Graphic Design

"If you're just operating by habit, then you're not really living…Every action of ours should be a prayer—a sacrament in the world." - My Dinner with Andre (1981)

"There are three responses to a piece of design—yes, no, and WOW! Wow is the one to aim for."

-Milton Glaser

My graphic design experience has been utilized over a number of industries and settings. I often create in Canva for its user-friendly software, but I am academically trained in the Adobe Creative Suite. Below are samples of my work—both professionally and academically.

The Pinnacle Chick-fil-A (Bristol, Tenn.)

Catering Receipt Holders

This might be a little visual confusing to look at initially. This is a bifold receipt holder for catering orders. The first image is the outside of the pamphlet—with the nuggets being the front cover and the contact info being the back cover. The bottom two upside down sections are folded flaps that fold up into the inside of the design and bound on the edges like a school folder. The second image of food safety instructions are the inside panels with the blank space at the bottom being covered up by the "Thank you" and "It was our pleasure…" flaps to securely hold a receipt.

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The Pinnacle Chick-fil-A Values flier

This is a flier listing our 10 values in a visually digestible manner throughout the kitchen compared to them previously being textually listed in a black and white document inside a binder out of the team's view.

Digital Billboard - Chick-fil-A Hiring Ad

Vendor: Allison Outdoor Advertising

Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, our store was struggling to gather enough team members to be fully staffed. We created this billboard to increase awareness of our open availabilities and competitive pay. compared to surrounding businesses.

Summer of Cows - Internal Info Cards

Collateral provided by Chick-fil-A database

Chick-fil-A launched a new campaign in the summer of 2023 called "The Summer of Cows," but it was supposed to be a surprise for guests and the public up until time for it to launch. In order of being able to inform 60–70 employees of a campaign ahead of time that was digestible to understand, I created internal info cards to build excitement and team member buy-in by the time it went live.

This is a card with a horizontal fold across the middle. The first image is the outside (front and back) sides and the second image with all of the text is the inside of the card.

Kingsport Chamber (Kingsport, Tenn.)

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2022 Legislative Dinner in Nashville

Scrolling banner on the website's main page to highlight the event, along with being posted on social media, presentation slides and the weekly chamber newsletter.

Ribbon Cutting Graphic

I was trying to freshen up the aesthetics of how we digitally announced an upcoming ribbon cutting event. This is a fairly basic graphic with the door itself being royalty free photography and then me creating a placeholder to change the title, date/time/place and respective logo of new business. I would update the text and logo with the corresponding business being celebrated at a future ribbon cutting.

Inaugural Kingsport Chamber NYE Bash flier

Flier designed by: Justin Hartsell

Event logo designed by: ARO Creative/Samantha Culbertson

ARO Creative created the fun logo for the Kingsport Chamber's inaugural New Year's Eve Bash. It was then up to me to create the collateral informing members and the public of the event. This was the flier I designed for it.

Membership Ad

This was an ad for non-members to consider joining the Kingsport Chamber.

Business Event Ad

This was a digital ad created on our website and in our newsletters to encourage members and non-members to schedule ribbon cuttings, after hours and groundbreakings. I took the photo in the background.

Get Out the Vote Graphics

These were social media graphics I created and posted to inform followers of when elections were taking place and how to find additional information or resources.

Proud Member Graphic

I created this graphic and took the photo to be used as the official graphic for membership businesses to post on their social media or websites to highlight our partnership and drive awareness to our organization.

Kingsport Chamber Ambassador Application Graphic

The Kingsport Chamber resurrected its ambassador program and wanted to draw interest of members advocating for the chamber and assisting with events. This was a cartoon-like ad I came up with to post on social media and in the weekly newsletter.

State of the City Address Social Ad

I am really proud of this one. Every year the board of mayor and alderman provide a State of City Address alongside the city manager. I took all of these photos (including background) showcasing some of Kingsport's landmarks.

New Member Notification Social

Every so often, the Kingsport Chamber held a New Member Orientation for businesses and organizations that had just recently joined the Chamber. I created this freshened up graphic as a way to draw visual interest to concise information.

Town of Glade Spring (Glade Spring, Va.)

Town of Glade Spring's Newsletter Banner

I designed this banner on behalf of town council member who sent out the town's newsletter regarding upcoming events, news, etc. I incorporated royalty-free images that reflected the area, geography or restaurant offerings.

Town of Abingdon/CVB (Abingdon, Va.)

Abingdon Visitor Center Flier

Photography from the Town of Abingdon/CVB database

I was tasked with designing a flyer that highlighted the Abingdon Visitor Center and all that it had to offer.

Abingdon Historical Storyteller (Abingdon, Va.)

History Alive Tours Rack Card

Photography provided by History Alive Tours

History Alive Tours asked if I would voluntarily create them a rack card to display at the Abingdon CVB and for the storytelling organization to have on hand.

The Lincoln Theatre (Marion, Va.)

Charlie Chaplin Film Festival Poster

While volunteering at The Lincoln Theatre in Marion, Virginia, I oversaw the monthly film festival series, what movies would be selected, themes, showtimes, etc. One of my proudest moments was curating the one of the monthly festival around Charlie Chaplin. This is a poster I designed that was later hung on the entrance doors to highlight the event.

Alfred Hitchcock Film Festival Poster

Utility Trailer (Glade Spring, Va.)

Hiring Billboard

Photos courtesy of Justin Hartsell

Human Resources at Utility Trailer Glade Spring desperately needed to hire more people for the production floor. I asked if they had ever done a job listing on Indeed.com for a production worker's position, in which they had not. Upon persuading them to try this method, they received over 540 applications and had to shut down the opening just to be able to process the mass response they had received through Indeed. This billboard was an effort to get the word out about Utility hiring and a posting being live on Indeed.

Summer 2019 Utility Trailer Hiring Flyer

Photography courtesy of Justin Hartsell

This is a printed flyer I created to help promote that our plant was hiring. I linked the Indeed application to a QR code generator and incorporated it into the flyer as well.

E&H Event Flier for Utility Employees

This college hosted a ticketed event that featured a musical quartet. Emory & Henry College specifically wanted to offer free tickets to Utility Trailer Glade Spring in an effort to form a sponsoring relationship and give back to a business nearby.

Student Projects

(classroom & work study assignments at Emory & Henry College)

Magazine Spread

Final project for advanced graphic design course. I chose to make a fictional publication about schnauzers in honor of my schnauzer Macy.

All images used are royalty free.

Front Cover

Table of Contents

Section page (i.e. article in "Health" section)

Section Page (i.e. page in "Entertainment" section)

Well Feature (Pages 1 & 2 of 4-page spread)

Well Feature (Pages 3 & 4 of 4-page spread)

Business Card

A business card project I created for a fictional venue space that I would love to see be a reality one day. I designed the card and the logo. (I purchased the rights to the use of the Pegasus vector drawing.)

Front

(I purchased the rights to the use of the Pegasus vector drawing.)

Back

(I purchased the rights to the use of the Pegasus vector drawing.)

Two-Sided Brochure*

Our class was challenged with redesigning the E&H Mass Communications brochure (only as a student project to be graded, not to actually be used by the department). This is the front of my brochure. The four photos of campus are my own photographs, and I digitally traced/created the "Blue Ridge Mountains" and sun. I used shades and tints of E&H pantones.

*I have chosen to not include the back as it contains copyrighted material that I do not own or claim to own the rights to and only used them as a project without intention of publishing for general viewing. I was still a student learning the difference between royalty-free photos and copyrighted images as I went through my intro to graphic design course.

Front

Photos by: Justin Hartsell

Abuse Alternatives, Inc. (Bristol, TN/VA)

Outside of trifold brochure

Photography consists of royalty free images.

Inside of trifold brochure

Photography consists of royalty free images.

Updated Abuse Alternatives, Inc. Trifold Brochure

A professor who was on the board for Abuse Alternatives, Inc. of Bristol TN/VA and said that the organization was looking to rebrand themselves and create a new brochure. The past brochure(s) and advertisements had typically shown victims as being "white females" and failed to address those of color, males, kids, elderly population or LGBTQIA+ population. Thus, the professor and I made it a goal to find pictures that both tried to be inclusive while also trying to show what services the organization provided. This is what I ended up designing, choosing to make it a trifold brochure that gave information from the website and other reputable sources, included inclusive photos and told a little about the services they provide at Abuse Alternatives.