Don Moyer talks about his projects.
I’m a retired graphic designer who now has the freedom to squander my days on self-inflicted projects. I draw at least a little everyday and post the pages from my sketchbooks on Flickr.
The drawings I like best make me laugh. Sometimes it is obvious that a drawing could be the basis for a good product. To me, a “good product” is one that can be beautiful, useful, and funny.
I use the crowd-funding platform, Kickstarter, to discover if people like my idea enough to justify a production run. So far, I have had over 50 successful Kickstarter projects and a few flops.
When a Kickstarter project ends, any surplus products that have been produced become available here on this site until they are sold out.
I have a long list of projects I’d like to complete before I kick the bucket. As long as the projects continue to be fun and people are willing to support them, I see no reason to stop.
The Calamityware series started in 2011 when I inherited a traditional, Willow-pattern plate and decided to sketch it in my notebook. I couldn’t resist the temptation to add a pterodactyl in the sky. When people saw the drawing on Flickr, several urged me to figure out a way to reproduce the image on a physical plate. My first Kickstarter project sprang from that idea.
Blue-willow patterns have been going strong for 300 years. It’s great fun to take that heritage in a new direction.
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Moyer is a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts) and Yale University. One of three founders of communications planning and design firm, ThoughtForm Inc., Moyer has participated in projects for Bayer, Caterpillar, IBM, Highmark, Humana, McDonald's, Philips, Steelcase, Westinghouse, but never the CIA. Wrote and designed the monthly column, Panel Discussion, for Harvard Business Review for six years. Cambridge Marketing Review (a quarterly) is republishing the original HBR essays and illustrations. Recipient of The Silver Star Alumni Award from the University of the Arts, 2006. Selected as an AIGA Fellow in 2008. Moyer lives in Pittsburgh with The Amazing Karen.
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