Hello. Hola. こんにちわ. How are you today?

Who are you?
My name is Michaile Brooks. I'm a graphic designer based in Chicago. Old school enough to remember using paste up letters for posters in HS, new school enough to realize that the learning process in design is never-ending. I'm someone who isn't afraid to experiment and who realizes that multicultural design does not begin and end with chopsticks, hip-hop fonts, burros and Babelfish. I work hard, play nice with others and what I don't know I make it my business to find out.

What can you do for me?
I work primarily in print, but I've been known to tackle to the odd website here and there (along with web banners and email blasts). My client list includes everything from major corporations, small non profits and everything in between.

There's that thing called a skillset...
Adobe Creative Suite | Quark Xpress | Microsoft Office
Fireworks | Dreamweaver | HTML | CSS

Interesting. Tell me more...what "inspires" you?
Old and crappy kung-fu movies, anything Mid Century Modern, design from a global perspective (especially Russian, African, Asian and South American Graphic Design), foreign languages, and stepping outside of comfort zones. People inspire me.

Can I have that pencil canister thingy in the pic to your left?
No you can't; it's the precious and it's MINE!

Print

Posters


Brochures


Advertising


Direct Mail

Web

Web Design, Production & Email Blasts

Oooh...Visitors!

Hey, I'm always open to new opportunities knocking. However, do not contact me regarding the following:

• Spec Work (aka the "work here for a few days for free and we'll THINK about hiring you" okey-doke). I don't fall for that anymore!


• Work from home making $$$$ a day: Please, stop your madness. If there were a legit way to make a thousand bucks in four hours creating banner ads, you would be doing it yourself instead of emailing me about it.

For serious inquiries including availability, rates and references (or if you just need a copy of my resume) please fill out the following form:

Name:
Email:
Website:
Comment:

Things I Like

We're all human. Everyone needs a little help sometimes. Here is a collection of some of my favorite links, from soup to nuts:

Design Resources & Tutorials:

Bittbox | Great Site, Great Photoshop and Illustrator tutorials. A favorite!
Design Meltdown | Does a wonderful job of explaining design principles (along with trends and design issues) and showcases a wide range of work.
Spoongraphics | Another nice site with lots of Illustrator tutorials
Smashing Magazine | This site is like the Super Target of resource/tutorial sites...anything you could possibly need to make your life easier design-wise, you can find here.
Photoshop Support | What the title says.
Designer's Toolbox | Chock-full of those design essentials one can't live without.

Stock Photography:

123RF | Fantastic selection of stock photography, great prices
iStock Photo | The Grand Daddy of the "get great images at a reasonable price" sites.
The Stock Exchange | As nice as "resonable" sounds, sometimes free is even better.
MorgueFile | Unlike some "free" sites, this one allows for commercial usage.

We Want Fonts:

Veer | Fonthead | Larabie Fonts | 04 Bitmap Fonts | Gray (jp) | Free Font Frontline (jp)
Fonts For Flash

Stuff (and people) I really, really like:

PingMag | Design You Trust | Scene 360 Illusion | The Church | Single Pixel
Creative Defiance | Omami (ru) | Clam Magazine | Idea Mag