I’ve always loved creating. The eighth grade quote under my yearbook picture was “Ambition: Comic book artist” The comics went on hold in high school delving deeper into art. I’ve taken night, summer and elective art classes ever since I could remember. I chilled out in libraries reading about contemporary art, pop art, graphic design and whatever else caught my eye. While first experimenting on a Mac Quadra, in a high school art class, I knew I wanted to work with computers for the rest of my life.

The Art Institute of Philadelphia was my choice for college. Originally my major was Visual Communications. The school switched it over to Graphic Design about halfway. I still chilled out in the library as much as possible and discovered a love for Basquiat, Duchamp, Johns and a ton of others. During my attendance I started working as a Graphic Designer at Koen Book Distributors. Catalog work, advertising material, trade show creation and web updates. It was a great opportunity to dig my feet into my field. The best part was that every single book that was released for the day was displayed in the morning on this huge shelf. I wish I could still go to that shelf.

I worked and went to school graduating in 2000. I left Koen after I graduated looking for bigger and better things. I took at job in Medford, NJ with MTG where I was a layout artist for a paintball and a limo magazine.

The paintball magazine was sold and I lost my job. I hopped around a bit working at different jobs eventually landing at Pep Boys Headquarters in Philadelphia. My first job with a Production Manager, Art Director, etc. It felt like I was in the thick of an in-house deal design studio. There was always mad work to be done. People worked around the clock. It was super fast paced and you had to have a large skillset to get by. it was a great place to work and I really loved it there, but I wanted to move back to New Jersey.

I left Philly and took a job doing in-house work at Arett Lawn and Garden Distributors, Inc. in 2004. A lot of newspaper advertising, direct mail, marketing, trade show signage and standard in house stuff. The support for the Design/Marketing Department was strong here and I really loved that. It was here that I discovered web standards, SEO and the current state of the web. I really felt that advertising dollars were going to be directed more towards the web. I decided that every night I would consume everything I could about the web. I immersed myself much like how I did when I was in high school and college with art. I did lessons on lynda.com, read alistapart.com and consumed as much of the web as possible. My focus was now on the web.

I left Arett in Dec. of 2006 and was hired as a full time web designer with Princeton Online. A fast paced but relaxed environment working with people that I respect and admire.

I left Princeton Online June of 2009 to become a full time freelance Graphic Designer. So far I’ve completed a 6 month term at Princeton University and I am currently completing several projects which are scheduled for launch before the new year.

I’m still in love with art and design, do lessons on lynda.com and soak in as much of the current world of the print, web and typography. I love being involved in projects with anyone so please don’t hesitate to email, IM or call me.

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