Hello! My name is Justinian. I’m a graphic designer and artist with a love for bold ideas and an even bolder execution.
Featured Work
ecl_pse, Diet Dopamine - Album Cover
Studio Violet, Local on the 8's - Album Cover
Recycle Poster, 24"x36"
Unity Poster, 24"x36"
Studio Violet Logomarks
Why You Should Hire a Designer Instead of A.I.
About
My design journey started at my birth, in Bellevue, Washington. Bellevue, Seattle, and the surrounding cities are well known for some of the highest quality and highest concentrations of graffiti in the United States. As a young child, I remember seeing entire underpasses absolutely covered as we drove down the freeway; something about the colors and motion in the forms of these illegal murals planted something in my brain I have yet to shake.
Alongside an interest in visual arts, I gained an appreciation and interest in the musical arts. Growing up in the Puget Sound, just across from Seattle, exposed me to countless sounds, genres, and ideas. Everything from grunge, to rock, to jazz, to hip-hop; being in such a culturally diverse area during the beginning stages of my childhood had a direct hand in developing my creative processes.
When I was in Kindergarten, my family moved to Fort Stewart while my dad was in the military. There, I developed an even larger appreciation for weather; Seattle had rain, which I loved and still do love, but the excitement of severe weather patterns in Georgia hold a special place in my heart to this day. Now, I still take a lot of my natural flow inspiration from the weather.
After my dad left the military, we moved back to the Puget Sound for a year before moving to Idaho. I carried out the rest of my public school and university career here. While in middle school, I picked up the saxophone, and subsequently, jazz music. In high school, I took the entire Ceramics pathway alongside my music studies, as well as AP 2D Art, which helped me focus on a particular style. Ceramics taught me to "enjoy the process," a concept I had admittedly failed to grasp in a pursuit of perfection. This resulted in my first branding project, "Imperfect.jp," which I started in the summer after my Sophomore year. Imperfect was a study into myself and my perfectionist habits. This concept resounded well with the local automotive culture, which led me to several design commissions for apparel and other accessories.
The Imperfect project really opened my eyes to the possibility of pursuing a career in design. Design trends at the time, especially in the automotive community, utilized a lot of Japanese language and design concepts. This acted as a soft introduction to typographic elements. I utilized these elements alongside my own personal style, which was heavily inspired by lo-fi music at the time. After my Freshman year of college, I retired the Imperfect project due to a lack of time; I felt that I had accomplished the goal of the project, and had helped myself and others realize and control their perfectionist tendencies. As I continued through my schooling, I put my creative senses to the test. I began to absorb everything I saw; product design, corporate advertisements, illustrative concepts, advanced typographic elements, and more. All of a sudden, I realized very quickly that there was more to design than just illustration and pretty colors. So much of visual communication relies on carefully arranged layouts, guiding the consumer's eyes in an intentional way.
My history has given me the opportunity to explore so many avenues of the arts, from music and performing, to fine arts, to visual design and communication. I have been given the opportunity to study photography, typography, illustration, and the fine arts in a way that allows me to impose my own vision of myself upon these mediums. This has allowed me to become a strong, well-rounded artist and designer; it has also allowed me the ability to view a particular element from many different perspectives, and has given me the ability to understand the perspectives and opinions of such elements from the souls of others.
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