MICHAEL BIRD

Senior Designer and Founder

Michael Bird has been working in graphic design, publishing and multimedia capacities since 1989. He is currently Professional Instructor of Digital Art and Graphic Design at Ashland University, where he has taught since the fall term of 2015.

Bird collected the degree of Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emporia State University in 2004 and was conferred the degree of Master of Fine Arts with Honors from the University of Kansas in 2007. He then served as Assistant Professor of Art teaching Graphic Design and Multimedia Design at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma from 2008-2010. He's also taught at Emporia State University in Emporia, Kansas for three years as full time Instructor of Graphic Design from 2012-2015, and at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas as a guest lecturer.


DESIGN PHILOSOPHY

If you're an artist, you experience the world with a reflex that provokes your aesthetic response. Sometimes that response serves the creation of a piece of artwork but sometimes it serves more practical purposes. Graphic design is everywhere in consumer culture. If you wish to make an impact on your community, and your primary skill is visual aesthetics, there's work to be done everywhere you look. I see my place in this world as one that serves to help beautify. I want to make beautiful things, whether that is fine art or something as commonplace as websites or business cards.

I don't care about trends and I adamantly resist easy, prescribed approaches to design. I aim for classic, timeless looks that never go stale. While there may be nothing new under the sun, this doesn't excuse the designer from striving for originality. If the objective is to make work that helps my clients to stand out, then of what use to the client is work that looks common? Following trends relegates the designer's clients to mediocrity. I aspire to give my clients the extraordinary.

Graphic design is a collaboration between the designer and client. I work hard to integrate as much of my clients' wishes into their product as possible. While contentious collaboration may give birth to great art, in design, it only alienates the client. Successful collaborations with my clients are those in which the original ideas are still visible, only pushed to a higher level.