Such a Momma's Boy.

PRINT AND DIGITAL DESIGN

Better Know a Designer

Momma’s Boy Design is me, Justin Wolta, and a small, rotating cast of talented designers, developers, writers, and illustrators. I live and work in Chicago, IL, USA. I'm keen for bikes, beer, pearl snap cowboy shirts, kittens, and swears grids, typography, and hand-drawn wireframes. I've designed websites, magazines, posters, fliers, and logos hyping authors, bands, blogs, concerts, ski resorts, monster truck rallies, and hot tubs. Needless to say, I fully and enthusiastically endorse all of the above.

Portfolio

Confession: Self-promotion makes me feel so so skeevy. How about you just flip through my portfolio and decide for yourself if I'm the kind of designer you'd like to work with? After, if you'd like to chat, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Close Me!

sleepover 2.0

Website design

It's not what you think. This was a sophisticated sleepover. The ladies of SO2.0 spent the night talking technology and social media, interacting with viewers, and generally having a blast. This was a super fun project for me to work on and I was proud to be a part of the experiment.

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  sleepover 2.0

  Website design

  It's not what you think. This was a sophisticated sleepover. The ladies of SO2.0 spent the night talking technology and social media, interacting with viewers, and generally having a blast. This was a super fun project for me to work on and I was proud to be a part of the experiment.

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  timothyschaffert.com

  Website design

  The online home of novelist (and then some) Timothy Schaffert. Timothy is one of the most talented, generous, encouraging, and inspiring folks I've ever had the pleasure to meet. He's a staggering talent and such a joy to collaborate with, and much of the work I'm most proud of has been the fruit of our partnership.  timothyschaffert.com 

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  amyguth.com

  Website design

  If it seems like I work with a lot of writers, it's because I do. By and large, I find them to be a very kind, funny, gracious lot who always seem to have a dozen brilliant ideas swimming around in their heads and rarely turn down an invitation to spend a night, as they say, in the cups. My kind of people, indeed.  amyguth.com 

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  fitness fox

  Website design

  Fitness Fox is imagined as a highly knowledgable, non-treatening way to buy home fitness equipment designed to serve a market segment turned off by the intimidating, high-pressure tactics common to the industry. The Fitness Fox website is slated to launch later this year.

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  pilcrow lit fest

  Website design

  The short-lived but white-hot brainchild of author Amy Guth, Pilcrow was a breath of fresh air to the then-disjointed Chicago literary scene a few years ago. It's difficult for me to express how exciting and inspiring it was to participate in a project that was met with such enthusiasm from the community it was designed to serve.  pilcrowlitfest.com 

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  maud casey

  Website design

  Maud Casey is another very talented author I am extremely happy I got to work with. This site was designed to coincide with the release of her third novel, Genealogy.  maudcasey.com 

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  booze is my momma

  Website/blog design

  Once upon a time—say, 2002, when blogs were still mostly just finding their footing—I fancied myself something of an amateur music critic. I reviewed records, recapped shows, and interviewed bands on this foul-mouthed site I'd cobbled together with my then-rough web design skills (no Wordpress themes for this guy!). Nowadays I don't get to as many rock shows as I used to but the BIMM archives serve as a warts-and-all chronicle of my loud nights and bleary days mixing it up with indierock royalty in the early aughts.

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  mbd version 1

  Website design

  I've redesigned MBD HQ countless times since I first hung my digital shingle. Bored with what's there? Redesign it. Have no plans on a long weekend? Redesign it. Saw a new technique and want to try it out? Redesign it. This is the first incarnation of my site and while I don't necessarily work in that style much anymore, I think it really holds up even all these years and iterations later.

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  mbd, fourth edition

  Website design

  See? This is what I'm talking about. This is version 4.0. I've since replaced the Flash portfolio flipper with a much better looking and functioning one built in jQuery and deleted the Twitter feed from this page on account of it being full of swears and bad jokes. Photography of me, by me. Talk about talented!

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  emergency dental omaha

  Website redesign

  Site launching soon. Check back for updates.

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  linda saracino

  Website redesign

  Given all the authors I work with, it makes sense that I'd also count a top-shelf copy editor among my clients. Linda wanted a simple site where her work and experience could speak for themselves. I took cues for this design from some printed collateral she had to ensure a seamless marketing presence online and off.  lindasaracino.com 

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  omaha pulp

  Alt-weekly cover design

  When I left the Reader to join Pulp, it was for the chance to work with some of the sharpest, most creative, most fun people I've ever met. Pulp was far too short-lived and most days felt like we were working without a safety net but the ideas born there and the creative output that resulted from those ideas were some of the strongest of my career. It's a shame not everyone gets to work in such a situation, even for just a minute but preferably every day.

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  omaha pulp

  Alt-weekly cover design

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  omaha pulp

  Alt-weekly cover design

  &nsbsp;

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  windy city sports magazine

  Editorial layout

  I spearheaded the design of the section commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Chicago Marathon for Windy City Sports. In 1977 racers ran in cotton t-shirts and enjoyed a post-race beer courtesy of sponsor Budweiser. 30 years later the race was backed by an international financial corporation and most finishers sported technical fabric gear that cost more than my rent. Crazy! Kind of like using Indesign to lay out this section instead of old-school paste-up, I guess.

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  windy city sports magazine

  Editorial layout

  Feature layout profiling several New York Road Runners members.

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  metro sports new york magazine

  Editorial layout

  Feature section highlighting the 2007 New York City Marathon. Knockout and Poynter. ING Orange and Blue. Top and notch.

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  rocky mountain sports magazine

  Editorial layout

  2007 version of the annual Rocky Mountain ski guide, including resort features, product reviews, and interviews.

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  (downtown) omaha lit fest

  Editorial layout

  A companion piece to the 2009 poster, this supplement ran in the Omaha Reader, a sponsor of the Lit Fest and a wonderful publication I called home for three years in the early 2000s.

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  (downtown) omaha lit fest

  Poster

  The theme of Lit Fest V (Schaffert's Revenge) was inspired by the weird, wonderful world of storybook fairy tales. You wouldn't think Brussels sprout green and intestinal mauve would work together, but here they totally do.

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  (downtown) omaha lit fest

  Poster

  The inaugural (d)olf. No one involved had and idea what the event was going to be and how it would be received—the poster designer included. When in doubt, collage that bitch out!

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  (downtown) omaha lit fest

  Poster

  Year Two of the (downtown) omaha lit fest. The curators must have been pleased with the previous year's work because they asked me back a second time—an invitation I was only too happy to accept.

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  (downtown) omaha lit fest

  Poster

  2007, wherein my obsession with vintage typewriters was born.

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  (downtown) omaha lit fest

  Poster

  One of my personal favorites. So simple, yet perfectly captured the theme of the 2008 event.

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  (downtown) omaha lit fest

  Poster

  I'd be lying if I said this design wasn't inspired by Mad Men, but really, what wasn't in 2009? I have a house full of skinny ties, empty bourbon bottles, and imploded relationships thanks to that show.

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  kurtz and augenlicht, llp

  Logo design

  How does that one Good Life song go? "Lawyers need logos?" Is that right? Well, whatever, these guys are cool.

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  iphone app

  Icon

  I have this grocery shopping list app that I love and use all the time but whose default icon leaves a lot to be desired, so one afternoon I whipped up this replacement using Andy Warhol's soup can as inspiration.

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  a sunday driver

  Screenprint

  I remember a story Ben Gibbard once told about his best songs often taking the least amount of time to write and I can attest that axiom holds true for art as well. I'd estimate this illustration took maybe ten minutes from concept to completion and I knew right away it was a winner. Surely the tens of dozens of Silverlake hipsters who bought the shirt and made it a top seller for fashion designer Angel Quintara in 2003 agreed.

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  nebraska summer writers conference

  Logo/Screenprint

  If you grew up in a certain time, in a certain part of the country, and of a certain economic status, few objects are as definitively summer as the classic nylon webbed lawn chair. Connecting the dots from this client to this imagery was just too obvious. And in my book, obvious and apt trumps clever and abstruse any day.

Work History: a Timeline, the Infographic

Since graduating with my degree in Graphic Design way back in the previous century, I've plied my trade for all manner of outifts and organizations: daily newspapers, weekly bar rags, glossy monthly magazines, in-house marketing departments; for-profits, non-profits, not-for-profits, and the occasional money pit; multinational tech companies and tiny, close-knit startups, and maybe someday even YOU.

This Designer’s Toolbox

I won't bore you with a bulleted list of every software I've ever touched. 98% of the work I do uses the tools at right—not including good ol' pen and paper for thumbnails and wireframes. Some software I can use with my eyes closed, others I'm enjoying the challenge of learning, but all have a permanent home in my dock (left side of my monitor, hidden, genie effect, always).

Client Map

I've had the pleasure of working with talented, creative people doing really inspiring projects all across the country. I don't know what that has to do with anything, what with email and teleconferencing basically cancelling out distance, but that map over yonder was pretty fun to make and looks cool, yes? Yes.