Doug Barrett

As an artist/graphic designer, I explore the practices of commuting, rural spaces, agricultural processes, and how local visual culture is created through marks left by man. I want to explore, map and re-present found text and imagery in a way that talks about the constructed place. Signage, billboards, graffiti, and ephemera point to the visual culture embedded in our surroundings. My interest in this constructed place is tied to my belief that the spaces we use have a cultural and historic impact on our world.

Supply and Demand uses the form of packing materials and industrial imagery to create a visually poetic object that references ideas around waste and consumption. Through the mode of “designer as author,” I am able to create a visual space that uses the powerful ability of images and vernacular ephemera to tell a reflexive story in a visually poetic way.

My work is influenced by a wide-range of artists and writers. I find inspiration in the work of Julie Mehretu, William Anastasi, Eugene Atget, Gaston Bachelard and Michel de Certeau. This inspiration comes from a shared experience of documenting something that is lost. As a southern artist working in Alabama, I am surrounded by spaces that are imbued with feelings of loss, nostalgia, regret,, and longing. The marks I am collecting are ephemeral in nature and the abandoned condition in which many of these marks are found, confirm, and expound the damaged narrative of the southern condition.

Doug Barrett received his MFA from the University of Florida and a BFA from the University of Central Florida. With over 20 years of professional graphic design experience, Barrett’s international clients include Mars, Inc., VISA International, and Banco Popular. His award-winning work has been featured in many design publications including Logo Lounge No.7 and HOWs Mastering Type. His work with UAB’s BLOOM Studio, a student-run design studio that offers design thinking to under-served communities and non-profits, was featured in the 2016 book, Developing Citizen Designers, Bloomsbury Academic.

Barrett’s research interests include designed fiction and designer as author methods. Fascinated with the practice of commuting, the allure of the roadside, and local visual culture–he is interested in exploring and representing found text and imagery in a way that talks about the constructed place. Signage, billboards, graffiti, and ephemera point to the visual culture embedded in our surroundings. By examining the details of roadside culture, he explores how meaning is constructed and conveyed through visual and cultural relationships.