Fall 2019
- Enrolled
- CMST 290 - Intro to Interactive Design, Grade: A
- LIBS 150 - Introduction to Research, Grade: A
I am a digital designer with over 20 years of experience creating engaging content. I have extensive knowledge of all aspects of multimedia including graphic design, motion graphics, and video production. I am also an exceptional troubleshooter and have experience managing design projects, a web server, and staff. Some things I enjoy are reading, tabletop and video games, progressive metal and, currently, I am learning to play guitar.
I am currently employed at Johns Hopkins where I design and manage digital signage content which is displayed campus-wide across Johns Hopkins entities. Create static imagery, video, motion graphics, and interactive touch screen content. Perform daily network functions and troubleshooting to keep the system of 350+ locations across the state functioning for institutional visual communications with patients and staff. Manage all aspects of new design projects and facilitate hardware installs with internal and external vendors while keeping track of billing and budgets. Support other miscellaneous digital and print design project requests as needed.
This was a project created in the Summer of 2022 for CMST320, Illustration Graphics. This project is based on the "Lords of Waterdeep" board game. This project helped me re-acquainted with the pen tool and learn how to merge shapes to create objects in Illustrator. This is one of the most powerful tools I learned and helped me really create the meeples and make them look like their game parts. I also was able to create depth by using the repeat transform tool for the meeple shape. I really like how the colors came together and how the typography of each stamp come together.
This was a project created in the Fall of 2022 for CMST351, Motion Graphics I. This was my final project for my for this class. I have a lot of self-taught skills in after effects which really helped me with this project. This course taught me the importance of storyboarding for a large motion project with many moving parts and content. This final project is based on the board game called “Beez” which was designed by my friend Dan Halstad. I was able to utilize scans of the actual game components and printed material and leveraged them as multiple graphics using Photoshop. Then all elements were imported into After Effects.
This was a project created in the Summer of 2022 for CMST320, Illustration Graphics. The goal of this final project was to apply all of the different skills learned in the course. This was a very fun and creative project that really took me a bit of time to complete but was a good way to apply and practice different techniques. I used multiple reference photos of the park and merged them together into this finished piece. I was also able to get peer support from other designers for suggestions which helped me shape the final look and feel of the park poster.
This was a project created in the Summer of 2022 for CMST325, Image Editing. This was a fun and comedic Photoshop project that is based on a fictitious book cover. I used Doctor Steve Brule, from the Adult Swim show “Check it Out”, as the subject of the book. I used many different layer effects on the image and applied brush strokes to the image so that the photo looked more like a painting. I also added other effects to make the book look old and somewhat destroyed. To do this I used downloaded ripped paper brushes to use as an eraser to apply to the right edge. I also added an old price tag from a reference image and blended it in to make it look old.
This was a project created in the Fall of 2022 for CMST386, Prin Web Design & Tech II. This was my final project for this course and really helped me apply all my knowledge from the two Web Technologies courses. I developed the logo in another class (CMST 320 Illustration Graphics) then took it a step further and developed a website around the logo. This is a location near my house that my dog and I enjoy visiting to walk the trails and beach. This responsive site was built all by hand using HTML and CSS and a little bit of Javascript.
This was a project created in the Fall of 2021 for CMST310, Fund of Electronic Publishing. This project was part of my first steps in really diving into and learning Adobe InDesign. This project taught me how to set up different document sizes and how to lay them out all in one document. The fictitious company logo was created in Illustrator and everything else was laid out using InDesign. The idea was taken a step further and allowed me to create branding and apply the design and colors to multiple pieces of stationery that were developed using this logo and branding style.
This was a project created in the Summer of 2020 for CMST325, Image Editing I. This is one of my favorite pieces that I created during my time at UMGC. This is a fictitious movie poster created in Photoshop. I was able to find many different reference images to make a composite. The main image was a black-and-white photo of a person standing on a street. I then applied cyberpunk-looking artwork to the background. I then added some circuitry to the ground. I also applied lighting and coloring effects. Then I applied many different effects and typography to make it look like a real movie poster.
I had way too much fun with this project. This was a project created in the Spring of 2022 for CMST315, Game Design I. This was my first time ever using Unity which is a tool to create games in either 3D or 2D. It also taught me how to write C# code to allow for many different interactive functionality in the game. I am very surprised at how well I picked up on all of it since I have never been too great at coding beyond HTML. I am very happy that I was able to make my game work and was a little challenging overall.
This was a project created in the Summer of 2022 for CMST341, Principles of Multimedia I. Learning Adobe Animate in this course was like riding a bike again. That is because I used to create animations in Flash all the time when it was the popular and widely used tool for these applications. Adobe Animate is very similar to Flash. I created this fictitious web ad and based it on my nephew Jason. I was able to capture and incorporate audio of him making the animal sounds in the ad as the user hovers over the different animals in the expanded scene. I also learned how to draw in Animate and how to apply puppet tools to the drawing to make the character move.
This was a project created in the Fall of 2021 for CMST310, Fund of Electronic Publishing. This was another project that got my feet wet with InDesign. The power of creating styles and how they can be applied to entire InDesign documents really opened my eyes to how important this tool is for printed projects. Many InDesign features help to take a lot of tedium when working with large amounts of text from a Word document to be able to style it how you want using InDesign. Previously I did work like this in Illustrator but I have permanently made a switch to InDesign when working on print projects, especially with large amounts of text that needs to be formatted.
This was a project created in the Summer of 2022 for CMST320, Illustration Graphics. For me, this was a reacquainting and practice with using the pen tool in Illustrator. I was able to use real images of a guitar and an amp and traced over the image with the pen tool. I took a lot of time adding details and texture to the guitar body. The amp contains all of the knobs and buttons just like the real one does. This project also shows the ways to use strokes without fills to create a coloring book page. I also used fills to show how it could be colored in when it is completed.
This was a project created in the Spring of 2022 for CMST425, Advanced Image Editing. This was a fun Photoshop project which helped me learn and understand the ways 3D text can be incorporated into a photo. I was able to also learn how to use masking effectively to create depth. This helps complete the illusion that the 3D text is really there in the photo. Unfortunately, the 3D tools were removed from Photoshop not long after I completed this course. Adobe does however offer other 3D tools in separate programs. I think it makes sense to make 3D modeling separate but does add an extra step and software to learn.
This was a project created in the Spring of 2022 for CMST425, Advanced Image Editing. This is another project that took 3D in Photoshop a step further. The phone in this image is not a real phone but was created using the 3D extrusion tools in Photoshop. I was able to add an image of a podcast that my friend hosts. I also added the cigars to the image. Unfortunately, the 3D tools were removed from Photoshop not long after I completed this course. Adobe does however offer other 3D tools in separate programs. I think it makes sense to make 3D modeling separate but does add an extra step and software to learn.
This was a project created in the Fall of 2021 for CMST310, Fund of Electronic Publishing. This was my very first project using Adobe InDesign. This is a fictitious dance party poster that taught me how to lay out the text that was given to me. I was able to find a stock illustration and based the entire subject and design around the illustration. I was able to learn how to use text boxes and styles applied to text. I also learned how to use image frames and how to easily insert one or multiple images and apply different sizing and grid options.
This was a project created in the Spring of 2022 for CMST425, Advanced Image Editing. This was another Photoshop project that was fun to create since most of my time spent on a daily basis is creating corporate-related designs. This project helped me really flex my skills and use more of the tools provided by Adobe. This used many different reference photos which I edited together in many different pieces to make the cover image. I was able to apply text and font styles that match the real magazine and used the real logo of the magazine as the finishing touch.
This was a project created in the Summer of 2022 for CMST325, Image Editing. This Photoshop project required me to “rewrite history”. I decided to add my face to Mount Rushmore in place of Lincoln. I took photos of myself to get the same angle. This took many tries to accomplish to get the perfect angle. Once I got a good working photo, I then incorporated and blended my face into the rock face. This took a lot of time and tools to achieve the final result. This course also taught me the importance of using image masks to not “destroy” the original image so that is easy to revert things if needed.
This was a project created in the Spring of 2023 for CMST331, Augmented Reality Design I. This was my 2nd Unity project but my first time creating an AR project. This Android app allows the user to hold up a phone to the cover of the Dark Tower #7 book and it will open up a 3D scene. The scene features an open door that serves as an interactive portal to this other universe which is a central plot point in the book series. I plan to make more of these for the other books in the series. This was a lot of fun to create and really enjoy the Unity software.
This was a project created in the Summer of 2022 for CMST320, Illustration Graphics. This is a logo that I developed for the Essex Skypark which I then used for a website project in the CMST386 course. This was a really fun process to go through since I always felt that logo design is not one of my strongest skills. Taking ideas sketched on paper and translating them to a final illustrator file really helped boost my logo creation confidence. This was due to learning more about how to go through the logo design process and really explore creative ideas and find which ones work the best.
This was a project created in the Fall of 2021 for CMST311, Advanced Electronic Publishing. This is another one of my favorite projects that I completed at UMGC. I was able to use this project to apply my InDesign skills and create a fictitious magazine cover and article pages. This magazine is based on a game review website that I created with a group of friends. I used a lot of different techniques and software to complete this layout. I also used the box art from the game to create a large image in Photoshop for the cover. The logo was reworked in Illustrator to be used for the magazine cover. I then used the great photos that my friend Mike took of the game and apply it to the article pages. It all came together very well and looks like a real magazine.
This was a project created in the Summer of 2022 for CMST325, Image Editing. Learning how to properly use the different selection tools in Photoshop is a key skill to learn. This project was done as a demonstration of how to use effective selection and the use of selection tools. Making accurate selections can allow the user to apply different blur effects to different image subjects which can help achieve a realistic motion effect in an action shot. I was able to use these selection skills to complete this final piece. Who better to choose as a subject than the star QB for the Ravens, Lamar Jackson?