Collected Works
These pages serve as a repository of MKN Design Studio’s articles, client projects, independent work, and products.

Careful, it’s a rabbit hole.

 

Use the search to find projects by type, or the dropdown to explore by group.

Craft & Clarity

Article

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Craft & Clarity
Craft is the foundation. Clarity is the outcome people remember.

For creative leaders, this is not just a principle. It is a responsibility that should remain constant. Our role is to ensure your team understands it deeply, not just conceptually. It must be embodied, practiced, and internalized, not reduced to theory or surface-level understanding. It must be actively taught, consistently reinforced, and embedded into how decisions are made.

Craft is often understood as the result, but it runs deeper than the visual surface of what is produced. In reality, it is everything beneath it: thoughtful decision-making, reduction, attention to detail, consistency across systems, and restraint when more could be added but should not be. It is the discipline of shaping something until it stops feeling designed and starts feeling intuitive and effortless.

While craft is valuable on many levels, the goal must be clarity.

Our job is not simply to produce well-crafted work. It is to ensure that what the user, consumer, or audience experiences is immediately understandable. That what they see or read reduces friction rather than adds to it. That it clearly communicates intent and leads them toward the action, decision, or understanding it was designed to support.

Craft builds the system. Clarity delivers meaning and drives results.

 

GVSU Branding Sprint – Lecture & Workshop

Article

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GVSU Branding Sprint – Lecture & Workshop
I was invited to lead a lecture and workshop for the Department of Visual and Media Arts at Grand Valley State University, hosted by Lindsey Peterson, Vinicius Lima, and Shalom Yabilsu. The session engaged approximately 30 students, including a mix of graphic design juniors and seniors, along with an additional class of non–graphic design majors. It was structured as a combined lecture and hands-on sprint, designed to bridge professional practice with academic learning. The intention was to offer a transparent view into real-world branding processes, followed by immediate application through a focused identity workshop.

The first section briefly introduced my background, creative path, and professional experience, highlighting the multi- disciplinary nature of branding and the importance of clarity, collaboration, and strategic thinking. I also shared key perspectives on how design evolves from understanding problems rather than jumping directly to visual solutions, emphasizing that strong outcomes begin with asking the right questions. This portion set the context for how professional designers balance research, strategy, and execution in practice.

Coldbreak Case Study
The second section provided a behind-the-scenes look at the Coldbreak branding process, walking students through a structured, three-phase approach: discovery and research, strategy and identity development, and production and rollout. I outlined how stakeholder alignment, competitive analysis, brand positioning, and visual identity systems come together to form a cohesive brand. This deep dive demonstrated how strategic foundations—such as purpose, vision, values, audience, and messaging—inform visual decisions and ensure consistency across applications.

Brand Sprint Workshop
The final section transitioned into a live Brand Identity Workshop Sprint. I created a fictitious brand name and creative brief to guide students through the logo development process. Working in pairs, students reviewed
the brief for “Drift Co.,” a freshwater outdoor lifestyle brand, and moved quickly through a condensed strategy and concepting exercise. They established guiding brand words, explored tagline directions, gathered visual inspiration, and developed initial logo concepts within a limited timeframe. The sprint concluded with students reviewing and judging their peers’ progressed logo work, followed by the awarding of first, second, and third place mini trophies to the pairs that received the most votes.

I designed this workshop to prioritize critical and conceptual thinking alongside iterative development rather than premature refinement, reinforcing systems thinking, collaboration, and design under real-world constraints.

Overall, the session combined lecture, process transparency, and hands-on practice to give students a practical understanding of how branding moves from strategy to execution. The collaborative environment, engagement from faculty, and thoughtful participation from students created a productive learning experience focused on both professional insight and applied design thinking.

 

  • Grand Valley State University
    Department of Visual and Media Arts

  • + Branding Lecture
    + Brand Sprint Workshop

  • Photography by Lindsey Peterson and Vinicius Lima.

  • → Coldbreak – Brand Strategy & Brand Identity

Collected Works
These pages serve as a repository of MKN Design Studio’s articles, client projects, independent work, and products.

Careful, it’s a rabbit hole.

 

Use the search to find projects by type, or the dropdown to explore by group.

CURE International – Environmental Graphics

Nonprofit Client Work

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CURE International – Environmental Graphics
CURE International partnered with MKN Design to create an environmental design experience for President's Weekend 2026—a gathering of 225+ donors and supporters coming together around a shared mission. The goal was simple: bring CURE's story to life through an immersive environment that guided guests through powerful stories of world-class surgical care and the call of Christ to serve children in need. Every design decision was made with care, balancing love, humility, and impact to create an experience that felt as personal as it did purposeful.

Understanding the venue space—how guests would move through it and where stories would have the greatest impact was essential to shaping the direction of this project.

From there, we translated the initial messaging and sketch into a storytelling environment that was both compelling and on-brand. As the concept evolved, we evaluated how the environment would be produced and experienced within the space. While there was an opportunity to reuse CURE’s existing displays from the previous year, we recommended a different direction. Brightformat's freestanding display system was selected for its durability, portability, and reusability across future events.

By bringing a refined visual narrative to life through purposeful color, typography, and a circular storytelling structure, the elements of brand, messaging, and freestanders formed a cohesive attendee experience that connected emotionally with guests—reflecting both the heart of CURE's mission and the spirit of the weekend.

Each zone was designed to carry its own distinct story, all culminating in the third zone which served as the centerpiece of CURE's mission.

Zone 1, World-Class Surgical Care
Guided viewers through Nathan's scoliosis journey at CURE Ethiopia using a circular clockwise narrative.

Zone 2, Gospel-Based Ministry Care
Traced CURE's holistic, faith-driven approach from community outreach to post-discharge discipleship.

Zone 3, Our Mission
Served as a bold brand statement anchored by "God Operates Here," highlighting CURE's hospital locations across eight countries.