Bowman Design Studio

06/11/2026

One of the occupational hazards of being a designer is that you never really stop looking.

After a career in design, I still find myself taking pictures of the strangest things.

A shadow on a wall.
An interesting shape.
The way light hits a building.
An old painted sign.
A texture.
A pattern.

I've always believed creativity has less to do with talent and more to do with attention. Most people are looking at the same world. Creatives just tend to notice different things.

I'm endlessly inspired by light, lines, shape, and shadow, and I've found it nearly impossible to walk past something interesting without stopping to take a picture.

Sometimes inspiration isn't something you find.
It's something you notice.

06/08/2026

After many years in design, here's the biggest thing I got wrong.

When I was younger, I thought great branding & design was just about making everything look good. Now I understand that great design is about making people feel something.

People rarely remember the font.
They rarely remember the layout.
They rarely remember the clever headline.

But they remember how a brand made them feel.

Trust.
Excitement.
Confidence.
Belonging.

The older I get, the more I believe design is really an exercise in empathy.
You're trying to understand another human being and create something that resonates with them.

That's not a design problem.
That's a people problem.
And that's what makes it interesting.

Stories and emotional connection consistently outperform facts alone when it comes to memorability, trust, and purchase decisions.

06/02/2026

AI may change how we create.
It doesn't change why great ideas matter.

I recently came across this article about AI and graphic design that got me thinking. For all the discussion around whether AI will replace designers, I think we're asking the wrong question. The better question is: How do we combine the speed and capabilities of AI with the creativity, experience, and judgment that people bring to the table?

I've never viewed AI as a threat. I've always viewed it as a tool. The one thing I've noticed is that the output is only as strong as the idea behind it.

A flat idea still feels flat.

A great idea can explode into life.

The designers, marketers, and creatives who thrive won't be the ones fighting AI. They'll be the ones who learn how to use it to amplify their strengths. Because while AI can help us create faster, the thinking behind the work still matters.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.04192

We introduce GraphicDesignBench (GDB), the first comprehensive benchmark suite designed specifically to evaluate AI models on the full breadth of professional graphic design tasks. Unlike existing benchmarks that focus on natural-image understanding or generic text-to-image synthesis, GDB targets th...

05/27/2026

Branding is starting to suffer from “same-ification.”

Minimalism has its place. Scalability, flexibility, responsiveness — all important.
But somewhere along the way, many brands started optimizing for safety instead of distinctiveness.

Good branding shouldn’t just feel modern.

It should feel recognizable, memorable, and uniquely connected to the brand behind it.

via Digital Synopsis
https://digitalsynopsis.com/design/logos-look-the-same-nowadays/

Somewhere between the obsession with minimalism and the pressure to scale globally, brands lost their personalities. Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, Burberry,

05/26/2026

I’ve mentioned this before, but trends always move in cycles.

Right now we’re seeing a shift away from overly polished, “perfect” creative and back toward work that feels human — handcrafted typography, texture, personality, emotion, imperfections.

Ironically, the more AI-generated content floods the market, the more valuable authentic creative perspective becomes.

Eventually, I think the ultra-clean “AI look” will start feeling repetitive and predictable like every overused trend eventually does.

My guess?
The next evolution won’t be AI or traditional art.
It’ll be creatives figuring out how to fuse human craftsmanship, strategic thinking, and AI tools together in ways that feel emotionally real.

Technology changes.
Human connection doesn’t.

via Creative Bloq
https://www.creativebloq.com/art/animation/canva-uses-handcrafted-animation-to-challenge-polished-design-culture?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Its new ads celebrate imperfection.

05/21/2026

I’ve been looking at Jeep’s “The Silent Edition” campaign and I keep going back and forth on it. Read more and tell me what you think:

Article Communication Arts : https://www.commarts.com/exhibit/jeep-the-silent-edition-campaign

YouTube spot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6O0TXJ2FrM

First off — the photography and craft are beautiful. The restraint, mood, and cinematic noir styling are exceptionally well executed. And honestly, I completely understand the psychological undercurrent they’re aiming for. Great advertising often sells identity, emotion, and philosophy more than the actual product. In this case, the idea of quietly accessing untouched places without disrupting nature is smart and emotionally compelling. I get it. But I’m still not sure the campaign fully lands for me personally as automotive/off-road advertising.

There’s very little product positioning, and the tone feels much more environmental/editorial than rugged adventure lifestyle. While I appreciate the sophistication of the approach, I question whether it connects strongly enough to what traditionally motivates off-road buyers emotionally.

That said, maybe that’s exactly the point — redefining what capability looks like for a modern audience.

Curious where others land on this:
Did they nail a more evolved direction for Jeep branding, or does the campaign drift too far away from actually selling the vehicle?

www.youmark.it - Publicis Canada firma la campagna Jeep per la nuov...

04/01/2026

UX is often best when it goes unnoticed, but once a year, we get to spotlight the UX design trends that are too innovative to be ignored. These are the top UX trends for 2023.

01/29/2026

12/09/2025

Such a fun little project for Queen Anne's Lace Publishing, LLC!

Don't you just ADORE this wonderfully cozy sticker designed by Mark Bowman?

If you are one of the first fifty people to visit Lake Erie Book Company during their anniversary event on December 13th, you'll one for FREE in their swag bags!

02/12/2025

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