For roughly ten years I worked as a graphic designer in the action sports industry. Although I had no formal training, I had developed a keen interest in design. When I was young and in college a number of my friends were graphic design majors, and I was often looking over their shoulders with curious interest to see what they were working on. I enjoyed the balance, the juxtaposition of image and text, the flow.

At 22 I decided to take a break from school in order to pursue bicycling and photography. I eventually began contributing photos and writing for BMX bicycling magazines, and a few years later I had the opportunity to launch a new BMX magazine. That magazine became my formal introduction to and training in design.

Design felt important to me at the time. There was a BMX magazine out of Ireland whose design and content moved me in a unique way. It seemed to me that design could convey emotion and meaning more viscerally than words alone. Image and text in conversation opened up different forms of expression. I became obsessed.

Looking back, I’m not sure if what I did qualifies as design so much as art. I was not following well defined principals or rules. I remember hearing terms such as “The Golden Rule,” reading bits here and there, and it was my interpretation of those ideas that I applied in my work.

These are some of the designs that I most enjoy. I put them here as a visual record, as a window into my process. Clicking on a block will bring you to a page of related works.