CREATIVE DIRECTOR
CLARKMCDOWALL
NEW YORK NY
Adrienne flexes her strategic eye and creativity to lead the expression team at Clarkmcdowall. A defender of strategic design, she oversees the team to inspire and produce creative that is relevant, dynamic, and smart. She pushes creative boundaries to get to ideas that are distinct. Adrienne’s background includes extensive experience across industries and categories. From small beverage startups, to DTC meal preps (Freshly), to new brand creation (Airly) and hospitality (Snooze), as well as Fortune 500 companies such as General Mills, Smuckers, Mars, Reckitt Benckiser, Starbucks, Pepsi, Nestle Waters, and Nestle Beverage.
Looking forward to 2023, are you optimistic about the role and impact of Graphic Design and Visual Communication in Business? Culture? Causes? Have the events and disruptions of the past few years changed the role or trajectory of Graphic Design?
As we look towards screens to tell our stories, elicit ideas, or sell our wares, the design experience is going to play a key role. More than ever, the world is looking to visuals & design as a quick form of communication that can break language and land barriers, rally people or provoke. Making visuals, be it through our phones or computers, is now more ubiquitous and more accessible than ever. It will be graphic design’s job to make those visuals impactful and meaningful. We’ll need better design to cut through all the clutter of homogenous design templates. And we’ll value the individual contributions of the human designer as AI becomes another short-hand tool for expression.
Looking back at the past 60 years, any personal thoughts or beliefs or musing on who or what has had the most impact on shaping graphic design and visual communications?
I think Adobe and Pantone have done a great job at making our industry more accessible and understandable to a wider audience. What was once a language for “insiders” is now becoming part of the common vocabulary, and it’s opening up the world and new generations to the potential of a career in graphic arts. I find this particularly inspiring for communities that have typically not had exposure to this field as a viable job path.
