I’M Rhett and like you, a graphic designer, but I’M freezing here in Connecticut. I received my BFA from SCAD in 2009 and explored my field for two years only to discover a passion for teaching and a desire to pursue my MFA. I came back to SCAD and turned full time to freelance and contract work in 2011 through my company of one, RF Design Works. The past two years, in many ways, was my death of print; I have been concentrating solely on web design. The web is a collaborative environment, so much that I have closed my studio for 2013 to find a position within a team, a teaching position, and my passions. I love teaching print designers web design, they make the best web designers. When I am not designing, I work on my house, its more of a project then a house, with my high school sweetheart and two cats, and hack away at restoring my car.

My work this year has been centered around bridging the gap between web and print. Creating screen based experiences that carry the principles of print design: ratios, page layout, baseline grids, typography, etc. This also has me engaged with the theories and battles behind skeuomorphisms, searching for the balance between familiar and innovative. In short, I have been researching human interaction with screen based technologies. On screen reading is the focus of my current side project named ScreenType that aims to tackle the rising need for displaying heavy text on screen across hundreds of devices with the final version right around the corner. A lot of my focus has been on finding solutions that are device free, in other words streamlining content though responsive, adaptive, user centered designs and natural interfaces and experiences.

I also enjoy information design, visualizing complex data. I am amazed everyday at the amount of information we live in. In designs concern it has grown to the point that it’s inconceivable. What does a trillion look like? Such large numbers have no value, we have no comparison; the information becomes meaningless. I believe that in order to see this problem the data must be recognizable and imaginable, and the reasons must be uncovered and divided. Dropping zeros for example has been used in a slew of fiscal cliff infographics, here is an example I drew up today simplifying the fiscal cliff and debt ceiling for a blog post. This past year I had the opportunity to work on a few projects for the board of ed here in my town on various 5th grade science courses. I am very interested in e-learning development, course design, and cognitive science.

I love learning, reading, and writing, even though I am a visual person, most of my work starts off as a word or from a pile of research/calculations. The thing I love most about the web is that it has no defined bounds, you cant master something that evolves so rapidly just add to it.

My passion for complexity has done me well but stands as the antagonist of my thesis, narrowing my focus. I am looking forward to getting over that hurdle and diving into an idea.