What is your overriding professional goal?
To either become a consistent contributor to an agency or to get on with a start-up or settle back into the corporate world. I’m leaving my goals pretty diverse.
How do you explain what you do to ‘regular people?’
People get what illustrators do so not much to explain there other than the type of software I use and what type of illustration I do. Graphic Design is so varied these days it requires a breakdown into the types of design and various software products that support the various paths. Most people know that Adobe is pretty much the standard.
What professional accomplishment are you proudest of?
While I was employed at SAS I was given the opportunity to design the first set of icons for the SAS software line of products. These started out as Photoshop pixel by pixel designs and evolved into richer, detailed icons done in Illustrator.
What is your non-work creative outlet?
Working in the yard when it’s not 40 below!
What’s your biggest design-related pet peeve?
Clients that say they know what they want and say that the project is theirs so they are the final word, only to show it to someone else after much time has been invested in doing a detailed comp that looks aesthetically pleasing. Ultimately that “someone else” thinks the design should go off in a totally different direction and the client agrees. This doesn’t bother me as a freelancer because it’s their time and money but when I was in the corporate world that didn’t matter and the more time invested, the more juggling that needed to be done for the other projects on your plate.
What is the last thing that made you laugh out loud?
Last Thursday’s Big Bang Theory
If you could wake up tomorrow having gained one ability or quality, what would it be?
To be a total web ninja
Who is your favorite cartoon character?
Astro Jetson. He gives us hope that maybe dogs will talk in the future. He also coined the phrase, “Ruh – Roh”
Why are you involved with AIGA Raleigh?
To network and learn what other people do for a living so I may be inspired to learn more about that discipline or try to infuse aspects of their design style into my next project.
What led you to volunteer or join the board?
I volunteered for the Hand Painted Sign Letterers Film Series project because I wanted to meet new people on a little deeper level than what gets shared at the community meetings.
What have you done as a board member or volunteer that you are most proud of?
The Hand Lettered Sign Painters project was my first volunteer effort but I hope to volunteer for more in 2014!
What goals do you have for the future of the chapter?
To help it grow more members and gain larger audiences at Film Series and other Raleigh AIGA events.
What have you seen other chapters do that was really cool?
I don’t know what other chapters do but I’ll bet the San Francisco chapter does some pretty cool stuff!
