Nashville-based graphic designer with a primary focus on empathy-driven filmmaking, animation, and experiential / communication design.

nathanpowelldesign@gmail.com

Each project with Mike Daily has provided a unique opportunity to use more expressive, unexpected, and unorthodox approaches to design than most clients. For instance, the above-left papercraft model of the "BikeCardoba" was included with each pre-order bundle of the book. Despite the more experimental design language, readability and functionality remained a priority throughout each portion of the project.

The book's variety of content, in addition to the primary manuscript, includes a complete reference to the fictional "BikeCardoba" manual—inspired from '70s-era service manuals—with a variety of visual and literary gags included.

The final third of the book is dedicated to members of the "Bike Club"—members of the BMX community with their own submitted photographs and stories, each expressing their personal history and love of the sport. The nostalgic perspectives and oft-analog photography allowed for some very expressive layouts.

In both anticipation of and alongside the release of the book, Daily and I continued creating social media-focused videos and advertising to promote the project. We worked with Bike Club members such as X-Games Gold Medalist Mat Hoffman, video artist and DJ Mark Eaton, James White, and others to generate as much enthusiasm around the multi-media project as possible.

"YOU CAN'T DO THIS ON YOUR OWN."

I spent many weeks discussing with my professors to determine the project's most realistic goals, and its effects on both myself and the people I would be interviewing. During this period of introspection, I realized: as a youth, my growing up in Middletown was something I was embarrassed by. I didn't want to be associated with the town, or the social norms implied from growing up there. Yet, I'd also realized that under any sort of criticism, I would jump to Middletown's defense—despite my own propensity for self-deprecation.

I began to see my hometown in news headlines from NPR, and notably in J.D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy—long before the Netflix adaptation. I knew it was my chance to try and right my wrongs—I could perhaps show Middletown in a fairer light, bringing attention to citizens as victims of their upbringing, while still recognizing the faults allowing the opioid crisis to propagate.

I could no longer blame my fellow citizens for believing in their symbols of hope, no matter how I may have felt in my youth—after all, hope was all some citizens of Middletown seemed to have left.

Interviewing recovering addicts, treatment center staff, and others affected by the opioid epidemic had been a truly eye-opening experience. Many of the staff were quick to jump at the opportunity to share their views and desire for aid with an audience of outsiders.

Much of my own thoughts and writings around the issue were on display in a printed book alongside the completed video at DAAPWorks 2018, "The Show."

The current final version of the documentary can be viewed below.

Boylson had approached me with the concept and a series of storyboards in-hand; focusing on the track's paradoxical expression of desires to be seen and loved, yet fear of "dying in a vase"—dreaming of an idealized romance,  yet fearing the loss of freedom and independence therein.

This contradiction would be represented by contrasting and overlaying an isolated Stanton with Boylson's outdoor film, creating a dream-like, almost wistful, double-exposure effect throughout.

The full video can be viewed in its entirety below.

From the beginning, Donna and I chose to focus on using a colorful native wildlife approach, while remaining grounded to compliment the more "over-the-top" element of the emojis. Many different treatments of gradients, specular highlights, and other minor elements were planned out before finalizing any one particular element—ensuring a coherent, consistent final system.

Following the initial direction phase, we moved to approaching the design from a functional view—considering what images, icons, and so forth would animate best on such a unique field, and which of our icons would function as "flippers".

Once done, I created a series of storyboards to properly plan out how each individual icon would animate in 3 states—"Appear," "Active," and  "Ambient."

Each icon was designed and animated at a large scale, with much consideration given as to how each graphic would appear on the 4 DPI LEDs. As such, every graphic was tested during the design phase to ensure visibility and interpretation was not an issue for such a low resolution screen.

The design team also worked to create a "Fortune" screen as well—and you can continue to see attendee's social media posts using the tag #Lucky8BahaMar.

The project attempted to cross multiple boundaries with various applications—connecting with those within the area through a public installation (as sketched below), and even those outside of the Cincinnati metropolitan area through social media/video promotion.

Much of the project relied on creating a visual language that communicated across barriers while avoiding alienation of parties involved. Many peer-reviewed early entries were specifically critiqued for this purpose.

The video portion of the project was created as a means of sharing real people's emotions and opinions from the streets of Cincinnati, encouraging open-mindedness in a time of stress and frustration for many parts of the community.