About Me

As boring as this may be it explains how I got to where I am today.

I have been an artist all my life and been using computers as my medium since the eighties when I bought a Commodore 64 and a digitizing tablet with a paint program.

I was never satisfied with the quality of the capabilities but it did allow me to experiment and I even photographed the monitor so I could have descent looking prints of my artwork.

After seeing the first Commodore Amiga I fell in love with it and had to get my hands on one which I did and even worked in a Computer store selling the Amiga’s. I really became interested in computer graphics and wanted to become a graphic artist after working on the Amiga.

The PC’s at the time did not have the capabilities that the Amiga did and the Mac was out of my price range so I tinkered with PC’s for quite awhile until the early nineties when graphic software such as Picture Publisher, Photoshop and Fractal Design Painter started being developed for the PC.

I learned to work with these programs on my own by trial and error and any printed materials I could find. I became a how-to book and magazine junkie and I still am to this day learning new techniques and ideas.

While working in a factory I asked if I could help in publishing their newsletter which I did for a year or so until they had changes in the office personal and the newsletter ended.

I also by chance came across a digital photo retouching system that a local photography studio had bought but did not have anyone capable of doing digital retouching and after showing them what I was capable of doing I worked for them part time doing all the digital retouching.

This was 1993 and not many people at the time had seen photo retouching on a computer so I was put in the store front to show off the studios capability.

While working there I met a photographer there that is to this day a good friend of mine and occasionally a coworker who I have worked on a lingerie calendar with in 1997 and helped me break into working full time as a graphic designer.

I also worked on a few other freelance projects in the nineties that helped me build new skills. I worked on a CD cover for a local band, participated in the “Out of the Internet” gallery showing in New Hampshire, and one of the most satisfying projects was working on an online webzine Visual Magic Magazine which gave me the opportunity to travel to the 1998 Siggraph conference in Orlando Florida and meet with graphics software companies, interactive and 3 D artists, and special effects houses which was a blast!

In 2000 I landed a job with Stearns & Lehman breaking away from a lot of years working in factories. I had a good friend working there that I had worked with in the past on the lingerie calendar. He worked there as their graphic designer / web designer and they needed some help with graphic design but not full time.

After talking to the CFO who was doing the IS work for the company and needed help taking care of the companies computers and network. Since I had some college and personal experience in this area they hired me full time to split my time between being a graphic designer and their IT specialist taking care of maintaining the computers and network.

I finally phased out of the IT specialist position and into graphic design full time after Kerry Foodservice bought Stearns & Lehman in 2002 and a year later I also became their product photographer and moved to Texas to help open their new Innovation Center which lasted another year and I moved back to Ohio in late 2004.

In 2005 I landed a full time position at Frey Scientific as their catalog graphic designer and product photographer and after finishing several small supplemental catalogs and product sell sheets we were told that our division was being merged with a newly acquired company and relocated out of state and we will be out of a job in 2006 so we finished the main 825 page catalog before leaving in February.

After meeting a lead designer from Martin Designs Inc. at the Frey Christmas party he offered me the opportunity to work for them on a freelance basis to help catch them up on work they were behind on which lasted longer than expected and was a great experience.

I am currently working for a small family owned sign company that has been in business for over 30 years in Mansfield "Tridico Screen Printing & Sign Company" whom I have known for many years and provided computer consulting in the past.

So it’s now 2009 and I am looking for for freelance opportunities as a Graphic Designer again.