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- I eat three square meals a day
- I brush my teeth
- I exercise
- I call my mother
- I love my wife and kids
- I pay my bills
- I file my taxes
- I do my very best
- I'm there for my friends and family
Not what you were expecting? Oh, the other stuff...
- I design. No, not just print or interactive or ads. Everything. Design is a way of life. It's a process. Once you become a designer and you master the process, it applies everywhere in life, including yourself. Innovation, creativity, ideas, and productivity are the lifeblood of society and its prosperity, and it's all connected. Whether it's food, cocktails, sound, interiors, architecture, transportation, fashion, products, electronics, games, applications, communications or WHATEVER... Design is the road to progress.
- I'm a brand guy. I get it, plain and simple. I understand the purpose of brands, how they're managed, how the consumer defines it, how it must change to adapt, and why. I also understand the power of message, image, design, typography and how it comes together for the purpose of the brand. The better an organization understands its people and its audience, the better equipped it will be to make proper decisions for the benefit of the brand. People themselves are their own greatest resource and should never underestimate their own brandability.
- I'm a strategist. Design is not useful to anyone without a goal or purpose. Strategy is the vehicle through which design is delivered to achieve a purpose or purposes. To improve quality of life, to communicate change, to reach and compel an audience to buy your product or services, to save time, to simplify, to make you more profitable. Strategy itself is designed. It requires vision and the ability to think multiple steps ahead. To envision outcomes benchmarked against the experience of yourself, your clients and others – to plan and orchestrate deliveries based on timing, demographic, location and relevance. It would require a healthy knowledge of the markets and economy. I always welcome the dialogue, brainstorming and planning sessions – and an occasional pop quiz.
- I'm a photographer. I photograph whatever moves me. There's no sense in wasting all that design & arts education and compositional knowledge, when you aren't capturing it. Photography is an outlet for me and keeps my vision fresh. There are beautiful compositions all around us. Some of us never see it. A camera may be a tool, but in the right hands and in the right eyes, it's a canvas. Photoshop is sure a lot more convenient than the old darkroom days. I always prefer custom photography over stock imagery - although stock seems to have it's place.
- I'm a typography guy. Calling a typeface a font is a disgrace. I'm a purist. Old school. If you don't know typography and how much weight it carries in the realm of design, you aren't a designer at all. It's like calling yourself a mechanic, but you don't work on engines. All you do is oil changes and brakes. There was a time where all design was, was type.
- I'm an interactive guy. Remember back in 1994 when the Wild West of the Web hadn't been won yet? There were no WYSIWYG editors like Dreamweaver. I was a young designer with my head in the HTML code books back then, doing it by hand and optimizing graphics for dial-up bandwidth and 640 x 480 resolution. Netscape and Internet Explorer were worlds apart. There were no standards, no Safari, no Firefox, no Flash and no CSS. Thank God that's over! Can I code? Enough to participate and add value (front-end as we call it). These days, I leave the heavy lifting to the developers. I've drawn my line in the sand. Designers need to know their medium, so they can design with it, rather than against it.
- I'm a business-owner and leader. I've put 9 years into the field and ran my own shop for 6. I do the hiring, the mentoring, the proposals, the contracts, the sales calls, the creative briefs, presentations and proverbial dog & pony shows. I genuinely love working with clients directly. I'm hands-on and prefer direct communication and/or collaboration. E-Mail, Texting and Virtual conferencing are necessities of today's world, but can't replace body language or the subtleties of semantics. I care about people and meeting expectations (and exceeding when possible). Nothing is more gratifying than working with open-minded clients who understand the process, and are willing to participate in the journey.
- I'm a musician and an artist. It goes hand-in-hand with being a designer. I've played drums, percussion, guitar, bass and piano for more than half of my life. I've been in bands, have co-written music, done recording, mixing and engineering. The paradigm of sound and music adds an entirely different dimension to everything. It stands alone and when coupled with motion video, it is extremely powerful. I also love to paint and do mixed media. In addition, I love to cook and do interior design. I love fabrics, stone, wood, metals and all kinds of substrates. I can fabricate and build, and enjoy carpintery work.
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