Mark Marquis

Graphic design is one of those topics with a changing definition depending on who you talk to. This is because graphic design covers a vast array of fields, technologies, markets, and mediums. But I like to think of design in a more fundamental way. For me, graphic design is simply the way I interpret ideas or messages visually. It doesn’t need to be any more complicated than that!

From the plant-based oils of cave painters of 40,000 B.C.E to the Adobe Creative Suite of today, the tools have changed but the approach has not. Images, thoughts, ideas, dreams, stories, messages have been with us forever. Our attempt to share those experiences with each other has evolved into graphic design. 

I’ve been visually creative since I was old enough to hold a crayon. It started with my love of drawing dinosaurs. My drawings could be anywhere: in sketchpads and drawing paper, or on my bedroom wall and in the margins of picture books (I was pushing the limit of what was acceptable at a pretty young age). 

This basic drive to express my wonder and creativity has never gone away, although it has morphed into several disparate pursuits over the years. I have worked in marketing, advertising, and print publication. In my down time I have pursued music and video editing, illustration (both editorial and as a portraitist), and more recently, podcasting. 

If I had to boil my approach to graphic design down into one sentence, it would be this: My design is flexible and adaptive to the message and purpose of the project, with a consistent emphasis on keeping the viewer’s eyes moving at all times until that message is adequately and clearly conveyed.