Anna Poehlman
Graphic design with a sprinkle of biological science. Exploring the human relationship with nature and interpersonal communication.
About
Hello! I am Anna (she/her), a multi-disciplinary graphic designer from Appleton, Wisconsin.
When I came to DJCAD to attend my general foundation year, I had a lot of uncertainty about what direction I wanted to take my studies. However, I was immediately attracted to the flexibility and freedom graphic design offered, all while having impactful, real-world applications.
My work often focuses on biology, human connection, and spirituality. Growing up, I absolutely loved art and science classes and I have found that graphic design is the perfect outlet to combine my interests. In my final year at DJCAD, I completed multiple competition briefs as well as working on personal projects outside of university. A selection of my work is displayed here including; a project for BrandOpus’ 2022 Hatch brief; my 2022 D&AD submission, On Your Sleeve Library; and my publication, Hardships and Misadventures of the Inland Seas, submitted to ISTD. I have also included a personal project I began in my third year. This project, Physarum Polycephalum, or Slime Mould Tarot combines my interests in biology with exploring consciousness through coding randomly generated art.
I love learning new skills and trying my hand at multiple forms of graphic design, traditional to experimental. I am incredibly proud to have found my footing in design and my progress after four years at university has lit a fire in me to keep learning and growing!
Foragers Wellness Tonics
Foragers tonics are made from functional mushrooms & natural ingredients. Three flavours with three unique properties and functional mushrooms to give you a boost throughout your day. Awaken: Natural Energy Tonic, Growth: Natural Immunity Tonic, & Mellow Out: Natural Relaxation Tonic. With 20% of proceeds going towards preserving old growth forests and, therefore, our fungi friends, what’s not to love? Finished your tonics? Every Foragers multi-pack comes with dehydrated spores in a substrate puck to grow your own mushrooms at home!
On Your Sleeve Library
A community reading project facilitated by Penguin Books. On Your Sleeve brings old, pre-loved books back into the conversation by giving them a brand-new life with a protective and interactive sleeve. These sleeves are designed to transform from a closed sleeve into a functional dust jacket during reading. They are also a space for conversation, honest reviews, connection, and to share more intimate aspects of reading. All of these factors allowing them to serve as a selection tool in On Your Sleeve community libraries. Start talking about books again, put it on your sleeve! On Your Sleeve is sustainable. Made from recycled paper, these book sleeves keep old books out of the bin and bring them back into the conversation. A perfect way to pay forward your unwanted books or share your old favourites with someone new!
Hardships & Misadventures of the Inland Seas
This publication is in response to the ISTD 2022 brief Lighthouses of the World. It was created to explore three of the most famous isolated lighthouses on the Great Lakes in America. The Great Lakes can be easily underestimated as they can be dismissed as any other inland body of water, however, they are an immense force of nature. Throughout history, the Great Lakes have become known for unpredictable currents, towering waves, and deadly storms. This has led to the construction of hundreds of lighthouses on their shores and on navigational hazards miles from land. The goal of this publication is to celebrate the lighthouses themselves as feats of engineering and important historical structures. Inspired by the romanticisation of lighthouses in America, this publication contains personal accounts of life at the lighthouses as well as tales of unfortunate tragedies that occurred on the lakes.
Physarum Polycephalum
After researching slime mould, I was able to edit R script code to create randomly generated art with the growth properties and therefore, “consciousness” of slime mould. The resulting images were perfect fractal images for tarot cards with a beautiful connection to universal patterns.