A Little about me.
I am passionate, driven, self-taught. An art director and designer from Birmingham, Alabama, I have more than 16 years' experience. Prior to my career as a designer, I spent formative years with an apprenticeship that led to a job as a sushi chef at what is undoubtedly Birmingham's most treasured Japanese restaurant. Oddly enough, creating sushi profoundly influenced my eye for composition and harmony. I also devoted much of my time to graffiti art. Concepting murals, sketching plans and color schematics, as well as hosting and collaborating with other painters for Writer's Block, an annual graffti event sponsored by Red Bull, impressed upon me the importance and impact of considerate design and collaborative work. Presently, my labor of love outside of the office includes smoking and curing meats, cooking all genres of cuisine, and sharing these meals with friends over cold beers.
Throughout my professional design years, I've cultivated a deftness for typography, lettering, logos, and branding. I enjoy designing with intent by way of strategic collaboration and problem solving. I believe in a client-centric teamwork approach paired with discipline, restraint, and the embrace of a thorough understanding of design trends and history. Great design doesn't arise from linear effort. It requires a dynamic journey of collaboration, followed by research, more collaboration, refinement, coffee, more refinement, even more collaboration... it's a process that defies process. And there is nothing simple or easy about it. Nor is it is a self-indulgent pursuit, because, in the end it must serve the client well. It must create success.
So why should you hire me? Look, I could bore you with a long-winded statement about self-motivation, or reiterate how passionate I am about design, or elaborate on my commitment to concepting and creating informed identities. But, I would rather you walk away with the assurance that I bring something new to your table. My background is varied and unconventional. While I have a degree in 3D animation and and a number of years in the business, what makes me different is that I'm self-taught. I have found my inspirations in the unconventional, in sushi rolls and street art, in buttoned-up design and guerrilla engagement. My life is built of creativity. My passion is for the strategically unexpected. I crave teamwork. I consume great work. And if, like me, you have a passion for food, I'll bring a little something extra to your life that you can treat as a fringe benefit that comes with trusting me to be a part of your organization.
