MUSIC MEETS DESIGN

Drew's passion for music has been the driving force behind her design career as she finds ways to use her designs as means to convey the sounds and emotions behind music. 

DEVELOPING HER PHILOSOPHY

Drew MacKay creates in a meticulous manner orientated around the various elements and details required in each design challenge. Her design philosophy can be accredited to her passion for organization, process, and communication. 

The world in which she creates was enabled by the world in which she grew up. Her mother majored in Graphic Design, but gave up her career to become a stay at home mom for Drew and her three sisters. Drew’s passion for design started at a young age and was fostered by her mother.  As a child, her free time revolved around arts and crafts because this was her mother’s passion. Eventually, her mother’s passion led Drew to find a passion of her own.

DETAILS AND SIMPLICITY

Drew has found that simplicity is a key component in her design process, allowing her to eliminate unnecessary details, while allowing time to perfect the essential elements of the design. She feels that it is the details, no matter how small, that make the difference.

MODERN AND MINIMALISM

The styles that surrounded her childhood influenced a preference toward a modern and minimalist outlook. This same pattern can be seen in her work. She finds the perfect elements that need to be present in order to effectively and successfully resolve the design challenge. She is able to do so through first analyzing what it is she is seeking to accomplish, gathering details, and then organizing them in such a way that she can begin to apply her design process.

MATHEMATICS MEETS DESIGN

Drew has always been a very exacting person. As she grew up, this tendency proved very useful in an academic environment. Mathematics was always one of her stronger subjects, because math is made up of details and process. When looking at a problem, she can see a whole, but by breaking up the different elements and arranging them in a correct manner, she can find the solution.

HOOKED ON DESIGN

Drew took her first Graphic Design course as a junior in high school and was immediately hooked for the same reason she loved math; the process and details. Graphic Design presented her with a problem of various elements for which she had to find a solution. It offered her the artistic expression and the source of enjoyment that she experienced during her childhood. Graphic Design opened the door for her to solve design problems.

APPROACHING A CHALLENGE

Drew approaches each problem by focusing on all the aspects of the design challenge, as well as the details of the problem, no matter how minor they may seem. She approaches each design challenge with the process of understanding what the client is asking for, writing a creative brief, and doing research. (Examples of her process can be seen within her portfolio.)

ORGANIZATION AND COMMUNICATION

For Drew, clear communication is essential. She believes that through gathering and arranging all the necessary details, clear communication takes place. Once she organizes all the information, she begins to filter through the process. Achieving clear communication that will reach the client's target audience requires the right elements, arranged in the right way, speaking the right message to the right people.

Her process requires appropriate amounts of research and documentation on all areas that pertain to her projects. She then distills the research down to the details that lead to the mood, which will convey the message. These details are then assembled through sketches and brainstorming, which are then turned into ideas and designs that push boundaries and conventions. She creates thumbnails, comprehensive, and final computer solutions. However, it is the process that is essential to her work. By the time she is on the computer, she has a clear vision of what she will be creating because she has revised and reviewed all aspects of the design. 

ASSEMBLER OF DETAILS

Drew views herself as a designer, an assembler of elements from fonts, to textures, to photos, to illustrations. She discovers the right elements for each project through her distinctive process, taking the elements and organizing them into an effective solution to the design challenge. Through perfecting each detail, she uses the elements to create a greater whole. It is through her organization and process that she can communicate efficiently and effectively.