The most beautiful grocery bags in the world

10 Qs with Brad Almond about creativity and human-centred design

Brad Almond is making reusable grocery bags beautiful. Arguably, more beautiful than any grocery bags in the world. Recently, the designer and my friend, casually shared about this creative project in an online chat session. I wanted to learn more, so I asked him 10 Qs.

In this interview, Brad talks about his creative process, where he finds inspiration in a digital-first world, and human-centred design in the age of AI.

10 Qs with designer Brad Almond

Designer Brad Almond.

Andrew Kooman: A design you recently produced is showing up in unique ways in grocery stores across eastern states. How did you end up designing reusable grocery bags?

Brad Almond: Funny enough, I didn't seek out this opportunity—it found me, which speaks to the power of social as well as emphasizing your niche. The marketing agency in charge of Giant Food happened to be seeking out local artists and designers who lived in DE, MD, VA, and DC to give authenticity to their "This is Home" campaign.

I had shared my work on Dribbble, Behance, and Instagram and the marketing agency must have been seeking out Delaware artists and designers on those sites who had print and illustration experience. So the fact that I live in Delaware, plus having some previous regional-themed designs in my portfolio happened to work in my favour.

It was one of those rare projects that fell into my lap. When they reached out, the opportunity was too good to pass up.

The colours, symbols, foods, and animals on the bag are all significant to Delaware.

There’s a neat charitable tie-in to the reusable grocery bags—what do they support?

Giant's "This is Home" campaign focuses a lot on the concept of local communities. Each creative partner was given an opportunity to select a local charity or nonprofit that would benefit from the sales of these bags. For every bag sold, $1 gets donated.

For the first month, shoppers have the opportunity to select which nonprofit gets the dollar. For the remaining months in the campaign, the store selects which local nonprofit receives the donation. My local pick was UrbanPromise Wilmington.

What early influences pushed you onto a creative path, and how did you or others nurture that creativity?

TV, movies, silly kids books, and video games have forever infiltrated my brain, for better or for worse. As a kid I sat in front of screens and went through many stacks of paper, drawing favourite characters: Disney, Warner Brothers, Nickelodeon, Super Mario, Calvin and Hobbes.

Pop culture of the 80s and 90s provided a wealth of vivid content in my formative years, and I had big aspirations to create my own cartoon characters. My parents noticed this early on and put me in summer art classes (I had an awesome art teacher as well as an older sister who loved drawing). 
 

How did you enter the world of design, and what has your creative journey been like so far?

I seriously considered going to school to be an animator (ideally getting a job at Disney before the Pixar/CG revolution of course). In the process, I realized it wasn't animation that I was passionate about. It was the memorable characters. It was the ability to create something that had a personality.

That spark of personality could be found in tactile products as well: books, cereal boxes, logos, CD liner notes (RIP physical media). So if I couldn't breathe life into cartoon characters, I could at least bring that spark of personality into a career as a designer and illustrator. So I try to keep that spark alive in all of my projects.
 

In a world of AI everything, what is human-centred design, and why is it important?

Ask AI to tell you a joke, and you notice something is off. Maybe the delivery is bad, or on the flip side maybe something feels too polished. The technology is amazing, but it's only amazing because humans were behind it to begin with. Empathy is maybe the most important quality to have as a designer, but you can't have empathy without the ability to "read the room" or "know your audience."

Human connection is key. If we pair that technology with the human touch, that's where you'll find the fingerprints and appreciate the work more deeply. It is "work" after all, right?

You can view Brad Almond’s portfolio and explore a creating beautiful designs with him here.

It’s fascinating that you’ve worked extensively in typography. To me, it seems like an often overlooked and taken-for-granted discipline. What’s it like to bring fonts to life, and why is typography essential to a brand?

To be clear, I've never designed a full typeface from the ground up. I did work collaboratively to customize a brand typeface recently for Compassion, and I was the curator of Fontspring's immense type library for a few years. All this to say, I have seen my fair share of fonts and have great respect for those who design them.

It all circles back to that idea of the spark of personality. What's great about that spark is it can be subtle at times. It could be an easter-egg in a single character of a sans-serif font. Because a brand is more than just a logo, palette, typography, and imagery. The brand is how all of those elements work together to communicate a personality. Typography is a visual representation of a brand's voice, and can make that voice sound loud or quiet, high or low, smooth or rough, etc. It's often those subtleties and nuances found in typography that affect the "tone" of that voice. 

How do you find inspiration in a world bombarded by screens and pixels? Are you always in digital spaces and design-related content or do you draw inspiration from other places?

I've always been inspired by screens. It's often a matter of balancing intake as well as output. Like breathing in and out. Breathe in too much and you're filled with ideas but have nothing to show for it. Breathe out too much and you're exhausted and burnt out.

Personally, I find a lot of inspiration in print. I walk through the aisles of a Target or a Barnes & Nobles and I'm grateful that those physical spaces still exist and haven't completely died out in favour of online shops.

Also, music is huge for me as both a creative inspiration and creative outlet.

How do you cultivate and curate ideas? And what methods do you use to capture and catalog ideas or inspiration? 

Dribbble and Pinterest (for mood-boarding), planners (for jotting down notes), and sketchbooks are what I've been using lately. They get the job done, but I don't have a solid system. 

As a writer, I have several writers whose style and careers help me imagine a way forward—artists who have opened my mind to what’s possible and even shaped my personal poetics. Who are the designers or creatives whose work has impacted you in that way?

Owen Davey is an artist that my family and I adore. He has this beautiful series of children's educational picture books all about animals. His illustrations and color palettes are clearly an inspiration in my work.

Another big one is Wes Anderson. Though I don't make movies, his visual sensibility, sense of humor, and use of typography and color is still influential. Others that come to mind immediately are Jessica Hische (lettering artist), Carson Ellis (illustrator, author), and Invisible Creature (design studio).

What's something you're currently working on that's challenging you or bringing you creative joy?

I'm in the midst of a mural project right now. I've never designed or illustrated anything quite this large-scale before, so it's bringing me out of my comfort zone. But I'm learning as I go, and can't wait to be able to share more once it's all finished.

BONUS Q: What books or podcasts are you consuming right now that you can't get enough of?

Books: The Eyes & The Impossible by Dave Eggers is an all-ages book about a wild dog. There's a lot of parallels in there with the themes of creativity and community.

Podcasts: Snap Judgment Presents: Spooked. Tales of eerie unexplainable events told by the folks who experienced them. Also, check out my episode of Better: The Brand Designer Podcast where I chat about life lessons and layoffs.

I'll add a bonus to your bonus: Because I mentioned how video games have played key roles in my creativity, I'll put some of those on your radar as well.

Video games: I've been playing and loving a game on my Switch called Animal Well that's easily a 10/10. It's a puzzle-y little Metroidvania with a beautiful and slightly creepy pixel aesthetic. 

Music: My go-to lately is this somewhat obscure Australian band called Husky. They've got a new album out called Deep Sleeper which is beautiful and dreamy. When that's not on, Gregory Alan Isakov's Appaloosa Bones gets a lot of play as well.

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Brad Almond is a brand designer, graphic artist, illustrator and award-winning songwriter based in Delaware.

Follow his design and creative work here.

Drop a comment to let Brad know how rad he is.