Alice Design is a multi-disciplinary design studio of two. We design books, print collateral, identities and websites for non-profits and clients connected with the arts. Typography has our passionate attention as well as everything else it takes to visually tell a story. We live for the design opportunities client relationships bring us. Our experience of doing and teaching keeps us nimble and engaged. We love our work.
Margo Halverson’s love of words together with the narrative power of the photographic image led her to the world of typography and graphic design. She received her BFA and MFA in photography from Arizona State University where post-grad she studied graphic design with Rob Roy Kelly. Margo was sole proprietor/designer of Halverson Design from 1983–1998; she has taught graphic design at Arizona State University; was an art director for Morgan & Company, Phoenix, AZ; and a designer at IBM, Boca Raton, FL prior to moving to Portland, Maine. She is co-founder of DesignInquiry and a Professor of Graphic Design at Maine College of Art & Design. She grew up in North Dakota and after moving to the east from Arizona, she still misses living in grids.
Charles Melcher studied graphic design at Yale University School of Art to broaden and amplify his experience making ideas come to life in visual form. His first professional connection to communication comes from his experience teaching creative writing since 1991 while he exhibited his photography nationally and internationally. He is currently Professor of Graphic Design at Maine College of Art & Design where he has been chair of the graphic design department. He received his BFA in photography from Massachusetts College of Art, his MFA in graphic design from Yale. Charles continues to do commercial and personal photography, teach writing, and together with Margo raised Jack and Cora, now young adults, and several standard poodles; Alice, Obi and now Archie.
Partners
We often work with type designer and Maine College of Art colleague Mark Jamra of TypeCulture on our identity projects. Mark brings a mastery of type design to wordmarks that are hand-crafted to resonate with each brand's personality. He is the designer of the internationally known typefaces such as Alphatier™, Expo Sans™, Expo Serif™, Jamille™, Kinesis®, Latienne™, and Tacitus™.
Design Awards
Some believe they matter. We don’t so much though we admit that our design work has been recognized by some pretty impressive organizations:American Association of Museums
New England Museum Association
Communication Arts
Print Magazine
Print Casebooks
American Corporate Identity
Potlatch Paper Design Award of Excellence
Beckett Paper
Mohawk Paper
Graphis Typography
Work Featured in Prominent Collections
Margo and Charles have photography and graphic design work in the collections:
National Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, NY
Photographers Gallery, London
Museum of Modern Art, NYC, NY
Maine Museum of Photographic Art
Northlight Gallery, ASU, Tempe, AZ
George Eastman House, Rochester, NY
Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ
Boston Public Library Department of Prints, Boston, MA
The Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME
Partial
client list
Books & Artist Catalogs
Aperture Foundation
Bates College Museum of Art
Bowdoin College Museum of Art
ICA at Maine College of Art
Houghton MIfflin Harcourt
MIT Press
Nuttall Ornithological Club
Portland Museum of Art
Princeton University Press
San Antonio Museum of Art
Shelburne Museum
Tilbury House Publishers
University of New England
Collateral
American Institute of Architects
Angela Adams
Architalx
Brahms Mount
DesignInquiry
Gulf of Maine Aquarium
ICA at Maine College of Art
Maine College of Art
Muskie School of Public Service
Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts
Branding
Architalx
The Black Factory; William Pope.L
Barba and Wheelock Architecture
Brahms Mount
CIEE
Florida Gulf Coast University
Mark White Furniture Design
Monaghan Woodworks
Oak Point Associate
Portland Society of Architects
Richardson and Associates
Studio Mnemosyne Architecture
Truro Center for the Arts
Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts
Portrait Photography
Yale University
Northwestern University
Mohawk Paper
Websites
Alison Hildreth
Jenshel/Cook Photography
Margaret Nomentana
Oak Point Associates
Judy Glickman Lauder Photographer