Jeremy Harrington

Designer, Maker, Inventor, Doer, Thinker, Tinkerer, Creator

People would describe me as a jack-of-all-trades. I can design your brand, business card, or web site. I can replace the cylinder head on your car, repair your computer, help you with your calculus homework, give you gardening tips, or cook you a fabulous meal from scratch. I really do a little bit of everything, but creating is where my passion lies.

I’d say my multifaceted skill set comes from a few things relating to who I am, and how I got where I am today. First I like technology; gadgets, machines, computers, robots, I want my flying car, house on the moon, and robot butler.  I also wanted to be the guy that helped invent all of that. From a young age I wasn’t too shabby with math and science. I even spent my first two years of higher education studying mechanical engineering, and did OK at it. However the most important thing I learned from that education was; most engineers do not design things. Inventor really isn’t a job title in our modern world, and to be the guy who is designing the next new _____ (car, computer, phone, super absorbent sham, you get the idea.)  You either have to; A. go through a lot of school, or B. come up with a bunch of great ideas, patent them, and get noticed. Both are difficult, require money I don’t have, and the first option would have driven me nuts. For those who haven’t done two years of engineering math and physics, let me tell you it’s not; fun, exciting, easy, or as fascinating as one would hope. O and did I mention the male to female ratios are all horribly off?  For serious America, if you want to be the leader in science, engineering, or technology get your daughters into those subjects… ; )

Anyone reading this you may have noticed my comments above about not being able to afford school? Yeah, that means years of debt, so if you’re wanting to offer me a fabulous job that pays a ridiculous amount this is your cue, there’s a link to contact me, click it now OK? Please. Can’t you tell how awesome I am yet? OK I digress… So, I paid for my own education. I came from a lower middle class family with two sisters so having Momsy and Dadsy pay for my higher education wasn’t in the cards for me. Being a poor college student; learning to build a computer, troubleshoot software problems, fix my own car, electronics, and generally getting a healthy nerdy streak, saved me a lot of money. Besides, engineering student… Who does everyone ask to fix their computer, car, microwave, etc.? Yeah I thought so.

So how did I get into design? Well the same reason I originally started to study engineering, I wanted to invent and create new things. After I figured out engineering wasn’t going to let me reach that goal I started taking some classes to try to figure out what else I wanted to do instead. At the time Oregon didn’t have a lot to offer for industrial design programs, and out of state tuition was not in the budget. So I started taking classes that sounded interesting. The first thing that really got me started down the road to where I am today was a web design course. This was back in the days before CSS was so common, tables where the norm, people still used frames, but I got to create something new. Oregon State’s design program, at the time, was very print focused. So I went from one introduction to the web course, to studying a lot of print design and getting my degree, to just recently getting back into the web a bit, nice little circle. However my heart will always be on the printed page. Given a choice I would rather design a logo, business card, packaging, or poster then a web page. However I’ve found that today, if you want to keep up, you have to at least know how to do the web aspect a little bit. I’ve also found that having the print background is very beneficial, typography, color, space or white space, rhythm, harmony, gestalt, whether a printed page or a web page these are the fundamentals.

I have created this site to showcase my abilities, and to possibly educate. I invite you to take a look around. I plan on adding guides and resources as I find them. Guides for working with me specifically, or hiring a designer in general, will go here and general information about design and other resources will be over on my blog.

If your interested in hiring me on a freelance basis please at least glance at these resources.

AIGA, A Client’s Guide to Design: How to Get the Most Out of the Process
My basic contract.
Design Questionnaire
I cant read minds so to be able to produce quality deliverables I have to ask questions. I tailor these questions to the individual business, or product however there are basics I tend to always ask. Being able to answer the questions in the above PDF before contacting me puts you one step closer in getting us rolling on your project.