Donovan Pete

Albuquerque, NM • Diné (Navajo) Graphic and Web Designer

Ya’at’eeh, áłtaháásiiłóó!

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Hello, everyone!

So I have been extremely busy with my graduate programs (LIS & NAMA) here at the University of Arizona. Although, I am looking to update my website, so that I can include more work that I have done. So, bear with me as I’m trying balance my design life and my potential linguist life as well.

I have focused on the phonetics of the Diné Bizaad (Navajo language) so that sounds are found for secondary Diné Bizaad learners (SDBL) can begin to map a new route to their current sound systems. Also, another part of the sounds’ building up the vocabulary that makes our language very unique, so that should be interesting because of how important the phonetic system plays in distinguishing vowels with tone or no tone, consonants that might be voiced or voiceless, and much more.

I’m still open to take on work, in case you were interested. Hopefully you all have a wonderful day/week, the following are the latest work that I have done so far.

We Think Dreams

We Think Dreams

Indigenous Graduate Education Science and Engineering in the Southwest

15th Annual Brown University Spring Thaw Powwow

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15th Annual Brown University Spring Thaw Powwow – Tshirt Design
15th Annual Brown University Spring Thaw Powwow – Official Poster

It’s that time of the season for powwows, specifically the 15th Annual Brown University Spring Thaw Powwow! I wanted to go in a new approach in creating the annual poster, and I was given creative direction to achieve the proper and consistent look that many have grown accustomed to. I hand drew the central figure which is a Woman’s Traditional Dancer, and input on the poster that you can see in the gallery. I also added some texture into the image using a variety of techniques to create the final outcome. I’m very pleased and the Native Americans at Brown are also happy with the finished design.

Band of Brothers: American Indian Medal of Honor Recipients

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Band of Brothers: American Indian Medal of Honor Recipients

I’m late adding this to my portfolio, but I’m happy the way the design came out. I collaborated with the Arizona Historical Society in Tempe, AZ to create a wide variety of panels which was focused on the American Indians whom received the prestigious Medal of Honor serving their time in the United States Armed Forces. I had the pleasure of creating the logo and display panels which were used in a variety of historical institutions. Here are a few examples:

Actual panel which focused on the last Indian scouts in 1947.
Panel from previous slide.
Much of the panels were matched up with various items from the era.
Last panel featuring a Crow Nation War Song

(Click to activate gallery)

Native American Heritage Month 2015

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RIC - Native American Heritage Month 2015
November is Native American Heritage Month, as declared by President Obama. On r/IndianCountry, we decided to create a weekly community discussion and the AMA (Ask Me Anything) Native focused topics. I really enjoyed creating and changing out the weekly banners for the subreddit. Here are some examples:

khfOUmQRo8jbO2lC9CbqjzqRZNj8-YxRw12klQuTm6I

ric-nov-8-13

ric-nov-15-21

nov-22-28

OxiMedical Respiratory

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I had the unique opportunity to work 2 years at OxiMedical Respiratory, they allowed me to be as creative as I needed to be on many of their physical and digital medium projects. They gave me the opportunity to work on business cards for various personnel and subsidies, create large printed posters, create and design fax based advertisements, launch nearly 30 websites which were focused on selling specific products, design and launch HTML Email messages, utilize SEO techniques on many of their websites, they wanted a variety of brochures which were specific to products, product accessories, location, explanation of what they do and how they can assist those with respiratory needs.

OxiMedical at the start of my employment were adjusting to using WordPress as their main Content Management System (CMS), at my insistence, OxiMedical made the integration from WYSIWYG based CMS to using WordPress as their choice of CMS. We decided to utilize the Genesis Framework and use Child Themes that were built by Studiopress, but due to some theme limitations, I was able to modify and adjust themes so that it suited each website.

The main websites that our focused lied heavily on were OxiMedical.net and OxiMD.com. OxiMedical net was used on Google Adword campaigns to generate sales calls and navigable for potential customers, and OxiMD was used specifically for Google Merchant/Shopping, I designed specific ads to show up on the Google Shopping section of the Google Search Engine Results Page. I’m happy to admit that many of the ads that we were able to have up had a high Click-Through-Rate, in the Top 3 Positions, and generated sales due to incoming traffic and users in need of a portable concentrator.

Much of what I had done at OxiMedical was either designing for print or online purposes, thanks to working with a great team, I was able to harness and use various software, understand and implement new techniques, quick thinking when editing content, complete prioritized projects, multitask various projects, and above all, attention to detail.

14th Annual Brown University Spring Thaw Powwow

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I was delighted to hear from the Native Americas at Brown (NAB) to conceive and design for their annual powwow, I was given free reign to create eye-catching aesthetics and promote the unity of the Native American communities and New England specifically Providence, RI. This year, I wanted to use different dancers compared to the Fancy Shawl Dancer from last year, so I input a Jingle Dancer and a Grass Dancer, which came out better than expected. I continued to utilize previous years’ design elements to create this year’s design.

I’m happy with the finished product, and I know NAB is too.

r/IndianCountry

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Some months ago, I was asked to be a moderator for http://reddit.com/r/IndianCountry, which I gladly accepted. The subreddit seemed plain, so I was able to add some CSS elements as well as design some branding elements to assist bringing new subscribers and readers. Our plan was to bring awareness to many about Native American issues and news.

13th Annual Brown University Powwow

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I had the privilege designing the Native Americans at Brown (NAB)‘s 13th Annual Brown University Spring Thaw Powwow, they asked that I incorporate turquoise background which would also be the t-shirt base color. I wanted to keep the previous years’ logo, typography and shapes, to me consistency for the Spring Thaw Powwow helps create a unique and memorable event that many individuals in the New England area can look forward to.

I thank NAB for continuingly believing in my vision for their design.

12th Annual Brown University Powwow

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I had a great time designing for the Native Americans at Brown, I was asked to touch up on their Spring Thaw Pow Wow brand and create 2 versions of their poster; one with the head dancers/drum groups and another to attract the general public. I also had the opportunity to create a shirt design with their newly created look for the 2013 Pow Wow.

Knowledge River at the University of Arizona

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I applied and was accepted into the School of Information Resources and Library Science Master’s program, and they had the Knowledge River program which focus on Native American and Latino/a issues within the Library, Archives, and Museum field. I was an graduate assistant and handled the design aspect of the KR program.

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