This Memorial Day weekend, towns across America host parades to celebrate citizens who have served in the military. We like to think of Dribbble as a small, exquisitely designed town, and so we present a virtual parade of our own hometown heroes.
Oorah! Hooah! Hooyah!
Joshua Barker
scriptnine.com
@jbark24
You get a little swaggery when you tell folks about your job, right? Graphic designer sounds hip-hep-cool … unless you’re standing next to the guy who’s a crypto tech. The phrase brings to mind spy games, code cracking, and silver-slick devices. The job description holds up.
"I worked on top secret equipment that was used for signal analysis," explains former cryptologic technician Joshua Barker, who served in the Navy aboard the USS Chancellorsville (San Diego) from 2006-2010. He entered service for a common reason — no plan after high school — and left a changed man: more focused, more motivated, more attuned to fine details.
The appreciation for small points Barker developed in the Navy plays a big role in his web design work. “I have to make sure that everything is done correctly down to the last period. One misplaced letter or punctuation can throw off everything,” he said.
Barker also credits the military with his motivation, which he says is “a huge thing in this business. You need to be totally committed to what you do, or you will get left behind.”
Dribbble motivated Barker to try illustration. “As a kid I liked to draw, but what kid doesn’t? I was pretty good at it, but wasn’t great, and found out quick enough that it wasn’t going to be my thing,” he said. “But when I discovered Dribbble and started following players like Justin Mezzell and Rogie, I was quite inspired to try my hand at some illustrations.
"So when it came time to do my thesis project [at the Art Institute of Charlotte], it was a perfect opportunity to try it out, so I did, and I loved it.”
Josh Whitehead
about.me/joshwhitehead
@joshwhite_head
Many a vet cites their military service for shaping them into the person they are. Josh Whitehead shaped his Marine experience to suit the person he already was: a designer.
Whitehead grew up in a military home respecting those who served, but from a young age he was all about design. “In high school I opted to go to a trade school for design. Then after this I went to college for design. As design has always been a big part of my life I knew I wanted to further pursue this career,” he told Dribbble.
Flipping through a book of Marine MOS (Military Occupation Specialties, AKA jobs), he discovered the role of Combat Camera Photographer and signed up. Whitehead spent the next five years on what what was, despite the title, a design gig at the Marine Corps Air Station in Jacksonville, NC.
"My day-to-day duties included creating posters, brochures, logos, business cards, etc. Anything you can think of relating to design, I did it in the military!" Did it up until last week, when Whitehead’s stint came to an end. As he reflects on his service, he’s thankful to the Marines for sharpening the skills that will carry him into a web career: speed, commitment to quality, time management, discipline, and respect, a crucial component of solid client relationships.
Whitehead failed to mention his ability to pay attention, but we’re betting the Marines value good listeners. And Whitehead is one, as his shot “phoneq - The Netflix/Gamefly of phones” illustrates. The app concept was borne of listening to customers at Best Buy, where he worked before joining up.
"Most of the customers felt cheated when a new fancier phone came around," he explained. "I had the idea, wouldn’t it be cool if you could buy a cheap phone from your respective service. Then pay a small fee to phoneq so that you may try out whatever phone you like for as long as you like."
Settling down to civilian life in Cincinnati, Whitehead’s focused on building up a freelance career, fully aware of what he’s capable of thanks to his half-decade of service.
"I’m proud to say I accomplished something I set my mind and body to."
When aspiring animator Mark Lim entered the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) earlier this year, the world stood still … virtually. “No computer, no Illustrator, or internet,” Mark remembers. “We weren’t allowed to bring camera phones either, so it was a complete detachment from the world until we were allowed to go home on the weekends.”
For a guy set on a career making digital images dance, the darkness was both discouraging and inspiring. On-line was off-limits, but Mark could consume whatever he found in a book. He learned about animation via the printed page, focusing on visual aspects that he could explore off-line, such as color elements, character design, and human anatomy. Paging through books he found new favorite artists, then flipped to the index for pointers on what to read next. In this way he discovered 20th century Disney artist and animator Mary Blair (Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Cinderella), who became the inspiration for his design “Kinetic Tower of the Four Winds.”
Like all male Singaporeans, Mark will serve a two-year stint in the SAF, in his case working as an administration support assistant. Now that basic training is over, Mark’s able to go home each day. With his few free hours he Dribbbles, works on freelance gigs, and takes online classes. When he finishes his National Service, Mark hopes to pursue an animation degree in the U.S.
James Ivaldi
jivaldi.com
@jivaldi
Time for a little Dribbble call-and-response. Here’s how it works. We shout a word. (We’ll shout via bold. Our mother shouts via all caps and it makes us feel 12.) You shout back, the first thing that comes into your head. Ready? Go!
Tumblr
Red
Creative
We’re betting you yelled “Yahoo!" for number one. We might defriend you if you shouted anything but "Sox!" for number two. We haven’t a clue what you hollered for number three, but we’re guessing it wasn’t "military!" Unless you’re James Ivaldi.
Ivaldi served a stint in the Marine Reserve out of high school and re-enlisted after college, the second time as an officer in Quantico, Virginia. His military experience not only helped him develop the leadership skills he now employs heading Jivaldi, a nine-person digital agency in the Bay Area, but also expanded his creative powers.
"I’ve always felt that creativity is passion (or pain) quantified," Ivaldi told Dribbble. "And sometimes people forget that creativity comes in many different forms: from strategy and problem solving, to marketing, coding and of course design. My time in the military, in addition to the leadership experience it provided, allowed me to channel my energy and passion, maintain focus and relentlessly pursue what’s important to me. These all apply in the creative world."
The “service” part of Ivaldi’s military service shines through in the shot he’s chosen to highlight, showing the main interface of an educational app his team developed during non-client brainstorming hours.
"We are currently building out some educational app ideas for toddlers and learning- disabled kids. This shot here shows the interface we came up with for a simple number counting app.
"We love the work of Jeremiah Shaw, Tim Reynolds, and others that are doing some amazingly cool low poly stuff so we wanted to integrate this style into our app. After getting feedback from parents of learning disabled and kids with Down Syndrome, we’re basing both the design and UX from parent feedback as well as our direct observation of kids playing with an early prototype of the app. And being ever-focused on creative, we wanted to add a unique look and feel to the app to increase the chances for engagement with the kids.”
In addition to the career-growing skills and traits the Marines honed in him, Ivaldi left the military with a sense of pride in himself and appreciation for his fellow service women and men.
"My deep respect goes out to all those deployed and those who have, and continue to put themselves in harm’s way.
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