My career officially began in 2002 while drawing caricatures of amusement park guests in Six Flags Aurora Ohio. I left for college after a few seasons of huffing markers (the effects of Xylene was not yet understood, fortunately we were outside).
I studied Media Arts and Animation at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh where I earned a Bachelors of Science. During that time, I had the unique honor to intern at Carnegie Mellon’s ETC (Entertainment Technology Center). This would have been in 2007-2008 when the late and great Randy Pausch was there. Although I never got to meet him personally, the entire building vibrated with his energy and enthusiasm.
Around this time I gained a position with a small start-up called Bossa Nova Robotics; a start up that was taking CMU robotics and making toys out of them. I did a lot of sketching and graphic design for them. The ideas for their products were sometimes difficult to explain with words alone and images and drawings were often needed to convey these things.
National Network of Digital Schools graphic designer
Lincoln Learning Solutions interactive media designer