Q: Do you have a daily routine or ritual for your workflow?
Get to work, check my emails, fire up some tunes, and get to the most interesting thing I have in front of me that day (deadlines permitting). I try to save checking up on design blogs for that midday brain drain, to give me a boost for the end of the day. Drinking lots of Diet Coke and water. For specific projects, I read the brief, and generally get right to sketching or concepting..just kind of let my mind wander for a bit and see what comes up first.
 
Q: As a designer, what stresses you out the most?
When my brain "hits the wall", and just refuses to spit any more creative ideas out at me. Not being able to get a foothold into an idea, or spending half a day on concepts that go nowhere. I really like being up against a deadline, though...maybe it's a holdover from my college days, but it gives me an extra creative boost or something. Aside from the intangibles, anytime my computer hangs or a program unexpectedly crashes just before I save makes my brain asplode. Clients who make changes just because they can.

Q: What inspires you?
Really freaking talented people...seeing what other people can find in the depths of their imagination inspires me to try something new or get out of a rut. I would be lost without my music, it seems. Like I mentioned, I'm not truly in "design mode" unless I have my headphones on and my music rolling. There are way too many blogs in my blogroll to name-drop, but the online world is SO FULL of amazing content, it's not hard to get inspiration in just a few clicks.

Q: How do you deal with failure?
The interesting thing is what you define as failure. I want to fail early and often. I want to know what doesn't work right away. It's a hard thing, learning to embrace failure as a necessary part of the design process, but it really helps get you out of that perfection mode early on and into an iterative state. I'd rather spend two hours failing at 20 attempts than two hours failing at two attempts. It's also really good for that fresh-outta-college coddled ego most design students graduate with (myself included!). Listen, you're gonna fail. It's how you learn and apply it to the future that matters.

Q: What advice would you give to a designer just getting out of school?
If you're freelancing, I have two things:
1. CONTRACTS. Boring, but they'll save you a lot of heartache down the road. AIGA has a pretty beefy one to get you started here: http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/standard-agreement
2. TAXES. You gotta pay 'em, but you can write off a bunch too. Set aside part of that check. Get an accountant or learn to itemize. Lots of stuff falls under 'business expenses'.
Create stuff. Hustle your ass off. Work through design blocks by sketching or doing something completely different. Put some stuff in your portfolio that isn't from a school project. People want to see initiative. And polish. That first 90% of a design is a great start. That second 90% will set you apart.

Q: What work are you most proud of?
I've been fortunate enough to work on several wedding projects, and that's personally rewarding to get to work so closely with someone on something that will be part of their "big day" forever. I got a lucky break early on and was able to work with a local company on a documentary about professional gaming that helped me grow and develop a lot. While I haven't ever handled the needles, I have drawn some tattoos for friends; it's an incredible honor to have someone want your art on them for the rest of their lives. At EdgeCore, I've really been proud of our collaboration with UNI on educational videos, and the opportunity to deliver high-impact work regularly has been nothing short of amazing.

Q: Where do you see print design 5 years from now?
I think in my lifetime, there might be some big changes, but I don't really see print design going gently into that good night. There's always going to be a market for physical product...people like to hold stuff too much. Maybe print design will get distilled down to the really cool stuff. Super-talented guys like Studio on Fire are bringing letterpress back with modern technology like polymer plates. Maybe it really just means the death of superfluous content...improving our signal/noise ratio. I'm not really sure, but I can't wait to see where the industry's headed!

Q: Who’s your dream client? Why?
To be honest, I'd love to work for anyone who wants me to work for them. I think it's a great honor to be chosen out the enormous pool of talent out there. Any client that can get me out of my comfort zone and is honest and open and excited about the project, who wants to be pushed and push me is a great one in my book.