Graphic Granola

10/09/2025

08/08/2025

For the last 8 months, I've been dragging my feet with social media posts for my design business. It feels almost OBSCENE to go about biz as usual with our democracy being destroyed. Plus, my client base (nonprofits) is being decimated by these draconian budget cuts.

I want to expose this , but you're not supposed to be political in biz posts. This is me trying to straddle that line.

I also want to be educational, provocative, and to ignite civil action.

I call it "The Collective Empowerment Series."

Whaddya think?

07/24/2025

In the early days of his second term, President Donald Trump froze, cut or threatened to cut a huge range of social services programs from public safety to early childhood education to food assistance and services for refugee resettlement. Staffing cuts to federal agencies have also contributed to delays and uncertainty around future grant funds. Altogether, his policies are poised to upend decades of partnerships the federal government has built with nonprofits to help people in their communities.

In his second term, President Donald Trump has cut a huge range of federal grants that fund social services.

07/01/2025

Effective storytelling is a powerful tool for nonprofits. Compelling stories have the power to humanize issues, spread awareness, shift people’s perspectives, and inspire action around causes. Effective storytelling is an art that nonprofit leaders and their teams can excel at with the right approach.

The Key Components Of Compelling Stories
• Authenticity
• Emotionally resonant
• Effective platforms for the message
• A dedicated person or team solely focused on storytelling

Compelling stories have the power to humanize issues, spread awareness, shift people’s perspectives and inspire action around causes.

11/29/2024

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02/16/2024

Getting some post-Valentine's Day love from Austin Local Business Alliance. Dawww, shucks.

02/13/2024

Graphic Granola has recently adopted a new nonprofit slicing scale pricing model. Our hourly rate is scaled based on the size and budget of your nonprofit organization. We adopted this model to level the playing field and promote equity.

Read all about it here:
https://graphicgranola.com/pricing

11/16/2023

Who knew?

Companies are grappling with how to find great design talent. For young designers, it’s a major opportunity.

11/09/2023

Props to Austin Chronicle for highlighting Austin's Independent bookstores, including Alienated Majesty Books which took over Joe Bratcher's legacy space of Malvern Books. Proud that Graphic Granola was able to help bring these literary communities to life with their brand design. Now let's go support them and help them thrive!

10/08/2023

Sad to say this is 1000% accurate.

Here’s Some Feedback On Your Feedback 🗒️

Ah, feedback.

I posted designer Milton Glaser’s famous poster of Bob Dylan on LinkedIn. But there was a twist.

It was a version of the poster showing all the ways today’s colleagues and clients provide feedback. Usually on a collaborative platform like Google docs.

The photo is above. You can see how “helpful” people are.

This got me thinking about the role of feedback.

At its best, in my experience, the most valuable feedback is some form of truth.

“Hey, this idea can be stronger, have you considered..?”

Or “This post might offend someone with this or that reference.”

The feedback that I don’t like (and never liked) was when a Creative Director would say to me something like, “Keep going,” or “Have more fun with it.”

Or a client would say, ‘I don’t like it.” I’d ask why and they would say, ‘I don’t know.”

Vague is a plague.

Read the full story on PRINT: https://www.printmag.com/creative-voices/heres-some-feedback-on-your-feedback/

Words & imagery: Rob Schwartz
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