Thanks for taking time to checkout my personal website. I was born December 18th, 1978 in Richmind Indiana. I moved to the Tampa area in 1980. I consider myself a Floridan since Florida is all I really know. I started taking Graphic Design classes in high school. In October 1997 I attended Remington College in Tampa. I  graduated with an AS Degree in Commercial Art & Video Production with honors in  January of 2000. I started working in my field as a designer at Valpak in April of 2000. And  moved to Indian Rocks Beach. Later that year I purchased my first surfboard and surfed as much as I could. I’ve been hooked ever since. In July 2002 I moved to Sunset Beach, Treasure Island and started a surf report for the Gulf coast called Gulfster. Gulfster.com is still around today and is Florida’s most looked at surf website with over 1 million unique users sicne its inception. In May 2005 I took a job with Bay Publications designing Real Estate ads in Clearwater/ Feather Sound area. I purchased my first DSLR (Canon 20D) in 2005 and my images helped put Gulfster on the map in the surfing world. In January of 2008 I took a job with ESM and moved to Brevard County in search of better waves. I still live in Brevard County today.  I got to learn from some of the best hall of fame surf photographers in the industry at ESM and  honed my photography skills much further. I also got the privilege of working with Dan Putnam for many years at Valpak, Gulfster, and ESM. Dan is an award winning Designer behind Grom Social and Swell Guided. Dan really helped me hone my skills for Graphic Design all around.

EDUCATION:
September 1997 – January 2000
Remington College, Tampa
Associate of Science Degree in Commercial Art and Video Production.

WORK HISTORY:
April 2013 – July 2013
CK Communications, Melbourne, FL
Graphic Designer – Project Contract.
Supported agency graphic design on projects.
Created packaging design and catalog for nutritional supplement.
Managed extensive updates to 500+ page catalog.
Reported to Creative Director.

January 2008 – April 2013
Eastern Surf Magazine, Melbourne Beach
Art Director
Handled ad and editorial layouts for the magazine. Was responsible for creating magazine layouts, including departments and features. Created national ad campaigns for advertisers in print and online. Maintained a standard for branding the company. Published and press checked a 25k magazine run every 8 weeks. Handled daily website deadlines and managed tech support office wide.

July 2002 – Present
Gulfster.com
Owner.
Created and developed a daily surf report website and associated branding for the Gulf Coast of Florida. The site has been visited by more than 1 million users in it’s time, and more than 3,000 daily.  Sell merchandise and advertising. Created successful, inexpensive ad campaigns to accommodate small businesses in the Tampa Bay area and West Florida markets.

May 2005 – January 2008
Bay Publications, Clearwater, FL
Graphic Artist
Designed print and online ads for various Real Estate publications.
Handled customer service directly with clients.

April 2000 – May 2005
Valpak, Largo Florida
Graphic Artist Desktop Specialist.
Designed ads for direct mail and online. Helped create spec ads for sales force.
Gained valuable skills for over 5 years in a corporate environment.
Helped train coworkers on newer Creative Suite versions and upgrades.

SKILLS
Over 13 years of print and web experience using the following programs:
Photoshop, Indesign, Illustrator, Acrobat, Dreamweaver, Flash, Premiere, After Effects, Word, Excel.

VOLUNTEER WORK

American Cancer Society
11 Year Volunteer with the Reaching Out To Cancer Kids Art Program,
with the mission of helping families cope with cancer.
families cope with Cancer.

Junior Achievement Program
Active member in the Junior Achievement program, which helps
empower young people to own their economic success.

Habitat For Humanity
Active member in a nonprofit, ecumenical Christian housing organization building simple,
decent, affordable housing in partnership with people in need.

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