While in high school in Gurnee, IL, I started messing around with the computers in the school library, and tried every drawing program I could get my hands on. My dad bought a computer in 1996 and I started doing more and more artwork on the computer. I eventually got Adobe Photoshop and started messing with 3D art.
My first real graphic design job was creating campaign posters for my campaign for senior class president. I had that school plastered with posters. I like to tell people I pulled a John McCain: I got the highest turnout in the history of the school but still lost the election.
I used a free editor to create my first web page in December of 1996 and shortly thereafter, taught myself how to program in HTML. I began getting requests for web sites and decided to go into business. I did a number of small web sites for teachers and friends at $15 a pop. It sure beat mowing lawns!
After I graduated from high school, my dad and I moved to Virginia Beach, VA. I then went to UNC Charlotte. While I was there, I was hired on as the Assistant Online Editor of the student newspaper. I wrote a number of op-ed articles in addition to my web site duties. It was during this time that I bought my first domain name, webolutionary.com, in November of 1997. That site evolved through some ten redesigns into the site you see today.
I got my first full time web design job in July of 1997, as the webmaster of Zap Electronics. I worked there for a year before going to ChannelSpace Entertainment Inc. for three months (I'm sad to say that company hasn't lasted), and later PitotOnline where I worked on web sites and banner ads for various clients for a year. I am currently an employee of VisiNet, where I have been designing web sites for about a year and a half.
In the spring of 2001, I started hanging out at a bar near my house (I love to shoot pool). It was there that I met Nico at 1:30am on May 5th. We're still together nearly a year later, and I couldn't be happier!
