About Me
Toys have always been a passion of mine. I studied Industrial Design at the University of Cincinnati DAAP. In school I took almost all of my internships with toy companies. Thankfully I was lucky enough to work at R-Vap Studios, Kenner Toys, and Fisher Price. Everyone I got to work with were the best at what they did and absolute professionals. After graduation I moved to California to started my career in toys and collectibles. I bounced around at various start-up toy companies in southern California (21st Century Toys, Playhut) finally landing my first real job at Centaur Enterprises sculpting/prototyping toys, various product concepts, and museum models for everyone from BAE to Feld Entertainment /Sells-Floto Circus. This is where I learned a traditional way of product design, beyond what I had learned in school and internships. Pushing a broom, making rubber molds and resin hard copies to then be painted and submitted to very discerning licensers and clients. This was the late 90s early 2000s just before 3D prototyping went overseas and finally evolved into digital. This is where I banished my fears of the lathe, mill, and table saw. Where I became very familiar with Binks brand of paint guns and pressure pots. In those days we used lacquer and hi-speed thinner like it was water. Eventually evolving to acrylic and inks. I loved this job because it was a great place to cut your teeth in product design and to learn the right way and the wrong way of doing things.
My next work experience was at Maisto International as a designer for retail collectible die-cast models and toys. At Maisto I learned an attention to detail for product licensing with various manufactures like Kawasaki, Ford, and Chevrolet. I learned great teamwork and cross pollination of skills and thought. I wasn’t using the Adobe suite to it’s greatest potential. (but I soon would) This was also my first opportunity to build working relationships with my overseas counterparts and setting the foundation for good communication practices that I would use through out my career. It’s critical because where ever the tooling and manufacturing is going to be done, the means of communication have to be universal.
From Maisto I began working as “Senior” Industrial Designer for Strottman International. My duties ranged from brainstorming ideas, cost engineering, product design and everything in between. This was probably the greatest opportunity of my career and I treated this job and the people I worked with like family. I made some of my greatest friendships there, I was given the professional experience on a day to day basis with agency work, communicating every day with international assets. These were professionals of the highest order and I cherish this experience. Strottman also gave me an appreciation for the Design Agency side of the business and an understanding of fostering good client relationships. Working at an agency is much more demanding/challenging because there are so many competing interests that all must be balanced to assure the greatest outcome for the client. Agency work is also very flexible in that the direction that you are going with the client can radically change but the schedule must still be maintained.
After Strottman I struck out on my own for a while, but something was missing in my skillset that I was able to offer my clients.
IN 2018 returned to school to get my associate’s degree in Visual Communication from a local community college here in Ohio. This has rounded out my skillset to something special giving me more expertise in doing a lot of the different types of design that I’ve always wanted to. I’m now working for Fecon LLC which is a heavy equipment manufacturer that produces large scale land clearing equipment and machinery, Very different from toys in scale, but not complexity. I’m doing technical illustration now for parts and operations manuals as well as whatever quick marketing assets are needed and website admin.
Please take the time to go through all of the different subjects I have compiled here. If anything, maybe you will get a laugh at some of my drawings.
Take care.
