Where I’m From

I was born in Southern California in the mid-eighties. My family moved to Northern Nevada to find work in the mid-nineties. I grew up in Carson City, Nevada for most of my life and consider it my “home town.” I attended Carson High School, where I spent several years in Ms. Kelley’s Web Design curriculum as many up and coming designers in the area have also done.

I qualified for the Kenny Guinn Millennium Scholarship due to my grades and enrolled at the University of Nevada, Reno. I majored in Journalism at the Reynolds School of Journalism to get my emphasis in advertising, where among other things I learned how to write, how to communicate, and how to design with purpose. I minored in art at first, and picked up a few new tricks there, but switched to political science my last year.

I found nearly all of the courses at UNR to be really interesting (the J-School ones in particular), and kept my grades up. I consider my main mentors there to be Frank X. Mullen, Bourne Morris and Bob Felten, though all of the faculty was knowledgeable and insightful about their respective disciplines (all of them rubbed off on me in some way). I joined the IMC Competition my senior year, an activity considered by many there to be the major event the RSJ takes part in. I qualified to be a part of the creative team, and was elected Creative Director. I managed ten talented creatives and influenced how our campaign came together, while also providing the bulk of the graphic design work and being a member of the presentation team.

Though we only placed third, we did receive a special award for strategic risk that I’m proud we earned. After the competition, I received the 2009-2010 James Fasules Outstanding Advertising Student Award, which is the highest honor the RSJ awards to an advertising student only once a year.

During my time in college I worked for three years at the student publication, The Artemisia, primarily as the Web master, though I also filled the roles of contributor, copy-editor, and graphic designer. I also worked for the now defunct Career Development Center where I provided technical support, web design and basic video editing services. Via the RSJ I interned at The GMAA Group, a local ad agency, where I got several months of real-world industry experience.

I graduated in May, 2009 with distinction and now work at a private mint proving web design services.

Web Design Details

I have over five years of experience doing front-end Web design using Photoshop and W3C valid XHTML and CSS. I can also use JavaScript and have some basic experience using pHp for server side includes. I am familiar with WordPress and can make themes from scratch, and prefer it in projects where SEO is paramount.

I write clean markup and strive for cross-browser, cross-resolution and cross-platform compatibility.

I prefer to develop in a Mac environment and use applications such as Parallels to test Web sites in a Windows environment, but can work on either platform.

I am also familiar with Adobe Suite, most notably Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator. While I don’t have as much experience with print layout, I consider myself capable and love any opportunity to use InDesign.

I consider one of my specialties to be template to XHTML/CSS conversion: the taking of a visual mock-up from a graphic designer and making it a Web site.

I am also capable of designing Web sites independently as well, and take into account how the design will affect the user’s experience.

I no longer design for Internet Explorer 6 unless a project specifically requires it.

Education

I have a degree in advertising from the Reynolds School of Journalism at UNR, and I love to work in team settings, but I also work well independently. I interned at the GMAA Group, a local ad agency, in 2008 and was also the creative director of the 2009 American Advertising Federation’s student IMC competition team for the RSJ. I’ve also had formal training related to Web, graphic and layout design.

You can read more details in my resume.

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