|
Tim Hansford
designer, photographer, illustrator
It's important to know that Tim graduated with a BA in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma, that he continually educates himself and "upgrades" his knowledge by trying and testing new hardware, software, scripts and languages, that he's versatile, with projects spanning across multiple media, and that he uses both Windows and Macintosh computers to produce his work. But what's really important is his commitment to producing quality work that makes a difference for his clients.
Through the years there have been a lot of buzzwords in the design industry—snazzy this, and whiz-bang that. To Tim, those developments are exciting, but that's not what his work is about. A new-fangled thing might be a good solution, but something tried-and-true might be better. The bottom line, it's about the message and what you want to accomplish with it. What's the best way to communicate an idea, inform customers, cause a reaction, or generate a positive result.
When you begin to work with Tim, you'll quickly learn that he wants to know all the details, and that all he is concerned about are the details—it's his job. But as the project progresses, you'll see he is very good at bringing all those details together into a cohesive and complete piece, something that delivers your message or promotes your idea in the best way possible.
Great design isn't about pretty pictures and graphics, bright colors, animations, or sound. First, it's the right combination and composition that gets attention and draws your audience in. Second, and more important, it must then deliver your message. The true test is, do they "get it" and feel compelled to take action, contact your company, place an order, or sign a contract. Tim Hansford is committed to making that happen.
More about Tim
With over 25 years of graphic design work, Tim has seen a lot. Especially the evolution of technology. He tried out his father's first Texas Instruments hand-held calculator, played Space Invaders on an Atari game console, he worked on dumb terminals linked to a large air-conditioned mainframe, saw the introduction of the first personal computers, and developed college projects on a Commodore 64 and 128. Answering machines, cordless phones, faxes, and cell phones became a part of everyday life. Eight-tracks, the Sony Walkman tape player, and compact disk players each had their time—and now it's the iPod, Shuffle and iPhone. The Atari has been replaced by Nintendo, Playstation, and Xbox. Everything continues to get smaller and faster.
In 1984, the beginning of his senior year at the University of Oklahoma to complete his BA in Journalism (emphasis, advertising), there wasn't an Internet per se and he used IBM Selectrix typewriters to compose his advertising copy and develop projects. His print design and production projects involved meticulously creating mockups, spec'ing written content, photographs, and graphics, and sending everything to separate services to produce negatives to build pre-press mechanicals—a very time-consuming process where there wasn't room for mistakes.
1984 was also the year of Apple Computer and their new Macintosh (remember the "Big Brother" ad?). Though Tim initially disliked Apple computers and the Macintosh interface, he was there the day a dozen Mac 512k computers and two laser printers arrived for the School of Journalism's new computer design lab. Within a few hours he single-handily set them up, installed software, and networked everything together.
Then, as a final "class project," he was a key member of OU's senior advertising team that competed for the best regional college advertising campaign for Apple Computer, and presented the campaign to Apple's advertising executives. During that time he learned that these small 8MHz Mac computers with their 9" black and white screens were the future of graphic design.
As he completed his senior year in 1985, he interned for an in-house marketing department for a subsidiary of Union Pacific, was hired full-time, and relocated with the corporate office to Houston Texas. Though he had been introduced to the Macintosh during college, and came to know it was the best design platform at the time, he was initially "confined" to a DOS and Microsoft environment, using DOS Shell and Windows 1.0. Fortunately, early versions of Aldus PageMaker and Freehand and Adobe Illustrator were available for that platform, but it just wasn't the same.
As the Macintosh computers improved, and during that time, made major leaps ahead of the Windows environment, Tim submitted an extensive analysis to the president. The decision was to be made at a one-on-one meeting, and after the president stated "we all know PCs are better," he then asked, "you can assure me you really need a Macintosh?" The proposal was approved, the Macintosh was delivered, and within a few months, the president had a couple of them at his own home.
Tim continued to work for this company for the next ten years, and began to deal with the pros and cons of the newly established "desktop publishing" era. It was great because it allowed designers more control, and reduced the number of people and services required for print production, and mistakes could be caught and fixed more easily. However, it increased expectations for faster turnaround and put more responsibility on fewer people -- ultimately creating more work for them.
The most troubling thing of all, this new "desktop publishing" was being marketed to businesses and management to imply that anyone could do it, and many community colleges and trade schools followed the "craze" by offering courses to anyone that could power up a computer. Experienced designers soon found themselves competing with secretaries (who already have enough responsibilities) and "the neighbor kid down the street." These designers had to work harder, not really at producing better design, but educating their clients about the difference between their work and that of their new less-experienced competition. This is still somewhat of a problem today, but most clients eventually learn the difference when they're concerned about the image their materials present to the world.
Tim has watched the public Internet grow from small privately-owned networks to the World Wide Web we have today. He's witnessed the evolution of HTML and newer languages, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and improved graphics and animation capabilities. Some of his Web sites are now several years old, and he's approaching these clients about complete site re-builds because the languages, styling capabilities, and more importantly, the features have advanced drastically since these sites were first developed and launched.
Another exciting area of development is camera technology. Tim has witnessed every step and advancement, from Kodak PhotoCD, to three-pass digital studio cameras for still subjects, to one-Mega pixel point-and-shoot, to 12-Mega pixel SLR cameras. Today, Tim uses the latest technology and his talents to capture high-quality digital images that go directly to photo-editing, design and layout, and production.
Over the years, on the platform and software fronts, Windows caught up to the Macintosh operating system, the two platforms leap-frogged each other, and everyone, especially those with cross-platform capability, benefited. The operating systems and design applications have evolved, and now instead of version numbers reaching 10, 11 and 12, developers are beginning to designate upgrades by their release year. Each upgrade often adds what you had "wished for" in previous versions, and design capabilities, production, and workflow have improved dramatically. The past 25 years in the graphic design industry has been interesting and exciting.
Today, Tim has both Macintosh and Windows computers networked together in his office, and uses a variety of software applications to produce his client's projects. Though the ongoing technological developments are exciting, with dazzling claims from manufacturers and developers, what's really important is what you can do with that technology. What you can produce.
That's Tim's real focus, and he brings that to every project.
To see a large collection of Tim's work over the past 25 years,
go to the Portfolio section of this Web site.
|
|
Education: Graduated 1985,
BA in Journalism (emphasis in Advertising), University of Oklahoma
Experience: Over 25 years of graphic design, Internet, and photography projects
Media: Print (advertising, brochures, etc.), Web sites, multimedia, photography, video, hand-rendered, vectored, and 3D illustration, 3D animation, signs, banners, and vehicle graphics, writing
Computer Platforms: Everyday use of both Macintosh and Windows platforms
Applications: Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premier…), Quark Xpress, Macromedia Freehand, Adobe Acrobat and numerous other applications and utilities
Web languages: HTML and CSS, installing and configuring PHP and Java. Learning, testing, and applying new languages as it is determined their features are applicable and beneficial to projects
Interests & Hobbies: When he can take a break, and "to get away from it all," Tim is an avid cyclist, whether riding his carbon-fiber road bike 30-100 miles or towing a trailer to the grocery store behind his low-rider cruiser.
|
