Client: HueMan Shelter— Stand By Me + Hear | Here
Work: HueMan — Stand By Me + Hear | Here
My work for HueMan gave me the opportunity to bring together two sides of my creative practice: illustration and graphic design. As part of the project, I helped create Stand By Me and Hear | Here, two public artworks designed for METRO bus shelters along the Milam Street corridor in Midtown Houston.
Because these pieces existed on functioning bus shelters, I approached them differently than I would a traditional mural or illustration. I used my background in graphic design to think about the entire space as a composition—how someone would experience the artwork while walking by, waiting for the bus, driving past it, or actually using the shelter.
For Stand By Me, I used illustration and visual storytelling to create a piece centered around ambition, perseverance, support, and the idea of continuing to move forward. The artwork also had to function beyond being visually engaging. I thought about hierarchy, placement, scale, color, messaging, and how resources and information could become part of the overall design without taking away from the artwork.
Hear | Here allowed me to explore that relationship between art and design even further. Working with the handwritten poetry of Outspoken Bean, I used illustration and graphic design to help build a visual environment around his words. Instead of treating the poetry and artwork as separate elements, I wanted them to communicate with each other. The typography, illustrations, colors, and composition were designed together so that the shelter itself became part of the storytelling.
My understanding of design helped shape both pieces from beginning to end. I wasn't only thinking about what the illustrations looked like; I was thinking about how information was communicated, how people moved through the space, what they would notice first, and how the artwork could live naturally within the architecture of a bus shelter.
That was one of the most important parts of this project for me. These weren't artworks that people had to enter a gallery to experience. They existed within everyday life, turning places people normally pass through into spaces for storytelling, reflection, and conversation.
Through Stand By Me and Hear | Here, I was able to use illustration, graphic design, typography, and public space together to help tell stories about resilience, dignity, community, and the lived experiences of people impacted by homelessness.
I think this version represents your role much better because it establishes that you weren't simply commissioned to put illustrations on bus shelters. You were functioning as an artist + designer, thinking about the entire visual system and how the public would experience it. That distinction is important for positioning your larger public-art practice. HueMan:Shelter
