Let Me Tell You My Story...

As a boy I always enjoyed anything that had to do with arts and crafts. I enjoyed school assignments that had an artistic spin and I lived for extra curricular art projects and contests. Victory was mine on several occasions, but I always made it a point to learn from others who won and study their techniques.

Growing up I thought I would become a cartoonist. Of course I enjoyed Saturday morning cartoons; but I also got into other animated shows during the week (Spiderman was my favorite!). I really enjoyed the comics as well with Peanuts being my favorite. Often I would make drawings of Spiderman, Snoopy, and other characters.

In high school I really started to hone my skills as an Artist and Designer. I took art classes from grades 7 through 9 and in grades 10 and 11 I took Advertising Design. My teacher was Chip Martin - a graphic designer who also sold hand colored limited editions of animals drawn in pen and ink. I'm sure the work I produced in this class was key to my getting accepted to The School of Design at NC State (SOD). A highlight was winning first place in a logo design contest that was judged by the Director of Advertising Design at The Charlotte Observer. My senior year the class was full, and I took a traditional art class. I had the honor of having one of my works stolen.

In the fall of 1984 I was off to SOD. My major was visual design, but after a year of design fundamentals I switched to product design. I just really enjoyed creating "functional art". The experience was overwhelming at first. I learned about "all nighters" and how very important it is to plan your project timeline. Coffee and I began a long term relationship. There were a lot of interesting and extremely talented individuals in design school. It was tough taking my other courses at State because I always wanted to be working on my design projects. After 4 years I graduated with my BA in Product Design.

Upon graduating I found it difficult finding work in product design. The country was in economic recession and there weren't but a handful of design shops in Charlotte at that time anyway. In the years that followed I worked a number of creative jobs - display builder, sculptor, architectural model builder, exhibit designer and fabricator - and occasionally landed freelance graphic design work.

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