159
BILL BRUNT, ART DIRECTOR AND GRAPHIC
DESIGNER/OWNER,
BILL BRUNT DESIGNS
On the way to becoming an architect, Bill Brunt
combined his love of music with
a vocation and became an art director. He grew
up in Chicago and, although he
earned a bachelor's degree in anthropology, was
intent on becoming an architect. In
1977, with his undergraduate work behind him,
he took time off from school to go
on the road as a lighting director for a rock
band, with the idea of returning to school
later for a master's degree in architecture.
Drawing upon his background in architec-
tural rendering, he designed the cover art for
the band's first album. "Whether you're
in architecture, lighting design, or graphic
design, it's really all the same structure.
You're dealing with space and moving things
around in relationship to one another."
When the band later signed a contract with
Mercury/Polygram Records, he continued
to do their album covers, and was soon doing
the same for other Polygram artists.
When Mercury/Polygram closed their Chicago
office in 1982, Brunt knew he
would have to move to New York, Los Angeles, or
Nashville to continue his career in
art direction and design. He began commuting to
Nashville twice a month to build
up a clientele. He landed a 15-cover greatest
hits package for CBS Records that
financed his move and enabled him to open his
own business. Several of his subse-
quent projects include
Charlie Daniels' Decadent Hits, and pieces for
Garth Brooks,
Vince Gill, Roy Orbison, Wynonna, and many
others. Over the years, Brunt has won
numerous national and regional awards for
album, video, and advertising design. In
2000, he finally found time to return to school
to pursue that master's degree.
DESIGNER · OWNER OF A GRAPHIC DESIGN
COMPANY
SPECIAL SKILLS
To succeed, you should have skill in computer
graphic design, artistic flair, creativ-
ity, and people skills. Knowledge of the music
business and commercial printing is
helpful.
JOB DESCRIPTION
The designer's primary job is to bring to
realization the concept of the art director
or client. The level of creative input from the
designer varies from job to job depend-
ing on how concrete the concept is. Some art
directors sketch in detail what they
expect. In other cases, the clients may have a
vague idea of what they want to achieve
and look to the designer to present options. A
business owner, or freelance designer,
is also responsible for landing new accounts,
invoicing, and all paperwork involved
with running a company.
CASE STUDY:
User Comments Add a comment…