Design That Serves the Mission
Each project starts with the same question: whose values are at the center of this story?
Those values are important clues, guiding us towards meaningful visual metaphor and signifiers that illustrate deep intention. Designers must listen to the visual vocabulary of each community, researching and building upon longstanding traditions, context, and beliefs. We iterate and amplify those cues to bring audiences deeper into the story.
Working With Communities to Build Connection and Change
Arts and advocacy organizations exist in the public spheres of narrative and complexity. We do our work out loud, ever vulnerable and ever seeking to grow our connections to our communities. This work requires an incessant attention to detail. It requires a passion for words and images, knowing when to give space to one or the other.
My practice is based on over 15 years of nonprofit experience in marketing performing and visual arts, advocacy and social justice, and traditional MarComm agency spaces. I understand print and mailshop practices, guiding clients to new ways of approaching deliverables and maximizing budgets for impact. As I’ve honed my specialties and interests, I have focused primarily on editorial design, gravitating toward artistically complex and politically complicated stories that require a deeply nuanced and researched human touch.
Formats & Skills
Editorial and publication design
Annual reports
Brand identity
Web design
Social and digital campaigns
Event and experiential design
Video conceptualization
Advocacy and print materials
Photography
Copywriting and editing
Wesley (Wolfbear) Pinkham
Creative director and visual storyteller. Fifteen years helping nonprofits, advocacy organizations, and faith communities say what they mean and mean what they say.
I serve as Creative Director at the Friends Committee on National Legislation, the Quaker lobby in Washington, leading visual identity, creative strategy, and design across campaigns, publications, and digital platforms. Wolfbear LLC is my independent practice for editorial design at the intersection of justice, community, and faith.
I trained in World Arts and Cultures at UCLA with a minor in Hebrew and Jewish Studies, and hold a certification in Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice in Design from the Parsons School of Design at The New School.
I speak many artistic languages through my own personal practice: music, dance, film, photography, visual art, experiential event production, archival research, and writing. All of it finds its way into the work.
Wolfbear LLC is part of the Wesley Wolfbear Pinkham creative metaverse. See also: Photography · Writing · Stickers