At ESTUS Digital, we know marketing and branding takes a whole host of skills. And to provide mastery of these skills requires specialization. That’s why we’re stronger as a team! We all use our specialization to work together to create cohesive brand, website, and marketing solutions as a Northern Colorado marketing agency. And this week on the blog we want to introduce one of the newer members of our team—William Van Cleave.
Ready to Take on the World
William is a graphic designer and a graduate of Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design. But it wasn’t always obvious that William wanted to do graphic design. William started on a track in interior design. He was drawn to architecture in high school and thought that interior design would pique a similar interest.
However, it wasn’t a good fit and William found his way to RMCAD. There, William fell in love with design with the help of great professors, small class sizes, and the expertise of those leading the program. William learned a variety of skills within the field of design like screenprinting, packaging design, and 3D design. All these different types of classes helped him expand my thought processing capabilities when it came to graphic design.
As a recent grad, he was eager to cut his teeth on professional graphic design with the team here at ESTUS. He’s been a great asset to have around and is a quick and creative worker. We’ve put William to work creating social media graphics for ourselves and our clients, as well as branding projects.
A Creative Soul
When we asked William to describe his design style, he shared he tends to lean one of two ways—either more minimalistic and objective or dark with popping colors. For his professional projects, William usually goes a more minimalist and objective route, creating art that is right to the point. Creating a balance between exercising creativity and making sure the intention of the work itself is obvious is what William strives for.
When it comes to graphics William creates for fun, he prefers to utilize dark colors as a base, such as a black or a grey, to make brighter colors pop. Having this balance creates a focal point and an eye-catching piece of work. In this style of work, William draws inspiration from electronic music and album covers.
But whether he’s working on professional projects or passion projects, William’s favorite pieces to work on are ones where he can extract a feeling, either his own feeling, or from the source of inspiration, to create a graphic story.
Ask William about the best part about being a graphic designer? He loves being able to use his knowledge and experience to create almost anything out of thin air. Creating something physical—whether that is a poster, business card, or packaging—from his mind and have it be something he can touch, feel, and have a discussion about, is what brings meaning to his work.
William also loves how being a designer has given him an appreciation for other designs or art forms that may just be everyday objects to the average observer. Products with great packaging or a great unboxing and unwrapping experience are much more likely to catch his attention rather than something bland or simple.
Fun Facts & Advice for Any Human
If William isn’t working on design projects you’ll probably find him playing video games—his three favorites are Overwatch, Super Smash Brothers, and Valorant. He loves these three games in particular because of their high replay value. Improving his skills, learning about winning and losing, and also interactions with other live players are all things he enjoys about these video games.
And as a final thought, William wanted to share his passion for creativity in a way that anyone can apply, whether they consider themselves to be creative or not. William says, “I think it’s important for everyone to get creative in some way or another. Whether that’s art, woodworking, or cooking, I think having a setting with endless possibilities to try something unique with your 1-in-8 billion brain is important. You are you and no one else can be, so embrace your differences and create anything!”
Overall, we love having William on the team here at ESTUS. Thanks for sharing your skills with us and our clients!
