Charleston, South Carolina — 2025–2026
Lettermark, typography, postcards, business cards, bio sheets, website, and book design
The Brief
Dave Spurgin came to painting at 54, after selling a successful design and sign fabrication business following a health scare that reoriented his sense of purpose. He is self-taught, process-driven, and unafraid. His canvases are abstract explorations of the human condition, guided by intuition rather than preplanning. His work is held by galleries in Charleston, Aspen, and Tampa.
What he didn't have was a brand identity that matched the seriousness of that work. His existing website was bare and non-functional. He had no print materials. And as a self-taught artist who hadn't come up through the traditional fine art world, he needed something that gave him credibility without erasing the warmth, playfulness, and color that make his work distinct.
The design challenge was to hold both things at once.
Lettermark
The lettermark was designed to carry Dave's personality while reading as a serious fine art practice. Color, proportion, and typographic choice were all working toward the same balance: nothing so spare it felt cold, nothing so expressive it felt amateur.
The system needed to work across every context where Dave's name appears: a gallery bio sheet, a business card handed to an interior designer, a website visited by a collector.
Print Collateral
Postcards — designed for gallery distribution and direct outreach to interior designers and design centers.
Business Cards — extending the identity into face-to-face encounters at gallery openings and design events.
Bio Sheets — professional one-sheets introducing Dave to new gallery and design center relationships, providing the context that establishes credibility with institutions encountering his work for the first time.
Website
The previous site was bare and offered no functionality for galleries, collectors, or designers. The new site organizes Dave's work by gallery relationship, introduces his process and biography, and gives collectors and institutions a clear point of contact. The tagline "The process is the purpose" sets the register: this is an artist for whom the making is as meaningful as the finished object.
