I have had an interest in the graphic design field since I was quite young. My brother-in-law was my biggest inspiration to get in to the trade, and I soon realized that I had a passion for motion graphics and 3D architecture. I attended Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida and earned my bachelors degree in Digital Arts & Design. I ultimately want my career to allow me to design motion graphics for professional sports, but I realize that opportunity only comes around for a select few. I currently reside in the Twin Cities area after a 3-year stint working in Colorado. My wife and I are quite happy here as this is where our family is. I hope to never have to relocate again. I am consistently teaching myself more and more, using on-line tutorials from various sources such as Lynda.com. I now have even more reason to be successful! My son was born in July of 2017 and I strive to be the best father that I can! More information about myself and my work history can be found in my resume.
I am efficient and comfortable working in the following programs, as well as many others. I am always willing to learn new software titles as well!
Nowadays, everybody knows someone that "knows" Photoshop. But do they really? A common misconception is that all graphic design is done in Photoshop. On the contrary, Photoshop is primarily used for photo manipulation. I can add or remove objects, change colors, add effects, etc. to make anything look as if it was part of the original image.
Logos and other branding material are typically made in Illustrator. Ask your brother's co-worker's best friend's kid how well they know there way around creating vector graphics and wait for the blank stare before offering them $50 to create the image of your business. Your logo and branding are the first impression of your business to your customers. Leave this to me to get done right the first time!
InDesign is a very powerful program. It's as if Microsoft Word and Adobe Illustrator had a baby that was way cooler than both of them combined. I use InDesign for page layout and package design. Whether you have a magazine/publication or something to put on a store shelf, you can bet that I'll blow you away with an engaging layout, guiding the consumer's eyes to the most important information, engaging them to purchase your product.
Chances are that you've seen the Acrobat logo on your own computer, whether you know what it is or not. Acrobat is used for viewing and creating .pdf files and forms. A prime example of this would be for a human resources department to push out updated legal documents that employees would need to review and digitally sign, acknowledging that they have read and understand the material. Of course, there are plenty of other uses for this program, including the fact that most printing companies require a .pdf file in order to print your material in the highest quality possible. I do not shy away from any of it!
Dreamweaver is a fantastic tool for creating websites. It helps write the code needed to generate the layout and style of your site, although the user really needs to know most of the languages used. Although I do not use Dreamweaver so very much anymore, it's because I have gotten more confident in my hand coding that I am able to use more advanced coding software that does not make it quite as easy to write code. That being said, I'll happily be your new web guy!
Muse is a neat program for web design that allows for building a website without having to know code at all. That being said, it's actually best to know a decent amount of code in order to fully succeed with what you are trying to accomplish with your web design. Some of the features that you will most likely be looking for will require some manipulation or total hand-coding in order to accomplish. This website, for instance, was created mostly in Muse, but then manipulated in a different coding software called Brackets. Again, I'm ready to be your web guy!
Oh, After Effects, how I love you! After Effects is the reason that I went to school to do what I do. My dream job would be to create motion graphics for the jumbotron at Target Field. Until that happens though, I'm here to use After Effects to create animations for you! Want your logo animated for your new commercial or digital advertising? Give me a call!
Premiere is the video editing software that I prefer to use. Although I know Final Cut Pro quite well, I simply prefer to use Premiere because it plays so well with all of the other software that I use to create graphics and animations for video projects. Looking for a TV commercial? YouTube video? Anything of the sort? I'll fire up the camera and Premiere for you upon your request!
Animate is a great program for creating animations for the web. You might remember when everything was created with Flash? Well, those days are luckily gone and HTML5 has come to the rescue. Animate allows the creation of interactive web animations without much coding and produces them in HTML5, which plays friendly on all of today's devices. It's perfect for banner ads or you could even do your whole site with it and have a crazy amount of interactivity!
Edge Code, which is now being called Brackets, is the primary program that I use for coding websites. It allows me to see my code come to life in real time as I type it. In the words of Forest Gump, that's all I have to say about that.
3D Studio Max, or 3DS Max, is primarily what I use for 3D modeling and animation. Many times I will create assets in 3DS Max for use in print ads or 2D animations, as it really gives a more life-like or believable feel to the project. I used 3DS Max while I worked for Microsoft, literally building cities of the world in 3D for Bing Maps.
Cinema 4D, C4D for short, is another 3D program that I am familiar with. I primarily use this for some 3D animations, as the controls are a bit more suited than 3DS Max for animating.
Print Portfolio:
Vendor Day Poster
This poster was created for a "Vendor Day" that was held at my workplace at the time. It was very well received with the employees and I received many compliments on my work.
Bluebird Microphone Print Ad
The first of three print ads for the Bluebird microphone, by Blue. I photographed and masked the microphone, built the tree in 3D, and laid the spread out with the logos and typography using InDesign.
Bluebird Microphone Print Ad
The second of three print ads for the Bluebird microphone, by Blue. I photographed and masked the microphone, built the birdhouse in 3D, and laid the spread out with the logos and typography using InDesign.
Bluebird Microphone Print Ad
The third of three print ads for the Bluebird microphone, by Blue. I photographed and masked the microphone, built the transmission tower and wire in 3D, and laid the spread out with the logos and typography using InDesign.
Talk to Me Models logo/business cards
This project is a logo that I made for a friend's promotional modeling company in which the business card is the shape of the logo as well.
POWER Wants You!
This 81" tall banner was created for my previous workplace to recruit volunteers to help with the "Adopt a Street" program that the city had in place to keep the neighborhood free of garbage.
What's for Lunch?
This 81" tall banner was created for my previous workplace to inform employees of the menu for the catered lunch that was offered several days per week.
Good Pennies Keep Coming Back
This album cover was created for a good friend, Adam Wayne, for his single "Good Pennies Keep Coming Back."
A Bottle of Red, A Bottle of White
This wine packaging was created with inspiration from the song "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" by Billy Joel.
Vector Illustrations:
3D Portfolio:
3D Apartment Render
I built my college apartment in 3D. Why? I'm not sure, but it turned out pretty nice!
Bing Maps
I worked for Microsoft on the Bing Maps 3D project for a short while. This is Microsoft's most expensive project ever, literally building the world in 3D. My biggest claims to fame are the two tallest skyscrapers in Little Rock, Arkansas, I helped with the Bay Bridge in San Fransisco, and I worked on the famous Aachen Cathedral in Aachen, Germany. I've had my mouse in countless other cities throughout the world and am very proud of it. Go ahead and open the "Maps" app in Windows 8.1 or higher and fly around in the 3D cities area. It's pretty neat!
3D Solar Farm
I worked with the GIS department to create a 3D animation of a planned solar farm, built to scale including the surrounding landscape. This was shown to the board of directors to give a sense of the scale of the project. There are over 120,000 solar panels at this facility.
3D Bachelor Pad
I saw this house on a television show and thought it was the coolest layout I had ever seen. It had a full glass garage door between the living room and garage in order to display the classic cars parked in the garage. The open concept kitchen was wrapped with a bar complete with stools to eat at. The living room had a pool table and I added a pinball machine because I thought that would be the icing on the cake. What a cool place. A total bachelor pad.
Motion Graphics:
Let's work together:
I live in Elk River, Minnesota, which is an easy 35 minute drive from Minneapolis.
