I’m Schweitz.

I’m Zachary Schweitzer and I provide creative strategy and graphic design services with the aim of marrying great concept with great execution. I believe that a great concept is one that is informed by your business’s values, competencies and goals. And I believe that great execution means aligning these unique qualities with impactful visuals that not only reach, but resonate with your audience.

If you’d like to discuss bolstering your brand, please get in touch.

A little bit of History.

I’ve been a huge hockey fan for as long as I can remember. When I was about seven years old I remember spending countless hours drawing new logos for every single team in the NHL. More often than not, these ‘re-brands’ amounted to using the ‘A’ in ‘Sharks’ as a fin or a poorly drawn crown as the icon for the L.A. Kings. Though bereft of concept, strategy and skill, I loved drawing and re-imagining these symbols that meant so much to me.
Symbols are powerful conveyors of emotion and meaning.

Fast forward a few years and I underwent a wildly life-changing event. I saw the movie Rock n Roll High School and instantly became engrossed with the Ramones. I had always been a pretty big music fan, but something about the opening chords to Sheena is a Punk Rocker playing over a cheeky, B-movie dance scene got into me and never got out. I went Bonzo for the ’77 sound and equally embraced the punk rock visual aesthetic. From flyers and Xeroxed ‘zines to the Black Flag bars, I loved it all.
The unorthodox and unique always trump the staid and common.

By the time I was in high school I was listening to punk rock records every day. I was also taking art class every day and enrolled in a class called Visual Communications. Everyone I knew took Vis Comm because you eventually got to design and screen print your own T-Shirts. This class gave me my first taste of Photoshop and Illustrator and also introduced me to the aforementioned screen printing, as well the chance to use light boxes, develop film, and run a small printing press. From the design through the production end of things, I loved every thing about it.
The tangible and tactile is memorable and meaningful.

With my new found passion for digital art, and my long standing love of drawing and music, I enrolled in the Canisius College of Buffalo, New York to pursue a degree in Digital Media Arts. I would eventually graduate Cum Laude from the Honors College after four years of art and design theory and studios, print design and production, traditional photography, animation, film study, web design, digital law and a 45 page honors thesis on Catholic social ethics in a globalizing world.
I must strive to not only be a well-rounded designer, but a well-rounded person.

In my last year of school I interned at Schneider Digital (now 15 Fingers, LLC), working in a boutique environment with an incredibly talented staff serving regional and national clients. After graduation I accepted an in-house position at Massaro Corporation. Charged with building the brand from the inside out, I performed all manner of strategy, design, art direction, and production for Massaro’s family of companies while also working extensively with the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. Along the way, I served as art director for the three flagship issues of Verdure Magazine and have performed design and strategy services for many great clients.
Hard work (and lots of it) is the key to success.

So why Schweitz instead of Schweitzer?

Around the same time that I was rabidly reproducing NHL logos, one of my uncles would take me to a Pens game every year for my birthday. I remember occasionally running in to friends of his there who would say “Hey Schweitz” when they saw him. In later years, I’d eventually hear just about all of my uncles, and occasionally my aunts and mother called Schweitz as well as a few select friends of mine referring to me as Schweitz. It’s a family name and it means a lot to me.