Basic Bio
First off, I love what I do. I have more than 20 years of experience in web based creative. Early on, I spent time working with website design studios. Later, my experience shifted to the corporate headquarters of American Blinds Wallpaper & More. I have ample experience working directly with clients, programmers, executive management, and serving as the leader of our creative team. The focus of my experience has been website design and email campaign design. I approach projects with the mindset and eye of an artist, while understanding the strategies of a marketer and the technical comprehension of a web developer.
Web Design
With nearly 20 years of web based design experience, my portfolio features a wide variety of companies. From retail to real estate, and builders to bed and breakfasts, I have a design style that adapts well to an array of industries.
Most recently, I have been employed full time as a Project Coordinator and Designer at Class Creator in Ann Arbor, MI. My focus is to help expand our unique product by contributing ideas about future development and help organize daily tasks among the customer service and programming staff. In addition, I have been working to instill the processes and planning necessary for our team to succeed in our fast paced, low resourced environment. Daily customer contact and working experience with our product allows me to quickly identify problems and solutions for implementing enhancements.
HTML Email Design
Email campaign design has become one of my greatest interests. I have experience working with large ESP vendors and have participated in the planning of corporate email strategies and management of the email design and QA processes.
Creative Leadership
From 2006 - 2010, I led a team of designers while at American Blinds Wallpaper & More. We collaborated on the creative for the corporate website, email marketing campaigns and management of ongoing creative projects. As team leader, I enjoy seeing the creative produced by my peers as we engage as a team on projects. I also enjoy the challenge of testing our creative to produce the highest level of sales, while maintaining cohesiveness within our designs.
The Artist and Craftsman
I recent years, I have spent a lot of my free time returning to my roots as an artist. I enjoy working in my workshop, aka garage, for hours on end creating unique pieces of art. I have built a sandblasting cabinet for sand carving designs into various substrates. Whether it be etching glass, wine bottles or yacht window, I am perfecting new skills with each new project.
I have also been learning new skills as a wood worker and incorporating colored resin into my projects. One of my latest projects is a live edge walnut resin river coffee table. I find that wood working has a very meditative and relaxing effect. It is sort like peeling back an onion one layer at a time until the inner beauty of the piece in revealed. The beauty was there all along, I just have the pleasure of bringing it out to display for the world to see.
My Desire to Inspire
The longer I work, the more I desire to teach. I am at a point in my career where I'd like not only expand my skills as a craftsman, but also inspire others to create. Many times when I set out on a project such as this resin river table, I am just learning the skills myself to accomplish that goal. When you look at this table and realize that it was my first attempt at such a project, understand that a lot learning went into that process. There was a significant amount of research and even trial and error that went into creating this piece. But through that experience, I gained volumes of knowledge that is only achieved though doing, rather than reading or watching others. I would like to inspire others to go after their goals and create the beautiful projects they want to create.