Here’s a puzzling fact about Elliott – he spent a summer at MindFire as a design intern and then agreed to officially join the gang full-time as a Design Arsonist after his graduation. (Insert sinister laugh… our plan worked!) All kidding aside, Elliott’s design prowess, creativity and his goofy personality are so awesome, we just had to have him back!

Let’s see what Elliott has to say for himself when we put him in the hot seat…

What was it like going from intern Arsonist to a full-time devoted design Arsonist?

It was a pretty smooth transition for me. Once I came back after graduating, it took me a day or two to get back into the swing of things, but then I felt right back at home. Becoming a Design Arsonist brought on some new responsibilities compared to when I was an intern. However I felt my internship prepared me for anything that gets thrown my way.

What inspires you to keep lighting fires for our clients?

The world around me inspires me to keep pushing my work to the next level. Examples of good and bad graphic design surround you in your environment every day. I am constantly thinking about the examples I encounter, dissecting what makes them great or what makes them lackluster.

Here’s a tricky one…describe yourself with a movie quote.

“I am serious… and don’t call me Shirley.”

What has been your favorite project to work on at MindFire?

My favorite project to work on so far at MindFire has been a video for a social media ad campaign for our client, Wahl Animal. I really enjoy video work because it is always a challenge and a learning experience.

Where is your favorite place in the world?

Crow Creek Park in Bettendorf. It holds a special place in my heart as so much of my life has seemed to revolve around it. I grew up very close to the park and would constantly visit it to play at the playgrounds, the skate park, the bike trails or the baseball fields. Then when I was older and heavily involved in running, it was my high school’s home cross country course. I even got my first job there working as a baseball umpire and later worked for the park department maintaining the park and baseball fields.

What do you consider cringeworthy design? Any recent examples?

Cringeworthy design is design that compromises usability or effectiveness in priority of aesthetics. A good example of this to me is Apple’s most recent Macbook Pro. Apple is so focused on the aesthetics of their thin and quiet laptop that they actually programmed the computer to prioritize slowing down its speed as opposed to turning the fans up higher and louder. This caused the performance of recent Macbook to be on par or worse than the previous model despite having better hardware.

Spoken like a true designer, Elliott! 😊

Inga Rundquist

Inga Rundquist is a Public Relations Arsonist and Co-Owner at MindFire. When she’s not dreaming up ideas that will generate publicity, you can find her knee deep in the social media world, also known as the next PR frontier.