The Early Years

Jeff inherited genes that were predisposed for talent and creativity. With parents who were highly educated and naturally talented in music and art, Jeff began to develop his interests in design at an early age. An interest in architecture came to fruition when he started drawing buildings with remarkable precision and detail with the aid of drawing instruments (ruler, t-square, etc.) as a young boy. Around the age of eight, he began playing the clarinet. After winning competitions and writing his own clarinet music within a few years, Jeff made a change and sought challenge by learning to play the drums. The intensity of precision, patterns, and occasional flair within playing drums would become a prophetic foundation for the refined design skills developed later.

Education

Jeff’s interests in all things related to design led him to take several high school courses in graphic communication, drafting, and technology. This continued in college, with several courses each in architectural drawing, CAD, graphic communication, and art studio drawing. Later in college, Jeff decided that he wanted to teach others about graphic arts and communication technology and then began to pursue a career in teaching. This eventually led him to continue his education and began work on a Ph.D. at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA (once known as “the most wired town in America”). While there, in the early years of the public Internet, he began learning about web design and web hosting, serving as web designer and webmaster for an academic department on campus for three years. Jeff continued taking courses in digital media and related instructional technology, courses such as communication technology, multimedia authoring, digital audio, and research in instructional technology.
 
While in Blacksburg, Jeff began consulting in web design. One of his early highlights in consulting was for the development of the website for the Technology for All Americans Project, a research project funded by NASA and NSF. Jeff also conducted several presentations on web design and multimedia for the web for the education industry at international conferences.

The World of Work

For years, Jeff was in the education field teaching others about graphic communication, web design, digital photography, technical illustration, multimedia development, CAD, drafting, engineering design, architecture, and many other subjects. He was honored with nominations and awards in teaching and service at both the high school and college levels. While teaching, Jeff continued his consulting work, creating websites and Flash animations.
 
After fifteen years in the education industry, Jeff began to freelance full-time in digital media design and development. His areas of expertise are far reaching, encompassing a wide variety of areas in all things digital media.

Into the Future

Just a few years ago, Jeff developed an interest in comic book art. He began to attend comic cons in order to meet pro comic book artists and see their work. These conventions served as awe-inspiring experiences. As a result, Jeff’s interests in digital media shifted more toward illustration and digital art. A lot of his recent work in the Portfolio and Archive are illustrations. These days, he spends most of his free time after work concentrating on sketching, figure drawing, and digital art. However, keeping up-to-date on other digital media areas (e.g., graphics, web design, desktop publishing, multimedia development) are still important for his regular workday. Ultimately, Jeff plans to write, illustrate, and self-publish a graphic novel, which has been a slow, but sure, work in progress for the past few years. It’s going to be awesome! ♦