ALSTON WISE PORTFOLIO 2016
A L S T O N
W I S E
P O R T F O L I O
2 0 1 6
AL STO N WI S E
+1 352 672 2492
As a creative accomplished in ar t
direction, graphic design, curation,
creative strategy, writing and photography,
I approach my work as a storyteller —
harnessing the power of language, type
and image to communicate the desired
message to a target audience.
I N A N UTS H E LL
If I got to choose my three favorite recent experiences, they would be—
1. Curating the collection of hundreds of indie designs at Minted. Discovering the beautiful or strange or ironic and putting the puzzle together of how they will all become a cohesive whole is some of the most fun I’ve ever had at work.
2. Mentoring college students through the design thinking process, focusing on issues in our community. To watch them discover + name problems, allow ideas to explode and then form into something tangible and meaningful for them and their audience is inspiring.
3. Writing and illustrating a children’s book about mermaids. It ’s magical. And that magic will soon find it ’s way into children’s hands everywhere.
In 2008, I began an online paper goods
storefront. I have worked with companies
across the coast, in par ticular Minted, LLC.
Working in the stationery industry, I have
designed everything from holiday cards to
calendars to journals and more. My work
has been featured in national print ads in
Oprah Magazine and Real Simple Magazine.
My full assor tment of stationery designs is
available at: www.minted.com/storefront/
alstonwise.
Three years ago, the company was
re-branded to reflect expansion into ar t
direction, styling and consulting. The
business cards were blind embossed using
a Vandercook press, and the new site was
coded using HTML 5 and CSS3. The site is
active at www.bwisepapers.com.
01B.WISE PAPERS
Branding, Coding, Illustration, Art Direction + Photography
B.WISE PAPERS X MINTED |
statio
nery + pa
per go
od
s design
Working with faculty at Harvard Universi-
ty, I designed guides and handbooks for
various depar tments at the university. The
work included overall design conception,
formatting, print production management
and photography.
Please visit the links below to view excerpts
from handbooks:
HISTORY : ht tp://issuu.com/alstonwise/
docs/researchsem_excerpts
JUSTICE : ht tp://issuu.com/alstonwise/
docs/justicefinal
PHILOSOPHY : ht tp://issuu.com/alston-
wise/docs/hwp_03_phil_excerpt
02HARVARD WRITING PROJECT
Design, Typesetting, Photography + Production Management
Tasked with creating a gallery wall in a
space with no strong architectural
features, this project involved curating an
ar t collection, styling an interior space, and
ar t directing the photography for a national
ad campaign to sell the merchandise.
03INTERIOR PHOTOSHOOT
Curation, Styling + Art Direction
Lit tle & Brave is a concept brand that was
created to empower young children in the
development of a strong self-concept.
Through the use of symbols both natural
and fantastical, the brand evokes the spirit
of positive traits such as courage, leader-
ship, adventure and individuality. By using
a piece of clothing as a vehicle for the
symbols, children can in effect wear the
traits. The shield also serves as a symbol
of protection in itself, adding an addition-
al layer of empowerment. The shir ts are
silkscreen printed with metallic ink. The
project was featured spring 2015 in two
exhibitions in Gainesville, FL.
04LITTLE & BRAVE
Concept, Branding, Art Direction + Photography
My MFA creative project, Public School
Parent, centers around the collision of
public and private spheres of influence
as experienced by a public school parent.
Using irony and satire, the project calls into
question current standards and practices in
public schools, specifically related to the
business and politics of education—and
ultimately how that interrupts the individ-
ualized nature of human development and
intellectual growth.
Through the form of a school auction, the
project invites critical reflection rather than
consumer choices. The auction catalog
contains items that provoke a rethinking of
the possibilities in education, transforming
a traditional mode of consumption into
a vehicle for change. The purpose of the
project is to provoke a conversation in the
community towards a more human-cen-
tered and expansive education system.
The project was exhibited in March 2015
in Gainesville, FL. A por tion of the project
was presented at the National Ar t Educa-
tion Association Conference March 2015 in
New Orleans, LA. Full content is available at
www.publicschoolparent.tumblr.com.
05PUBLIC SCHOOL PARENT
Concept, Writing, Illustration, Art Direction + Photography
MORE TIME OUTSIDE
I recently spent some time in a middle school class-
room. It was dark, dank, old, and musty with a tiny
window in the back left corner that was covered with
a layer of algae. Mold spores were swinging from the
fluorescent lights, f illing the air, baring their fangs as
they laughed at their good for tune of f inding such fer-
tile ground to procreate. I wanted to get out of there
as quickly as possible, not just out of fear that I would
contract a rare fungal infection, but also because it
was so damn depressing. Where was the natural light?
All I could see was cinder block upon cinder block
upon cinder block. Who designed this place—the win-
ner of the Prison Architect of the Year (PAY) award?
Why do we expect children to want to be—let alone
spend a signif icant par t of their days—in these de-
pressing spaces? And if we do not have the money to
rebuild schools (wait—that can be #11!), why can’t they
learn outside? What if being in the outdoors was in-
corporated into the curriculum? Not only would it get
them out of those wretched buildings, but they could
actually benefit from learning in nature—exploring,
observing, reflecting and breathing real air.
ART, ART & MORE ART
It ’s true—ar t really does make you smart. It expands
the way you think, observe, and reflect. And it is
being cut from public schools quicker than any other
subject. Our children are being robbed of a process
that expands their person. No more of this ar t 30
minutes a week business. We need ar t every. single.
day. The people who say ar t is irrelevant in education
have never experienced true making. When you are
engaged in the process of making ar t, you need math
to understand proportions and ratios, science to un-
derstand the human form and color, social studies to
understand culture and the human experience.
And what if ar t is the way some kids are wired to
express ideas? Individual brains function different-
ly, and I think we can all agree that we see this truth
at work everyday in the conversations we have—the
morning people talking about how they pop right out
of bed v. the night owls who get more accomplished
after midnight than any other time of the day; the
visual learners v. the auditory learners; the 3-meal-a-
day eaters v. the 6-snacks-a-day eaters. As adults, we
intuit what makes our brains and bodies work best,
and have some freedom to follow that intuition. So
why are kids expected to learn the same way, process
information the same way, express knowledge the
same way? Who decided that ar t had the least value?
And why do we keep allowing “ them” to decide?
PUBLIC SCHOOL PARENT CATALOG |
sam
ple interio
r pa
ges
NO MORE BULLSH*T TESTING
This is the big ticket item, the one that I wish I had
$220 billion dollars in order to buy off everyone be-
hind this conspiracy. We are buried in a testing frenzy
so crazed that even the legislators who are passing the
state-mandated regulations and tests have admit ted to
not knowing exactly what they are passing. We, as a
society, are drowning in a sea of corporate greed and
political maneuvering whose current is so strong that
I’m afraid we might not realize we are drowning until
it ’s too late.
It ’s not just a test. It ’s hours of real learning lost. It ’s
a change in the way classrooms operate in order to
make room for test prep. It ’s a way of thinking that
promotes unoriginal ideas and rote memorization. It ’s
a myth, a facade manufactured by companies making
millions of dollars off of our children at the cost of
true knowledge. It ’s data mining and product place-
ment. It ’s corporations profiting off the small and
powerless in our community. It must stop. My child is
not a paycheck. Your child or grandchild or cousin or
niece or nephew or neighbor is not a paycheck. We
need to stand together—mothers and fathers, teach-
ers and administrators, all tax-payers—to demand
education that matters, education that is effective, not
based on test taking and test scores. The stakes are
too high if we don’t.
KIND BATHROOM GRAFFITI
A public restroom without graffiti is like a radio on
mute. It ’s one of my favorite things about public re-
strooms because it ’s a par t of the local conversation.
I’d like it even more, though, if the graffiti was nice.
Just for a moment, put yourself back in 7th grade.
You’re having one of those days. The day when every-
one has a date to the Valentine’s dance except you,
the cafeteria served beef au jus and ran out of grilled
cheeses, you forgot to get your social studies test
signed and in science you had to par tner with Todd
Pit ts, who instead of working on the assignments,
likes to flick boogers across the lab table. You decide
to go to the bathroom to take a break, and when you
walk in, the first thing you see is “You’re a superstar.”
The next thing you see is “You got this.”
School days are long and hard enough, and bath-
rooms can be a whole different kind of scary—that’s
where the bullies tend to lurk. I say go ahead and
write on the walls, but write words of kindness, words
that make people laugh, words that make people
smile, words that help others get through “ those
days.” We must never underestimate the power of
words.
PUBLIC SCHOOL PARENT EXHIBITION |
University G
allery
Inspired by the freedom of the open road
and the spirit of adventure on road trips,
I created a series of illustrations featuring
iconic road trip vehicles piled with either
luggage or skis. “To the Ski Slopes” was
recently featured in Minted’s nationally
distributed catalog. Both prints are avail-
able through Minted’s limited edition ar t
print collection.
06ILLUSTRATION
Concept + Illustration
ABOVE To The Ski Slopes
RIGHT The Pace Van on the Road
The Mermaid Book represents a culmi-
nation of two years study of children’s
literature. It is an exploration of narra-
tive, of how a story can be told concisely,
yet clearly, with wit and humor. It is an
experiment in reaching a young audience,
an audience that is typically honest and
discerning.
07THE MERMAID BOOK
Writing, Illustration, Art Direction + Photography
Section 08 contains four examples of
experimentation in concept and form over
the course of pursuing my MFA. I like
the challenge of taking simple forms and
interpreting them in unexpected ways. The
Amazing Sentence Writer is a code breaker
in the form of a volvelle; the Wish-Catcher
is a game of empowerment in the form of a
paper for tune teller; Five O’Clock Island is
a game for adults in the form of a map; and
Bits and Bobs with Sneaky Cat tells small
stories in the form of pop-up maps.
I created The Amazing Sentence Writer as a tool to help elementary-aged students
write sentences with vocabulary words.
It serves almost like a code breaker—you
match the number of the vocabulary word
on your homework list with a let ter that will
lead you to sentence prompts. All of the
prompts relate back to the child,
asking them to think about their unique
answers and incorporate them into
sentences, to play with language and
see how words can go together to tell
stories.
08CONCEPTS + FORMS
Concept, Writing, Illustration, Art Direction + Photography
The Wish-Catcher is a let terpress version
of the age-old schoolyard for tune teller
(sometimes known as a “cootie-catcher”),
but instead of for tunes about who you will
marry and how many kids you will have, it
offers wishes, hopes and aspirations.
Capturing the enduring power of handwrit-
ing and the original, serendipitous nature of
the game, a simple piece of paper is trans-
formed into a time capsule of wishes.
As a parent, f ive o’clock took on new meaning. It no longer meant “happy hour”—
margaritas and half-price appetizers. No, it became an hour of making lunches,
cooking dinner, f ielding requests, monitoring homework, negotiations for electron-
ics and allowance—all after a full day at work.
The central objective of Five O’clock Island is to elevate the everyday— that by
identifying the emotions I myself traveled through, I could provide a comic connec-
tion to others through our shared experience. Iconic gold stars and gold figurines
both add elements of play, tapping into childhood nostalgia. There aren’t many
rules to the map—move through it at your own pace, read what you like, take advice
as you will. But I do hope others will f ind the humor in it, and that it empowers
them to soldier on in the midst of the mundane and monotonous.
Bits and Bobs with Sneaky Cat is a
series of mini pop-up books that I wrote,
illustrated and constructed based off a
question my son would ask me most morn-
ings: “I wonder what Sneaky (our cat) does
when we are gone?” There are four books in
the series that range from counting rhymes
to a days-of-the-week story.
Over the past year, I began studying
photography, including at tending an
intensive 3-day workshop with Joy
Prouty of Wildflowers Photography
this past March. Having worked with
countless photos over the course of my
career, learning the technical and ar tistic
elements of taking photos has fur ther
inspired my work, and given me a new
perspective on ar t direction and editorial
features.
09PHOTOGRAPHY
Canon Mark III85mm f1.2 + 35mm f1.4
During the spring of 2016, I was invited to
work as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the
University of Florida. One of the upper-lev-
el courses that I instructed was the design
thinking studio, Mint. Over the course of
the semester, I mentored students through
the design thinking process—star ting from
identifying problems, to interviewing & pro-
totyping, to the end result—as well as ar t di-
rected projects, studio collateral and events
for the studio. Two student projects shown
here are What are you gonna do with that?,
a collaboration with Ar t Education and a
local ar t organization to promote creativity
in schools; and #Adulting, an app designed
to help incoming freshmen navigate the
world of adulthood. A promo slideshow of
the work produced during the semester that
was shown at our end of the year event,
Made by Mint, can be seen here.
10MY STUDENTS’ WORK
Management, Motivational Leader, Speaker + Critiquer
Adulting (top) and What are you gonna do with that? (bottom left and right)