I have not been around as much as I used to, but many here know me. I was the pirate “Carter the Artist”.
It seems you can’t use spaces, and that is fine since I’ve “rebranded” my online identity in many places as the Id8tionist, so that is fine. Scary how it put my picture in the avatar though…
Anyways. Good to see some familiar names
My background – I am an artist who pursued graphic design around 15 years ago and worked for a variety of ad agencies and design firms (DGWB Advertising, Mindshare Creative, SMS, etc…) and I spent the past 5 years working on my second bachelor’s degree (while raising a growing family and getting laid off a few times working full-time in-between those layoffs, one job being a high school teacher on the subjects of graphic design and animation).
I am now pursuing a more marketing side role as that is what my second degree is in.
In a nutshell that is my professional side – otherwise, I’m an artist, a proud veteran, a father, a husband, an autodidactic intellectual that dresses like a pirate or a Viking on occasion
Well hello there GDF. Some of you old schoolers may remember me. Kat, Keyare, etc… I was an old hat on this site back in the day. I don’t spend a lot of times on forums anymore with the technology advancements in social media (FB has all of my time).
What have I been up too since you last saw me years ago? Well, got married, had a kid, got divorced and recently engaged again.
If anything has changed it has been my own outlook on the value of my time. I went from someone who was barely getting by doing design to living pretty well off. I now know to charge large amounts for my time and resources and…surprise… people actually put value in that type of stuff. If I could lend one word of advice to you seasoned designers, stand up for yourself, charge what you think you’re worth. I just signed a logo package for $2k. Before I was charging $750+. Just know there are companies out there who spend tons and tons on really bad designs. Don’t be the bad dude, be the educator, the expert and freaking charge for it!
BJMRamage here. I used to be on the old forum a lot…back when it was green (I think it was green, I’m colorblind). My old-old name was BJMRGTIVR6, then it was changed in the one-time name change to BJMRamage.
My avatar is me…well, I’m getting grey now and sometimes I change it based on movies, holidays, events but for now it is plain.
I’ve been a print designer, web designer, and back to print…worked at a newspaper, check company, identity protection company, and now a big tool company. I used to do some volunteer design and freelance but lately that is just for my kids’ parties, and yearly movies. I’ll try to get in here more often. The previous upgrade made me step away from the forum.
OMG, it’s so great to see all y’all old greenies back home again! Hmmm, we should prolly get more tacos, and guac! Oh, paging VirgoNightingale… we need your superb avo-magic at the guac-pot STAT!
I can’t even begin to say how awesome it is to see so many of the “old” GDF crew on here. Tulip, Buda, Satchel, Carter the Artist, D-Frag, Cornfed, BJMR … good times.
Same name from GDF.com, 39 yrs old, Married 15 years.
My career after high school, I lived in the Portland Oregon Metro area, I went to college to be a draftsman. I worked as a draftsman for 3 years, then moved to Salt Lake City Utah. Couldn’t land a drafting job (50+ interviews); ended up working for the T.S.A. (checked baggage) for a 1 year 4 months, I threw out my back from lifting heavy bags. Forcing me to resign. During that time, I was working on a Bachelors in Industrial Design. A month after I resigned from the TSA, I landed a position and worked for a small Electrical Design Build contractor as an electrical draftsman. While in my ID schooling (about 2/3 completed) we started working on our portfolio product pages. I then it hit me. I realized that I was in the wrong program. I didn’t like product design (plus the career aspect was VERY difficult to land a position). I transferred into a Graphic Design program. Those Industrial Design classes helped a lot. I worked at several other places as a draftsman. Obtained about 7 combined total years of experience… Till the engineering firm (and many others) started to change primary application from AutoCAD to Revit. Got attached to an R.I.F. and lost out on the free training (Revit training isn’t cheap). I eventually ended up working for a woodworking manufacturing company as a print technician (just printing large format drawings on an OCE Plotwave); I had a chance to work with their marketing department as a graphic designer (well split 2/3 - 1/3 double positions). Worked for them for 3-1/2 years. Eventually, the R.I.F. bug caught me again. I ended up working as a graphic designer for a smaller event center company, was there for almost a year when they told me I was going to be replaced by a millennial female. I made calls to family and ended up working for a call center for 6 months (technical support), then I was contacted by a civil engineering firm and hired on to do drafting and graphic design work for them. Did that for 2 years, got tired of the same old bid proposals every day. No changes in the design experience there… Finally and currently, I got an offer to work for a flag manufacturer/retailer as a Systems Coordinator (not necessarily IT). I do some drafting, some graphic design (as backup), some coordination with other departments (mostly as a backup) but also to help innovatively with their processes. I learned manufacturing processes such as LEAN, Kanban, Six-Sigma, 5-S and a few others. I got out of the graphic designer competitive mess (well, mostly). I feel that I can advance further in the LEAN/Six-Sigma area. So, that’s what is going on. I’ve also been dealing with 1-2 family members passing away every single year since 2010 (including both parents on both sides).
Thank you. Since I may be doing a bit of freelance I’ll try to be a bit more of a visitor again.
