This campaign marks the third year with the collaboration with the University of Denver’s New Beginnings Pow Wow. This project involved print design, layout, typography, illustration, and web/social media graphics.

The Native Student Alliance at the University of Denver is continuing to provide a safe space for themselves and future Indigenous students. This graphic acknowledges the land and its original inhabitants before colonization.

Photography: Viki Eagle

The Tribal College and University Research Journal was looking to redesign the cover and create a logo for its publication. The American Indian College Fund (AICF) wanted to abide by its branding guidelines of color and typography. It also wanted to include the elements of education, higher education, tribal communities, and Indigenous knowledge. Other elements needed: the Henry Luce Foundation logo and AICF logo.

The project began by familiarizing myself with the research articles within the upcoming and past publications, the past publication cover designs, and AICF branding guidelines. The project began with the logo design, then the cover design.

From the sketches and client feedback, we ended with a tree design that incorporated a braided design and leaves based on the Star blanket. Braids are associated with hair and hair is important to many Indigenous cultures, which represent one of many aspects, knowledge. The Star blanket design is related to honor and is given to individuals as part of recognition of their contributions to their communities. The “V” symbol relates to an open book symbolizing education, whether K-12, college, or Indigenous knowledge.

The cover design is utilizes AICF branding colors, initials of Tribal College and University Research Journal (TCURJ), and a braided circle loop.

As a member of the Denver American Indian Commission, I had the skills to design and layout the program. It consists of the run of the show, performers bios, sponsorship logos, and advertisements.

Specs: 16 page booklet / 100# gloss text / qty 300

My collaboration with the University of Denver (DU) continues. My familiarity with the student organization, Native Student Alliance, at DU grew and we were able to work more closely for the marketing collateral of the pow wow.

2018’s theme was a revisit to a 1989 film called Pow Wow Highway. It lives today among many Indigenous people as a cultural icon, especially in North America. The poster, flyers, outdoor banners, web banner, social media graphics, and t-shirt designs play on the movie title and movie poster.

The Center for Multicultural Excellence (CME) at the University of Denver approached me to create a unifying theme for the 2017 New Beginnings Pow Wow. As with all of my projects, I researched their past events and their competing events to gauge my approach.

The theme they decided on was “Water is Life.” This theme revolves around the environment issues in the current social and political landscape. DU has a strong branding presence and I used it within the project, which made the DU marketing department very happy. The photography and copy were provided by CME. With the wealth of information they provided, I was able to create a hierarchy to fit all the information on the correlating marketing collateral.

The teaser flyers were a 4-up on letter-sized, which included veterans of the armed forces. The campaign rounded off with letter-sized and tabloid-size posters and t-shirts for participants and made available for sale. For the first time in the events history, the shirts made the most sales and positive reviews of the design.

While completing my Master’s degree, word about my skills and artistry reached out to a couple of departments on campus. Projects began with a logo design and t-shirt graphics. Since graduating in 2012, my work has continued and I have collaborated with various departments on websites, marketing collateral, and illustration projects.

Departments

• American Indian Studies
• Native American Student Association
• Department of Women and Gender Studies
• College of Medicine
• College of Education
• Office of Tribal Relations
• University of Arizona Alumni Association
• Early Academic Outreach

As a Web Developer at San Juan College, I developed graphics and web updates for student programming and events. The Transfer Center ran several student programs where effective communication was needed for on-campus promotions, email, online student portals, and website presence. Print and web event campaigns included large banners, posters, flyers, bookmarks, invitations, webpages, web banners, web newsletters, and digital posters for campus widescreen monitors.

As one of the Graphic Artists at Sky City Casino, I developed promotional graphics, advertisements and motion graphics. As part of the marketing team, we oversaw various enterprises of Acoma Business Enterprises such as Big Game Hunt, Travel Center, Hotel & RV Park, Food & Beverage, Tour De Acoma, and, of course, the casino.