Born in Oceanside, CA in 1969, I grew up exposed to a great deal of music as a young child. My parents loved listening to The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkle, and a lot of the music from the 50's and 60's.

From early on drawing was a passion of mine. I had found that drawing was a creative outlet for things I had great interest in. Whether it was comic characters, Sci-Fi, or my favorite music group, drawing those subjects were my way of celebrating what I enjoyed.

I took up guitar at the age of 6, learning a few chords. I then started piano lessons at age 8. I wanted to play the Beatles and I was forced to learn the curriculum. Lessons lasted 3 years and I fought the idea of site reading while playing. After all, none of the bands I admired had sheet music in front of them!

At age 13 I moved back to guitar. I did my best to learn all my favorite songs in the 80's. I could not be classified into any one "click", I liked music for what it was not to follow a fashion. That meant listening to New Wave, Heavy Metal and modern blues such as Stevie Ray Vaughan as well as still listening to the 50's and 60's music I grew up with. I never attempted forming a band until after high school.

In high school I took great interest in a class that taught the basics of offset printing and typesetting. I learned how to spec type on a typesetter, paste up layouts using wax, burn plates, shoot stats on a stat camera, and how to run a single color offset press. I found myself spending more time on everything but the actual press. Pushing the limits of a three color press was my goal. When most students were printing two color jobs with solid colors, I pushed the limits with a 3 color job using 4 different screen values and cutting complex ruby lith masks to accomplish the complex plate. I found the challenge more interesting than anything else.

After high school I attended various classes at both Palomar Community College and Mira Costa College. I worked construction by day and attended classes at night. I focused on computer courses that taught the basics such as, spreadsheets, basic programming as well as architectual drafting.

In the late 80's I was stricken with serious allergy and asthma symptoms. I found dusty construction sites hazardous to my health. I then figured out that I spend all my free time drawing so I explored the idea of going to school for design.

I started attending the Advertising Arts College in January 1991. The school has since become the Art Institute. I really didn't know what a designer or art director was until it was explained in school. I then knew I wanted to be an art director since the title was associated with both print designs and set designs in the film industry.

In my first year of school I was hired at the San Diego division of the Pennysaver. I composed display ads for all issues from San Diego up to Orange County. I adapted my knowledge of offset presses to move into a position that only a few held at the time. Back in the early 90's two color Pennysaver ads were not easily created on the Mac as the files were paginated and separated on a PC. So it was up to a few people to define the procedure and document it for future staff. I also helped pioneer the 4 color covers that debuted just as I left the company.

I started freelancing by this point. I did some work for some local bands by designing CD covers and posters. I also did some brochures for a local software company called Nisus Software. They were a small company but well known for the Nisus Writer software that was a popular alternative to Microsoft Word. I also worked for a company called Tech Reps that sent qualified individuals to software fairs to demonstrate programs. I was hired to demonstrate some painting programs at my local Comp USA.

I worked for a San Diego label printer which exposed me to the type of printing known as Flexography. I then decided to get into the cutting edge of digital photo imaging and joined a small photo retouching business. The owner had just purchased the only Photoprinter in town. It was a digital one hour photo processor that had a digital CRT that projected the photo as pixels of light onto standard photographic paper. It was the first technology that allowed the printing of a REAL photograph from a digital file. These are now found in every Wallgreens across the state, but this was the first in San Diego and it was here I acquired the knowledge of photo chemical processes and worked closely with local photographers, art directors, models and agencies. Although I had a few photography classes in college, I learned more on the job than I ever learned in a classroom.

After a few years I had realized I was ready to move onto bigger avenues. When the art director at Carvin Guitars left the company, my resume was on the top of a short list. With my background in music and experience, I was the ideal candidate.

By then I had played in a couple of post college bands. It was a great honor to be asked to give an opinion or to try out a new Carvin product by taking it out onto a local stage with my band. The greatest honor was working with guitar idol Steve Vai on the Legacy signature amp. I designed the Legacy logo/nameplate by incorporating Steve's personal VAI logo along with elements from his "light without heat" logo. The highest honor was photographing Steve for the original Carvin promotions. Steve is known for using only his favorite photographers and to be allowed to photograph him was a thrill.

I then formed a blues rock band called The Downside, which eventually became Wolftrane. This is my current band and I continue to play the San Diego club scene.

Over the last 8 years, I have had the honor of meeting, working with and photographing many of my adolescent music heroes such as members of The Eagles, Motley Crue, The Scorpions, Duran Duran, Dada, No Doubt, and more... I have strived to create eye catching designs with clever and effective advertisements.

There are plenty of photography samples and design samples on this site.