Creative Musing + Product
August 2022
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The Midwest Coast
A badge-inspired design from my home state of Michigan and its pristine coastline. The inspiration came from our family trip to Sleeping Bear Dunes, National Park—it’s just one of the many places to experience Michigan’s wonderful coast.
Buy this Tee
The Midwest Coast is currently not available. Check back in early June 2024. View additional graphic tee’s on my Cotton Bureau profile page.
Creative Musing + Product
August 2022
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Lady of Guadalupe
A modern Illustrative take on the Our Lady of Guadalupe painting found in Tepeyac Hill, Mexico City.
Buy this Tee
This tee is available for purchase on Cotton Bureau.
Creative Musing
July 2022
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Robertson
A creative exercise taking the square shape from the Robertson Drive and mimicking the font to the style of the mark. The Robertson square-socket drive was invented by Peter Lymburner Robertson, a Canadian inventor, industrialist, salesman, and philanthropist who popularized the square-socket drive for screws.
Creative Musing
June 2022
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Alfred & Mickey Mashup
A mad mashup of Mickey Mouse & Alfred E. Neuman from Mad Magazine flashing a peace sign and waving the stars and stripes. Even Mad Magazine saw it and ❤️ it.
Creative Musing + Product
June 2022
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Graphis, Designers for Peace
I submitted a "Designers for Peace" poster series (A.K.A. Ukraine War Series) for the Graphis poster competition. It received an Honorable Mention. This series began as a personal project sparked by Russia's unprovoked war on Ukraine. My aim with this project was to capture a powerful, somber, and raw portrayal of the global emotional response to the conflict.
Buy these Purchase
These posters are available for purchase in my shop.
Accolade from Graphis
Congratulations! Your excellent poster design has been chosen as an Honorable Mention in our international Designers for Peace competition.
— B. Martin Pedersen, Creative Director & Publisher
Creative Musing + Product
April 2022
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Bubble Gum Pine
This pine tree is happy that spring is finally here in Michigan... well... almost.
Buy this Tee
This graphic tee is available in my Cotton Bureau profile page.
Creative Musing
April 2022
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Apple Watch
This is an illustration rendering of an Apple Watch, NOT to be confused with a 3D rendering. A trick with illustrating realistic objects is understanding how light, shadow, and reflections behave on objects.
Creative Musing + Product
April 2022
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ReVox
I’ve always had an affinity for vintage electronics, especially buttons, knobs, and sliders. The illustration is a ReVox Studer 700 Reel-To-Reel Tape Recorder, designed, engineered, and manufactured in Switzerland in 1973.
Buy this Poster
This poster is available for purchase in my shop.
Creative Musing
March 2022
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Llama Fiber Co.
Llama Fiber Co. mascot is paired with the typeface Alverata designed by Gerard Unger from TypeTogether.
Creative Musing
February 2022
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Panda
Logo exploration paired with a hand crafted font.
Client Project
March 2022
Guided a client in orchestrating the conception, formation, and design of the Coldbreak identity. As we moved through the process, we distilled insights gathered from audience and stakeholder interviews, shaping the foundation of the brand. This foundation delineated the brand’s tone, defined the voice and visual direction of the brand. As we progressed, additional interviews, journey mapping, naming, brand architecture, iterative brand development, and brand guidelines were established, evolving into the final Become brand.
+ Brand Strategy & Identity
+ Team Leadership
+ Creative Direction
+ Qualitative & Quantitative Research
+ Project Management
+ User Interviews
+ Qualitative Research
+ Brand Messaging
+ Visual Identity
+ Brand Strategy
+ Concept Developement
+ Sketching & Ideation
+ Illustration
+ Vehicle Wrap
After a decade of struggling to find our identity internally, we reached out to MKN Design. Michael quickly immersed himself in our company culture, history, and future goals to create the an accurate brand strategy and visual identity. To say we’re happy with the results is a huge understatement.
— Boyd Culver, CEO of Coldbreak
View the preliminary concepts that where explored for Become.
Creative Musing + Product
February 2022
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Apparel Iconography
Crisp bold icons designed for an apparel brand. If you need custom designed iconography, I can help you.
Buy this Icon Set
This icon set is available for purchase, email me for licensing and cost.
Creative Musing
January 2022
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Piers Court
Formally owned by the author, Evelyn Waugh. While residing at Piers Court, he wrote several books while he resided there. His countryside home is located in Stinchcombe, a small village in Gloucestershire, England. It was built on top of an original structure from a 16th-century manor, and reconstructed on its remnants in the 18th century, which is the house that stands today. The mark is paired with the typeface Neutraface by House Industries.
Creative Musing
January 2022
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Kindly
The aim of this type design exercise was to capture the essence of the name, kindly. I’m not a type designer and crafting this lowercase typeface was challenging. Nonetheless, I'm always eager to tackle new challenges. How’d I do?
Client Project
December 2021
These unselected marks where drawn from research and interviews conducted during the initial discovery phase. While they weren't ultimately chosen they served as a foundation for further refinement, contributing to the execution of Coldbreak’s brand identity. The sixth concept (bottom right) guided the direction towards Coldbreak's ultimate brand identity.
+ Branding
+ Research
+ Concept Development
+ Sketching & Ideation
+ Illustration
View the completed brand strategy and identity project.
Creative Musing
December 2021
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The Headless Rooster
A macabre mark is paired with the font Conglomerat designed by Greg Shutters from Typetanic.
Creative Musing
December 2021
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Yoga Square
A minimalist mark where the concept of "square" is subtly implied through its shapes. The marks is paired with the typleface Conglomerate designed by Greg Shutters from Typetanic.
Client Project
December 2021
This startup developed a machine learning algorithm to preemptively identify potential threats of malicious phishing attacks. Their goal was to alert users of potential threats to their online security and privacy. With a staggering 97% of people unable to discern phishing attacks, their innovative solution aimed to bridge this critical gap in cybersecurity awareness for home use.
+ Branding
+ Creative Direction
+ Research (competitive, consumer)
+ Concept Development
+ Sketching & Ideation
+ Iconography
+ Mockups
Client Project
November 2021
+ Graphic Design
+ Creative Direction
+ Concept Development
+ Graphic Design & Layout
+ Print Management
Creative Musing
November 2021
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Spiras
Exploration on a modern mark for the name Spiras, modern spiral staircase engineers, fabricators, and designers. The mark paired with the typeface Kallisto designed by Rian Hughes from Device Fonts.
michael@mkn-design.com
1 616 915 1941
Good design is complexity presented simply
MKN Design LLC © 2024
133 Somerset Drive NE
West Michigan
