Pulling Back The Curtain

the boy on halloweenFirstly, I love what I do. I’m obsessed with many aspects of design, and get to make things every day. I can talk for hours about design, usability, colors, standards, accessibility, trends, and the crashing of various Adobe products. This makes great dinner party conversation.

With almost ten years of experience in design and development, I’ve had the opportunity to work with some great clients. Locals including The National Aquarium, Johns Hopkins, and Lockheed Martin. Fortune 500 companies like Target, and Southwest Airlines. Non-profits and do-gooders like Arts Every Day, Hands For Change, and Treatment Action Group. Government entities like The National Institute of Health, and The Department of Health and Human Services. And thanks to NDAs, many more I can’t mention.

mild hdr capitolI’m the Art Director at 720 Strategies – a great company near Dupont Circle in Washington DC. We spend our days (and sometimes nights) working for a long list of great clients, focusing on results, public relations and customer experience. Because of the nature of PR work, especially inside the beltway, I’m not sure I have a project from 2009 that I can publicly share.

I’m driven by my love for design, and my own high standards. I’m rarely satisfied by my own work, and wish I had unlimited time to revise and refine projects.

Projects

Aside from my day job, I like to take on some side projects to push myself, do some good, and stay current.

  • Hands For Change is a non-profit run by Mike & Shannon Rubin where I volunteer.
  • I have a rough copy of my first book completed. Will it ever really be published? I don’t know. I might push hard for that in 2010.
  • I founded the Baltimore Web Design Guild, a small group dedicated to showcasing local talent.

Personal

I’d only be telling part of the story to not mention my wonderful family. Lisa, Mason, and our yellow Labrador Bella. They are my greatest supporters and motivation. I come home and tell them what I tell everyone else, that I get paid to draw pictures.

The photo of the leaf and ladybug are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic and are the work of Darwin Bell and Nicole Mays respectively.