Agena Agogo

Mike G. profile

I’ve been looking for a profile to practice my drawing skills on and finally decided to sketch a guy I know. I love working out of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. It’s a classic book on drawing by a master teacher.

An interesting thing to note in terms of proportions, is that the distance from the inside corner of the eye to the bottom of the chin should be the same length as the corner of the eye to the back of the ear. Also, because our minds unconsciously place so much emphasis on the face, many beginners mistakenly reduce the size of the top of the skull. In reality, the eyes should be midway between the top of the head and the bottom of the chin.

In attempting to find photos of profiles online, I’ve noticed that not everyone’s profile fits according to these guidelines. Still, it’s a good exercise in reducing a person’s features into lines so that you can draw them accurately.

I was dreading the design of this brochure since I first heard the topic: mental health forensics. It’s such a dry topic for one thing, and another, the obvious imagery had to be avoided at all costs: handcuffs, jail cell bars, jumpsuit orange, and so forth. The conference is about providing help to people with mental illnesses who would otherwise be imprisoned.

It took a while, but I finally came up with the symbol of the hand. It’s a bit generic, but only as it needs to be. Most people in law need to take an oath and those testifying in court need to swear in. A hand in the position of swearing an oath seemed like the perfect visual for the main conference theme of “Responsibility and Recovery.”

The hand on the cover may be viewed as a palm facing outward during a swearing-in process or as a palm downward on a book to swear by. The hand also serves as a reminder for those in positions of power that the human touch is essential in what they do.

I’m pleased with the design and look forward to designing the rest of the brochure.

This is one of the rare freelance projects I took on just because I like the people in the organization. This is the PhD program and policy manual for the University of Hawai‘i School of Social Work. 

I went with bees as a visual because of their “social” nature, and all the social workers I know are incredibly busy and dedicated to the people they serve. The flowers, of course, represent those they serve. (Yes, it’s cornball. What do you want?)

The difficulty of this project was finding visuals to use. Ordinarily, I might have considered using the school’s building or some feature of the architecture, but that wasn’t an option. When meeting with the program director, I had a private tour of the most awful university building I’ve ever seen: Henke Hall. I don’t want to go into too much detail, but there were cats living in the ceiling. ‘Nuff said.

Anyways… bees. They turned out to be a good visual, worked as a symbol, and the social work committee loved it. That’s all that matters.