About
in the beginning
back when Batman was a career option.
So the journey that got me to today started back in 1989, with the release of Batman - which I was convinced was a career option for quite some time. Once it became apparent that I wasn't quite physically up to the challenge I settled on drawing superheroes. Everywhere. All the time. This passion / artistic insanity propelled me safely through middle school to Woodrow Wilson High school where I was threatened numerous times by my amazing art teachers to expand my creative pallet if only momentarily beyond Marvel & DC. I took on inking, painting, and even the occasional photograph. I guess I was ok at it, but it would be some time until I ever really shook the capes.
College came up quickly and I found myself commuting daily to the University of North Texas in the fall of 1999. In the process of 30 minutes of my first Intro to Communication Design, I learned that I went from being one of the best artists my high school had ever produced to Communication Design Freshman #456 of 3000. And we were all the best in our previous creative lives. I begrudgingly left comic books behind and got to work learning the core principles of design, typography, and drawing beyond the X-Men and Superman.
but first, a detour
where we're going, we don't need diplomas.
And then something absolutely insane happened. At the end of my freshman year, I failed my communication design entrance exam. I had never, ever failed at anything creative in my life. Anything less than a high A would spin me into a rage, so the thought that I was blocked from becoming...something that I really had no love or want to do (graphic design) was just a mystery - ah, I see the irony now. Anyways, I drifted in and out of school for the next few years, changed my major, changed schools, and became a waiter for two weeks. I was a terrible waiter. If you ate at the Dixie House in Dallas sometime in the winter of 2021, I’m so sorry - you were never really going to get those extra rolls. But then, one fateful night I watched a little movie called Chasing Amy, about a group of people that were “independent comic book publishers.” They didn’t bother moving to New York or LA to pursue a job making comics. They just did it themselves! Whaaaat? My friends and I decided then and there - that was our chosen path.
So that’s exactly what we did. We recruited talent from around North Texas, bribed them with tales of fortune and fame, and went about creating, publishing, and distributing our own series of books. My book, titled Ita: Code of the Dragon, turned out to be our best seller (I know, crazy since I ran the company). So we decided to drop the other two titles and focus exclusively on that title. We created an ongoing series, developed national distribution through Diamond Direct, and even went on to San Diego Comic-Con where we pursued various licensing deals and animation options. Ultimately, I was working 15-20 hours a day, 7 days a week, and decided that for my own health to sell our company to Starline Multimedia with the rights to publish Ita: Code of the Dragon as a graphic novel, which working with an international team of artists, came out in 2005.
ah, life
trading in the rockstar for a 401k.
About the time production ended on ITA, I met my first wife, a bit of life happened and I realized as much as I loved the creative process of comics, what I really enjoyed was the marketing end of my projects. Creating was fun, but the entire journey of developing something for the market, creating the assets, building interest and hype, and ultimately delivering the product was what really made me happy. With that, I decided to package my street knowledge of design and jump into the world of graphic design. My first job was right in our backyard with GameStop Corporate. It was an amazing job working firsthand with various publishers to rebrand and distribute all new signage and campaigns to all 4500 stores across the US, Puerto Rico, and Guam. I also had the opportunity to design several outside-the-box projects such as the Xbox 360 Chopper, the Annual Reports, and the Children's Activity Zone book which became a pretty big hit and was featured on several media outlets including Kotaku, ign, and opera.com.
And THEN! My first child was born. I realized that I needed to make more money, like…quick. But how do you do that as a graphic designer? Maybe….expand what type of graphics you make? I already had some knowledge of HTML and web design, so I left GameStop for a job as a creative director for a company called Aquasana. And man, did I grow as a designer. I went from doing fairly straightforward print design to website creation, email newsletters, package design, tradeshow design, and more. It was awesome and the company did great! So great that we were purchased after two years and our operations moved to Austin, Texas. And I just bought a house. Also, my entire family’s here with no real intentions of leaving… so yea. New job time.
the big leagues
in which our hero becomes management material.
Little did I know that just down the road (15 minutes down 35 West) in downtown Fort Worth was a little software company called AutoStar Solutions. Originally hired as a web designer, I quickly moved up the marketing department (of 3) to become the Marketing Manager.
Now AuoStar was a unique company in that it was an established technology company, but with the addition of my boss, the Cheif Revenue Officer, we were in the midst of some major growth so we operated in a very fast-paced, start-up mentality. What that translated into was we needed an aggressive marketing effort, and fast. I quickly hired the people that helped me along my path - one from my comic book company days, and designers from my GameStop team, and we got to work.
We created an in-depth sales and marketing strategy to help squeeze down the long sales cycles, created custom sales packets and product demos as well as led the annual user's conference “Innovate” which brought over 800 dealers from across the country for 3 days to downtown Fort Worth. We did such a great job, that we were purchased, for a lot. And you guessed it, they moved our operation to…California this time, so that was new. At this time, my second child was less than a year old, and again, I wasn’t really feeling it, so I took my leave and decided to go a bit rogue.
chapter 3
to infinity, and beyond.
One of the benefits of having such a great stretch at AutoStar for over five years was I was able to network with many of our partners and executives, and what started as just a simple job here and there on the side became a full-time stable of clients that I worked for and kept myself rather busy for a number of years and it was great! I loved creating on-the-fly marketing campaigns, websites, and videos for companies such as Rewards.com, Lennox, iKonGPS, and more. And THEN! My 3rd child was born - who quickly stole my heart yet again. It was time to get serious again (you know, healthcare and stuff, it's kind of important).
This lead me to today (ish) - after some quality time back with GST, I left for a stint at billyGO - cut my teeth on some big-time local spending campaigns via Facebook, TikTok, and Google and then took some time off of the marketing trail to regroup and really dive deep into AI and how to best integrate it as a user and as a marketer / designer. So, hitting the trail again and ready for the next adventure.