About
Work Skills Lets Talk
Where I stand
Hello! My name is Nick VanMeter, a graphic designer and web developer home-grown in the great state of Iowa. I graduated from the University of Northern Iowa in May 2010 with a Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Communications and a certificate in Computer Applications. I have over four years of design and development experience through personal and professional projects.
I settle for nothing less than my best, and I understand that's exactly what you expect. I have accepted that 1999 is gone and (hopefully) never coming back. This means that Comic Sans is not in my vocabulary, and you won’t see me using animated GIFs. This also means that you can expect an endless slate of clean, quality work day in and day out.
You could describe me as a self-motivated individual that always goes above and beyond. You could say that I take every opportunity presented to me to take my design skills to the next level. You could consider me one to push myself to the limits to be the best designer I can be. Most do.
Work
About Skills Lets Talk
Talk is cheap; you want to see proof. I have samples of print, web, and identity work that I'm dying to share with you. In each piece you'll see a high attention to detail; clean, crisp designs and a wealth of creativity. Simply click a thumbnail on the right for details about a specific project and additional images.
Frogs: A morphology Set
Completion Date: February, 2010
Category: Illustration
Project overview:
The goal of this project was to create a unified theme of illustrations based on the same basic grid. Working with cartoon frogs, I created several grids that allowed for frog-like shapes and sketched out thirty actions. The twelve most animated were rendered in Adobe Illustrator compiled into a book supplimented with my design process.
Have a look at some sample pages:
4 R Kids | Sioux City Adoption and Foster Care Placement
Completion date: February, 2011
Category: Web Design
Project overview:
4 R Kids is a private adoption company out of Sioux City, Iowa. The company came to me hoping to gain a web presence. I provided a clean, comforting, and welcoming website that offers details about their adoption process, as well as a way to get in contact for more information. The web design process included SEO to reach the best audiences.
Green Plaza Resorts
Completion Date: May, 2010
Category: Corporate Identity
Project overview:
Green Plaza Resorts is an international, all-inclusive, and eco-friendly company. The resort focuses on providing an elegant, relaxing, and organic environment. The identity package created echos these attributes while emphasizing the companies "green" point of differentation. The circular figure hints at inclusiveness and the centered appearance and serif type articulate elegance.
See what I'm talking about:
Neville Brody Art Exhibition
Completion Date: March, 2010
Category: Print Design
Project overview:
Neville Brody is perhaps one of the best graphic designers of today's time. After researching Brody's style and accomplishments, I created promotional posters and booklets for a fictional exhibition of his artwork at the Portland Art Museum. One set is 2-color process, and the other is 4-color.
Check it out:
UNI Department of Geography
Completion Date: April, 2010
Category: Web Design, CMS
Project overview:
This new site for the UNI Department of Geography allows for easy content access and management. The site focuses on ease of navigation for students, which was lacking in their previous outdated site. The Drupalized renovation also includes multiple content types so Geography faculty can add new courses, staff, and information with the click of a button.
Emotional Design: People and Things
Completion Date: April, 2010
Category: Publication Design
Project overview:
Provided with a magazine article and a few images, this project focused on creating magazine title spreads based on the criteria of Classical, Asymmetrical, and Aggressive designs. Each spread represents a different "feel" for the article, while remaining tasteful and interesting.
Read all about it:
College Aviators
Completion Date: August, 2010
Category: Web Design
Project overview:
CollegeAviators.org is a site meant to introduce a new way for students to learn how to fly. The site's goal is to introduce the program to University administrators and get students excited about becoming a private pilot. Students can get a grasp of what they will learn to prepare them for hands-on flight lessons at an airport.
Norther Iowa Student Government
Completion Date: January, 2010
Category: Web Design, CMS
Project overview:
The Northern Iowa Student Government is charged with appropriately spending student funds and relaying important information to the student body. This site, built with Drupal, allows for the administration to get the information out, and students are able to find exactly what they need.With the start of a new adminstration in August of 2010, the design was replaced.
See what remains:
Homepower Magazine
Completion Date: March, 2010
Category: Publication Design
Project overview:
HomePower magazine is a publication focused on revealing information on how to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle. I felt the design of their publication did not align with their goals. When redesigning two article spreads, the table of contents, and the title, I focused on creating a clean, aerodynamic, and cohesive compilation.
Check out the spreads:
Waterloo Community Playhouse
Completion Date: February, 2010
Category: Print Design
Project overview:
The Waterloo Community Playhouse is a local theatre that was looking for poster designs for their 2009-2010 season. I designed posters for three of their shows. The design for "The Canterville Ghost" was selected to be used in all of their advertising: billboards, flyers, ticket stubs, online promotion, and t–shirts. All other designs were in the final round of selection by the judges.
Feast your eyes:
There's way more where that came from!
Contact me for a seemingly endless supply of quality samples »
SKILLS
About Work Lets Talk
I am currently a web manager at the Iowa Soybean Association in Ankeny, Iowa. In the past I have been a webmaster for the Northern Iowa Student Government, a senior web designer for the UNI Production House, and a web/marketing intern for Marsh Global Consumer.
With this experience, I have a large skill set I want to put to work for you. I have skills in the Adobe Creative Suite (including Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Photoshop and Indesign), many web development languages (including PHP, jQuery, HTML/CSS), and even a Content Management System (Drupal). I'm never done learning, so you can bet the list will only continue to grow.
Don't believe me? See the resume »
Lets Talk
About Work Skills
You've made it this far, now lets continue this conversation in a more personal fashion. You want to know more, and I definitely want to know what I can do for you. Lets make it happen!
Sorry I asked if you were human. With zombies and robots all over the internet, you can never be too careful. Forgive me.