Please take your time to look around the site and link to my sister sites. You will soon notice that the work I create is strongly influenced by the communication theories found in Semiotics and Rhetoric.

If you are looking for freelance design work, please check out Hildebrand Designs.

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Jonathan Hildebrand

The Story Behind the Designer

Jonathan was born and raised in North Carolina and feels strong ties to the land and State that shaped his childhood. An avid draftsman and painter in his youth, Jonathan put down his brush to pursue another passion, language. As an undergraduate at UNC-Chapel Hill he studied Linguistics and Rhetoric.

Linguistics is the study of language; ranging from acquisition, to phonetics, to phonology. Being most interested in Sociolinguistics, Jonathan began to pursue a double major in Communications. His interests focused on rhetoric. It means identifying your target audience and crafting your message in the way that the audience is most likely to receive or engage with. Both of these fields employ a strong structure of communication theory built on the foundation of semiotics. After receiving a double major in those academic fields of study, he began to seek a way to combine them with his love of art.

Starting out as a web designer, Jonathan discovered the field of Graphic Design. This new area allowed him to apply his education in communication with his experience in fine arts to create strong visual communication strategies. This background allows him to approach art and design as though it were language and then craft that into a syntax that the viewer can understand.

While many have focused on form, Jonathan has remained heavy in the theoretical approach. In this manner, his work approaches 3rd or 4th level design in its execution strategy. Jonathan Hildebrand believes that designers must approach the content of their work with the same care and skillfulness that they approach the medium and the materials. All artists have chosen to specialize in specific forms of communication; whether that is a visual means such as Painting or Graphic Design, an auditory one such as Sound Design, or the combination of these in animation or Film, all of these practitioners are responsible for delivering a specific message to a given audience.

Whatever the medium, it is important to develop strong concepts that can carry the message through the work. To do this, a designer must be a student of the world he lives in, and a purveyor of the culture that surrounds him.

One guiding principle that he learned in his graduate studies in Savannah, a city that was founded on the principles of hospitality and selflessness, is the founding motto of “not for ourselves, but for others.” Hildebrand believes this to be quite informative on the role of a designer. The work that designers create shapes the culture we live in, and while that work may be personally satisfying, a good designer should always consider the impact it will have on the people viewing the work in the larger world that surrounds all of them.