Go anywhere

My love is my winter, she feels like a spring She loves every color as long as it’s green She gives wings like a bird, roots like a tree And I’ll go…

Cover Letters

Cover letters are simple. They are a short, written version of your resume, with a voice. They give you a chance to speak directly to a real person…

Healing and the Shape of Things

Healing doesn’t come from deciding something no longer hurts; it comes from building something new out of what hurt you. This came out of a…

That kind of person

Sometimes a creative block isn’t about time or ability. It’s about the story someone is telling themselves. What follows is an exchange with a…

Story Rules

I am working on a short story so finding these kind of rules are meaningful to me. Who knows if I will actually finish but saying things out loud…

Graphic Design Research Paper Topics

As I teach graphic design, it makes sense that I might know some topics that students could write about for their senior paper relating to graphic…

Save everything

The latest product launch announces an AI that draws shapes better than before, efficiently saving a little time. Stanley is five and thinks…

Things that still seem to be true

Money creates freedom to choose. Confidence is accumulated experience interpreted kindly. Everyone is improvising all the time with incomplete…

Building a Hireable Portfolio, Part 2

In Part 1, we focused on what makes a portfolio hireable. Now we move to the most important piece: the case study. A portfolio is not a gallery of…

Building a Hireable Portfolio, Part 1

I’ve reviewed hundreds of student portfolios: in classes, internships, capstones, and job prep. Many of these students are talented. They know the…

Values Map

Notes toward a life that feels aligned; for my kids, my students, and whoever else wanders by. Seeing life as precious and interconnected, whatever…

Reflecting on a semester’s end

Good luck, students. I’m proud of you all, even if I don’t say it enough. Do good work for your own sake, and for mine. It’s that habit of doing…

Design Contracts and Agreements

Over the years, I’ve developed several contract templates to help clarify working relationships, set expectations, and protect all parties involved…

Mood Boards

In graphic design, a mood board is a visual tool used to convey the overall aesthetic, mood, and tone of a design project. It serves as a curated…

The quiet invitations of aging

What happens in us when we reframe the years as teachers instead of takers? Getting older isn’t just loss, limitation, or decline; it also opens up…

Designers designers should know

This is a starting point. My attempt to gather a list of significant and notable designers and firms. It’s meant primarily for my students, but…

Of the sky and the sea

or Between hope and regret What does the ocean know of a squid, always looking behind as thoughts oscillate? What can the…

Being wrong right

Being Wrong Right Better to be wrong with an open ear Than to be right, never bent to hear. The path that’s worn by prideful tread Leads not…

Matt’s Manifesto

These are very much a work in progress. Not only am I open to changing these, finding they are foolish, etc, but I expect to. Also, I don’t live up…

What is a brand?

A brand is not a logo, though a logo is part of a brand. It’s not a viral post, a catchy slogan, a perfect typeface, or a great color palette,…

It’s the kind of failure that matters

In graphic design education, we talk a lot about process, critique, and iteration but not always about failure. That’s a mistake. Fear of failure…

Lessons from culinary school

When I was in grad school for design, we shared a space with a culinary school. Every day, they cooked our meals and every day, I watched how…

Comfort’s Cost

We speak of freedom as if it were flight, but forget that wings come with wind, and the sky offers no shelter. We crave a trail…

Student questions: AI in design

Artificial Intelligence is reshaping many fields including (especially?) graphic design. It brings a lot of important questions for anyone…

Business card mockup

Show off your business card designs in a clean, realistic mockup completely built in Figma. No photos, just vector work that looks sharp and…

Simple Guide to File Formats

Source files are the editable versions of your work and the most important to save. They let you make changes, updates, or reuse designs in the…

Thinking about agency owner vs. solo designer

I saw a post on X from Oykun comparing agency life to freelancing, with freelancing appearing to have the edge. My gut tells me freelancing fits me…