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

alstonwise@gmail.comwww.alstonwise.com

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)