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I graduated from UW-Madison in '94 with a degree in graphic design
and a concentration in photography. My initial attraction was to
the print world... I wanted to create something, see it printed
and find it lying on someone's kitchen counter someday, or better
yet, on a billboard. A few of my friends went into web design right
away, but that wasn't for me... too new, too sloppy, and too temporary.
Cruddy jobs and no money can change your opinion pretty quickly
though, so I eventually submerged myself in the pixelated WYSIWYG
world, far away from vectors, dot gain and ramen noodles. Now however,
it appears I've come full circle and am seeking to carefully create
the perfect identity for a product or company and then apply that
identity to everything in sight: web, print, products, you name
it. Variety is good.
In December of '99, I boarded the dotcom train with
a company called FoodUSA.com that provided a way for sellers and
buyers of meat (poultry, pork and beef) to buy and sell their wares.
Suffice it to say the ride was a little rough and that's aside from
the eye-opening that comes from planting a female vegetarian in
the midst of a bunch of meat guys. We all learned very quickly about
burn rate, revenue stream and severance packages but also a lot
about b2bs, exchanges and e-commerce in general. In December of
'00, after becoming the leading B2B in it's market space, FoodUSA
fell victim to lack of funding and laid off all employees, retaining
a few of us on a contract basis to attempt to sell and/or liquidate
what was left. While it wasn't the outcome I had hoped for, seeing
the entire business cycle of a company provided quite an education.
Next came a nine month stint with self-employment,
which was probably the best and worst experience of my career thus
far. It was wonderful in that I chose my projects and clients and
had flexible hours (in theory anyway) but horrible in that I chose
too many projects and clients and lost all but a semblance of a
life outside of work. Live and learn. Great experience, glad it's
over.
In the fall of 2001, I then accepted a position with
my current employer, the University
of Wisconsin. As a web designer for University
Communications, my primary responsibilities include conceptualizing
and implementing website design solutions for a wide variety of
academic and administrative projects, including the UW site itself.
I'm also learning a lot about accessibility, compatibility and the
little microcosm that is academia. Two very different business models,
it's been interesting (and occasionally painful) to learn how and
why what might be praised at a dotcom is disapproved of at the University
and vice versa. Stability does have it's advantages though, so I'm
hoping to stay here for a while and learn all I can.
A digital presentation of my design career, I've included
a couple dozen examples of my work designing brochures, corporate
identification, direct mail, fine art, logos, magazines, newsletters
and websites. Unfortunately it's not as amusing as the leather bound,
bigger-than-I, hands-on traveling version, but you get the idea.
For a showing of the real thing, just let me know.
All the dates and details you'd ever
want, with a spinning logo to boot.
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