I'm Michael Pester, a multi-disciplinary designer with ten
years experience, based in London. I grew up in Wellington, New
Zealand, and recently moved here.
I have considerable experience as both an in-house and freelance graphic designer.
Up until recently I was the in-house graphic designer at The Dowse Art Museum, where I worked on lots of environmental graphics, publications of various sizes, small to medium-sized branding projects and day-to-day advertising. I also developed skills in other areas, like exhibition/spatial design, marketing, web design and coding.
I have also worked as a freelance graphic designer since 2008. Clients have included Rotary Club of Hutt City, the Hetet School of Māori Art, and the Katherine Mansfield Birthplace.
Projects
- The Dowse Art Museum WayfindingTo improve the ability of visitors to easily navigate around The Dowse Art Museum, I re-designed the wayfinding system, and managed its production and installation. This was a project that I took on myself and found time on top of the rest of my work, after seeing the need. I then consulted with relevant collegues, before pitching it to the senior leadership team. The wayfinding that I designed is made up of large hanging signs directing visitors to the various galleries or towards the toilets, while everything else-of only secondary importance-is smaller and in the form of a list. Venue hire spaces are labelled with vertical signs that are clear if you're looking for them, but subtle enough not to add much visual clutter.
- Little CafeI designed the branding for Little, a cafe that was being set up inside a venue called the Little Theatre. The two potential directions that I was asked to look at were art deco or floral, the former coming from the style of the building and the latter from the surrounding flowerbeds and gardens. Through the process, I came up with a design that everyone liked, and which also managed to satisfy both of the potentiallycontradictory directions. I chose a warm yellow for the petals of the logo to compliment the chalkboard green and pine timber of the interior design. I designed signage and flags in several places around the outside of the building and the adjoining library, as well as created bookmarks, business cards, loyalty cards and reusable cups.
- Seraphine Pick: White NoiseI worked closely with the curator and artist on this book for painter Seraphine Pick, parallel to us working on the accompanying exhibition. I wanted the cover to emulate the canvas that she works on, having seen the process of them starting off blank and then through the process of applying layers of paint over and over slowly becoming an artwork. In this series, Seraphine was being influenced by internet image searches and ideas of how people present themselves online-often in compromising positions. The pixelated patterns used on the cover and as section dividers were created from crops of her artworks, the pixels referencing the digital as well as the censoring of images.
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Work history
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In-house Graphic DesignerThe Dowse Art Museum & Petone Settlers Museum
- Lower Hutt, New ZealandFull Time
For nine years I worked as the in-house Graphic Designer for The Dowse Art Museum and Petone Settlers Museum in Wellington, New Zealand. In this role I designed exhibition brands, labels and signage for over 150 exhibitions, as well as publications and some exhibition spatial design.
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Freelance Graphic DesignerMichael Pester Design
- Wellington, New ZealandFreelance
Clients have included the community group Rotary Club of Hutt City, the Hetet School of Māori Art, the Katherine Mansfield Birthplace, and the New Zealand Government department, the Education Review Office.
Skills
- Graphic Design
- Art Direction
- Branding
- Photoshop
- Logo Design
- Print Design
- Digital Design
- Typography
- Art Exhibition
- Copyediting
Education
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Bachelor Visual CommunicationsMassey University
- Wellington, New Zealand
Majoring in Graphic Design and Typography
Awards
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Museums Australia, Publication Design AwardsThe Dowse Art Museum & Petone Settlers Museum
Joint Winner for Peter Peryer: A Careful Eye. I was the sole designer for this project.T
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Museums Australia, Publication Design AwardsThe Dowse Art Museum & Petone Settlers Museum
Highly Commended for the book Saskia Leek: Desk Collections. I was the sole designer for this project.+ Show more