First, there was just Herb Harjes, doing some freelance design work. Then came h.designs, the full-time plunge into graphic design as the color of my parachute. And now, as of mid-2007, there is Harjes Design Haus, LLC.

However, as before, Harjes Design Haus continues to be Herb Harjes... owner, designer, creator of cool things, receptionist, and janitor.

Herb's design education culminated in a Master’s degree in Digital Media Studies from the University of Denver in 2003. At its core, the program emphasized meaningful and intentional design as the cornerstone of introducing your work (digital or otherwise) into the conversation. This means the solution to a project’s goals may or may not be the latest or flashiest technology. Either way, the best solution isn't just noise... it's an intentional act of design created to convey a specific message.

Herb’s professional background is varied. In addition, to the 2+ years as a full-time graphic designer, it includes over seven years of technical writing for software companies, as well as, stints in public relations, journalism, and the hotel industry. And just for fun, he can even claim to be an international bartender!

Graphic design can be done in any one of thousands of styles or schools of thought (or all of them at once, if you're a postmodernist), but the goal is always the same: to communicate a message. "Communicating a message" is perhaps one of the simplest of tasks and yet, at the same time, the one task that, in and of itself, holds the greatest number of potential obstacles to successful completion.

So that's how Harjes Design Haus can help you. Bringing together technical knowledge, design/communication theories, and a little chutzpah (it's an industry term) to remove as many obstacles as possible and make your message clear to your audience.