IN MY MIND

Man running with mouse in his hand

Design is a sport

I’m sure that not everyone relates to this, but the rush I feel when I’m pushing to produce my best graphic design work reminds of the feeling I get when I’m going for it on a long run or tough mountain bike ride. When I’m getting started on a new design project, it’s just work, process and self-belief. But as the design starts to take shape and pulls me in, and I feel myself pushing past the internal barriers, it gives me an endorphin rush similar to a good work-out. So, in that way, graphic design, to me, feels like a sport that I love doing.

Professional Background

I started out in the printing industry as a pressman for a company that catered to the high-end agencies in the Boulder/Denver area. The job was a blend of physical & technical demands combined with a hyper-focused commitement to faithfully reproducing the beautiful artwork with which we’d been entrusted. With the incredibly high standards and long hours, I learned the patience and grit it required to produce high-end production art. Through the submersion of printing sophisticated designs everyday, I also what would become the foundation for my understanding of layout, compositional balance, typography, color, and design. In addition, after leaving the pressroom, I was an outside sales representative/estimator/project manager/customer service person where I really enjoyed being the liasson between my customers and our production team.

Inspired by what I’d learned, I went back to school and got my degree in graphic design from the Art Institute of Colorado. I later returned to school for front-end web design (WordPress, Shopify, Slider Revolution, HTML and CSS) and studio photography. As a designer, I’ve designed and produced designs for print, web, social, trade shows and retail. As a photographer, I’ve shot local scenics for magazine ads, and also done quite a bit of product photography. In the past 7 years, I’ve been concurrently doing production design work because I like the fast-pace, the need for strong organization, and the requirement to know and practice numerous skills.

Most recently, I’ve just started to learn and integrate AI into my workflow which, just in a short-time, has been incredibly productive. I’m using Adobe FireFly at the moment because it produces legal artwork, has great capability and dovetails with the Adobe Suite.

MY SKILLS

Graphic Design

Production Design

Web Design
WordPress & Shopify

Product Photography

Professional Photo Retouching

HTML & CSS Coding

Offset Printing Expertise

Project Management & Sales

Primary Markets Served: Educational, Musical Equipment, Real Estate Home Improvement, Food, Counseling, B2B & B2C

WORKING STYLE

Analytical

Problem-Solver

Friendly & Easy-Going

Empathetic & Helpful Team Player

Detail Oriented

Dependable

Operate with Integrity

Seemless Transitioning Between Skillsets

Committed to Quality

Strong Work Ethic

DELIVERABLES DESIGNED

Social Media Ads

Websites (and coding)

Logos

Infographics

PowerPoint Decks

Corportate Collateral

Catalogs

Packaging

Vehicle Graphics

Exterior Signage

Product Photography

Tradeshow Materials

Email Campaigns

Primary Technology

Percentages spec’d below represent the approximate percentage of my career spent with these different technologies & skills.

Adobe Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Acrobat, Bridge)100%
Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel)100%
Front-End Web Design (WordPress, Shopify, HTML & CSS)60%
G-Suite (Docs, Sheets, Slides, Gmail)40%
Studio Photography30%
AI (Firefly)1%

Above is the primary technology that I use, but I’ve also used many others…
After Effects, Distiller, Constant Contact, Vertical Response, Wix, Weebly, Magento, Dreamweaver, C-Panel, FileZilla, Slider Revolution, Google Inspect, Editor-X, WooCommerce, GitHub, Sublime Text, Slack, Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Monday.com, SmartSheets. I also regularly work on both Mac & PC platforms.