Me, In 10.
My absolute first professional design gig was working nights at Pennysaver while attending college — yes, the Pennysaver. It was bland, tacky and not exactly high art. I mean, after all, how creative can one be with 10% off discounts on cesspool pumps and a free shampoo with every hair cut at the local salon. However, wading into that sea of clip art, novelty fonts, 2-color separations and 1/16th-page masterpieces, I learned an extremely valuable lesson: the client drives the design. Most clients aren't going to understand the golden ratio, color theory or typography but they do know one thing intimately — their product.
Some clients have an idea in their mind already as to what they want; some are more than willing to give you free wield to create their image. It's communication and the ability to ask the right questions that are going to determine the success of any creative venture — and ultimately your relationship with a client. It's the designer's job to take the information given, create hierarchy, organize it effectively, and create something the client is happy with. The tricky part is to be content as a designer with the end result. So, yes, I learned the most important lesson of my career early on from a local coupon-clipper, although the last part — the part about being content as a designer — was usually not the case.
Shortly after graduating from SUNY Farmingdale with a Visual Arts BA degree, I landed a more prestigious design position as a junior designer for Creative Solutions in Massapequa, N.Y. Creative Solutions was a design agency specializing in credit card solicitation (direct mail in particular), design and layout of credit cards, and POP displays for various credit card companies and banks. Some of the clients we worked for were Bank of Canada, Aspire and Bank of America. It is here that I gained experience pitching concepts and ideas to our sales and client relations team, who would then present to our clients. I had also pitched ideas directly to clients from time to time if they were in our N.Y. office.
After 2+ years at Creative Solutions I moved on to a Senior Designer position working for an agency specializing in healthcare recruitment for clients such as Winthrop University Hospital, Catholic Health Services, LIJ Medical Center and St. Francis Hospital. It was also in Hauppauge that I happened to reconnect with an old friend who would eventually become my wife — Nurhan — but I'll get back to that part later.
From Hauppauge, it was West to Oyster Bay, N.Y. and American Marketing Group, Inc. (AMG), which I still call home. At AMG, I started as a Senior Designer working on mainly print marketing for their 16 satellite companies ranging from consumer-focused travel publishing and promotions to corporate travel management and global conferences and events. Most of the work I did was focused on the consumer side — magazines, direct mail, e-marketing, etc. This is a fast-paced, in-house agency where there were dozens of projects were in production at any given time. I, along with another designer, produced an award-winning semi-annual luxury travel magazine, The Affluent Traveler, which was 216 pages of travel experiences (resorts, hotels, cruise lines, etc.) and lifestyle and destination-related editorial. Along with designing print and web promotions for leading travel suppliers based on their individual brand guidelines, we created multiple consumer campaigns based per year, based on niche travel segments (Family, Luxury, Epicurean, Romance, All-Inclusive, etc.). These campaigns were fully, conceived, designed and produced by our team and featured multiple travel suppliers. These were distributed widely throughout the U.S. and Canada to the client databases of our affiliate travel agents.
Throughout the more than a decade at AMG, I've been promoted several times, from Senior Designer to Art Director, and then on to Creative Director where I head up a team of 6 designer (3 print and 3 web) as well as a production manager. In my position as Creative Director I've not only won awards and garnered acclaim from some of the most iconic companies in the travel industry but I've actually helped increase both the number of affiliate travel agencies in our network and the list of travel product suppliers contracted with us.
During this time I've also moved from mainly designing for print to branching out into the digital realm — designing websites, landing, pages and emails that further support our campaigns. 2017 ended with the complete rebranding of the already successful, The Affluent Traveler Collection, which is scheduled to roll out in early to mid 2018. The effort included a full website rebuild (using a fully responsive framework), new advertorial and editorial layout of the magazine and redesign of weekly emails and alerts.
My personal life over the past decade has also been somewhat of an odyssey. Over the past 9 years I have married, had 4 beautiful sons and have settled in Suffolk County, in central Long Island. Nurhan (the friend I mentioned before) is now my wife of 9+ years and our brood includes Aidan, James, Liam and recently-arriving Noah. Having 4 boys is definitely challenging but it is extremely rewarding, never without incident, and never silent. I guess I would sum it up to a never-ending project deadline with an ever-changing strategy, wrapped up in chaos. But I think it's taught me to embrace the chaos and use it as a positive stimulus in whatever I set out to do.
I love to cook — always did — but I find it becoming more and more of an obsession. I find the kitchen to be a sort of sanctuary from the computer/phone/tablet but a place where I can still be creative. Im always trying out new recipes and trying to develop my own for what I swear will be my second career one day — or at least occupy a page or two on my website.
In closing, I suppose all of the things I mentioned above are achievements essentially. I've had the pleasure of meeting all kinds of people throughout my professional life and I've gained invaluable knowledge and experience. Some of these people and experiences leave an indelible mark; some don't; some teach us what not to do; and some become your life partner. I am looking to add to my repertoire and, in turn, contribute what I have learned up to this point in my life to a company who is in need of a talented creative lead who can think analytically, on his feet (which are firm on the ground) and who can work with and interact with others in a respectful, engaging and effective manner. The past decade has been great but it's time to start a new one, building on the successes of the last.
