LUKE MEDINA  
Hi, I’m Luke. 
I'm a graphic designer based in Washington, DC. I work across brand and campaign but to my core I just enjoy playing with images.

Open to your projects, hmu.


HOMESAY HI@DUKELUKENUKEM

Previously @

NPR_2017-26
Redscout_2022-23
Paperwhite Studio_2016-17
Viacom_Summer 2015

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Graphic Design, BFA
Maryland Institute College of Art, 2016
DukeLukeNukem_03
07_28_2026
Cherry

Nothing deeeeeeeply profound here. Just messing around while listening to Cherry by Naomi Scott and using footage I took from seeing her perform. Thought it would be fun to take a stock photo of a cherry and just play around. Nothing serious.
DukeLukeNukem_04
07_24_2026
A revisiting of sorts

Earlier this summer I was digging through boxes during some cleaning and found a project from college. A film class assignment, something I never took as seriously as my studio work at the time. Finding it again wasn’t so much nostalgia but more like proof of something I’ve been circling for years just not able to fully articulate.

The project used transparent prints that you could hold up to the world and see through, layering what was designed on the page with whatever was actually behind it. The act of flipping through was the point as much as any single image. You weren’t just looking at pages, you were keeping time or witnessing it, charting your path through it a page or multiple at a time.

I hadn’t thought about this project in years and coming back to it now, older, feels like an acknowledgement to myself that I am infact a practicing artist—imposter syndrome has always plagued me, I’m sorry.. The found object and the act of finding it were doing the same thing: Both are what happens when you hold something old up to the present and see what image the two make together.  

Designing professionally hasn’t always fully clicked for me in the way I feel like it does so naturally for others. I’m envious because I love it all, the cool websites, sexy identity systems from all the hot studios, gorgeous merch, just the way it both boldly and quietly shapes culture without most people noticing it’s even there. None of that is fake for me but it’s also not the sole reason I create. Underneath all of it, design has always been a way I process what’s actually happening to me. My likes, my dislikes, getting older if you will lol. The things I’ve kept and let go. This project in a way is that, a page held up to a life.

I don’t know exactly yet where it’s going, but I’ve been reworking this one and hope it comes together one day to share. I know its still transparencies, still layering, still the act of looking through one thing to find another, a prototype.

You can drag the pages below, btw.



DukeLukeNukem_03
07_16_2026
CONFESSIONS II (DukeLuke’s Version)
I love this album so I had to dig into its visuals for a quick illustration, my special edition lol Madonna means every thing to me so to see her return with another boundary pushing album this far into her career is nothing short of fucking cool.  What I love about this era is that she didn’t half ass it, she showed the new girls how its done. So here I offer my own take happily inspired by Special Offer’s creative direction.
DukeLukeNukem_02
07_15_2026
Duke Luke’s Diner
I’m sure many designers have seen the ai flyers out there and it got me inspired to do a design sprint. So, over two days whenever I was free I led with my instincts. I come to you with some sort’ve sci-fi noir Chili’s rival that’s got a couple locations in a distant future. While this one is not fully realized, you can absolutely afford a couple extra hours to make an original restaurant brand and it will be better people!


On those flyers in general, I mean I guess? I can’t say I’m surprised. We only know to cut the corners of the world, a tale as old as time. I’m ngl, the AI flyerification of food would not deter me from getting some tots. $13 though?!?

DukeLukeNukem_01
07_03_2026
Despite Myself (Reprise)
Just a quick exploration on motion and transparency using scraps from my piece Despite Myself 2025—despite myself lol.

Every couple of years I do a self-portrait of some sort. It’s a way to check in with myself, see how I’ve grown, where I’m at mentally. I’m rarely photographed otherwise. This print is twelve selfies, one a month, looking back on a year that was difficult. Most selfies just end up on a grid and get forgotten. They are admittedly a robotic act at this point, so I guess I wanted to slow that down. I redrew each one by hand and screen printed it. There’s a narcissism to documenting yourself like this, that’s where the title comes from. Despite Myself, because I still showed up every day. Still took the photo, still made the print.

It was a hard year, Luke.