PORTFOLIO CREATIVE BLOG

A Day in the Life: Q+A with Melissa Jackson

In the latest installment of our Columbus Creatives: A Day in the Life series, we talk with Melissa Jackson, designer by day and a teacher by night who enjoys spending time with her family and going to CSCA events!  Hi ya! I am Melissa Jackson, I design at Root Insurance by day and teach at Columbus College of Art and Design (CCAD) by night. Originally from a small town near Cleveland, I moved to Columbus in the late 90’s. After spending many years downtown in a fantastic loft, my husband

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Design Army = Inspiration!

CSCA had another great speaker last night, Jake Lefebure from Design Army. The work was conceptual, exciting and effective–they are a team that is clearly obsessed with the details. But beyond the incredible work there were a few things Jake said that really struck me. when looking for new talent to add to their team the most important thing is concepts and ideas–they can teach you how to execute everyone on their team has to be really strong with typography or illustration (although no one ever seems to be equally

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Mikey Burton – On Creating the Your Own Opportunities

In January CSCA brought in Mikey Burton to speak, his presentation was fantastic. One thing that struck us was how, rather than waiting for someone to give him an opportunity, he really made a point to create the kind of work he wanted to do and find a way to get paid for it. Intrigued, we asked Mikey a few questions to dig a little deeper into this idea. Read on! Portfolio: From the very beginning of your career it seems that you’ve created your own opportunities, rather than waiting

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Positive Economic Indicator?

In looking for my own indicators that the economy is headed in a more positive direction, I’ve noticed one recent trend–more job postings. On the CSCA job board it seemed that we were suddenly having A LOT more postings. More employers are looking for help, both freelance and full-time, which (presumably) means their business is picking up as well. June and July had an equal number of postings, but in August we’ve already had that same number of postings and it’s not even mid-month. I like
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Julia Hoffman at CSCA July 16th

Between designing a new brand identity for The Metropolitan Opera and her current gig as Creative Director of The Museum of Modern Art, Julia Hoffmann taught us how to Simpsonize ourselves – and brought us to the brink of Whopper freakout. She also helped Jon Stewart tutor us in civics with America (The Book).

Frankfurt-born Julia has worked with Pentagram on brand identity projects for clients including The Criterion Collection, and was art and interactive design director at

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Tim Bruce to speak at CSCA

Tim Bruce, founder of LOWERCASE, Inc. will speak at The Columbus Society of Communicating Arts on Thursday, April 16th at 7:30.

Everything about his work is unexpected. Even the all caps representation of LOWERCASE — the firm he founded in Chicago in 1998. Tim Bruce’s work has been recognized in every major national and international design competition, featured in leading graphics publications, and is on display as part of museum collections in Denver, New York and Hamburg, Germany. Tim lends his expertise as a judge of

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CSCA February Event

The Columbus Society of Communicating Arts will feature Wink, a serious Minneapolis-based design firm that never takes itself too seriously. Its homepage is about as lo-fi as it gets. Its blog is woefully out of date. Its corporate story is retold with handheld KISS action figures.

But Wink’s work — that’s another story. The agency’s identity, packaging, poster, and environment design has been embraced by some of the biggest brands around (Nike, Target, MTV, to name a few). Wink delivers

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CSCA Speaker, Armin Vit–New Location!

Renowned graphic designer, Armin Vit, will be the guest speaker at the January 15th CSCA meeting. To learn more about Armin, check out this interesting in-depth interview.

Mingle with the best creatives in the region, and learn from the best creatives in the world. It happens at every CSCA Meeting. Sip some wine, trade some business cards, learn something new. And feel more connected to your profession.

Please note the new location for this meeting:

January event will be held at Knowlton Hall, 275

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CSCA January Speaker – Armin Vit

Renowned graphic designer, Armin Vit, will be the guest speaker at the January 15th CSCA meeting. To learn more about Armin, check out this interesting in-depth interview.

Mingle with the best creatives in the region, and learn from the best creatives in the world. It happens at every CSCA Meeting. Sip some wine, trade some business cards, learn something new. And feel more connected to your profession.

Read More »

Congrats to CSCA Creative Best Winners

Congratulations to all of the 2008 winners in the CSCA Creative Best competition. We were very excited to see a few of our associates among the winners.

Alan McClelland, designer/photographer/illustrator on two pieces that won Packaging awards. Check out more work at eye.lyft

Jason Spinks, designer on a Cleveland Clinic invitation winning a Print award. Lovely piece!

Jason Sweazy, designer winning a Student and Judge’s Choice award for his senior thesis project (this guy is good, someone needs to hire

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