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Latest Work

Limelight Media Group

Limelight Media Group, an SEO and Web firm in Texas wanted a site and blog that allowed them to change content on the fly. I built them a nifty, semantic, WordPress site.

Latest Words

Brand-Spankin'-New

I’ve been telling myself I’m going to do it for years, and I finally did. Here’s the new WordPress-based portfolio site. I think I might cry. Seriously, there could be tears.

about

My Life Story

TL;DR: Click here to download my resume and skillset.

I was born in 1980 to parents so impressed with my design skills and all-around awesomeness, they decided to have 4 more boys just like me. They realized, after their last unsuccessful attempt in 1989, that they should’ve just cloned me.

Fast-forward through a painful, awkward childhood, adolescence, grade school, high school, and then college (Who’m I kidding? It was a trade school. We didn’t even have a sports team. Art Institute of Atlanta Football? Basketball? The joke writes itself.), and we get to the stuff that most come here to see.

Professionally

After getting my BFA in Media Arts and Animation, and among freelance gigs for places like the Georgia Dome, I’ve worked for companies large and small. I cut my teeth at a B-Man Design, an award-winning design firm in Atlanta that handled work from clients like Turner, Cartoon Network, McKesson, and The American Heart Association. I had a long contract stint at IBM, where I built graphics and sites for eLearning courses for companies like BellSouth, Johnson & Johnson, AT&T, and BMW. I moved on to The Home Depot and was responsible for the day-to-day graphic design, content management, and UX on their family of eCommerce sites. Most recently, I was with USMotivation: an incentives company that delivers reward packages to top performers in many Fortune 100 and 500 firms in industries like pharma, communications, and construction.

On any given day, for anyone, I could be:

Brainstorming.
Art directing.
Animating motion graphics.
Editing music.
Building a website.
Editing video.
Building a CMS.
Managing SKUs.

Additionally, I’m Weird

If there’s one word people used throughout my life to describe me, it’d be “weird”. I like the term “eccentric”, but they call me weird when I use it. I’m a quirky sucker, buried in a mountain of peculiarities and pet peeves.

I’m always:

Bonhomous. I never lose my temper.
Silly. I love to make people smile.
Honest, sometimes to the point of tactlessness.
Iconoclastic. There’s always a better way.
Curious. I love to learn, and then tell folks about it, even if they’re not listening.
Preoccupied…hmm?

More facts nobody cares about (Please don’t read them):

I’m married and have been for 8 years, each one better than the last…ladies.
I’m the father of two uncannily intelligent and beautiful girls (Seriously, don’t tell anyone, but I think they’re aliens. Especially the lanky one.).
I’m a landlord.
I’m a business owner.
I drive a car that I converted to run on vegetable oil.
…Look at all that. I am a weirdo. Dang.

skills

CONSCIENTIOUS DESIGN

From paper to wireframe, pixels to code, I strive to craft sites and images that are engaging, useful, and beautiful. To me, form should follow function, function should follow creative objectives, and objectives should follow clearly defined business goals. I work in the space between goals and form, creating experiences that are profitable and entertaining.

DYNAMIC ANIMATION

I love bringing the static to life; finding a tasteful, kinetic solution that, while entertaining, helps someone accomplish something, engages them, or even excites them. To me, movement is icing on the cake – a feature, not a product. But, if a little motion’ll add the spit and polish a project needs, I’m more than capable – and thrilled – to make it happen.

SYMANTIC MARKUP

Call it an obsession, a preoccupation, or even a passion. I love efficiency. To me, the separation of design and content is the best thing that’s happened to the Internet since Al Gore. As far as it’s up to me, I strive to extract every byte I can; create markup as sparse as poetry; widen the chasm between style and substance; and hone my codecraft to find ways to build a better Interweb.

INVENTION

Today, they label it “creative problem solving”. Every day, I endeavor – and I’m more than happy – to provide a creative solution that demands I use every one of my skills. I love coming up with brand-new ideas, exploring my craft, and helping others make meet their goals in ways they never dreamed. Were I not on the Web, I’d be inventing somewhere else.

portfolio

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The Smorgasbord

These projects utilized many of my skills at once. I designed, animated, and coded all of the following.

Animation

These projects involved good, old-fashioned frame-by-frame animation. Some might contain a little bit of code, but by far and large, I designed and hand-animated these.