Biography

Since I was a child, I have strived to live a life based around the joys of creativity. I was raised in a manner that showed me there are no holds barred in this world if one is to view it through the lens of art and design. Anything can be redefined or improved; a driven and ambitious person should always pursue their goals.

It all started when I was 7 years old in Des Moines, Iowa. My dad put me in front of a big, clunky monitor connected to a custom PC tower running Windows XP. My eyes lit up as the dial-up sound chimed and I was finally greeted by that classic Windows rolling-grassy-hills wallpaper after a few long minutes of loading. We also had to convince my mom to end her hours-long landline conversation with her friend so we could access the internet. My dad booted up the original version of Macromedia Fireworks and showed me how to open a new file. There it was: My first blank canvas in the digital world.

Over the years, I experimented freely and made all kinds of custom designs one might expect from a child. I even built my first website (which has thankfully long been out of service) building components into my Fireworks .jpeg files using Macromedia Dreamweaver. Of course, Adobe eventually absorbed Macromedia and my beloved Fireworks merged into Illustrator. As I entered middle school, I started learning the ropes of Illustrator and Photoshop using Apple Mac tech. When I was 14 and high school came along, I began studying the bass guitar and the world of music opened new doors of creativity I had never imagined.

My education has always been unique. I was homeschooled throughout elementary school and middle school by my two university-educated parents. By the time I entered high school at 14, I held a black belt in Taekwondo and viewed the world objectively from outside the box. It was in high school where I first became academically serious about art and design. I studied under my first design mentor, Daniel Weiss. Through his intensive art and design courses, he taught me how to hone my creativity into thinking critically. He relentlessly assigned me design constraints; I religiously studied the design principles, color theory, Gestalt theory, and human psychology. These studies revealed to me the endless possibilities of the human mind. I realized every problem has many solutions. Daniel and I remained close friends until his untimely death in 2017.

I have continued my studies in art, design, film and creative writing at the Des Moines Area Community College, the Florida Keys Community College, the Evergreen State College, and Thinkful E-Learning, as well as working as a multimedia design freelancer since I graduated high school in 2012. Beginning in middle school, I participated in 7 years of the 48 Hour Film Festival. These annual rituals taught me how to work in rigid teams along the full spectrum of filmmaking. I became particularly interested in video editing, and developed skills in Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro, and After Effects.

I started my first band at 14, and ventured into my first experience of management and branding. I played the bass and sang lead vocals, and became consumed by branding the band's identity. I used my Photoshop and Illustrator skills to begin ideating and iterating logo ideas. We quickly began playing live shows and I fell in love with creating countless show posters. I also began multitrack recording, first using Logic Pro 9 and eventually becoming cozy with Adobe Audition. Since I was 14, I have been involved in the management and branding of close to a dozen music projects, each being worked with new degrees of seriousness. Ultimately, it was performing music and networking as a musician that led me to the West Coast when I was 21. In 2017, I released an album and booked a West Coast tour where I performed in major cities like Portland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. In 2019, I was asked to help tour manage the band Telekinetic Yeti. Today, I have completed four tours with them (over 60k miles on the road), as well as had promo photos I've taken of them published in multiple music magazines with millions of subscribers.

In recent years, I have continued work as a freelance multimedia designer making commercials, designing show posters for bands and film posters for film students, and most recently I designed the flow and edited a film in collaboration with an art professor. Also in 2019, I wore many hats as a creative specialist for a ticketing / marketing company, in which I not only worked in UX/UI contexts, I also supervised the installation and training of mobile ticketing systems at large-scale events.

In 2020, I used the COVID-19 pandemic to focus my energy and skills specifically on UX/UI design. I underwent a 6-month, full-time immersive bootcamp and earned my Thinkful UX/UI Design Certificate. Following that, I completed a 1-month remote Product Management internship with Werner Trucking's Werner Edge technology division. My next and most recent position was a remote contract with the app development company Dexati based out of San Francisco. For Dexati, I redesigned 7 of their core primarily photo editing and organization tools for both Android and iOS devices.

Going forward, I realize I am good at designing tools and that I love thinking in spaces that involve innovating the way we approach and use our devices that improve our every day lives. I am excited for new opportunities and experiences that will present themselves as I grow and establish deeper roots into my life as a designer.

-Wesley