Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Joe Borreson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Joe, appreciate you joining us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

My company name originated from a band I was in during my college years up at Humboldt State University, beside the redwood trees and rocky wind swept coast in Arcata, California. The singer and songwriter in the group was pretty obsessed with the band U2 at the time, and we took the line “dust cloud disappear” from a lyric in a well-known U2 song, on the well loved album Joshua Tree. When I was coming up with a name for my own business it came to me quick and easily because always liked things that have some sort of alliteration, like the UK songwriter who goes by the name Badly Drawn Boy, and I find a “Joe Borreson graphic design” to be terribly boring, so I went with Dust Cloud Design!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?

I was born and raised in the Napa Valley, the famous winegrowing region of California and am living back here now. I have been a graphic designer for 15+ years, and started in the newspaper industry building ads and then evolved to a 12 year in-house designer position at a PR and marketing firm in Napa which started my design career with ads, magazine layout collateral and lots of newsletters for well-known wine brands like Sterling Vineyards, Beaulieu vineyard and Beringer and that eventually lead to packaging and label design, which is my favorite type of work in the wine industry. Working in this area inevitibly means working in the wine industry to some degree. I also do branding & logo design for med. to small businesses in the area, but I have had a few Australian clients, and I am open to working in all industries, not just wine. I love how each client comes with a specific need and request, which to me is a very enjoyable puzzle to piece together for the end result, which hopefully solves the puzzle with everything locked in place for the client and ultimately with a bit of collaboration and my creative direction, making the client and me, equally happy!

And I feel like my prompt communication, and warm and friendly demeanor sets me apart from other designers —of the multitude to choose from in this industry — and tend to be streamlined and a quick worker, which clients often appreciate. My style tends to be on the more modern to clean, and open aesthetic, sometimes with with a slight touch of rustic elements mingled in there, which does suit my business name. I am most proud of some of the wine label designs I have done – in particular and B True and Antonym labels and my two design awards for innovative wedding invitation and package design for wine labels.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

I work primarily from referrals or just general web searches. Also a little bit of networking and when the ’what do you do for work’ chat when meeting new folks out about in the world.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice.

Personally I think NFTs are pretty silly and the fact that someone pays thousands, to hundreds of thousands of dollars for these little digital GIF’s is beyond me and totally baffling.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.dustclouddesign.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustclouddesign
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joeborreson