Employment History
If you were to ask anyone what their passion is, their answer would probably be limited to one or two things. I'm a bit different in that regard and have several passions that I couldn't narrow down to one favorite if I tried. In case you're wondering, my passions are art and sclupture, computers and technology, software (Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator specifically), web design and internet technology, photography, and motorcycles. If you're wondering what all this has to do with the positions that I've held and the job that I do, my answer is: EVERYTHING.
My interests, hobbies and side projects all have a place in the work that I do for clients. One of my side projects, RoadGear Components, is a company that I started to design and produce motorcycle parts. It started with a new kickstand that I invented and patented, then expanded to other custom parts and prototypes.
As I design for clients, I draw inspiration, style and technique from all areas of art and design; this could be anything from a classic Roy Lichtenstein piece to the latest trend in web design. Designing for clients means having to be versatile and able to design in styles other than my own, and to do that I need to always be aware of what's new. You never know what your next assignment may be, and a good knowledge of what other people are doing is key to being current and staying ahead.
I'm a Tech Geek, always checking out the latest trends in gadgets and technology. When a new iPod comes out, I gotta have it. If trends in web design shift, I find out what's behind it and try to incorporate it into my own. New software, hybrid cars, solar energy… Whatever it is, if it's new technology, I want to know about it. Maybe this sounds like obsessive fascination and curiousity (and it is!), but when it comes down to the constant demand from clients to be innovative in marketing their brands, knowing what's current and cutting edge is crucial to tapping in to people's interests and needs.
141 Worldwide / Ogilvy & Mather Chicago, Illinois | August 1999 - August 2006
Senior Art Director / Designer
The Job: My position as Senior Art Director included project management, concept and design, and creating new and innovative ways to communicate clients' message about products and promotions to consumers. I was charged with handling projects from start to finish beginning with thumbnail sketches and digital comps, directing photo shoots, locating and commissioning freelancers, creating high resolution keyline-ready art when appropriate, and overseeing projects through production.
On several projects I was able to extend beyond the typical duties of an Art Director and follow the job through to the final art stage. This would include taking a project from concepting and pencil stages, through the many levels of comps and client approval processes, and finally to creating the high-resolution production-ready art. Part of this process includes creating comps with the end product in mind, and working with dies, trim and bleed to avoid any unecessary problems as the job routes through production. An expert-level knowledge of the graphics applications (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, etc.) and a background in 3 dimensional construction, as well as materials, are a must at this stage.
Above and beyond: Being the Photoshop geek that I am, word spread quickly that I was the guy to ask if you had a question about Photoshop. I spent a large amount of hours every week helping other creatives learn how to achieve looks, automate actions, problem solve, and anything that came up. Teaching and helping others helps me as much as it does them as it keeps me sharp and I often end up learning something new as well. I started to gather FAQ's, tips & tricks, and new stuff when Adobe released a new version of Photoshop and Illustrator, and began giving seminars open to all creatives, the production team, and anyone else who wished to participate. Additionally I posted tips & tricks and how-to's on my web site as a resource they could access at any time.
At the end of my first year at 141WW, I was given a unique opportunity to become the first creative to work offsite full-time from a satellite office at home in Michigan, 300 miles away, travelling back to Chicago for meetings and photoshoots. Being an experimental situation, it was decided that the first year would be a probationary period to see how it would shake out. This situation lasted 6 years.
The Marketing Continuum Dallas, Texas | March 1997 - August 1999
Senior Designer / Art Director
The Job: As a Senior Designer, my duties included Art Direction and project management, design, rendering and illustration. Concept and design was part of the process, as well as creating high quality digital comps of my own design as well as other creatives' designs for presentation. Upon client approval of jobs, I was responsible for creating high resolution production-ready final art.
Beyond the Call of Duty: As well as being a Designer and in-house one-man digital imaging studio, I was the Photoshop "Go-To Guy" at TMC also. In this case I was hired partly for my knowledge of graphics applications and all things Mac, making myself available to everyone who wanted to learn new techniques or needed help with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. I was also there to offer my knowledge and support to the IT team on Mac hardware & software and graphics applications (Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator and others) for the Mac.
Tracy Locke/DDBNeedham (TLPartnership)Dallas, Texas | May 1994 - March 1997
Designer / Illustrator
The Job: My job duties included the design and rendering of digital comps for presentation. Working from pencil sketches or verbal direction, I would illustrate concepts and visuals in my own style as well as mimicking styles of other artists depending on what the style of the final design was intended to be. While I was working from other Art Director's concepts and designs, I would also provide art direction depending on the style of the design.
Beyond the Call of Duty: In addition to my regular duties, I also offered technical support to the IT department for creatives working on Macs and the Mac-based Adobe applications. This started off as a small thing; creatives called me for help as minor problems arose with their machines or their software, but it expanded until I was unofficially integrated with a small extension of the IT department that managed the Mac systems used by creatives. In addition to the occasional daily tech support, I would get to the office two hours early every day to handle routine maintenance on the public creative machines (Macs used for printing and workstations available for freelancers) and to do maintenance on creatives' Macs while they were away from their machines. In an unexpected turn of events, the person in charge of that department left the agency and left me in charge of his former position, which I handled in conjunction with my regular full-time duties as Designer.
ABOVE and Beyond the Call: Aside from my normal duties and daily routine and aside from my parallel position as IT Tech for creatives, I also became second in command of our group and managed our team of 6 designers when our group's director was away on vacation, unavailable, etc.
Applications | Software
I spend most of my days immersed in Photoshop and am currently involved in beta testing Adobe Photoshop CS4. I love exploring the limits of the applications that I work with and the majority of my software knowledge has been obtained by way of experimentation. When I'm not on a job, I can almost always be found at my Mac creating digital art for myself, which allows for experimentation that I normally don't have time for while on a job. I spend as much time as I can doing the "let's see what happens if I do this" experiments, applying tools and filters to things that they weren't intended for. I've discovered some really cool techniques this way, and it's always come back to aid in the design and imaging process somewhere down the road on a real job. I do the same in Adobe Illustrator, Dreamweaver and all other applications that I use on a daily basis.
While in college I was introduced to several applications that changed my life. Before my college days I was an old school artist and worked with brush, canvas, pencil and considered my airbrushes high tech. Then I was forced to work with Strata and a couple programs that were the Big Thing in the day before Photoshop came along, and my life began to change. In addition to my art and design courses, I also took several drafting classes and was introduced to AutoCAD. My head was spinning for over a year, but I couldn't get enough. As it turns out, the CAD courses, which I pretty much took to fill some hours, became an invaluable resource in the '90s when I began designing my own motorcycle parts, ultimately leading to my patent on The HogLeg, a new type of kickstand design that I invented out of necessity while building one of my motorcycles. Not only did this CAD knowledge aid in getting my industrial designs from out of my head and into a CNC Machine, but it's proven to be a huge asset when it comes to designing 3-dimensional displays and event structures.
Adobe Photoshop CS4 Expert
I am a heavy Photoshop user and have been since it's second release somewhere around 1991. If I could only own/choose one application, my choice would be Photoshop without any hesitation. Photoshop is my primary application and I work with it every day for 90% of my design projects as well as web site imaging, photography and retouching, high res imaging, some animation and 3-D. I have given seminars in Photoshop technique and other useful tips and processes during my employment at a couple agencies, as well as offering tech support and help to colleagues and friends. In addition to offering tech support and techniques for my co-workers I previously maintained a section on my website accessible to those people which I am currently updating and will be posting again on this site.
Prior to it's release of Creative Suite 4, I was involved in the Adobe Prerelease Program for beta-testing Photoshop and Bridge for it's next releases of the Creative Suite, which is now available.
Adobe Illustrator CS3 Expert
I work with Adobe Illustrator almost as much as Photoshop. The two applications have become so tightly integrated that it's become second-nature to work in both apps simultaneously. I am very proficient in Illustrator up to the latest release, CS3. I purchase Adobe apps in their suites and Adobe Web Premium was the last purchase Illustrator in conjunction with Photoshop allows me to achieve certain effects or processes that wouldn't be possible otherwise, especially when I'm creating high-res art for keyline and print.
I've also been using Illustrator since it's 4th release in 1992.
Dreamweaver CS3 Expert
I've been designing/building web sites since the early days of the web and have worked with a variety of web applications, often coding manually, but I always turn to Dreamweaver for the bulk of the web work. I am a designer and programming is secondary, Dreamweaver helped me to learn how to code manually in the early days. Now that it's a part of the Adobe Suite it's even easier to design and build with familiar software. I work with DW on a daily basis in conjunction with the rest of the Adobe Creative Suite.
Adobe InDesignIntermediate
Adobe Acrobat ProfessionalExpert
Adobe FireworksIntermediate
Adobe Flash Intermediate
Microsoft Office (Word, Powerpoint, Excel, Entourage)
TurboCAD
Education
Bemidji State University Bemidji, Minnesota
Major: Graphic Design/Technical Illustration 1990-1993
Minor: Fine Art
Highlights: Emphasis on Design w/ Fine Art background. Other areas of focus include Illustration and Photography.
Other
Since Fall of 2006 I have focused on growing my own business, expand beyond Art Direction Design to a broader range of design projects, especially design for the web. In addition to my services and capabilities, I have a small network of friends colleagues that bring Creative Direction and Copywriting into the group.