Falling in love with Mike McQuade's graphic design and illustration excellence

Wowserino! That’s the only apt exclamation for the work of Chicago based graphic designer and illustrator Mike McQuade whose portfolio is a treasure trove of excellent ideas artfully executed. His online profile tells us that he believes, “hard work, persistence, insane optimism and mistakes lead to better work” and it’s a clearly a strategy that is reaping the rewards.

A range of work for big name clients combines powerful imagery with consummate skill and I particularly like how he presents the work, not overloading visitors to his website but focussing on a few choice visuals often of the work in situ.

“I am obsessed with visual communication, sometimes it’s strange and awkward, other times beautiful and moving, most of the time it’s outrageous and full of insults. Nevertheless, it’s fun to observe and it indirectly informs all of my work, " Mike says. “No matter how good the execution or style of a piece, it will not work without a great idea.”

Mike, you had me on hello.