I design brands that feel before they explain.

Graphic Designer & Surreal Artist Decorah, Iowa Est. 2025 Available for projects

The Designer

I'm a graphic designer and surreal digital artist working where logic meets imagination — a background in computer science shapes how I structure a brand, and an instinct for the uncanny shapes how it feels.

My practice spans brand identity, art direction, and packaging design, but the thread running through all of it is restraint. I build systems first, then look for the one image or mark that justifies the whole thing existing.

Outside of client work, I make surreal digital art under arttrec — photo manipulation and dream logic pushed until it stops looking staged and starts looking remembered.

Location
United States
Education
Computer Science
Focus
Visual Communication / Computer Science
Studio
arttrec
I believe the best design speaks before you do. Every project starts with intent — a reason for every mark, every color, every pause in the layout — long before it starts with decoration.

Journey

A short, honest timeline — from a computer science classroom to a studio that makes brands and surreal art in equal measure.

2017 Graphic Design Started graphic design — logo work, layout, and a growing obsession with type.
2022 CS Degree Started a Computer Science degree — the systems thinking that still shapes every brand I build.
2025 First brands Took on the first full brand identity projects — packaging, art direction, and systems built to hold under real use.
2026 arttrec Studio Formalized the practice as arttrec — brand identity and surreal digital art under one studio name.

What I do

  • Identity Systems

    Brand & Visual Design

    Brand identity systems, logo design and logo suites, visual identity guidelines, campaign visual direction, poster and print design, editorial layout, packaging concepts, typography systems, and art direction across print and digital touchpoints. Comfortable owning a brand from concept through final rollout, translating a client brief into a cohesive visual language rather than isolated assets.

  • Creative Practice

    Surreal Art & Photo Manipulation

    Original surreal digital art built primarily through photo manipulation — combining, distorting, and reimagining photographic elements into dreamlike, conceptual compositions. This is independent creative work distributed on Instagram and Behance, distinct from client branding projects, showcasing a personal visual voice built on composite imagery, dramatic lighting, and imaginative world-building within a single frame.

  • Digital Experiences

    Web & Interactive Design

    UI implementation from design file to functioning interface, GSAP-driven animation and interaction design, and CMS-driven content workflows with Sanity for scalable, editable web builds. Bridges the gap between static design and live product — able to design a system and then build the site that delivers it.

  • Production Skills

    Design Execution

    Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Lightroom, with 10+ years of hands-on production experience. Skilled at moving fluidly between vector-based brand assets and raster-based photographic work, applying advanced masking, compositing, and retouching techniques that underpin both client work and personal surreal pieces.

  • Technical Foundation

    Software Engineering

    Desktop application development, core CS fundamentals (data structures, algorithms), and version control practices — a technical foundation supporting more ambitious, logic-driven creative-technical projects.