Brendan Murphy

On October 15, 2010, Brendan Murphy came to campus to talk about his work. He gave a history of what he does and how he got there. He came to Pittsburg State University alumnus on a track scholarship in 1985. Now, after twenty-five years of experience in the field, he is a senior partner at the prestigious design and branding firm, Lippincott. His whole talk was very inspirational not just from the examples of his work but also from his words of wisdom.

One of the first examples of his work that he gave was of a project that he did in college while studying at to get his master of arts in design from the University of Cincinnati. For his thesis project, he did a redesign of the handicap symbol. His new design makes the symbol seem as if it is propelling forward, giving the person in the symbol more prominence than the wheel chair. I personally love the new symbol. Not only does it portray the handicapped community in a way that seems more independent and mobile, but it also appears modern, with a feeling of motion. Though he faced opposition to his new symbol, many cities and companies (such as Wal-Mart) have begun to implement it into their signage. This seems really amazing to think that someone from Pitt State has created something so early on in his career that is now nationally known.

The truth of the matter is that this was just the beginning of what now is a very successful career. His gave examples some of the rebranding projects that he has worked on at Lippincott, such as Wal-Mart, Sprint, Wells Fargo (his biggest client), Time Warner, and many more. He said that in the process of giving a company a new brand identity, him and his firm will create between 300 and 3,000 logo ideas, the amount depending on the size of the company. This really puts things into perspective. It makes me think twice about complaining about doing ten thumbnail sketches. The fact of the matter is that the more ideas that are presented, the more options we as designers have and our customers are more likely to find something that will appeal to them.

His words of inspiration were simple: pay attention in school. He stressed the fact that studying in all of the different disciplines is important to what he does. In fact, he said that 75% of his work is writing, 10% drawing and the rest is in giving instructions. This really stuck with me. For two years all I wanted to do was get my general education done so that I could get to my major courses. Often times I thought that those classes were unnecessary and would never help me in the future. I’m already finding uses for some of those classes. In hindsight, after listening to Mr. Murphy, I wish I would have paid more attention in school. One of the things he said that I liked was “Learning is a lifelong job.” Of course I already knew this, but hearing it put like that was great. Surviving in a field such as graphics is never ending process of learning new things and adapting to the styles and techniques of the time.

Overall, I really enjoyed the symposium. I’m still a little shocked when I think about all of the amazing stuff that Mr. Murphy has had a hand in creating, especially since he is a PSU alumnus. It gives me hope that one day I will be able to achieve even a fraction of what he has in his career.