Born and raised in Norristown Pennsylvania, I was attracted to art at a young age, writing and drawing my own comic books and short stories. In junior high school, I met fellow artist Reggie Byers, and he helped to focus my love for art and design.
I graduated from the Art Institute of Philadelphia and after that formed a comic book company with my friends called Victory Productions. We produced three titles with my comic book being called 'Komodo and the Defiants'. I also worked for a screen printing company as a layout artist and sign maker. After moving from comic books, I honed my digital skills in Illustrator 3 and Photoshop 2 (showing my age). In 15 years, I've added graphic design and production art in an offset and a digital press environment along with vinyl cutting and application, wide format printing and finishing and some variable data skills to my repertoire.
In the 1998, I began to work freelance for a plastic bag manufacturer, Alef Custom Packaging, as their art director and my entrepreneurial spirit was born. I've been wanting to start my design firm for some time and it's been slow but determined and has now come to fruition. So now, with a wider creative platform, seasoned skills in design and production and a thirst to produce crisp clean work, CAE Graphic Design is born!
When I'm not thinking about logo creation or press-ready PDF's, I spend my free time enjoying my family. My lovely wife and two young daughters give me the most joy as well as watching my two older sons mature and support families of their own. Our dog SIMBA loves to wrestle with me and I enjoy gardening in the spring. An avid sports nut, I root for the HOME TEAMS!!
Bangles, in many cultures, are not just worn as ornamental jewelry. For each culture, tradition and beliefs play a huge part in the wearing of bangles and each piece is represented and worn for particular reasons. Some for male or female aesthetics and some as identifying marks of a particular society. The natural resources in certain areas dictated the materials used to make the bangle. But there is no doubt about the craftsmanship and imagination that went into those designs.
I used the bangle as my identifying icon not only because I love the look and have been wearing them for over 20 years, but because it has a significance to me. I wear my bangle on my right wrist, of the hand I draw, design and create with. The open circle shape represents a strong cohesive structure but because of the opening at the top, is not so rigid. So similarly, I feel my creativity flows like the circle but is not so closed off and stiff as not to learn and adapt and experience new ideas.