It’s “cheeg” (rhymes with “league”) and the pronunciation of his last name is just one of many fascinating and unusual dimensions of Dave’s life and story. The owner of an independent Hartford-based design studio, Dave is a graphic designer, art director and illustrator with an extensive and impressive professional portfolio. But what also sets him apart is another outlet – his interest in farming, and specifically, in growing one of the world’s oldest, healthiest, beloved, enigmatic crops – garlic.

What goes best with garlic? Most people will tell you there’s only one answer to that question: “Everything.” And while Dave doesn’t disagree, he said that understanding his interest in these seemingly disparate pursuits – graphics and garlic, as it were – is a little more complicated. “It's about connecting with people through joy,” he said. As a designer, Dave said his greatest satisfaction comes from the collaborative process, from working closely with a client and creating a solution that they become equally enthused about. “There’s a joy in that,” he said. As for garlic? “So many people love it,” he said. “They may like onions, or tomatoes. But garlic? That’s just different and I enjoy sharing their excitement.”

Born in Illinois but raised in Connecticut, Dave’s interest in design began in high school when he used Adobe PhotoShop to create digital art for fun. He majored in graphic design and graduated summa cum laude from Northeastern University and during internships worked on projects for big-time clients including the Boston Symphony Orchestra and MIT. After graduating he spent two years with Stoltze Design Group, a nationally recognized agency in Boston but, wanderlust being what it is, decided to travel the country and then move to Colombia (as in, South America) to study Spanish and live abroad. He was there in March 2020 when the specter of COVID brought him back to his family in Connecticut.

Dave has always been interested in cooking, food and health, and as the pandemic waned he took a seasonal job at a farm in nearby Granby that grew lots of garlic – popular for its medicinal and nutritional properties as well as … oh that taste! He later reconnected with an old high school friend and together they have started their own business using leased land and come June will be harvesting their crop – which is three times bigger than it was when they began, because garlic growers both sell heads but also plant their own cloves each year. In the meantime Dave still has his design work (which he’d been doing on a freelance level all along, for over a decade). His website pops, with bright, bold, sharp examples of his work and the services he offers run the gamut – branding, packaging, type design, wayfinding, you name it. He said it’s especially fun when he works with clients whose interests align with his, which includes pretty much anything good for body, heart and soul. Garlic, of course, offers myriad benefits and for Dave that includes the boost that he's gotten just from starting the business, what with the risks and challenges and questions. “It’s exciting,” he said, and has big plans for, well, growing the business – increasing the number of cloves planted each fall (a hard frost is the key to growth) and thus the yield in the summer. He knows that the work isn't easy but years from now he won't look back and wonder What If? “I won't have any regrets.”