Ralston Hough

With a Bachelor's degree in Political Science from Rutgers University and an Associate of Applied Science in Communication Design from Parsons School of Design, I have a diverse educational background. My experience includes working as an Associate at Veracity Worldwide, where I conducted research and analysis for due diligence, political risk, and business development projects. I also served as a Graphic Designer for Kimberly McDonald, handling design and photography for high-end jewelry, apparel, and home goods. Additionally, I pursued Arabic language studies at Middlebury Language Schools and AMIDEAST Education Abroad. I have worked on projects in biotech, fashion, pharma, retail, professional services, and independent theater.

Projects

Agora

UI and branding concepts for a hypothetical e-commerce app. I refined the idea through research interviews and persona development, user-tested rough wireframe flows, and pursued a rigorous branding process to design the final look. “Agora” is an “anti-Amazon” app that seeks to help small, local businesses compete with big-box firms by easing and incentivizing the online shopping process for customers. Agora’s brand aims to communicate a combination of familiarity and openness with bespoke quality by referencing traditional, hand-painted signage.See More

BioGarden Capital

Mona Jhaveri, PhD, is the founder of Music Beats Cancer, a non-profit that organizes music events to fund promising new cancer treatment technologies. Mona approached me to provide a brand design for MBC’s new sister company, an investment fund called BioGarden Capital. BioGarden Capital expands on the MBC mission by directly providing early stage funding to innovative cancer technology startups before they fall into a financial “Valley of Death.” Mona requested that the blue already used by MBC also be present in the BioGarden brand.See More

The Spade

During 2023, I did some design work for friends starting a Brooklyn-based performance collective called the Spade. I created a poster for their first event, the Young Composers Cabaret, an evening of performances by emerging composers across several genres. Responding to the Spade's request for an Art Nouveau look “with a little edge,” I drew inspiration from the work of Aubrey Beardsley. Next, I designed a logo suite. In collaboration with the Spade's founders, I drew particular inspiration from the punk subculture to reflect the collective's iconoclastic, forward-looking, radically accessible, DIY attitude. The Spade unfortunately disbanded before a complete identity system could be developed.See More

Ciao Pappy

Ciao Pappy is a woman-owned brand of boutique, all-natural pasta sauces made in the United States from local, organic ingredients. I created an upbeat, simple, modern, chic, type-heavy brand refresh inspired by the founder’s Italian Riviera roots and California beach lifestyle. In addition to a new logo with variations and submarks, I defined an entire brand system including labels, colors, typography, brand voice, and activation.See More

Bonnie Brae

Bonnie Brae is a private Arts and Crafts-era home in the Waterwitch area of Highlands, NJ. The residents asked me to design a logo system that they could use on invitations, menus, stationery, and other goodies. At their request, I created an Arts and Crafts-inspired frog icon to reflect some beloved local wildlife. I also provided a custom hand-lettered wordmark based original carvings of an Omar Khayyam poem above one of the fireplaces.See More

return Magazine

Concept, design, and layout for a quarterly magazine on the intersection of design and technology aimed at a savvy audience. The type selections, navigation system, layout, art direction, and supporting design elements all aim to evoke a warm nostalgia for early computing hardware and Internet aesthetics while presenting a unique, cohesive identity.See More

Hubris poster series

Five large-format posters advertising a hypothetical lecture series at Rutgers University on the theme of “hubris”. The posters communicate a complex breadth of information about each event, including the subject, speaker, location, date, and a relevant infographic. They seize attention at a distance but also have smaller details for closer reading.See More

Kimberly McDonald

I created an invitation and lookbook for the jewelry designer Kimberly McDonald's holiday season residency at Bergdorf Goodman in New York City.See More

More to be Esteemed Than Gold

Curation, catalog layout, and identity for a conjectural exhibition of medieval reliquaries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I sought to complement the complexity and majesty of the artifacts with relatively simple supporting design elements. The typefaces, Norman Stencil and Garamond, evoke hand-painted forms while remaining legible and not pandering to tired conventions of the “medieval”. The pale gold, silver, and blue colors echo the dominant colors in the reliquaries themselves. A pattern adapted from one of the artifacts provides iconography.See More

War Child Secret 7” 2024

In 2024, War Child UK revived its annual Secret 7” fundraising campaign, in which seven musical artists (Aurora, Celeste, the Chemical Brothers, Hozier, Paul McCartney, Siouxsie & the Banshees, and the Specials) each contribute a track to be pressed into vinyl 100 times. Artists worldwide then anonymously submit designs for the record sleeves. The records and their sleeves are auctioned off, with all musical and visual artists kept secret until the end of the campaign. Both of my submissions for Hozier’s “Swan Upon Leda” were accepted and together raised $284. The second sleeve’s design is inspired by ogham, a medieval Irish script.See More

Leipzig

Leipzig is a semi-bold, Clarendon-style slab-serif display font, meant especially for digital media applications like magazine headlines. It has stylistic suitability for a range of other media and applications: posters, music, Western themes, historical documents, protest signs, and religious texts, for example. Leipzig is inspired by an early 20th-century face by J.G. Schelter & Giesecke and named for their city of operation. In accord with the custom of the time, they called it an “Egyptian,” though we now use that term for a different class of slab serifs. I have endeavored to make the face a little more modern, robust, and versatile by removing flourishing tails such as at the bottom of “t” or “a” and other stylistic excesses. “Q”, “g”, and “?” are dramatically changed, as are almost all of the figures.See More

Work History

Freelance Graphic Designer

Ralston Hough LLC— Designed a complete visual identity for BioGarden Capital, a biomedical investment fund focused on emerging cancer technologies. — Designed logo systems for The Spade, a Brooklyn-based independent theater company, and Bonnie Brae, a private home in Highlands, NJ. — Designed iconography concepts for the national marketing campaign of a major new pharmaceutical offering, targeting a previously untapped customer demographic. — Illustrated two pieces of cover art for Hozier’s “Swan Upon Leda” as part of Secret 7”, a competition charity event benefiting children in warzones. — Designed album cover art and designed an accompanying motion graphic for Faustine, a one-woman musical retelling of the Faust legend. — Designed Instagram posts for Mentaya, a therapy payment software startup. Included custom iconography, illustrations, and elevated typography. — Designed retail packaging for “My First Rosary,” a Catholic baby toy, improving shelf presence in brick-and-mortar stores. — Designed retailer pitch decks for Ciao Pappy, a woman-owned organic pasta sauce company.

Graphic Designer

Kimberly McDonaldJun 2023 - Dec 2023 • 7 mos— Sole graphics professional for a luxury jewelry and home goods designer. — Renewed marketing and inventory management capabilities by systematically photographing hundreds of units of jewelry and home goods, including replacements of subpar existing photography. — Managed design, production, and delivery of hundreds of units of branded puzzles and umbrellas. — Designed marketing collateral, including an event invitation, a “look book” brochure, and a holiday gift guide.

Associate

Veracity WorldwideJul 2020 - Jan 2022 • 1 yr 7 mos— Performed research, writing, and analysis for dozens of strategic intelligence, due diligence, and political risk projects focused on investment in opaque and emerging markets. Included research in Arabic and Spanish. — Used investigative tools and techniques to reveal previously unknown connections, risks, and opportunities among target entities. — Identified and interviewed subject matter experts and human sources. — Designed infographics to present complex information. — Briefed executive-level clients and advised on how to avoid potentially disastrous legal, political, and ethical complications. — Joined as an intern and earned two promotions with increasing responsibility and independence.

Analyst

Veracity WorldwideJun 2019 - Jul 2020 • 1 yr 2 mosNo description available

Intern

Veracity WorldwideSep 2018 - Jun 2019 • 10 mosNo description available

Education

Parsons School of Design - The New School

Associate of Applied Science - AAS, Communication Design2022 - 2023

Middlebury Language Schools

Arabic2018

Rutgers University

Bachelor's degree, Political Science2014 - 2018

AMIDEAST Education Abroad

Study Abroad, Arabic2017

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