Justin Wills

Visual Communication Specialist
Over 20 years of experience, including agency and international, in almost every type of visual communication – from concept to copy, traditional media to 3D animation.

Young at Art.

My design experience started in Jr. High when I drew the covers for four consecutive seasonal concert programs for our school band. In High School I continued to draw and even took up my own interest in graphic design, lettering, and calligraphy. While focusing on music primarily when entering university (hey, I had two scholarships), I ended up in a community college art class. In an effort to get in to 3D design, I even took an AutoCAD class. I used airbrush and did my first computer layouts while working in France and Switzerland off and on for a few years. Eventually I was launched in to real world Graphic Design and desktop publishing at a label company in Fort Worth, Texas where, besides recreating labels for national milk and water producers, I ended up designing their nationally distributed full-color catalog.

My education and experience continued while temping in the greater Dallas area at some noteworthy (and less noteworthy) design firms, all with national-grade clientele. I really appreciated getting exposed to the big leagues of marketing design at this stage. I also did a number of modest CD designs and logos, thanks to my local musical and professional connections.

A man. Abroad.

Toward the end of this time, I transitioned in to a 14-year involvement with an international non-profit organization. After serving briefly in the UK, designing a few brochures and seasonal magazine, I joined the in-house communications team at the U.S. headquarters. While there, I was involved in a wide variety of projects including posters, 1- and 2-color monthly bulletins, a catalog, direct mail, brochures, project funding presentations, reports, magazine graphics, special event materials, website design, a screensaver, sound tracks, and more.

I then took the Communications Coordinator role for the Europe area office. I lived in Germany for 4 1/2 years, supporting organizations in 18 European countries (oh, and South Africa). My duties shifted more from creation to adaptation and consultation. I continued in providing creative services direction ranging from website design to producing a number of print materials in some or all of the 15 European languages I supported. I also overdubbed and adapted corporate videos, and produced multilingual DVD’s.

After leaving that organization I worked freelance and through a temp agency in the Washington D.C. area designing logos, posters, PowerPoints, websites and even more specialized projects. I also went back to school for a while at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh Online, which was a great blend of filling-in some knowledge gaps and having some fresh projects while not being too demanding and maintaining a high GPA.

A strong current.

At the moment, I’m on the in-house marketing team of a large government health and human services company providing creative direction and creative services department management over a full range of projects. In addition to regular branding and marketing design, consulting and refining internal communication, I’ve shot and edited several short corporate videos, designed a few small internal/client websites and even more e-mails, and recorded/edited a series of podcasts.

That’s not everything, but it paints a picture. Thanks for visiting.