My name is Orin Shepherd, and I make things happen. Not just logos, illustrations, brands, websites, characters and ads, but things that tell stories and engage human beings. Things that transform ideas and ideals, and turn them into works of art. I've been doing this for about 15 years, and I think I'm kinda damn good at iwt.
I've been involved in almost every aspect of marketing and branding for companies large and small, for myself and for others. For almost seven years, I developed the entire identity and branding for Apparent Corporation, a small and energetic software company in Cary, North Carolina. I designed and developed every single aspect of their visual story across multiple brands and every medium. From logos to design guidelines to 3D product modeling, product photography, social media marketing, product package design, software interface design, hardware interface design, character design, illustration, print design, help materials design, UI/UX design, I did it all. Multiple products, myriad projects and brands, getting it all done on time and surpassing expectations, that's the kind of thing I love. Every piece of typography, every curated color palette, every border radius, keyframe, line spacing & brush style is part of the beautiful encompassing narrative.
I even once ran my own new and used bookstore in the tiny town of Saxapahaw, North Carolina. That was freaking awesome.
Outside of design, I enjoy walks through nature, reading books, trying to write (any) novel that keeps eluding me, learning to play musical instruments (even though I'm not very good at any of them), playing video games and traveling when I can. For several years, I ran a fun guild on World of Warcraft that then turned into an online community of thousands that still meet up in real life, through the web, social media and Discord. That all sounds kind of nerdy, but I've helped to develop communities and interaction both in-person and online.
I'm a proud trans woman who recently packed everything up in my tiny car to make the big move from North Carolina to southern California. I could have bought a house with a garden, but instead, I took the boldest option to upend everything for the biggest changes in my adult life.
I've got an augmented reality (AR) tattoo on my left arm that works with a Nintendo 3DS-- when you point the 3DS camera at the tattoo, a video game pops out of the tattoo on the screen. It was covered by such sites as Engadget, Kotaku and Gizmodo, and even got me a write-up in a 2011 issue of Nintendo Power. My 10 year old self would be so amazed.
When I create content, I enjoy working for people and companies that I believe in. The power of art is incredible, and it is important for all of us to use that power for good, and to help to make the world a little bit of a better place than we found it, in whatever ways we can. It is important that we tell the stories in the way they should be told, and it's my responsibility as a designer to reveal the truth and authenticity in those stories..
When creating a website or a logo or a marketing campaign or a brand, we're not doing it for arbitrary reasons. We're doing it because we have something to say to the world, and because in our own little way, we want to make the world better. What I do is not just branding and marketing, it's not just messaging, it's storytelling, and it's about the meaningful exchange of ideas in a complex world.
