Aaron Draplin — DSI Influencer

Draplin Design Co.

Aaron Draplin is a graphic designer and entrepreneur based Portland, Oregon. I first heard of him when I was going to a community college in Asheville, NC. We watched a lecture of his in class and when I explored more of his content online it inspired me to further my education in design.

http://draplin.com/

Aaron is big, rugged, loud, and passionate for graphic design. He uploads content that suggests you maximize your design-thinking so that you are always designing every moment and every day. He suggests looking for beauty in ordinary things and to take notes and sketches in journals that you should always have on you. He talks about the importance of context in design, using the space available and shapes and colors that make sense.

Aaron takes on a logo design challenge, https://youtu.be/gVUVUoXrPzM

I have Aaron's book, Pretty Much Everything, and it is one of my favorite books to open when I want to find inspiration. He always argues that it is not necessary to reinvent the wheel, and some of the best design is also the simplest.

Aaron's book is heavily inspired by Trade Marks & Symbols by Yasaburo Kuwayama, a series of exactly two volumes that contain hundreds of design inspirations for every shape and letter of the alphabet that you could think of. I would love to get my hands on these two books but I haven't been able to find a good price for them; there haven't been any new copies printed in a long time and used copies in usable conditions around $50.