Salt Lake City graphic designer, artist, creative thinker, maker, ponderer, enthusiast — currently designing for good at Third Sun.
- hello@shelbyroell.com
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Portland Children's Exploratorium
2024
Portland Children's Exploratorium is a mission-minded children’s science museum that empowers and celebrates learning through curiosity, imagination, play, and hands-on exploration.
With so much to convey in the brand, I kept coming back to a feeling: that rush of excitement a child feels when stepping into a space made just for them. I wanted to reflect the emotional experience of learning: the momentum of exploring, the joy of play, and the energy that builds as connections are made and confidence is formed.
A dynamic logo system with interchangeable, kinetic P symbols each hint at different tactile learning experiences at PCE while capturing the motion of learning and the bursting, colorful energy that drives it. The "It Starts Here" hero campaign offers adaptable messaging, allowing the museum to tailor communications to different exhibits, programs, and visitor journeys under one unifying idea. With a vibrant color palette, custom iconography, and playful photo treatments, the full identity feels spirited, bright, and in motion.
- Branding
- Visual Identity
- Print collateral
- Campaign direction
- Merchandise
- Social Media
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Details
Mononoke Tattoo
2025
Mononoke Tattoo is the independent identity of Sakira, an illustrative-Japanese tattoo artist working within Spirit Flame Tattoo in Vancouver, WA. She approached me wanting a visual identity that would help her stand apart from the larger studio while utilizing her existing rabbit illustrations and combining her alternative style with traditional elements of Japanese design.
My strategy centered on blending clean, traditional typography with bold, roughened, brushwork-inspired Japanese type, alongside grungy textures, ink stamp effects (using her custom hanko), and graphic elements and formatting inspired by Japanese packaging and print design. These design choices allowed her identity to feel bold, handcrafted, and contemporary while remaining rooted in Japanese influence.
What became a star of her new identity was her set of seven custom omikuji (traditional Japanese paper fortunes). The final fortunes, created as fun and culturally inspired client takeaways to be drawn at random, were printed on real Japanese rice paper.
- Visual identity
- Brand application
- Print collateral
- Merchandise
- Social media
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Details
The End of the World
2023
A grungy, retro-futuristic vinyl design tribute to bass artist Eptic blends sci-fi horror, digital collage, and dark surrealism into conceptual album art.
The irony isn't lost on me of an electronic album being made into vinyl, a format that would never actually work for EDM. But I simply can't fight the aesthetic pull of a record sleeve.
To capture the vibe of an end of the world rave, various assets were sourced, scanned, layered, and distorted. Eptic's classic three-eyed overlord character motif was reimagined, using digital compositing to build a three-eyed, quadruple-horned X-ray skull as the visual centerpiece. Chrome-finished blackletter type reinforces the underground, dark futuristic energy and connects to the chaotic and intense themes often found in heavy EDM's sounds, visuals, and cover art.
- Cover art
- Image composition
- Mixed media
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Details
Thank You, Please Don't Come Again
2023
Thank You, Please Don't Come Again is a retrospective zine documenting my personal pandemic experience through the lens of a fictional shopping list of emotional remedies. Each shopping list “item” represents both the intangible necessities for survival and the big feelings, frustrations, and phases I moved through at different points in time.
When thinking about a singular visual indicator to represent my largely negative, anger-driven emotions, red was the first thing that came to mind. Visual elements like scribbles, blurring, and spirals were also incorporated to reflect the emotional disorientation, frustration, and mental fog of that time period.
This probably-way-too-personal zine turns everyday plastic ephemera into a tactile diary about searching for connection, stability, and healing in the midst of chaos.
- Publication design
- Print design
- Writing
- Concept & art direction
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Details
Always Greener
2024
Always Greener is a playful plant brand with a fresh take on edible gardening. Designed for Gen Z, Always Greener invites young people to begin to explore gardening and sustainable food practices in a way that feels fun, empowering, and accessible, even with just a few containers and a windowsill.
A lot of existing seed packets on the shelves feel dated, generic, or just lacking that pull for young people. I wanted this brand to break the mold and shake the image that gardening is just for retirees with big yards.
The visual identity was designed to feel youthful and unpolished in the best way. Imperfect, hand drawn typefaces, bold illustrations, vibrant colors, and cheeky slogans bring a new energy to the shelf. Packaging was designed using a flexible Mondrian-style grid layout, making dense planting information easier to digest.
The final brand has room to expand and grow into a broader range of seeds, bulbs, and gardening products.
- Branding
- Visual identity
- Package design
- Brand application
Let's make something cool?
Contact me here for design inquiries.
© Shelby Roell 2025
All rights reserved
- hello@shelbyroell.com