Arley McBlain: Designer
The profound benefits of doodling in solitude.
Like most designers, Arley doodled as a child; his school notebooks, pencil and ink tapestries chronicling his Peanuts-like elementary school universe. Like most young artists, Arley came to embrace the solitude that the creative process requires, making him a natural for—you guessed it—computers. Fast-forward to the Graphic Design Production program at Canadore College, then to post-graduate work in multimedia, then to a seven-year stint at a marketing firm, then a few years grinding it out on the freelance circuit, throw in marriage and fatherhood and then—Thrillworks!
By the way, it must be told—and this is not a word of lie—that several of Arley’s clients have told him that he’d struck them as being the happiest person in the world. Arley is always smiling, this is true. Then again, someone who describes himself as “the pale nerd,” and “the Bruce Lee of Adobe Illustrator” should be a chronic smiler, right? Right. Other interests include tea, the bass guitar, video games and house cleaning.