Deane Nettles
Work By My Students

I've been a print art director/graphic designer/photographer/illustrator/production artist for over 30 years. Like Stefan Sagmeister, I'm one of the last generation of designers to paste up type by hand. I've worked with Quark XPress, Photoshop, and Illustrator professionally since 1990; I've worked with InDesign since 2000.

I've built websites using a variety of technologies for over twelve years and recently completed my MFA in Integrated Design (Print, Web, and Video) from the University of Baltimore. While there I studied web research, app development, php and mysql coding, and videography and video editing. Out of the things I've learned I built my thesis site Baltimore Industry Tours. I am currently theming Drupal and WordPress sites and teaching intro to graphic design and web design. I have a teaching site at deanenettles.com if you would like to know more.

I have been a photographer since elementary school and I draw, paint, illustrate, and sculpt. I also have a BA in news journalism (I started out photographing, writing, and designing for student newspapers). So I'm a writer, an artist, and a geek.

Finally, I am past president of the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington (ADCMW), was on their board for fifteen years, and ran their Annual Show and program committees. I am well-versed in working with and running design organizations and am highly skilled at creating interaction with the professional community and the community-at-large. If you want your students to connect with the outside world, I can make it happen.

Teaching philosophy

My philosophy is rooted in my many years of experience in the field.

• Research is an important tool in the designer's arsenal; in addition to working from the instructions from the instructor or client, designers should both research the topic independently and research how other designers have approached similar projects. (To this end, I encourage them to be familiar with both art and design history.)
• The student's strength lies in being creative — able to create multiple solutions to a problem, then picking the best solution from among many choices rather than simply polishing the first idea they come up with. I encourage drawing and sketching as the quickest way to work out multiple ideas. (The added advantage of drawing first is that designers can use their imagination instead of being limited to the skills and tricks of the software they know.)
• Brainstorming in groups is a good thing. Two (or more) minds can be exponentially more powerful than one for encouraging and developing interesting solutions.

  Have the class:

  • Write down ideas individually
  • Present all ideas to the group
  • Ideas criticised, discussed in detail and thrown away if they are not good enough
  • Use the ideas that make sense but make you uncomfortable
  (From Jeffery Paul Baumgartner on brainstorming. Also see his Anticonventional Thinking [ACT])
• Finally, there is power in knowing how to use computer programs efficiently. The more knowledgeable designers are about their tools, the faster they will be able to produce their ideas, leaving them more time to design.