When it comes to marketing, nothing can stop me from helping you reach your goal. I love puzzles, challenges, and interesting solutions when it comes to not only designs, but execution.
No matter the canvas, I will take your concept and paint a complete idea.
What is an artist without the proper tools? Whether it was in the classroom or in the workforce, my skills have been sufficiently honed in the Adobe Creative Suite, version 4. Personally, I love using Illustrator, something about the exactness of vector graphics are very appealing to me. Photoshop is like a rugged truck to me; dependable, loyal, and always able to get me through a hard day's work. Publishing layout is a wonderful world to me, and QuarkXPress was the standard I was taught in school. However, I found that InDesign handles like a dream, and is my publishing layout program of choice. Quick web graphic work is always appreciated and Fireworks makes short work of it. As a web guy, I naturally love to use Dreamweaver, it's site and asset management for websites saves so much time when making cross-site updates. On Location is my favorite choice when it comes to shooting digital video.
Not only can I use the tools, but I have some very specialized skillsets that are a true value. I eat, breathe, speak, drink CSS and HTML. Not everyone can be an Email Marketing guru. Email coding standards are finnicky; a moving target, one I can easily hit. The Mobile Internet is designed to make visiting your favorite sites quick, with a layout that benefits from the smaller screen. CMS's, everyone's using CMS's. That's why I have delved into the world of WordPress and Drupal, and can easily write themes for both.
I have been working as a graphic designer professionally for many years now. I'm a bit of a jack of all trades, able to tackle any task. While I have done freelance, I would love to find a place to hang my hat.
At my past employer's request, all samples cannot be shown publically.
Working at GameStop was more than just video games. As Web Designer, my primary responsibility was designing and coding their targeted emails and weekly newsletters for not only their regular brand, but also their PowerUp Rewards™ brand.
Six months of email design can be a bit confusing, so to just showcase the best of the best, here are my two most favorite email designs I did while at GameStop. These best demonstrate my ability to use appealing visual design in conjunction with readability and html coding.
You can actually view these emails in your inbox by clicking on them and entering your email address. If you wish to see further examples of the many emails I've coded and designed for GameStop, please do not hesitate to contact me, and I will be too happy to show you more examples.
The first day I stepped out of college, I immediately started looking for work. Small shops, truck accessory stores, it didn't matter. I drove, I knocked on doors, and I kept going. And, just to keep my teeth sharp, I like to take on little projects for friends. To the right is the new admin console I designed for Comic Genesis, which is one of the few UI designs I did for a web application.
My freelancing isn't just limited to doing work for friends. Recently, I have been doing Studios 121's monthly email newsletter, putting my three years experience as an email marketing professional to good use. Studios 121 was also my first customer using my email marketing system, 2-cent mail.
During this time, I have also created, drawn, and managed several comic books, including doing on-demand publication, illustration, and web design. I have done the website design for all three of my webcomics, and did the illustrations for two of them(Point Guardian and Majestic Knight). Out of all my webcomics, I am most proud of the Hero Academy website, since i think it has the best combination of simplicity and elegance. I also currently run a podcast on a WordPress-based website.
Cendera Funding is a local mortgage lender in the DFW area that has over 100 individual loan officers and over 30 locations. My duties at Cendera was to create and maintain any marketing materials that any of their loan officers required, ranging from email marketing strategies to flyers.
When it came time to redesign their website, I took charge, migrating their javascript mortgage calculators over to the new system, and ensuring a clean, hand-coded HTML site using only the strictest coding standards.
I also managed their online store, a Joomla store, for loan officers to purchase various promotional items to use as gifts at home closings. Not only that, but I also shot live video using Adobe OnLocation and edited to appear on each loan officer's unique website, as you can see to the left. This system was entirely dynamic and database driven.
But design was not my only duty at Cendera. I helped with IT, doing things such as tech support, helped set up email accounts and new branches. I also helped when the company migrated their email from a Microsoft Exchange Server to Google Apps.
Cendera is a great company, but in the end, I headed off to find brighter and better things.
May of 2007 I started working for Digital Alchemy. DA was an email marketing company, specializing in the hospitality industry(hotels and resorts). DA was where I learned about email marketing standards, CAN-SPAM compliance, and perfected most of my design standards. Designing emails was not my sole duty at DA. I also created and designed all marketing pieces they used for sales and tradeshows, ranging from tabletop booths to sales booklets like the one on the right. Inside of this booklet you will see designs for various email pieces that I also created, ranging from reservation confirmations to online comment cards
My most favorite piece I did at DA has to be the 2009 eBlast Calendar. This was a project that I concieved, proposed, championed, and designed. This piece of marketing was sent to all of DA's existing customers at December of 2008, with the intent to show hotels the best eBlast dates for 2009, including with it templates they can choose to use for their eblasts. The eBlast calendar was a resounding success, and when I left the company, brought in over 6 thousand dollars in additional revenue.
Westwood College of Technology, Fort Worth, TX
March 2003 - September 2004
Associates of Applied Science/Graphic Design and Multimedia
... and contact me if you think we can work together. Thanks!