A little about my background in the graphic arts.

My interest in graphic design began when I was about fifteen. My high school had a Visual Communications course that, while good, was sorely lacking in certain areas (computer-based design). My first experience with a design program was CorelDraw! 5. After high school I indulged in what most post-high school kids want to do: nothing. But after a short time, nothing became boring and I decided to move forward with my life -- not without a little parental motivation of course ("Get a job!").

I spent some time hunting around for a school that provided courses in graphic design, and I finally settled on taking the Graphic Communications course at NAIT. NAIT's program focused on print-based layout and design, both modern and traditional. While I didn't particularly like the old-school style of design (stripping, plating, camera operation, and so forth), it was interesting to learn about. On the modern side of designing I learned the programs that were currently popular in many print houses: Quark Xpress, Adobe PageMaker, Adobe Illustrator, and CorelDraw!. Looking back, I hope that they have since integrated Adobe Photoshop into their curriculum. They did have a (very short) series of lectures on Photoshop during lunch hours for a few days but it basically consisted of: "This is Photoshop 3. It does stuff." All in all, it was a very valuable learning experience and I did wind up graduating from the program with an honors standing!

After graduating from NAIT, I was lucky enough to be hired on by the printing company that I performed my practicum at. Willis Printing was a small, family run print shop in Edmonton. I say "was" because they have since gone out of business, which is a shame, a lot of good people worked there and it was sad to hear that they were all out of work... At any rate, I spent a year there after graduating from NAIT. During my time there I worked in the prepress area spending time both on the computer (they had both PCs and Macintosh in the department) and, much to my dismay, in the plating room, which I affectionately used to call "Hell".

After leaving Willis, many of my friends and family suggested that I attempt freelance design. I thought it was a great idea. After all, who wouldn't want to work from their own home? I found out, rather quickly I might add, that freelancing was a lot harder than it sounded. "What do you mean I need clients?" I only managed to get a few contract jobs over the course of the next couple of years.

Nearing the end of that period was when I started to dabble in web design. I built a few basic web pages using FrontPage and decided from there that I would like to branch out with my design skills. Again I went out looking for a school and finally chose the Strathcona Career Training Institute (SCTI). Unfortunately for me (and the rest of the students at SCTI), the school went bankrupt halfway through my course. After about a month of waiting and wondering, the school was bought by AOL (Academy of Learning). That minor issue aside, while at SCTI/AOL I was instructed in many different multimedia programs such as: Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere; Macromedia Dreamweaver and Flash, Syntrillium's Cool Edit Pro, and Discreet's 3D Studio Max. In the end, I walked away from AOL with two certifications from Adobe -- one in Photoshop and one in Premiere, as well as a Certified Internet Webmaster Associate designation.

Between 2002 and 2003, I worked alongside some of my former classmates from AOL. A company named Digital Deviance was formed by that group but as of yet, hasn't developed much past a loose collection of designers. I have since moved on and started my own company, Halo Digital Design. However, during the time I was with them, I was lucky enough to be the one to design the main company site for Digital Deviance (which can be seen in the Portfolio section of this site), as well as a large portion of the sites contracted by that group.

I am currently looking for full time employment in the graphic arts field, preferably web design. I am also in the constant search for contract work as I much prefer the comforts of my own "office"!

Even though I have quite a bit of experience, I am also quite aware that I have much to learn. Nadine Bevan (the lead designer at Willis Printing) told me on my first day of work experience "Don't ever think that you know everything, because you'll never know it all"! I have taken those words to heart.

Some things that I plan on learning in the future include: ASP and/or PHP, and perhaps ColdFusion. I am quite confident that I can make things look good, but I would like to take that a bit further and make them more user-friendly and interactive.