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I’m Wilhelm

Graphic Designer and Visual Problem Sover

Artfully telling stories through Illustration & Design.

Artwork

I have been illustrating, drawing and painting professionally since 1998 when I completed my post-secondary studies.

Graphic Design

I’ve been professionally solving visual problems with design since 1999. Let my work speak for me though.

What Is Illustration?

Illustrations are images that specifically accompany a body of text and offer a level of clarification or benefit to the text. Illustrating is the art of visualizing the concepts within the copy of an article, or manuscript. Because humans can consume the concepts of an image faster than text, images are often used to draw in readers intuitively to consume your content.

What is Graphic Design?

Graphic design is defined as “the art and practice of planning and projecting ideas and experiences with visual and textual content.” In other terms, graphic design communicates certain ideas or messages in a visual way. These visuals can be as simple as a business logo, or as complex as page layouts on a website.

Why do I need a designer?

I have spent hours and hours learning how to craft images and type in such a way as to create meaningful connections with the viewer. Anything you do is storytelling to some degree whether it’s convincing someone why they should care about your brand or use your service or even adopt your endeavour. By using a breadth of knowledge from the psychology of colours to the best practices for accessibilities on the web it all comes together in a great designer, and is why a kid with photoshop skills won’t work.

1. Years of Learning to do it Right, by Doing it Wrong.

Running with a seasoned designer means that you get all the years of learning to do it right that goes with them. The alternative is getting someone who’s going to learn from the mistakes they make on your project.

2. User Experience Research (UX Design)

UX isn’t black magic or Snake oil. It’s the science of predicting behaviours of the users by watching how people use technology and banking on the results. For example, according to research you only need test groups of 5 to test a design. Each test subject will bring opinions that overlap the one before it repeating information you’ve already learned. After 5 the overlap becomes so much it’s just noise and nothing new is learned. 

3. Elements and Principals of Design

Studying in post-secondary school I was taught a collection of elements and principals that are fundamental to designing. Think of them the same way a mechanic collects tools so they can more effeciently work on your car. 

4. Accessibility

It used to be that Accessibility was an after thought, or a never thought. There are a great number of users out there who suffer from low vision, no vision and rely on screen readers or other assisstive technologies to help them consume your content. Designing things and building them the right way will allow these technologies to relay the content correctly. It is now our duty and in some places the law to design for Accessibilities. In Ontario Canada, we passed the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, or AODA. This law makes it mandetory to provide an equal experience for citizens. 

5. The Psychology of Colour

Ever wonder why you are attracted to some colours and can’t stand others? This is the psychology of colour. Every colour has associations and meanings hidden within them. And even when you learn what colours can mean and do – it changes depending where you are in the world. My working knowledge of this comes into play when I’m designing.

About Me

Where to start. If day dreaming were an olympic sport I’d have so many medals. I’m an idea guy first and foremost. Always noodling through plans and ideas. Creativity pours over into everything I do from yard work to graphic design. I’m so grateful I was gifted with the ability to visualize everything or anything. Spacial awareness has helped me so much over the years. from planning my home to creating great websites. I’m blessed to be able to do what I love to do for a living.

Wilhelm Presents: Frightening Tales.

Frightening Tales

I have listened my whole art career to old radio drama’s from the 40’s through to new ones in the 80s and 90s the artform is one I adore. And fits perfectly into my love of storytelling. Recently I have hit a point in my life where the things I felt were road blocks seem trivial and so I took a stab at diving into something I truely adore. Please join me if you would for some Frightening Tales. 

Testimonials

We were extremely impressed with Wilhelm’s ability in the both the design and functionality of our web site. His “hands on” approach and suggested strategies made the process effortless. The web traffic results to date and comments from organization members have been FANTASTIC! We will definitely be using Wilhelm’s services again.”

Hugh Mansfield

Board of Directors, Toronto Grizzlies Football Club

“Such a generous talent! The illustration donated to our fund raiser was able to draw in more than $300! Someone will pass that art down for generations. Thank you so much.”

David Mantei

Marketing Manager, Ontario College Application Service

“Such a pleasure to work with. Wilhelm walked us through the entire process making each step a clearly strategic process often asking questions we didn’t know we should ask.”

Mariam Weber

Project Manager, Tsavo, eBuilders.com

If you have creative needs,
let’s talk about that!