Robert Peterson

Graphic Design Director, NC Biotechnology Center

I've been a graphic designer for the past 25 years. In reality my experience with graphic design began in my early teens with a series of paintings that had words as a major element. Then in high school I helped solve a problem that the Senior Class Council faced with the graduation announcement. Half of the group wanted one design and the other were equally attached to another. I suggested that we could reach a solution by combining the best elements of each to create a unique card. They accepted and my career was born. Graphic designers need to be able to listen and understand their client's needs. After all we are communications specialists. That is what I try to bring to the table when we have the first meetings to determine the needs of the client. Essentially graphic designers are artists that solve other's communications needs where fine artists solve their own need to communicate ideas. I'm a Mac geek. I've grown to love these computers and feel that they have helped usher in an era where personal communication is possible to an extent never dreamed of in the past. My greatest experience comes in the arena of print design. I understand the way to get ink on paper. Having learned the craft during the end of the paste-up era [mid-to-late 80s] I know what it takes to get the job done. Now it is just so much easier to do the things we used to struggle with.