Jonathan Franklin Doss

Hello....It's me

Where I've Been

Initially an architecture major at the University of Tennessee, I quickly burned out and pivoted to graphic design where I flourished. We weren't allowed to use a computer in the program until junior year and focused primarily on crafting tight concepts, strong defense of personal work, and curating a supporting studio art background. This led me to my first roles as a graphic designer in agencies in Nashville and Atlanta. I then made the client-side leap to Delta supporting the (shockingly small) internal creative team. This allowed me to not only broaden my scope of design into areas as varied as carpets and seat covers, but enabled me to visit almost 40 countries in the process.

Who I Am

Working in the realms of agencies and the corporate world has given me the language skills of both. I've proven effective at translating these different stakeholder points-of-view to find consensus among ambiguity. In short—I speak corporate bullshit fluently and can relate those ideas to a creative team in a way everyone understands. I can (typically) spot a typo almost immediately and can find alignments in brand systems where none previously existed. But most importantly, I'm funny as hell and I know way too much about the Oscars and television of the 70s and 80s.

Where I'm Headed

I've done the day-to-day design work for so many years I can do it in my sleep. Where I excel now is teaching and mentoring up-and-coming teams of junior designers who are more well-versed in the digital world, but may lack the finesse of certain details of the fine arts and traditional typography. Someone has to teach the children and it might as well be me.