(252) 626-6031
An Introduction...
As you can see from my resume, I have spent many years in graphic design, multimedia and marketing. I have specialized more in the area of Web and multimedia because it suits me best. However, I have extensive experience in print design as well. I started in the days of stat cameras and hot waxing mechanicals on boards. I was hand coding websites long before Dreamweaver and Frontpage were invented. I now use Dreamweaver as my base development tool and do a lot of hand coding on top of that along with Flash, PHP, ASP and MySQL. I now design and produce complete intranet and content management systems and database-driven websites.
When I was very young, I was doing graphic design for school and other groups, but I didn't know it had a name. When I went to Penn State for Engineering, I still didn't know that graphic design was a "full-time job". So I ended up having a very bazaar career path, which goes something like this...
How I got here
By the time I got to high school in Erie, PA, I had already been skating (figure skating) for over 10 years. I went to the competitions, got lots of trophies, the whole thing. My favorite hobbies at the time were drawing and photography as well as anything athletic and fun. My Dad showed me how to develop film at home when I was about 10, and he did a little painting on the side as well which got me started in illustration. But I was also "engineeringly inclined". My first real job was a draftsman at a GE factory near my home, then I decided to take it further and become an engineer by attending Penn State. After three years, I was pretty brain-dead and needed some cash, so I decided to join a traveling ice show (Walt Disney's World On Ice) to make some money. I even took my physics books on the road for the first two years. While on the road, I performed in the shows, drove a semi-truck (18 wheels and all) and ended up as the performance director for the last few years. After nine years of living in hotels, I got married and got off the road and had to figure out what to do with myself.
So what does this have to do with anything?
I have always hated the thought that I might have spent so many years of my life on something that ended up as a complete waste. So I looked for something that would allow me to use all my experience somehow. A friend showed me the graphic design program at a local college in Gainesville, FL and it looked like a good start. It was the time of the Mac LC-III and the Quadra 840 would soon be out. My first computer was capable of capturing video (though not at today's standards) and I quickly jumped into interactive multimedia. I put myself into this career headlong, and my instructors asked me to come back and teach at the college, even before I graduated. (As an adult student, I was the "curve wrecker") My first jobs were at local agencies in Florida doing logo designs, brochures, photography and some tradeshow graphics. Good luck and timing were on my side as the internet just then became more readily available and I quickly started producing HTML websites by hand. I have since moved to CA as an Art Director and lead technology guru for a full service agency.
Here's how I see things coming together
My experience drawing and doing creative designs and logos since a very young age is obviously a benefit. My experience with photography also goes way back and was a huge benefit when doing model and product shots for brochures. My skating experience has taught me to "perform" in front of people and to get up when I fall down and keep going. I have no fear of speaking or performing in front of 10,000 people at Madison Square Gardens, or 5 people in a board room. As an engineer, I learned to program in Fortran and Cobal, so HTML, Javascript and all the other scripting languages came very easy (mind you, that was a few years before the first Mac ever came out!). This has also been a tremendous benefit for my high-tech clients in the Bay Area, since I actually understand what they're saying. My expertise from directing live shows has taught me to see things from the audience's point of view and how to "put on a good show". I view multimedia like working with live performers and clearly see the connection between images, text, motion and sound. And running a rehearsal of 60 skaters is a lot like being an Art Director. You have to be a coach, mentor, and "deal" with people's personalities. And most of all, you have to be able to demonstrate the work to them.
No skater is going to take lessons from someone who can't skate.
