Hey, hey New Orleans! It’s time for your bi-monthly meetup, next Wednesday at Parish Ink. We tried to convince Rich and Dan to pick up the hot-pink pom-poms for an advanced meetup floor routine, but they were “too busy.” Probably better for everyone, because this gives us a chance to talk with the designer bringing it all together: Dionne Grayson.
Dionne agreed to serve as test subect for our first Pep Rally, a new series allowing you to peek inside the design scene of a Dribbble-friendly city in advance of an upcoming meetup. Thanks, Dionne! The rest of you New Orleanians, get on over to the RSVP page. Not from the Crescent City? Maybe there’s a meetup in your area. Or maybe you should organize one.
Who are you and what are you working on?
Hi. My name is Dionne Grayson and I am a graphic designer specializing in branding and digital designs (web and email design and development). I am currently working on a website design that is connected to a rebranding project for a PR and social media company. Here is a shot featuring layout ideas for a News page.
Tell us about your city, and its design scene.
New Orleans is an interesting place to live. There is ALWAYS something happening. Whatever you may enjoy, there is an opportunity to sate your vice. New Orleans encourages a wide range of design aesthetics. This is liberating.
The New Orleans design scene includes a wide range of designers — front-end developers, visual designers, animators, type wranglers, film and tv designers, and even graffiti artists. There has been only one Dribbble meetup so far this year; the local AIGA chapter has been so kind to help promote it. Some of the monthly design events, aside from the bi-monthly Dribbble meet ups, that are usually on my radar include Front-end Party for your front-end designers, AIGA, the Advertising Club of New Orleans, New Orleans Lettering Arts Association, the New Orleans WordPress Meetup, and the Women in Tech meetup. There are also all sorts of networking events, as well as locally organized conferences, such as Barcamp and Pursuit, a new conference coming up in October.
(Photo of Dionne taken by Jason Saul in the French Quarter while assisting on a news story.)
Choose three New Orleans Dribbblers you admire, and tell us why you chose them.
Row 1: Scott Campbell, Sam Nga Blum.
Scott Campbell. I really like his work (not only because I am a huge NPR fan and his work was in the 2014 calendar) due to his incorporations of various textures and patterns. His posts of type experimentation are quite refreshing as well. Scott’s GBNYC above left.
Sam Randolph/Copper Crown Design Co.. I love her illustrations of New Orleans architecture. The city has been going through a transformation and it is wonderful that Sam is capturing some of the city’s most familiar landmarks. Sam’s Marquette Hall, Loyola University New Orleans above center.
Erik Winkowski. Erik’s animations have a great organic touch to them. I love the singular movement of the dot in the i of “Hi” in this example. It is simple and yet provides a punch of emphasis to the piece. Erik’s Hi above right.
Find Dionne at Dribbble and at www.dionnegrayson.com.
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