Because no working creative professional really has the time to read every dang list of 40 “top” designers, or even ten for that matter, I’ll just give you three of my favorite art directors/graphic designers that I tend to check in on from time to time and let myself be influenced by whether I mean to or not.

Enjoy…

1. First and foremost, my favorite European, Robert Lindstrom, co-founder of North Kingdom (FWA ‘10 Wallpaper pictured above). You can also see his personal work at Design Chapel. Solid geometry meets organic illustration in perfect elegance…

2. On the other end of the visual spectrum is David Noe at Noe Design. His famous “action figure” website from a few years back in Communication Arts put him on my radar and I always enjoy checking in on his work every now and then to see what’s influencing the Mid-westerner. Of course, you’ll also see a design/illustration balance in his work. His archived, flash based site is shown.






3. And finally, here’s one I bet you haven’t heard of… Christian Sparrow. I actually had the chance to work with Sparrow for a couple months earlier this year. Again, he’s a real artist who’s translated his work to the digital world very well. Everything he does just has a optimistic feel embedded into the pixels. He’s easy going and fun to work with. And, after a couple years of doing tech based sites, is one of the reasons I started sketching again.