Jonathan Goebel
Accomplished creative professional, collaborator, storyteller, forward thinker, leader, problem solver, self-motivator, and strong supporter of the Oxford comma.
Creative Approach
Artist’s statements that describe elaborate philosophical perspectives, unique world views, or walk you through an exploration into the human condition can be fun to read, but I’m not sure how relevant any of those things are when it comes to producing great work. Typically in the design world, a stakeholder has an objective, a user has a need, and good design helps reconcile the two. Rarely is there a need to make it any more complicated than that. Sound design solutions seem to share basic things in common, like clear visual direction, balance, hierarchy, and functionality. If you use these benchmarks as your guide, and you’re also able to add beauty and creativity into the mix, you're likely to produce great work on a consistent basis.
Background
My high school notebooks were covered with original logos that I doodled for my teenage garage band. Going further back, my grade school best friend and I were careful not to begin construction on our fort until I finished sketching out the perfect blue prints. Even as a child, when my sister and I played “school” or “grocery store,” I always created the signage or drew the currency on tiny pieces of construction paper. In fact, the first written word I ever successfully spelled correctly on my own, aside from my first name, was “OPEN.” So in hindsight, I guess I was a designer all along.
I began my college career as a music major. During those early years, I happened to notice a bulletin board flyer that served as an open invitation for all students to submit artwork for the upcoming Student Art Exhibit in our campus gallery. For fun, I submitted a drawing and ended up winning first prize. When they handed me my award, for the first time in my life I associated my visual art with monetary value. I was aware that professional artists existed, but that was the first time that I believed that a career in the visual arts might be something that I could do, personally.
Shortly after that experience, with guidance from a few creative mentors, I test drove a couple of art and design classes, loved every minute, and everything beyond that point just made sense. I graduated with a BA in Graphic Design and promptly began designing books for a small publisher in the fall of 2003.
Today I’m a Senior Designer for Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Specifically, I work on a team called Brand Strategy and Creative Studio with a focus on branding, user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design for web and mobile platforms, campaigns, vendor management, consultation, ideation, storyboarding, and a variety of print deliverables.
In some ways I feel like I owe my career to those early creative mentors who helped me find my way, and hope that someday I will be able to return the favor by helping someone else in his or her career development in the creative field.