Born and raised in a small town in Iowa, I grew up being active in many activities including fishing, hunting, hiking and sports (especially baseball) but the one thing I was talented at from birth was drawing.  I would spend countless hours drawing whatever came to mind or any image I saw in front of me.  While only an elementary student at the time my talents would eventually attract the attention of high school art teachers. Those art teachers challenged me and nurtured my talents.  They inspired and guided my artistic development while encouraging me to go into art professionally.  After high school I studied art and design at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa where I achieved a bachelors degree while also playing collegiate baseball.  During and after college I worked for a variety of design and ad agencies as well as in-house marketing departments in Iowa and eventually in Colorado.  While still doing freelance during the mid 1990s I took a break from marketing to conquer the world of new business development as an account executive at a large printing firm.  While in sales I acquired the skills to effectively developed new business, maintain existing clients and hone my sales skills​. During this time I created many relationships with people who would ultimately facilitate the beginning of my own design business.  Take a look at my portfolio and allow me put this experience to work for your company!

What some of my ​clients and colleagues have to say about
​Joel Van Gundy Design.

​"Joel is one of those special designers who has an instinct for what will best capture attention from an intended audience. Easy to work with, he has an artist's flair without the fragile ego some artists possess. Joel goes the extra mile to understand the needs of a project and come up with the best possible solution, and that's what I expect from the talent I hire."

Walt Barnhart
Owner/president
Carnivore Communications
"Joel is a creative innovator with a long track record of good design and friendly team working. It was a joy to have him on my team."

Pete Alexander
Graphic Designer, Brand Champion
​“Joel has consistently done great work for us; he often takes abstract ideas or notions and creates amazing designs and illustrations that work wonderfully for our publications.  He is easy to work with and produces top quality items.  You won’t be disappointed when working with VanGundy Creative.”

Brian Novak
Director of Campus Activities
Johnson & Wales University
"I am an orthodontist and a pediatric dentist and practice both specialties.  It was a critical task to effectively communicate my unique niche.  We wanted people to understand what a dual specialist is and the tremendous advantage of staying in one specialized location for all their children's treatment.  Joel Van Gundy Design created the perfect icon/logo and followed up with the brochure that has been my primary source of new patients.  I continue to receive rave reviews regarding the classy and professional appearing brochure.  I would highly recommend Joel Van Gundy Design."

Josh Erikson
Erikson Orthodontics and
​Pediatric Dentistry
"I formerly worked for a public elementary school. We were starting a MicroSociety and needed to create a money system.  Joel was recommended to me to design, draw and create money while incorporating student drawings into his work. Not only did he create the best looking money I have ever seen, but he did it in a short amount of time, provided the proofs for me to use and DONATED his time and hard work to the school! Joel is so nice and easy to work with. He took our indecisive directions and turned them into an amazing vision!"
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Linda Stewart
Music Teacher
"I am thrilled with the logo that Van Gundy Creative designed for me.  There was a lot of communication between Joel and I to try and get the feeling, the mood, and the message that I wanted in my logo and this made it a custom and personal process.  I felt like Joel was pleased to listen and incorporate my thoughts into the logo and now I have a logo that I get complimented on all the time – and a logo that I love!"  

Dr. Gary Holt  
"Like any business interested in growth, it was critical to us to represent our products professionally through print advertising.  However, that process can be overwhelming and intimidating to small business owners.  My strength certainly is not graphic design and layout.

Thankfully we were introduced to Van Gundy Creative.  They immediately took an interest in our business, products and visions and began devising a potent strategy of logo design and print advertising.  That was nearly eight years ago, over which time; our business has grown over 20% per year.

We look forward to continued growth and effective advertising tools."

Shawn Killian
Planet Hockey
President/Lead Instructor
"Having worked with Van Gundy Creative for over five years, I can’t say enough about the quality of their work and extreme professionalism. Joel’s work for my dental clients has been innovative and always right on the mark; creating the business “branding” they’ve needed. He’s also very patient with new and established business owners allowing for more design flexibility than many other graphic artists I’ve known. Joel understands it’s difficult for someone opening (or growing) a business to verbalize what they want, and he’s an expert at converting their thoughts into stunning logos and effective marketing design pieces."

Pat Rosenzweig
Mosaic Management Professionals