My name is Dana and what I do is create. Recently, I decided to say goodbye to my old portfolio full of websites built before you were born. To say さよなら to print projects now being used to line hamster cages, arrivederci to album cover designs on media you can’t play on anything and au revoir to word-smithery for ancient mediums like magazines and direct mail.
Photo : Dana Whittle, c. 1984, © C. Cardina
of 2020, I turned 64, making it so much easier to sport trendy gray hair, for free. Being old experienced also means that I’ve acquired a broad range of skills, however, when I decided to give freelance job sites a go wearing my designer/web developer hats, I was in for a surprise – a flurry of algorithmically generated rejection emails that arrived mere seconds after I (truthfully) filled in my date of birth and clicked Submit. Seriously, what month did I start that job back in 1979? Come on. This adventure inspired me to write this article about ageism, also available on my podcast.
I have also maintained a lifelong career as a performing artist. COVID-19 changed all that overnight. For my band, touring is currently on hold and our carbon footprint isn’t. Luckily, I’ll be able to afford at least one cup of coffee with my combined earnings from streaming platforms. Being forced to just fucking slow down means that I now spend more time creating stuff like podcasts that live on Apple, Spotify, Google, etc., and music videos that live on my YouTube channel.
Photo ©2006 M. Savoie-Levac
I love words. And I like to write because my brain goes too fast when I talk, so I usually end up interrupting you (sorry!). You can read my various writings right here or over at medium.com/vizou.
Photo © Florian Klauer
Video Books / Livres © Dana Whittle
websites, content, stories, album covers, promotional material, logos, t-shirts and other merch, packaging, videos, audio recordings, podcasts, original music and lyrics. I love doing research and developing workflows for my clients, and on their behalf, I’ve tried out literally hundreds of apps, both online and off. I am (sometimes to my detriment) a total sucker for beta testing. The weirdest deliverable I ever made was a promotional coupon that resembled a five-dollar bill for a company that sold synthetic hair extensions. They hired male college students to visit strip clubs and tuck them into the g-strings of the dancers, their target market.
Click the little barcode thingy in the upper left corner to see more.
Hand-embroidered patch / Écusson brodé © Dana Whittle; Tradnation patch / écusson design Dana Whittle
drop me a line to discuss your project, especially if you want me to do something I haven’t done yet. For the record, I’ve always fantasized about naming shoe styles – imagine a distressed-leather flat called “Rowdy”, or “Faithful”, or maybe “Gonzesse”. You get the idea.
Photo : Grate with fresh snow / grille sous neige fraîche, © Dana Whittle