About Us
In late 1995, Roger Sawhill started a company called Widows, Orphans & Dingbats. For the next 12 years, across two continents, he provided graphic design and graphics software training services to countless companies ranging from tool manufacturers to the FBI.
In 2007, Roger joined forces with Mark Braught, a successful illustrator, designer and art director, and created UnParalleled. Since that time we have provided design and strategic marketing services to companies big and small — with a focus on creative solutions to our client’s specific business challenges.
Over the years, UnParalleled, also known as UP, grew to be more than just a design studio, it became an idea studio. With that, we decided to change our name to UP-Ideas — more descriptive and, frankly, more fun.
OUR WORK encompasses an array of services: graphics and branding, packaging and merchandising, exhibitions and installations, signage and websites, advertising and communications, technical Illustrations and map making, illustration and type design.
OUR STRUCTURE reflects our conviction that great design cannot happen without passion, intelligence and personal commitment. We are the actual creators of the work and serve as the primary contacts for every client. Keeping it small reduces overhead and makes us more nimble to respond to client needs.
We enjoy what we do, so give us a chance to help your business.
Roger Sawhill
Being born to parents that both started out teaching at a business college seems like a very un-creative household to raise creative children. But looks can be deceiving.
My Mother’s life-long love for art grew and she eventually became a successful oil portraiture artist. My Father, an accountant by day, was very creative with hands-on solutions, in wood & metal, and was an amazing, outside the box, problem solver.
My brothers and I definitely inherited our creative genes, each in our own areas.
Strangely, by age 12, I knew I wanted to design logos. What 12 year old wants to design logos? I completed my first paid freelance job in 10th grade by airbrushing out the background of a photo for a business advertisement. I’ve been working in this industry ever since — but it really has changed over the years.
In 1990, I was introduced to the Mac and the trajectory of my career changed. We went from hand-inked boards to digital layouts. Triangles, t-squares, and X-acto knives to Adobe Illustrator. Airbrushes to Photoshop.
At the start of 1991, as I started freelancing, I was asked to teach an Adobe Illustrator class at a corporate computer training center. This turned into a parallel career of designing and teaching. I have been teaching ever since, even while having regular design clients. Best estimates put the number of students I have trained at over 5,000. I continue to teach one day a week at The Creative Circus in Atlanta, and for the last 15+ years, that teaching has focused mainly on trademark design. In any given week, I will review 900+ logo thumbnails, over 100 tight comps and 20+ final logo designs.
It seems I got my parent’s teaching genes, too.
In my career I have worked at design firms, as an in-house designer for manufacturers and printers, freelance, and as a business owner. Clients have ranged from small start-ups to Fortune 500 companies that span a wide range of industries: food, B2B, manufacturing, printing, interior design, packaging, tech, recruiting, financial, industrial, fashion, government, charity, automotive, exhibition, and consumer goods.
I enjoy the challenge of learning a customer’s business and industry to help them find solutions to their business challenges. The bottom line is that we are there to support our clients, make their business’s better, and improve their ability to communicate to their customers. Outside of work hours, my mind is always churning on current projects that we are working on — design is a way of life, not a job.
We have come up with many solutions for our clients that are far outside of the “design” envelope. We’ve developed databases to exponentially reduce production time on annual advertising directories, designed and built photo-booths for client’s internal photography efforts, and developed shortcuts for client’s manufacturing facilities.
I’ve been at this for many years and I love my job. I love the design side, but I also love the technical side. Figuring out how to make something work given the limitations at hand (dollars, materials, time). Making it the best it can be. A good idea is only as good as the execution that displays it. Sadly, many people let the execution fall flat — either through lack of knowledge, or worse, disinterest. I’ve made it my business to learn about different production processes — offset printing, screen printing, color balancing, foil stamping, embossing, die cutting, flexography, label application, large format printing, etc. — so that I can work with the process instead of against it.
Mark Braught
Mark Braught studied graphic design at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design and graduated with a BFA from Indiana State in 1979. He has lived and worked in Georgia since 1991. He joined Roger to create, what is now, UP-Ideas in 2007.
Mark’s wide-ranging experience encompasses the design of books, identities, packages, collateral, exhibitions and illustration. His clients have included IBM, General Housewares, Churchill Downs, Warner Brothers, the State of Indiana, Cincinnati Zoo, the Women’s League of Indiana, Citibank, ProServe, The PanAm Games, and AT&T.
Braught’s work has been recognized and received numerous awards from the NY Art Director’s Club, Communication Arts magazine, Print magazine, Society of Illustrators (NY and LA), Graphis, and numerous regional and local organizations.
He has served as the President of the Indiana Art Directors Club, Board member for the Graphic Artist Guild (Indiana), member of the Society of Illustrators, member of the Society of Typographic Arts, member of Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and the Illustrators Partnership of America.
Mark has lectured at institutions and organizations across the country and has taught at the University of Georgia, Portfolio Center, IvyTech, Hollins University and the Creative Circus