About
Our people are our company; with a depth and range of experience many competitors are missing. People who are talented and perceptive, but more important, people you enjoy working with, even if harried to meet a critical deadline.
We are driven by the recognition that our success is our client’s success. We have a passionate focus on quality and take pride in our work — doing it on time and on budget. The development of long–term client relationships is priority; short–term projects are of little interest. We want our clients to be satisfied for years into the future.
Randall Smith
I’ve been in business for myself for 30 (mostly) exciting years in graphic design and marketing. I’ve got two bachelor’s degrees (which is odd, I know) in advertising and design from the University of Utah. Prior to forming modern8 in 2001, I was a principal in Smith Sligting Partners, a traditional and interactive design firm. Before that I did my own thing at Randall Smith Associates, a graphic design firm formed in 1989. Previous to that I was in a partnership and senior designer for a multinational corporation.
I was the founding President of the Salt Lake chapter of AIGA, the professional association for design. I’ve had the benefit of over 20 years of teaching as an adjunct instructor in Graphic Design at the University of Utah and have taught classes at Brigham Young University and lectured at others. I belong to SMPS, AAF and AIGA.
My design or the work of my team has been recognized in national publications and exhibitions, including Communication Arts, New York Art Directors Annual, the AIGA Communications Graphics Annual, the New York Type Directors Annual, Print magazine, the Addy’s and local organizations.
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Mac Galeano
I’ve been drawing and doodling for as long as I can remember. In fact, I am told that I was given a toy basketball hoop when I was about 4 years old and I drew all over it but never played with it. I guess that was a sign of things to come. Although I enjoy sports as an adult, I’m still more interested in doodling and sketching out new ideas.
In junior high, a new and exciting technology came out called the internet. My friends and I played around with bits of HTML to create basic web pages and I continued to tinker with coding while I went to High School and on to college.
I started college as a fine artist but soon moved to the digital (dark) side. I continued to improve my skills at coding while simultaneously painting and designing. I found work designing and coding websites and when I graduated from Utah State University, I found more opportunities in web design and consequently spent the next 4 years heavily involved in UX and UI design. I’ve worked on web teams at Interbank FX and Saxton Horne Advertising as well as Mighty Clever, where I had the opportunity to work on a wider range of design related projects.
Although I enjoy coding, my true love has always been in the creative side of the industry. I am fascinated by the process of developing new and innovative solutions to problems. I admire the top-notch creative environment at modern8 and look forward to going into work everyday!
Mike Harris
Having never truly skied or snowboarded I faced great persecution from my fellow Utahns. Therefore, in the cold winter months I was shunned by my peers and withdrew to the sanctity of my room where I refined my drawing, typography, and problem solving skills. These interests eventually guided me to study graphic design at the University of Utah
The time I spent interning at welikesmall and Struck only increased my passion for and skill in motion design and illustration, respectively. Throw in some advertising experience working at Jibe Media and I was finally able to convince my mom to stop telling me to become a radiologic technologist.
For the past couple of years I have been active in the AIGA Salt Lake City chapter—first as a student, then a board member. A year after graduation I had the opportunity to work on a motion project for modern8 in collaboration with the local AIGA chapter. After few short months, here I am.
As for what I do in my free time, I enjoy running and wrestling with my dog, watching countless movies with my lady, and enduring the occasional music festival with my buddies.
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Alysha Smith
At a very young age, I developed a love for clothes and design. As a tween, it wasn’t uncommon for me to spend all of my babysitting money on the latest trend in Guess jeans, or the the newest Swatch watch. But, I had my sights set on something bigger than that, the mecca of 90′s classic sportswear and design, The Gap. At the age of 16, my dreams came true when they brought me on board as an eager seasonal Christmas hire. I quickly climbed the ranks of the retail world, becoming one of the youngest store managers at the age of 23 of Banana Republic, while getting my degree from Brigham Young University in Communications and Business. Wanting to broaden my knowledge of the world and business, I moved me to New York City, where I managed several stores, perfected my business and interpersonal skills, and simutaneously, refined my design tastes in furniture, typography, and style.
Fast forward about eight years, and I am fulfilling my other dream, working at the most prestigious design firm in the city. Why yes, I am just the office manger who is attempting to fill some very large (Converse) shoes of my predecessor, while daily trying to gleam design skills from my talented co-workers. But someday I hope to be more than that. I hope to design a T-shirt that is not only in the running for the modern8 annual Christmas tee, but indeed the clear winner.
Maralee Nelson
In college, I realized I wasn’t like the other design students. They seemed to wait until the last minute to complete projects. They weren’t organized, they weren’t bothered by clutter, and they certainly didn’t edit and correct text as they worked on projects. And they all doodled. I read somewhere that people who doodle tend to be creative. I can’t doodle. I’ve tried. If I start to doodle something, I end up finessing and fixing it, (which automatically disqualifies it as a doodle). Sure I was different, but it didn’t stop me. I just incorporated these “rare” traits into my own design style. I decided that they make me really awesome at being consistent, detail-oriented, and well, less cluttered. My design solutions are classic, clean, and whenever I can get away with it, they use typography as a strong element. I’m a self-diagnosed font-freak. I have a wall of various M’s in my home office and I finally had to ban myself from buying any more wood block printing type from eBay.
I started working with Randall in the days of Bernoulli disks, and ordering film before going to press. If you don’t know what any of that means, well, it just means I’ve been working with Randall for a really long time. Some people might think the term “senior” in my job title means “old”, but it doesn’t. It means that even though I’m the shortest employee, I’m the cool “big sister.”
Speaking Availability
Randall Smith has spoken at professional organizations and educational institutions for many years, including the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG), the Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS), Associated Building Contractors (ABC), Partners in Business, AIGA, Utah State University, Utah Valley University, and his alma matter, the University of Utah. Randall and other team members are available for lectures and award judging.
Lecture topics include:
“Your Brand Is Not Your Logo”
“Dressing the Part of Your Core Values”
“Design as a Business Tool”.
Invite us to participate at your event.
In The Press
All published articles are available as PDFs for downloading and printing. For more information or request for copies of these articles please contact us.
The Dieline–October 2011
The Salt Lake Egotist–September 2011
Letterhead and Logo Design 12 book
Communication Arts—Sept. 2011
Lovely Package—Apr. 2011
Utah CEO—Aug. 2009
Connect Magazine—Oct. 2006
Concrete Construction—Oct. 2006
adnews Magazine—May 2006
Connect Magazine—Dec. 2004
Connect Magazine—Feb. 2004
Connect Magazine—Jun. 2003
8Second News
News from the Office
March 2012
Bryan got back tanned and fit from an extended (10 days—count ‘em up) vacation in Hawaii last week. / Derek traded in apartment life for a mortgage and just in time, because his apartment burned down the week after he left. / Spring is just around the corner and bikes are getting tuned up for the Bertolini Building Cycling Team (yet to be organized).
February 2012
Two weeks ago, Randall Smith, modern8 Creative Director, spoke at the University of Utah’s emerging program for multi-disciplinary design on “Design as a Business Tool”. / modern8 picked up two Gold Addys at the annual awards of the Utah Chapter of the American Advertising Federation. / Randall’s annual go-to-lunch-with-our-clients month is nearly over, as is his goal to eat healthy this year.
January 2012
The modern8 Christmas party was a New Years Eve brunch this year instead of an evening event, due in part to late planning and Bryan and Marianne Wilson’s baby, who hasn’t yet figured out how to sleep in the evening hours. You can see photos on our Facebook page. / We’re excited we’ve been asked to design the graphics for the AIGA 100 show, the annual design competition in Salt Lake City. / Pretty soon, we’ll be able to show off what’s been keeping us busy the last few months. We’re excited about that too.
December 2011
We’re very busy this fall, but can’t talk about it yet / Our clients often ask us to design custom greeting cards and this season is no exception. To be politically correct, we invariably have to express our holiday wishes non-religiously. We however don’t have the same compunction: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
September 2011
The “boys” in the office marked the end of summer with a visit to the Miller Motor Sports Park for multiple go-kart races, trying to beat each other on a winding track without spinning out in the dirt. Derek claimed he had a bad machine on Round 2, but Bryan and Randall agree it was a weak excuse. / Our business neighbors in the 120-year-old Bertolini Building have moved out, leaving space available for another like-minded business (we’re all designers of some sort.)
August 2011
Cyclists in the building joined together for the Cache Valley Century two weeks ago. If you’re going to ride a 100 miles on a bike with an unobstructed view, it’s nice to have the Cache Valley as a backdrop. / We decided we’d have the summer party when we kick off the new modern8 Web site. We’re hoping that doesn’t happen in February. / Working with a number of new clients lately. Watch for fun stuff to come soon.
July 2011
We got a notice that our work for the Nucleus software launch for HealthCare Insight will appear in the design annual of Communication Arts magazine. That’s an exciting first. / Randall Smith spoke at the Society for Marketing Professional Services two weeks ago on the subject of this month’s eNews main feature.