my experience and

Skill Blends

FIGURE IT OUT

Most of my career has been in a smaller market and this allowed me to work on a large variety of clients. From large multi-national to small non-profit, they all have communication needs and different deliverables. There was no interactive CD specialist or powerpoint template site – I had to figure it out. It is the same today with social media conversion rates, there are theories but you do have to just figure it out.

versatility

Knowing I can “figure it out” has led me try a wide variety of tools as well as learn to provide a vast array of communication vehicles.

Strategic Thinking

As I have grown in this business, branding has caught my attention. How a product is perceived by a person without ever having had contact with it is fascinating. Developing a way to strategically guide these emotions with marketing tools makes me love my work.

GOOD COMMUNICATOR

The biggest reason I am a good communicator is my ability to listen. I honestly want to hear other people’s thoughts and find consensus. I also like to prepare by having the end goal in mind with what I am communicating. I think it helps when you consider your audience, what information you want to share and the best way to share it. Sometimes an email is best while other times it really needs to be a phone call.

PROBLEM SOLVING

So much of what we do is a problem solving exercise. You have to analyze information from different perspectives and imagine a variety of outcomes just to understand what is going on. Add a couple variables and maintain focus. It’s good that I love riddles, puzzles and games.

I AM A VERY GOOD COACH

I love to teach and coach. My family tells me regularly that I should be a teacher. It is in my DNA and teaching comes very easy to me.

LEADERSHIP

Hierarchy kills creativity. In meetings, establishing the round table mentality and suppressing the long table mentality, allows all ideas to be heard.

Effective leadership is central to developing an organization with innovative solutions. The influence of leaders on worker creativity and innovation has been underestimated in the past because we hold a conception that creative ideas should only be credited to the work of the individual. Certainly aha moments can come from the individual but it’s the work of an entire team that moves the needle. Communicating this concept of “team moving the needle” until your team expects team results has been very effective for me.

Leading a creative team on projects - 24 years Experience

Leading a MULTIDISCIPLINARY team on projects - 21 years Experience

Leading several different teams on a variety of projects - 21 years Experience

Leading clients through brand envisioning - 17 years Experience

I have done a bunch of NEW BUSINESS PITCHES and they do not frighten me.

COMPUTERS

I borrowed $23,000 from the bank to purchase my first computer – the Apple Macintosh IIci. Since that time I have consumed a lot of Apples.

I have done design work on Apple computers my entire professional life. There were a few years working on interactive CDs that required me to work in the PC environment but my involvement on the PC side has been primarily for business communication.

I am relatively certain I have purchased everything within reason from Adobe. Obviously there were several versions of Creative Suite and I only purchased one. Some years it has leaned toward the interactive side and some years it has been primarily the print tools.

COMPUTERS I HAVE OWNED

Apple Macintosh Iici
Apple Macintosh Quadra 800
Power Macintosh 8100
Apple Powerbook G3
Apple Power Mac G3
Apple Power Mac G4
Apple Powerbook G4
Apple Power Macintosh G5
MacBook Pro 17 Unibody
MacBook Pro 15 Retina

DESIGN SOFTWARE USED

Illustrator 88
Adobe Illustrator 3.0/4.0
Adobe Illustrator 5.0 (Work in color Preview)
Illustrator 6 and Photoshop 3
Illustrator 6 and Photoshop 3
Creative Suite 1 - 3
Creative Suite 3 - 6
Creative Suite 6 - CC2017
CC2015 - CC2016
CC 2018 - 2021

TYPES OF PROJECTS

Graphic Design
Graphic Design | Advertising
Graphic Design | Advertising
Graphic Design | Advertising | Photo Editing
GD | AD | PHOTO | Interactive CD
GD | AD | PHOTO | Interactive CD | WEB
GD | AD | PHOTO | CD | WEB | Video Editing
GD | AD | PHOTO | WEB | VID
GD | AD | PHOTO | WEB | VID
GD | AD | PHOTO | WEB | VID

SOME DAILY APPS

BASECAMP

WORDPRESS

MICROSOFT OFFICE

HOOTSUITE

I have owned a 35mm camera since my 8th birthday. I love shooting pictures and I am proud of a few images. I am working on a website to display them.