Chris Mcmillen is a family man
Chris Mcmillen can be described as a man who loves his family, a man who enjoys playing golf, and a man who enjoys watching the Mississippi State Bulldogs play.
During the week, Mcmillen is also the design and layout lead for Starkville Daily News (SDN), meaning he is the one who lays out the paper each issue.
From the design aspect, Mcmillen utilizes his 15 years of graphic design experience to make the SDN visually appealing every day, and the July 1 paper, the day after MSU won its first national championship, is a solid example.
“Obviously, it makes me feel good knowing that what I designed is going to be on so many Mississippi State fans’ walls, but it’s even better knowing that I consciously made the decision for the design to be based on being on walls,” said Mcmillen. “It’s going to be something they’re going to want to see forever, so it was absolutely important to make sure that the front page was just about winning the national title, and that way, everybody is going to want one. Luckily, it worked out to where everybody wanted one.”
It’s not just the front page of the July 1 newspaper that Mcmillen went all out for.
Every significant MSU achievement, every significant SDN issue, or even every front page is a work that Mcmillen really gets creative with, and he gives thanks to his years of experience he gained since graduating from MSU in 2006.
“With about 15 years of working in graphic design, I worked for four years at a marketing, t-shirt/product company. During my time there, we were handling the advertising for Eat With Us, so Harveys, Bulldog Deli, Sweet Peppers, and the Grill,” said Mcmillen. “I was able to learn a lot from the people there on just how to create simple, but good design. That’s all it is really; it’s just taking what I’ve learned over the years, and applying it every night to the paper.”
Outside of his work, Mcmillen enjoys spending time either by playing golf or spending time with his family.
“I like to play golf a lot, I also like to attend every sporting event possible either at MSU or Starkville High School, whether it’s to take photos for the paper or not, I still want to go out there to any of those games. I also love to spend time hanging with my kids and my wife,” Mcmillen said.
Mcmillen particularly enjoys spending time with his wife Carrie and their two kids Paxton, who is about to turn five, and Mallory, who just turned two – whether it be going to MSU sporting events or just going to parks.
“We go to all MSU sports together, but we’ll also go to the refuge and go out to the little pond out there where the kids love feeding the fish and the turtles. We also like to go to the chapel on campus where the fountain is next to that,” said Mcmillen. “It’s mainly centered around what the kids want to do, and that’s perfect. It’s pretty much just family being family, just doing stuff to where the kids can have as good of a time as possible.”
If you see Chris around town, make sure you tell him hello.