Font Designer – Ken O’Brien

Kenneth O’Brien brings to more than ten years’ experience and expertise in the design industry. As a freelance graphic designer from 1990-1997 in San Francisco, he enjoyed experiences with Meta Design, Radar Design, Chronicle Books, Butler, Shine & Stern, HM Redding Design, Zimmerman Crowe Design, and Man Bites Dog. He designed and illustrated a variety of products and packaging for numerous clients including Broderbund, Apple, Levi’s, Oracle and Specialized Bicycles. O’Brien also illustrated and designed products for Shoebox Greetings, a division of Hallmark during this time.

While in School at ArtCenter(Europe) in Switzerland in 1993-94 he conceived of and published the font Ravie for The Font Bureau, which was featured in an article in ID Magazine and recently on the Nestle’s Crunch Mocha flavor candy bar. Ken conceived his first font as a reaction to that quiet, overly perfect society. He named the design Ravie because it recalled the group that follows the Rave club scene in San Francisco – the hippies of the nineties – Ravers = Ravies. This society demands a font which reflects it – a free, joyous, awakening experience.

Kenneth signed with Landor Associates in 1997 as senior designer in corporate identity, where he created mascots for the Salt Lake 2002 Olympics, identities for companies including Kanisa software, Archeon exhibits, and The Exploratorium science museum. He joined Frog Design in Austin, Texas as a new media designer where he developed interface architecture and design for the Dell Computer Web site.

In 2001, hybrid Inc., a Dallas-based interactive design agency, rounded out its design team with the addition of Kenneth O’Brien as design director. He spearheaded the company’s traditional and interactive design projects, including for clients such as Blockbuster, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and Whitehouse|Pimms executive search firm.
He has recently moved to Houston, Texas and is working as a freelance graphic designer. He counts among his clients V-Wireless, Anastasia Marie Laboratories, and The Sparrows alternative band. O’Brien holds a bachelor of arts degree in graphic design from the University of Oklahoma, and he studied graphic design and packaging at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California and La Tour De Peilz, Switzerland. He has also been an instructor of corporate identity at The Academy of Art College in San Francisco.
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