FROM MUSICIAN TO ARTIST TO DESIGNER

I’m best described as a self-starter. I taught myself how to draw and play guitar and learned music theory while growing up in Norfolk, VA. I spent the first 20 years of my adult life playing guitar in rock bands, managing bands, and as a sound engineer. In the year 2000, I taught myself web design to help my band out. That led to teaching myself graphic design for social, web, and print. During that time, I started to get the attention of other bands and labels wanting my work for their CDs, merch, and websites. Reaching into my past on my love for art and sketching/drawing to commence creating illustrations for clients.

I left my job with my family as a vending machine technician in 2006 and started freelancing under 119Design. Designing from business cards, print, online media, apparel merchandise and trade show visuals/booths to full vehicle wraps for large trucks, I have worked for clients and freelanced in a print business in Baltimore and the Real Estate Book. From metal/rock bands to extreme sports to corporate clients, I’ve expanded my experience each year. Along the way, I taught myself video, and in 2014, one of my main clients asked me to start doing video work for them. Between then and 2018, my video work has helped them win multiple national awards (including North American Retailer of the Year for Mobile Electronics Magazine Industry Awards, Best Online Presence) and many vehicle reveal videos.

Outside of my design/web/video work, I am also an independent artist working with charcoal/graphite/acrylic paintings, and I completed my first wall mural at a local business in 2023 (time-lapse video is available in my portfolio).