Roots
 My career as an artist began at 14 years old with my very first commissioned painting, a 20 plus foot mural in the basement of an in-law's house. With the money I made there, I bought my first easel, and set of acrylic paints. From then on I began taking jobs painting scenery, portraits, pets, etc. Early on I bought my first airbrush and began learning how to make one dance on the canvas to produce a variety of pieces done with a substantial degree of realism. After graduating from high school I continued painting on the side while working my first "real job" at a local printing company.
Initially, I started out making deliveries and cleaning around the plant but quickly moved on to pressman apprentice. As the result of an unfortunate accident where I crushed my right arm in a printing press, I returned to work to change positions to my first opportunity in the Art department. Those were in the days before computers, so everything was done as manual paste-up design at that time.
Eventually I moved through different departments and companies learning typesetting, litho camera work, stripping, platemaking and a variety of other aspects of the printing industry. While these experiences all offered me an opportunity to learn the business of printing, they were still not giving me the opportunities I needed to explore my creativity and artistic talents. Therefore I ramped up my efforts in running a small business on the side doing commissioned artwork and graphic design for local residents and companies. This gave birth to my first business endeavor... Genesis Design. |
The turning point
The turning point in my career was when a local direct mail printing company, Communicolor saw my potential and at the risk of hiring someone without a college degree, took a chance on me. I was hired in 1994 to work in their Marketing Department as a graphic designer. At that time, what little computer experience I had was just dabbling with some paint software on the Commodore Amiga platform.
 My new job at Communicolor required advanced skills on the Macintosh platform in software such as Photoshop, Illustrator and QuarkXPress. With my work cut out for me, I hammered the books and seminars to quickly build the required skill set to design attractive and effective direct mail print designs, marketing brochures/collateral and sales tools.
Eventually, in the mid 90's, the age of the internet was upon us and I became the resident webmaster developing the company's first web site. As the state of electronic media began to grow I later began focusing more on PowerPoint presentations and CD based interactive presentations. In the late 90's, Communicolor was bought by Chicago based printing mogul RR Donnelley and Sons, becoming part of their direct mail division, RRD Direct.
I managed to hold my position through the buyout and continued to perform the same tasks for RRD for a couple more years until they merged with yet another Chicago based printing giant, Moore Wallace.
Once again I dodged the bullet and was the only one in the Marketing Department that was kept on staff to work for Moor Wallace. I remained at Moore Wallace Response Marketing Services for about another year before moving on to my current job... more about that later.
Right about at the turn of the new millennium, during the turmoil of the buyouts and mergers at my job, my best friend David Johnson approached me with a business proposition.
Dave had been running a successful Video Systems and Production company, Video GT, for a number of years and asked me if I would be interested in starting up a small marketing/design "boutique" offering video, CD, DVD, web and print design services.
I agreed to give it a shot and RenderWurx Studios was born. Dave worked this new venture simultaneous to running Video GT and I worked it while maintaining my job at RRD and Moore Wallace.
We had some great jobs and put out some amazing work, but ultimately the business didn't grow quickly enough for me to quit my job, and working two full time jobs just became too much for me.
Dave eventually had to dissolve RW due to serious medical issues and I have stopped doing freelance work altogether. My latest job now gives me more than enough opportunities to express my creativity, learn new skills and do the type of work I enjoy the most. |
Changing Industries
In June of 2004, Peter Schreiber, one of my old work buddies from Communicolor was working as a Vice President at a local lighting manufacturing company, Holophane. Pete and I had worked closely on many Marketing projects before and he was determined to get me on his staff at Holophane to bring them some of my creative talents and tools to their arsenal. Ironically, my two oldest brothers, Lowry and Bob had both been working there for the past 35 plus years.
Holophane was a strong 106 year old company with a great reputation in their industry and our community, so I took the position. This was a little unsettling at first since I had spent my whole life in the printing industry and was now moving into and industry that I knew nothing about. Holophane manufactures high end lighting products for the Commercial, Municipal, Industrial and Government Education markets.
My new position at Holophane was to be their resident Multimedia Specialist and didn't require me to do any print design, so this was when I decided to switch platforms from the Mac to the PC. All work I was to develop was going to be ran and viewed on a PC, and I found more software to be available to me for video and multimedia on the PC platform, so it seemed the time was right to make the change.
Culmination of a Career
It took me 25 years to get there but I finally had landed a position at Holophane that I felt was the perfect job for me. My responsibilities included all types of various electronic marketing and communications design, including:
These responsibilities offered me a wide variety of opportunities to be creative, think outside the box and do the type of work I really enjoy most. My boss was great and gave me a great deal of latitude in coming up with fresh new ideas. We always seemed to be thinking on the same wavelength and really understood each other's strengths and style.
Nearly 5 years later, after an unfortunate workforce reduction do to the sagging economy, my boss left the company for a new position in Chicago, and in the Spring of 2009 I was moved up to the position of Manager of Creative Design. This maintained all my previous electronic media and design responsibilities while adding to them the responsibility of managing the entire Marketing Communications Department... which included all print advertising and collateral. In 2012 a corporate reorg expanded my responsibilities to Manager of Marketing Services for Acuity Brands, which makes me responsible for all print, web, video and electronic marketing for three of Acuity Brands lighting companies (Holophane, American Electric Lighting, and Antique Street Lamps).
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