Daily Inspiration: Meet Derek Mohr

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Derek Mohr.

Derek, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I graduated from Northern Michigan in 2011 with a BFA in Graphic Communication, although I’d been steadily picking up web development in small steps within the last couple of years of graduating. I worked as a webmaster (a term that no longer exists) during my last summer of living in Marquette, and I had design/marketing jobs here and there for a few years.

Right as 2019 started, I started working at an agency I’d always wanted to work at as a web developer, and at one point, I would even have called myself a full-stack developer. Most “traditional” design work was happening on the side at that point, but I enjoyed learning how to set up custom front-ends with my own templates that I could carry between projects and still make as unique as necessary on each new project.

Around 2023, I started wanting to find new work that I could be more directly involved in, as well as having the time available to jump into as many projects at a time as I felt like. I ended up becoming a full-time freelancer, doing both web and branding design projects, which is what I’m still doing today!

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Well, I would be pretty boring if I had smooth roads. There were plenty of moments of self-sabotage and not getting the work or roles that I wanted.

Originally, the pandemic wasn’t as much of a struggle as you’d expect since everyone suddenly needed a very functional website very quickly—but that ended up turning into a very unexpected and harsh breakup, which took the happiness out a lot of things, including things that I’d been working on up until that point.

But, turning struggle into something useful, I have been able to restart some of those old project ideas in the past year or two. One of them I’m even planning on exhibiting at ArtPrize in 2024, now that it’s really in the place I’ve imagined it to be!

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar with what you do, what can you tell them about what you do?
I have a really hard time defining my style, or at least, without using the words “you know it when you see it.” My branding work is typically bold/strong/slightly loud and very heavily type-based. I love nothing more in my work than when I find a connection between words or letters that fit a strong theme in them.

For instance, I created a logo for Adrian & Blissfield Railroad and found a way to tie in a very industrial “A&B” together while making the ampersand look like a coupling between two rail cars. For a potato farm, I modified the shape of the badge circle to be the shape of a potato rather than perfectly symmetrical.

Little personal details in otherwise modern layouts are probably the long way of describing my style.

What changes do you expect to see in your work and the industry over the next five to ten years?
I’m not one of the people who balks at anything AI-related, and to be honest, I get excited about some of its potential.

When I was coming up, I had older designers making comments about how Photoshop was ruining graphic design because “us kids” didn’t know how it used to be done. Yet, just having the knowledge of how to operate some tools in Photoshop didn’t suddenly make me a designer. Having a premade theme to pick apart and put back together didn’t suddenly make me a web developer.

These tools aren’t going to replace as many people as the hype says—people are just going to learn new ways to move design forward. It’s not the first technological advancement in the field, and it’s certainly not going to be the last. I say learn and leverage it where you can, and let the dinosaurs complain that things are different than they used to be.

Pricing:

• Logo & Branding Kit: $450—$1350
• Custom Website: $5,000–$12,000

Contact Info:

• Website: https://onemohrti.me/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onemohrtimedesign/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onemohrtimedesign/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/onemohrtime/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/onemohrtime
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR17AeYqaUxvOXhmxbTuGqw
• Other: https://cara.app/onemohrtime/

Image Credits
Cassie Kieda