accompany the illustrations.
