An artist and graphic designer based in northern Michigan.
Drawing and creating things has always given me great joy. One of my first memories was drawing Frankenstein's monster with crayons. I am at my best when I'm creating and conceiving things: birdhouse, a graphic novel, a website, a sketch.
I grew up in Saginaw, Michigan and graduated from Heritage High School. I have to give my mom credit for urging me to get my B.A. in Graphic Design and a minor in English at Saginaw Valley State University. We even took an English class together. In January of 2000, I took a job in northern Michigan doing web design for a startup web development company. My colleague Jon Roth and I still work together today as partners at Bright Bridge Studios, LLC.
I live in Lake Ann, Michigan with my lovely and talented wife Emily Betz Tyra. We experienced life in the "Good Land" of Milwaukee, Wisconsin for nearly a decade before moving back to our roots in northern Michigan. I've worked with all manner of clients and expanded the boundaries of what I thought I could do. I've found more room for illustration in my projects and that has rekindled my love of drawing.
My professional and design goals include:
- Listen and learn. I am willing to do my homework when it comes to understanding a client's goals before offering potential design solutions. Everything is on the table at the initial stages, even solutions that me to do some require research and testing.
- Connect with the viewer. Create something that communicates in a compelling way, to a single audience or a set of audiences.
- Bring the joy. To provide a bit of surprise in a design, however subtle, and delight people. If I can make someone laugh that's a big bonus.
- Say something new. If other brands in a territory have a similar approach, I want to try something different that doesn't blend into the background.
- Be efficient. Design simply and with the sort of economy that tells a larger story with very few words. This also applies to finding solutions that have the greatest effect for the smallest investment.
- Kindness.
- Do everything. I can write copy, design logos, product packaging, beverage labels and cartons, posters and mailed materials, merchandise, and ads of all kinds. I'm skilled at UI design and can code standards compliant HTML and CSS. I can communicate with vendors, manage multiple projects/timelines and help maintain brand consistency across different channels. Offering a wide range of services allows me to save clients some of the extra cost and inconvenience of wrangling multiple service providers.
- Have fun. For me, fun is the fuel of creativity and there should be room to play and experiment with ideas. I try to keep the process lighthearted and balance that with the reality of delivering my best effort, on time.
- Collaborate well. Understanding another person's vision, then elaborating is something I do well. I have a lot of ideas but I don't get hung up on them too much. I enjoy the process of brainstorming and trying to capture the collective vision of multiple stakeholders, then designing something that meets my design goals as well as the functional project goals.
Let's talk about your project. Email me at andy.tyra.design@gmail.com