artofwa

I was traditionally trained as a commercial artist and graphic designer and graduated from college in 1980. I founded my art/design studio at age 21. I have now achieved 30 years as a creative professional delivering literally thousands of creative projects over that time.

Mid 80s to 90s I was at the forefront of converting traditional techniques and workflows into the digital desktop realm and won many awards, was invited to speak at conferences and presented my work while endorsing vendors such as Apple, Dell, Radius, Super Mac, Adobe, Macromedia, Wacom, Fractal Design, Live Picture, HP, Dell, etc.

I originally focused on print and prepress production techniques but then quickly embraced the emerging interactive media markets as well, developing early CD Rom titles, Desktop Video/3D animation for CD/Broadcast and of course worked on early projects in WWW. My studio - Extreme Digital was recognised as an early developer of Integrated Media or what is now commonly known as Cross Media.

Human Interface Design (HID) was naturally of major interest to me and I made it my business to keep up on all the latest concepts and thinking. Kai Krauss, (HSC software KPT) John Derry, (Fractal Design Painter) and Russell Brown (Adobe Photoshop) I knew as friends and colleagues which allowed me to gain important knowledge and insights into software HID of the mid 90s.

Extreme Digital joined with Vision Graphics (Photographic Pro Lab) to develop Pro Photographic products online and embraced the early digital photographic trends. I built a small R&D team that worked on new interactive media products and interfaces and went on with this team to develop a successful bid for the Sydney 2000 Olympics web strategy and produced advanced design solutions for Apple, HP and MetaCreations.

From building small teams in the 80s and 90s to accomplish ever more sophisticated projects I moved on to join large corporations in the 2000s.

I joined MetaCreations Corporation as Regional Manager for Asia Pacific and Evangelist.

Kai Krauss’s company MetaTools had merged with Fractal Design and Ray Dream to form MetaCreations at that time and so I had a privileged involvement with the development teams for Painter, Bryce, Poser, KPT, Carrara, Canoma and MetaStream (later known as ViewPoint)

Though this position was important for my development and growth it did not provide for my creative talents so when IBM GSA offered me a position as Creative Director of the Interactive Branding & Design team and help create IBM:: eBusiness Innovation Centres in AP, I jumped at the chance.

2000 - Before the Dot Com bubble burst I enjoyed being at the epicenter of global eBusiness, Branding, HID and User Centric Design developments. The teams were big and the technology immense and so managing creative vs technical and business requirements became second nature for me in this new creative paradigm.

2003 - When ebusiness slowed down at IBM after the Dot Com crash there was no slowing down I focused my energy on building alliance partnerships and develop business activities in the latest wave of emerging digital media markets. I was contracted by Tom Misner owner of Studios 301 and SAE (his global education empire) to develop digital interactive solutions for the music industry and led the INXS DVD 5.1 remix project for global distribution.

I continued as a consultant to find alternate revenue sources, cross-media business models and creative concepts for many digital interactive productions with LAMP (Laboratory of Advanced Media Production) and I developed and delivered Digital Media courses for Universities and private colleges.

2006 – I joined Wacom Australia to enhance new business development by leveraging my knowledge and relationships in the Professional Graphics Industries, Tertiary Education Markets, Business and Enterprise Customers which brought me in direct contact with creative fields of Film Design, Game Design, Industrial Design, Graphic Design and Digital Art, etc. interacting with the leading global practitioners. This inspired me to start working on a Book I called the Art of Making Marks and I also started my blog Art of Wa (‘Wa’ meaning ‘Harmony’ in Japanese language and the philosophy behind the name Wacom) www.artofwa.com

2009 – I was promoted as Global Evangelist/Partner Manager - Global Brand Team. The book Art of Making Marks was completed and published by IdN. Project lead for Wacom's Global Web and Global CMS projects initiated early in 2009. I function as writer/editor for corporate communications out of Wacom's Japanese HQ and I attained a CEO's award for successfully communicating Wacom's reputation in global professional Digital Content Creation markets in 2009. (DCC)

2010 – I was appointed to Wacom’s newly formed Global Brand Management team GBM headquartered in Germany and drive Social Web, Evangelist and Partner engagements and still continue to be the project leader for Wacom’s global CMS project.

Deviant Art's community is so rich and vibrant with passion and creativity it makes me so happy to be here now. I intend to start a PhD this year on

“21st Century Mark Making - a survey of the human computer interface, implications and applications.”

Wish me luck!