IN MY WORLD
Design is a sport
Professional Background
I began my career by designing primarly for the real estate, educational, scientific and home improvement industries where I created logos, books, tradeshow materials, ads, PowerPoint decks, and retail store & vehicle graphics.
To add to my skills, I returned to school for photography, then shot real estate agent portraits, Boulder County scenic photos for magazine ads and tons of musical instrument product photography. I also completed Front Range Community College’s Weblabs Boot Camp where I learned the basics of web design including CSS, HTML, WordPress, Javascript, PHP, GITHub, TowerGit, etc. I augmented that education with a web design internship at Insight Designs in Boulder. Over the past ten years, I’ve designed and created websites in WordPress, Shopify, Editor-X and Wix.
Prior to entering the graphic design realm, I was a pressman and, later, an outside sales rep./project coordinator/estimator for a very high-end, mid-level Boulder, CO printing company. In those roles, in addition, to paper types, ink varieties and printing add-ons (Like foil stamping, die-cutting, and embossing), I also learned the indepth technical aspects of offset printing, compelling artistic effects possible with the media and how to get the most out of printing process economically. I also learned estimating, project management and fell in love with customer service and being the laisson and trouble-shooter for my projects.
Augmenting my traditional graphic design skills, I also do a large amount production design because I enjoy production’s fast-paced nature and reliance on strong organizational proficiencies.
At a Glance:
PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND
- Over 25 years in Graphic Design
- Graphic Design & Production Design
- Website Design & Building (WordPress & Shopify)
- Product Photography
- Flawless Photo Retouching
- HTML & CSS Coding
- Offset Printing Expertise
- Project Management & Sales Background
- Primary Markets Served (so far...) Educational, Musical Equipment, Real Estate, Home Improvement, Food, B2B & B2C
WORKING STYLE
- Poised Under Pressure
- Friendly, Fun, Easy-Going
- Empathetic, Helpful Team Member
- Extremely Detail Oriented
- Dependability & Integrity
- Seemless Switching Between Skillsets
- Dogged Determination to Deliver
DELIVERABLES DESIGNED
- Social Media Ad Design
- Website Design & Code
- Logo Design
- Infographics
- PowerPoint Decks
- Corportate Collateral
- Catalog Design & Production
- Package Design
- Vehicle Graphics
- Exterior Signage
- Product Photography
- Tradeshow Materials
- Award-winning Email Blast Design
Design is a Sport
(Not Pictured)
I get an adrenalin rush from pushing to deliver better and better designs. I often have sports playing while I’m designing because it inspires me see athletes trying their hardest to give their best… I get it! I’m also inspired by the decades of Boulder, CO mountain biking I’ve done. I see parallels between the determination needed to crank out those last pedal strokes up a steep mountain trail, and the grit it takes to reach past the initial design concepts to find the really compelling ones.
I also push to learn new skills so that I always have more to offer. I started my graphic arts career in high-end printing as a pressman where I printed work by extremely talented designers. That experience was the bedrock for my understanding of layout and creating dynamic designs.
Over the last twenty-five years, I’ve been involved in designing for both print and web (utilizing CSS and HTML), and I also specialize in product photography. Although I do most of the work (branding, photography, design, production), in the past five years or so, I’ve also starting doing straight production art and I really enjoy the fast-paced nature of it (Talk about a rush!).
Primary Technology
The percentages, in the charts below, show relative amount of time of spent in each of programs. I’ve been using all the non-web related technologies, since 2000 and the web-related ones since 2015.
Photoshop100%
Illustrator100%
Indesign100%
POWERPOINT85%
HTML & CSS80%
WORDPRESS75%
Above is the primary technology that I use, but I’ve also used many others…
Acrobat, Distiller, Publisher, Quark, Excel, Constant Contact, Vertical Response, Wix, Shopify, WooCommerce, GitHub, Sublime Text, Flexbox, AfterEffects and I regularly work on both Mac & PC.