photo by Andrew J. Tonn

I have over a decade and a half of professional experience in visual communications. Besides design work, I produce illustrations under the brand of Inkleaf Studio.

I grew up in a small town south of Cleveland on a state-owned farm surrounded by experimental field plots. I later worked as a research assistant for The Ohio State University at an agricultural facility before starting my career in graphic design. Today I live in Akron, Ohio, with my wife Chelsea and our chinchilla Sasparilla. When not in the studio, I’m most likely renovating our 1956 Cape Cod.

A Brief History of My Skillset

I have a background in design, illustration, and fine art. I studied Illustration at the Columbus College of Art and Design, but discovered graphic design along the way and began my design career with a small niche publisher. I moved on from there to work for a communications group at The Ohio State University. During my tenure at OSU I watched with interest as the Web started to mature. I asked our developers a lot of questions (thanks for your patience, guys!), decided to dive in, and spent the next few years teaching myself web design. Now a freelance designer, I approach both print and web with an art director’s eye and a craftsman’s hand. I build sites with standards in mind and keep up with emerging web technologies. For print projects, I feel it’s important to involve the printer in the conversation early and design to their capabilities. Likewise, for the web, I believe it’s best to design alongside the developer, sharing ideas from the start. So, in short, I can code the HTML and CSS for your site, lay out your magazine, recommend the perfect typeface for your annual report, then go to its press check to make sure your stakeholders are happy with the final product. I can take a decent photo in a pinch, too, and I always enjoy working an illustration into a project.

Awards and Publications

• 2009 Print Creativity + Commerce Competition
• 2008 Print Regional Design Annual
• 2008 Webby Award Honoree
• 2002 Telly Award
• 2001 Videographer Award

About This Site

The site is built using TextWrangler, Coda, Transmit, and MAMP. Photoshop and Illustrator are used for images. The blog is a custom installation of Movable Type. Hosting is by MediaTemple. XHTML and CSS are valid wherever possible. All design, coding, and updating is by me. Thanks to Chelsea and Curt for helpful feedback, and Scott for Javascript debugging.

Typography

Body text on this site is set in Georgia and Verdana. The headers are Mr Eaves by Zuzanna Licko. The site and blog logotypes are slightly modified Clarendon.

Mugshots