About Me

A history.

From being expelled multiple times to becoming an aspiring teacher, my path has been one of continual reinvention. I went from becoming a Cryptologic Technician Interpretive (CTI) to firmly landing as an Aviation Boatswain’s Mate - Aircraft Handling (ABH) in the Navy: from blue shirt to white, back to blue, and finally yellow — director on the flight deck and in the hangar bay. From there, I went to studying game design, switched to graphic design, then into a career in the sometimes strange in-between spaces: graphic design folded into brand and web development, UX/UI design as a translator from design to code, and product design driven by a mix of creativity, constraint, systems, and business objectives. I currently exist somewhere at the intersection of all of them — a designer that loves to design, create, and build, assembled from overlapping disciplines, revisions, and reroutes.

Past:

Before starting my design career, I attended Citrus College (general, history, and music) and Mt. San Antonio College (classical guitar), initially planning to major in history but later started to focus on music. However, I pivoted and joined the U.S. Navy intended for Cryptologic Technician Interpretive (where I passed a very peculiar exam that seemed to be a combination of logic and visual message comprehension) but ultimately served as an Aviation Boatswain’s Mate - Aircraft Handling [story coming soon] aboard the USS Boxer (LHD-4) where I supported the transport of troops through the Strait of Hormuz to the Middle East, assisted in the deterrence and hunting of pirates in the Indian Ocean (including the Captain Richard Phillips (Maersk Alabama hijacking) situation where I helped the SEALs move their awesome and strange boats and later found myself in Primary Flight Control (one of my extra duties) looking at the world through night vision goggles as pirates walked the flight deck as if in a weird version of the age of sail; rode an elephant in Thailand (slowly), became a rare Golden Shellback (very uncomfortably), snowboarded in a desert in Dubai (with a lot of bruises), barbecued at a pier in Africa (elated to just be off a ship), and assisted with humanitarian missions in South America (beautiful looking).

I was awarded a Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal and was honorably discharged one year early through an early release program for high performing sailors in saturated rates willing to separate during a force reduction, which I reluctantly did (with a great deal of consideration) as an Aviation Boatswain's Mate - Aircraft Handling Petty Officer Third Class ABH3 (AW/SW), a yellow shirt, with Enlisted Aviation Warfare Specialist and Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist qualifications and went to pursue my dream of being in the arts and technology fields.

I attended the Art Institute of California – Los Angeles in Santa Monica, where I initially majored in video game art and design before shifting to the graphic design program with Susanne Manheimer and other extremely talented intstructors and classmates, where I found myself drawn to a field I was only beginning to understand at the time. My professional journey began at Oubly, a startup just beginning in a humble office near my aparment in the Mar Vista/Venice Beach area, where my passion for design truly took root. It was there I realized this really was the path I wanted to pursue, and I have embraced the fast-paced, ever evolving nature of working in design and technology since.

Present:

Now I design and build things for people, businesses, and organizations every day.

Future:

Someday I'd like to be a teacher.