CREATIVE DIRECTOR
LOYALKASPAR
NEW YORK NY
Chris Harmon is Creative Director at loyalkaspar, where he leads creative teams on projects from concept to execution. An Atlanta native relocated to the northeast, Chris has spent his career crafting identities of all shapes and sizes, working with global brands like MTV, Riot Games, CNN, SYFY, and ESPN. Chris has a masters degree in Design and Technology from Parsons and spent the start of his career freelancing before making loyalkaspar his home. He currently lives in Maplewood NJ with his wife and children.
Chris believes that good design requires asking the right questions. When fresh out of school, he absorbed design blogs, magazines, and company portfolios to keep his finger on the pulse of trends and what major designers were up to. But it wasn’t until he started to pay less attention to those influences that he was able to truly focus on a specific brand, what made it special, and what would an audience find special about it.
Loyalkaspar is a branding agency based in NYC that builds modern, multiplatform brands through strategy, visual design, motion design, and marketing campaigns. Clients include streaming platforms (Peacock, Paramount+), entertainment brands (MTV, CNN, ESPN), consumer brands (Marvel, Accuweather), and experiential activations (Greenwood Rising, RiseNY). Loyalkaspar thinks like an agency, designs like a studio, and creates like a production company.
Looking forward, are you optimistic about the role of graphic design in business and society?
The current movement, where a business needs to be socially responsible and can’t simply make a product, gives me hope that bettering our world will become the cost of entry for businesses. Unfortunately, the organizations with the most important messages tend to be the ones with the smallest voices. I like to believe that’s changing as people seek out brands they can stand with. I’ve always been optimistic about the potential for design and messaging to change the world. The products that do the most good should get to look the best.
Have the challenges of the past two years changed the way you approach your work?
Without that physical act of leaving an office, it’s harder to define that moment where you can say “work is now over.” But, I’ve never had much luck controlling when new ideas will surface. On the train home, when catching up with friends, unwinding on the couch; new thoughts can always hit. When that happens, I have to pull that thread while it’s fresh. The gears in my head are always turning, I just haven’t sat on trains much these past two years.
