Professional Range

Publication Design
As Production Manager and Advertising Designer at Santa Barbara Independent, I led design production for a weekly publication, balancing editorial content with advertising layouts while managing print vendor relationships and team coordination. This role honed my skills in systematic thinking, deadline management, and designing within established frameworks—skills that translate directly to creating cohesive experiential environments with multiple touchpoints.

Exhibition & Environmental Graphics
At Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, I created original artwork and branding for exhibit marketing, designed interpretive graphics, and managed physical installation. This work bridged graphic design and spatial practice, requiring consideration of scale, viewing distance, materiality, and how visitors move through and engage with information in physical space.

Brand Development & Identity
Through my freelance practice, Alex Melton Design, I've guided clients through creative processes from concept to completion, developing visual identities that communicate clearly across multiple applications. Whether establishing new brand standards or working within existing guidelines, I approach each project as a system of visual decisions that must work cohesively across contexts.

Packaging & Product Design
Work with clients like Jack Boy Productions involved designing labels, packaging, and marketing materials that needed to function both aesthetically and practically—considering production methods, material constraints, and shelf presence alongside visual impact.

Creative Direction & Team Management
Leading design teams and managing vendor relationships taught me to balance creative vision with practical execution, communicate design decisions effectively, and ensure projects moved from concept to completion on time and within scope.

Design Philosophy

My graphic design practice has always centered on clarity, collaboration, and creative problem-solving. I believe strong design serves both the client's goals and the end user's needs, finding elegant solutions within real-world constraints of budget, timeline, and production capabilities.

This philosophy carries into my spatial and experiential work, where graphic design principles—hierarchy, composition, color theory, typography—become tools for creating environments that guide, inform, and engage. The discipline of working within brand systems translates to creating cohesive spatial narratives. The attention to material and production detail informs fabrication decisions. The client collaboration skills ensure projects realize their intended vision.

The shift from two-dimensional to three-dimensional design feels less like a departure and more like an expansion—applying a decade of visual communication experience to work that occupies physical space and unfolds over time.