Artist Statement

I'm a designer and illustrator by profession and in spirit. While I've worked in other industries outside of design, I never left my passion for drawing and design behind and eventually returned, full-time, to design 8 years ago. My life goals include continuing my education (in the traditional and non-traditional sense) in the areas of new media and illustration, a mentor, and at service for others.

Currently...

For the past two years, I've been an instructor at Andrew University - in the field of Multimedia and Design. My primary focus in Web Design, but also teach Adobe Illustrator, Introduction to Drawing, and advanced topics classes - these have included: digital drawing and advanced web topics.I've always enjoyed being a mentor to younger kids - I've been a volunteer High School Basketball coach, guitar teacher, personal trainer for autistic youth, and taught art classes for Junior High and High School kids - and hope to continue this for the rest of my life by continuing my career as a Univeristy Professor. I'm attempting to develop the area of my program to be more accessible to online learning and develop the web design tract of our Graphic Design degree to be one of the best in the nation. Finally, I wish to improve upon my knowledge and critical thinking abilities by completing my Masters Degree in New Media in the near future.

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Please download a PDF my Curriculum Vitae

Process

While each project and client is different, my first priority is to know and understand the client's needs and their target audience through an initial Q & A session. Each project usually has four core phases that I follow:

Phase I: concept
After listening to the client's vision for their project, my activities include brainstorming, research, and doing a great deal of sketching. Tools include:
  • Researching design books and magazines (e.g. HOW and Communication Arts)
  • Design sites (e.g. CSS Based and css vault)
  • Sketchbook and/or grid paper
Phase II: pre-production design
I present the client with basic wireframe layout and/or preliminary sketches without color so the client can focus on the content of the material. My tools include:
  • InDesign [web/print]: Allows for rapid development of a wireframe layout. Establishing a grid layout is essential for either print or web and I've developed a number of layout templates to help in quick execution of prototyping a design
  • Painter X or Photoshop CS3 & Wacom Intuos 3 Drawing Tablet [illustration]: Allows for quick, clean, sketching and editing along with quick posting of digital concepts for clients to review.
Phase III: production design
Once the layout has been agreed upon, the production design (tools include: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Painter X) incorporates typography, color, and imagery. Tools in this phase include:
  • Photoshop CS3: Most web layouts are completely done in Photoshop due with a grid layout. While other tools are useful, Photoshop's components and community offer a great deal for the web designer. It's also an essential tool, along with a digital tablet, for illustrators needing to create custom artwork.
  • Illustrator CS3: Most icons and artwork calling for vector quality are made here. Some print pieces are completely done in Illutrator, while other projects only call for individual items to be done here and brought into othe applications (InDesign and Photoshop).
  • InDesign CS3: Excellent tool for print projects. InDesign's control over type, color, and images imported from other applications makes it an essential application for the print designer
  • Corel's Painter X: Painter allows me to quickly take any preliminary sketch and develop a finished piece in a short amount of time. It's powerful brushes and wide variety of tools makes working in mixed media a real pleasure.
Phase IV: media production
After the client signs off on the production design, I bring the final piece for the medium (online or print) it will reside. Tools include:
  • TextMate [web]: for all web projects, TextMate is one of the best text editors I've used. It's a lightweight, very stable, application that has a great amount of options for the web design coder.
  • Adobe Acrobat: With the amount of options that are available for pre-press output, there isn't a printer I haven't come across that hasn't been able to accept one of my files.