Please see the links atop the page to check out the various categories of work
“...I wouldn’t say i march to the beat of my own drum, just don’t have a problem with being off beat...”
I L O V E sports, basketball especially. Since I was little guy playing imaginary basketball on my bunkbed with a triangle alphabet block (which, seems inexplicably awkward to me now!) mimicking the shots of B.J. Armstrong & Craig Hodges and dunking on said bunkbed like one Michael Jeffrey Jordan. It would be sometime still before I would come to know this Jordan fella was kind of good and would figure prominently in my obsessions of sneakers & sport. Even though both these things held my interest, like many, I had no conception that there was career that actually melded the two, and as a well known compulsive doodler, I went down the path that a teacher recommended for me: architecture. And though I was very much interested with the idea of designing structures, what I was learning of architecture in university seemed very rigid and slow paced. After a couple of years in the Western Illinois Pre-Architecture program I transferred schools and a few things came together, 1) this school, the University of Illinois at Chicago, had a set of foundation year courses that all entrants into the School of Arts program were required to take; which introduced me to all these different disciplines of applied arts, of which the vibrancy of product design had particular appeal. 2) The professor I had for Industrial Design, Bil Becker, was possibly the best teacher one could have as an introduction to I.D., he spoke of the profession with a mix of both practicality & idealism that was very inspiring. 3) Around this same time I discovered online communities where there were other aspiring & some professional designers were posting work & engaged in critique that served as a great motivating environment to both give & receive feedback. Those things coalescing at the same time really 'cemented' -footwear designer pun!- my decision to switch from architecture to pursue industrial design, and athletic footwear...
“Ideas are Easy, execution is the hard part”
These quotes, are basically how I approach not only design but life as well, to me they contains a fundamental wisdom, positioning originality in a way that goes beyond the usual celebration of the epiphany or "ah ha" moment of discovery and highlights the hard work that is making that idea real; execution matters. Secondly the quote is a reminder that, how we do things is maybe just as important as the ideas themselves. For me this relates to maybe the most important part about design, the why...when designing it can be easy to lose the focus in the desire for originality, the why of a product's existence has a way of keeping things focused; and better still when this 'why' extends beyond a single product into a larger ethos. Which comes back to my relationship to design being through my L O V E of sport & sneakers, it has been an opportunity to create & problem solve in a way that honors both; athlete and consumer alike. Over the course of my career, working within different teams with super talented people towards the aim of creating awesome sport influenced product has been as challenging as it has been rewarding, and always enjoyable! This website is a work in progress (the goal is to keep evolving it, so if you happen upon this website and have some suggestion on how I can improve its message please share.) of the work that hopes to illustrate -more puns!- my competency, passion, & skill for design as it relates to sport. Thanks for stopping by!
“...No Ideas original - there’s nothing new under the sun, It’s never what you do but how it’s done...”