Career

I started working in sign shops in high school, 20-30 hours per week after school and on weekends. I loved the resolution and crisp nature of vector guided cuts revealing letters in adhesive-backed vinyl. The edge quality and readability inspire me to this day, as I continue to play with contrast by sheen differential in my work whenever I can.

I continued to work at sign shops when I started at Art Institute in 1996. From 1998 to 2003, I worked in mostly print production related positions, while doing some creative freelance to support art directors in small firms. I held off completing my degree because I wanted to be more creative when I graduated. I finished the last two courses of my degree in 2001 and won Best of Show for my portfolio, but the days of being hired out of graduation were over. I continued to do freelance until I got into a real creative agency.

In 2004 I started freelancing at Emergence, was hired two weeks later and then promoted to a lead designer all in a few month's time. I worked on Bloomingdale's catalogs and loved everything about it. The travel, the challenges, always pushing to do something more creative than the previous catalog. I helped my team transition from QuarkXPress to Adobe InDesign, and I came up with new typography systems to differentiate Bloomingdale's Home Goods from Fashion goods catalogs.

When Emergence was bought and closed by a larger agency, my Creative Director took the Bloomingdale's account and started a new agency devoted to Bloomingdale's as their primary client - B2 Creative. I worked for them in a freelance capacity while they transitioned into a new agency and then began work on my own as a branding and marketing consultant for small business and financial institutions.

That was 2005 and I've been a remote worker ever since. I came to Home Depot because I have a passion for building and making things with my hands, and Home Depot is kind of like my art store. I heard there was a team there that needed multi-faceted designers who are into illustration. I got to learn about working with data and scripts, doing large projects within a small team while leveraging these tools to make a big impact, and learning new things all along the way. I've been working 100% remote for that team since early 2020.

Working Philosophies

I. Listen well, and then strive to elicit awe.

The way I work is typically to absorb a brief quietly, listening to everything I can, asking the best questions I can think of, and absorbing any details that emerge.

After that I have three goals:

1. Accurately and efficiently create the exact kind of design that is requested.

2. Either offer a second design, or develop the main submission into something that exceeds expectations in some way. (as many ways as possible)

3. Elicit a response of surprise and delight.

II. Min/Max

While working at Home Depot, my manager Matt Daniel inspired me to evolve my way of looking at design work on many levels. The most impactful idea he impressed upon me is something I think of as "min/max" - being aware, in everything you do, of the ratio of impact versus effort. This can guide any Creative toward doing better work that makes a difference, while preventing wasteful habits in terms of time management. Working with this principle in mind has transformed my output, quality of work, and quality of life in general.

III. Do it the right way - but try the wrong way, too.

While working on my portfolio in my final course at Art Institute, a designer named Wes Duvall was also in my cohort. He is one of the most unique and creative designers I've ever met. I watched him work and asked questions whenever I could. It seemed he was always doing something different or unexpected.

For instance, instead of finding fonts and typing up text in Illustrator to build compositions, he was making film positives from printed type, developing a screen, printing it, scanning it in and then building graphics from that! Running the imagery from analog to digital and sometimes back through that loop again to create unexpected texture and compositions that would never have happened working just in design apps alone.

Learning about the methods of Paul Rand, and creatives from the Swiss International Typographic Style, while seeing Wes work inspired me to always consider the path of the design I'm working on:

What workflows should I employ? What can I do differently, or "incorrectly" to achieve a different result? What if the tool or workflow I would normally use is limiting me?

These questions are ever-present in my work since that time period where I studied design history and the work of a classmate.

IV. When working remote, every second counts.

I've worked remote for about 20 years now. One thing I've noticed is that being present when your online team is working is key, and responding rapidly - even if you can't execute immmediately - can make or break a relationship. And, it’s all about relationships, which in turn, are all about communication.

I work with some clients I have never seen or met in person, even though I've had projects with them 2-3 times yearly for 15 years or more. The lessons I've learned as a remote worker were hard won, and impact the way I work and how I think to a great degree.

Respond quick, respond eloquently, and honestly - and your relationships will be easier as a remote creative.

Origination

I've always had access to a shop with woodworking, mechanic and machine tools. I grew up in a family where if a car broke down, we'd roll it into my dad's shop and work on it until it ran. If we needed a larger house, we'd build an addition, and my brother and I were expected to help. When my dad decided he wanted to fly his own airplane, he built it in our garage, and we helped. I was blessed with a rich, hands-on education, steeped in that environment, from the earliest days I can remember. All of this informs my understanding of the physical and digital realms, and helps me to find inspiration in unlikely places.

When I was six years old, my dad brought home a Commodore 64 with a tablet input and a tractor-fed color printer. By the time I was seven, I could compose and print awkward compositions and print them on several sheets. The printer paper was connected end-by-end and fed by holes along the sides. By only removing the tractor feed edges, while not disconnecting the perforated sheets, they became banners, several times the length of 11" US letter sheets. So, I made banners for all sorts of things, and hung them on the walls.

I hadn't thought of this until recently - all these years I'd forgotten I'd done something so similar to what I did in my early design career. I guess typography and design has been a part of my life much longer than I'd realized.

In my adult life, there’s two things I really love: cooking and renovation.

I've done some sort of renovation, from simple to extreme in every home I've lived in. I really love the experience of addressing issues in a home, designing in 3D and then making that design come to life in the very space that I live in. Sometimes, these skills transfer over into my work, and I've even designed spaces for clients.

I’ll document some of these projects as I develop this portfolio site. For some reason I’ve never felt a need to publish what I do online in any detail until I realized - nobody can steal what I have. I have an endless source of creative energy that just gets stronger as time goes by.