Neat design for edgy people, edgy design for neat people.

This has been my design mantra for about fifteen years now. In the early days I was largely inspired and schooled by two friends in the design and snowboard industry, Scott Clum and Aaron Draplin. Polar opposite in terms of design style and aesthetic. Clum made a name for himself first as one of snowboarding's pioneers on the East Coast and original graphic designer for Sims snowboards, and then more prominently for the Morrow Snowboards brand in Salem, Oregon in the 90's. He has produced a dizzying array of large client work in addition to publishing the design magazines Blur and Stick. Scott Clum's style could best be characterized by the blurry, avante garde style of work by David Carson - an obvious influence on his career. Scott now works as part of Fiction Tribe in Portland. Contrastingly, we have Aaron Draplin. A man who has made a name for himself with his thick lines and clean, tight, well-organized design style. Aaron has taken his graphic design status to the rock star level, branding himself and his company into a one-man traveling design speaker and evangelist and producer of "Draplindustries" products that are nifty must-have items for the design conscious and savvy. Proud to know them both - and inspired to this day within my own design projects. Together - they've provided a well-rounded design aesthetic for my own work and is why I've always attached this phrase to my design philosophy. "Neat design for edgy people, edgy design for neat people." Here is a shot of Aaron on the cover of this month's HOW magazine. Amazing.

And so I march on, inspired by the greats, churning out work that I deem good, strong and respectable. If you'd like to take a peek at my work, please visit my Adobe Creative portfolio site at: http://behance.net/etkeeney Thanks for reading!