On The Clock:

• I’m Vice President of Go Media and lead website developer.  I believe our, rather boutique, Cleveland website design & development firm can hold its own against the big houses in NYC & London.  I am chief engineer, meaning I plan and coordinate the specifications, request deliverables and manage my development team to see the project through its life-cycle. I spend most of my time planning and writing the code that make our websites interactive.
• William Beachy and I began to merge our freelance businesses in 2001. His studio was called Graphic Odysseys and mine was Next Level Multimedia. The ‘G’ and the ‘O’ in GO come from Graphic Odysseys! I met Bill in Cleveland sometime in 1999. We were both serving the music industry producing event flyers and posters. I was impressed with his business savvy and illustration skills so I hired him to do cover-art for me. We would bounce ideas off each other and share design techniques. Bill and I both worked full-time jobs through 2001 while slowly building up the momentum, not to mention confidence, to leave our employers and focus our energy on Go Media. Keeping the firm afloat for the first few years was not easy. I ended up moving in with Bill in Cleveland Heights to reduce expenses. It took countless 16+ hour days and packets of Ramen noodles to get us where we are today. We learned a lot, some lessons the hard way, but remained diligent and honest with an undying faith that we could make this thing work. I can’t imagine doing anything else.
• Originally trained in a vocational program at Stow-Munroe Falls High School called “Graphic Design”, I learned basic sign-making and page layout by hand using different material layering and photography. This was in 1995-96 – I didn’t really touch a personal computer until 1998. From the moment I dove into the world of Macintosh, Adobe, Corel and Macromedia, I was hooked. I spent day and night learning and honing my skills as a computer-aided graphic designer. I am now an expert in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash and Dreamweaver. I can write a complete html and css website from scratch. I’ve also been known to dabble in 3D modeling and motion graphics. Flash interactive development has become my primary focus at the firm. I moved from the visual editors to straight code many years ago and find myself a burgeoning expert in Flash Actionscript.
• I feel websites and interactive design, especially immersive multimedia experiences online, will continue to grow and become the most important communication channel for modern businesses. I strive to shape Go Media into a studio providing captivating and compelling world-class design services for delivery in print and on screen.
• My perfect project would be recognized more as Brand Management. An ideal client solution would be one where Go Media handles all aspects of the product or service identity from conception through its lifetime. This would give us an opportunity to establish, from the very beginning, the foundational concept design and all campaign themes tailored for each target market. From there, each outlet will showcase a concise and consistent look and feel. The client would benefit from a tried-and-true brand recognition model. Companies also receive savings and a personal touch that can only come from relying on a firm with intimate knowledge of their offerings. Go Media would deliver the “perfect project” from start to finish!