An awareness campaign, this set of ads was a sarcastic jab at the world of designing on spec, or doing design as part of a contest or in other ways in which a designer receives no fair compensation for his or her work. This work was done a class project for an advertising-based course.Body Copy: “Hey all you designer hep cats, Business Bob is BAD NEWS. Bob uses contests to get FREE IDEAS fom designer entries. Business Bob isn’t ‘helping your portfolio.’ He’s not giving you an ‘opportunity.’ He’s getting quality design for nuggets. Giving designers the ROYAL SHAFT. Next time a Business Bob tries to tell you his contest is your golden opportunity, link him to NO!SPEC and let him know what’s buzzin’, cuzzin. NO!SPEC. Design with Dignity. http://www.no-spec.com”Body Copy: “That’s right, Daddy-O Designer. That contest you just lost, that was your time wasted. If you keep this up, you’re cruisin’ for a bruisin’. You see, that contest cheapens the profession and gets other, legitimate designers cranked. The clients don’t get it, they think it’s the norm, so it’s up to us to educate clients and the rest of the industry on the dangers of SPEC work. So don’t do contests and we’ll all be made in the shade. NO!SPEC. Design with Dignity. Dig?”Body Copy: “That’s right, Clyde. Your plumber wouldn’t DREAM of doing any work without getting paid for it. Why should you? Crazy cats will tell you that their job is a great way to build your portfolio, or that designing their logo for them provides you with ‘real world experience.’ Well that’s kookie. Your work is just as professional as the business that your client needs the logo for, understand? So next time someone asks you to enter their logo contest, tell them to GET WITH IT and hire someone to do it the right way. NO!SPEC. Design with Dignity. http://www.no-spec.com”Body Copy: “You’re a professional graphics hep cat. It’s about time you started treating yourself like one. Susie is either out for cheap work, or doesn’t understand how the graphic design industry works, because contests and ‘opportunities’ for ‘portfolio expansion’ really make professional designers FLIP. So before you go posting your logo ideas for Susie to comb through and take at her leisure, cool it and think about how YOU the designer are going to benefit from the deal. You are as much of a businessperson as Susie is. NO!SPEC. Design with Dignity. http://www.no-spec.com”

This print campaign featured several different mediums of advertisement for the 2007 Career Conference, a yearly conference for students seeking advice, jobs, and networking from hundreds of professionals. These student-centred pieces were distributed throughout the University of Wisconsin - Stout campus.

Done as a project for an advertising design class, I sought to bring in a bold campaign for spices, featuring photography of the spices themselves, rather than the dishes they are used in, emphasizing the aesthetic quality and freshness of the product itself, as the company does with their clear glass packaging.

An identity for electronic musician Andrew Aversa. This logo features a waveform captured from the first song he created, and utilizes blue and black for an edgy appearance for shirts and other media.

This is a website created for Andrew Aversa, an electronic musician. It features a custom WordPress design which allows Andrew to keep his fans up-to-date. I also created a flash site for his main site, which can be viewed here.

While the concept of a ‘flashcard’ is admittedly an odd one for me, this ended up being a fun little diversion. This project was a campaign to attract students to a class being held on professionalism by Career Services. The playful nature of the ad allowed me to experiment with bright colour palettes as well as vector illustration. Get the Flash Player to see this player.

This is where it all began. Built as a Blogger template with added custom pages, this site is home to a now defunct podcast for the video game remixing community of OverClocked ReMix.

Antigravity is zircon’s (Andrew Aversa) third album release. This album features an infusion of natural-sounding musical elements as well as live-instrument recordings with his infamous electronic style, and I used this naturalistic departure from his previous material as the theme for the album’s artwork.

This is a branding campaign for the advertisement of the 2006 University of Wisconsin-Stout Career Conference hosted by Career Services. This conference is an annual gathering of several employers to the campus and allows students to gain insights into their careers as well as network and attain cooperative employment opportunities and internships.