Taking the pulse with Young Blood Rees Morgan

Rees Morgan is an independent graphic designer based in Vancouver. He recently earned two more Young Blood Design Award wins—bringing his haul to four —Young Blood category wins. That's pretty impressive since he graduated in 2021 with a Bachelor in Communication & Media Arts from Trinity Western University. While Rees had short stints at various agencies, he quickly realized working independently can be a rewarding experience. 

What is your creative process (from idea to finished product?)

My creative process starts with an intentional time of listening to the client. I call these "listening sessions", the goal here is to learn as much from the client as possible. These sessions almost start to feel like therapy sessions, where we uncover why the client originally started their venture. This process allows for some really unique starting points for creative work, where instead of relying on moodboards for inspiration, we turn bits and pieces of the conversation into creative concepts. The end result allows for work that reflects the soul of the client while remaining visually interesting.

2024 Applied Arts Design Awards winning work for client 1 Mill Road in the Young Blood Entire Design Program by Rees Morgan

Can you walk us through the specifics of creating your piece "church: untitled"?

This piece was a pretty special one to work with because the church: untitled team are super talented and really fun to work with. The brief they gave us was simple; they needed a brand that could grow as they grew and one that would make it easy for their internal team to create assets. Through our listening session, we discovered that they really wanted the church to stand apart from a world so inundated with branding that asks for attention and money. We wanted to offer something different, something that could offer something deeper than what consumerism could offer. We knew we wanted photography to take centre stage for the brand, so the branding process was all about finding the right type and layout system that could complement photography and art from the community.

2024 Applied Arts Design Awards winning work for a local church in the Young Blood Entire Design Program by Rees Morgan 

What do you hope people say/think when they see your piece?

I hope that people can see that design can be used for things bigger than just marketing consumerism. These days especially, I think it is so important to leave space to work on at least one project that can be used to help send a message that you really believe in.

2024 Applied Arts Design Awards winning work for a local church in the Young Blood Entire Design Program by Rees Morgan

Beautiful work, we look forward to catching up with the Young Blood designer in the years to come.