About Us bios
When Rob Barge, Catalyst’s Creative Director and Deacon of Design, was in the first grade, his teacher lined all the student’s desks up in front of a wide picture window, gave each kid a huge sheet of paper and a big red pencil and told them to draw what they saw in the schoolyard outside.
Rob drew Popeye.
Since that auspicious beginning, Rob has pursued a 25-year career as a designer, illustrator, art director and creative director. Rob's work has been recognized by numerous state, regional, national and worldwide design and press organizations, including the prestigious Society of News Design, Print Magazine, The Atlanta Advertising Club and the South Carolina Press Association (22 first place awards for design, graphics and illustration!).
Rob is a 1986 graduate of Auburn University (War Eagle!) whose travels have taken him through the hallowed halls of advertising, marketing, magazine illustration and major metropolitan newsrooms. He has applied his craft to jobs for such high-profile clients as The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games, Delta Airlines and the U.S. Department of Agriculture; to more humble efforts, such as in-house promotional materials for Waffle House (corporate), a logo for his brother’s hiking club and the corporate identity for a friend who moves trees for a living. To him it has all added up to a very fascinating journey.
A man of many interests, Rob enjoys baseball, motorcycling and playing his guitar (amazing the songs you can play with just three chords). A versatile designer/illustrator/creative powerhouse, he is as comfortable at the controls of his Mac as he is hunched over an old drawing board with a paintbrush in his hand. Of his work, Rob says, “When I draw a line, there's a bit of Beethoven in it and a bit of the Rolling Stones. You'd never know by looking at it, but that line contains the laughter of my son, the smell of my grandmother’s biscuits and moonlight from the deck of a sailboat. I’ve always imagined that as a designer and an artist, I’m like a bird. I gather broken twigs and little scraps of string and gum wrappers and I use all of that stuff to build my nest.”
When asked for the secret to his success, Rob says, “I’m strong to the finish, ’cause I eats me spinach.”
Rob lives in West Columbia with his wife Trisha (the world’s greatest pre-school teacher) and his son Spencer (boy genius).
