Background

<A little bit about me... and how I got to be right here>

With any job, there are obviously good and bad weeks - yet I am quite fortunate that after 14+ years of working with commercial art - I continue to wake up each day and think.. "Man, I get paid to do this!!"

Since late 2005 - I have been the Art Director for CNET Networks (Now Creative Director | CBS Interactive) Business Portfolio web sites, driving creative for CBS MoneyWatch, BNET, ZDNet, TechRepublic and SmartPlanet. I have the best design team in all of CNET Networks, and within the Business division are some of the smartest and most passionate producers, engineers, editors and product folks I have ever worked with. It may sound cliche - but I love what I do, as well as where and with whom I do it!

My focus has always been on building functional design systems that creatively solve business problems. Solutions that convey brand & messaging, but more importantly, are intuitive to maximize the possibilities of an online medium.

What do I do

• An avid student and evangelist of user-centered design principles - I have created or overhauled some of the world's largest online Business & Technology properties.
• Develop brand identity systems with the flexibility to be extended into high impact product and content franchises.
• Able to translate editorial perspective into compelling award winning visual storytelling by combining unique product templates with illustrative feature presentation.
• Coordinate with internal customers to develop timely and cost-efficient creative solutions in support of division & product initiatives.
• Proven track record in successfully managing a large workload, quick turnarounds, budgets and “customer” expectations, and rallying a creative team in tight deadline circumstances.

A Functional Design

• A functional design is not about a medium - web, print or multimedia.. it is not about a pretty picture. It simply responds to the parameters of a business challenge, determines the creative opportunities and offers solutions to be extended in all possible formats.