I’m Brian E. Young, an illustrator and graphic designer living in Baltimore, Maryland, specializing in illustration, print design, advertisement, and publication design since the year 2000. My graphic design work has included creating banners, posters and other printed media for clients including Hilton Hotels, DoubleTree, Hyatt and various other national and local businesses. I’ve also designed advertisements for several magazines and newspapers. Currently, I work as a publication designer creating various supplemental publications, area guides and marketing materials.

I’m on DeviantArt, MySpace, Twitter and many other sites usually under the username “sketchee” if I can get it..

In 2002, Sketchee.com was created as an online showcase of my works. As a painter and fine artist, I have participated in various online outlets including the Illustration Friday, Illustration Mundo, and Wetcanvas communities. My paintings have been sold nationally to public and private collections.

In 2007, I became a member of AIGA, the professional association for design.

EDUCATION

In 2005, I completed my Bachelor of Art degree in Fine Art in 2005 from Bowie State University studying computer graphics, design, illustration and various traditional media. While attending the university, I participated in various juried art shows winning first place for his piece Sunset and Stairs and a merit award for A Church in Winter. My 2005 senior art show combined graphic design elements including brochures and posters with acrylic paintings and traditional media. The following year, I returned to Bowie State to perform a recital as a solo pianist taking the opportunity to create printed promotional materials: full color invitations and high quality recital programs. I also received a fine arts scholarship and dean’s list honors.

RESUME

Download my Design & Illustration resume as a PDF.

QUALIFICATIONS RESUME
Creative print graphic designer proficient in Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop on PC and Mac OSX work stations

Over six years of design experience in editorial, advertising, colateral and marketing materials with a strong understanding of typographic and design principles.

Bachelor of Arts degree in Fine Art with specific education in computer graphics and 2-D design.

Managed multiple projects and deadlines from concept to completion, learning new skills and technology quickly.

Experience working with tight deadlines. Ability to apply independent creativity or handle heavy art direction.

PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
Project management: Coordinated full publications from start to finish including concept generation, assigning of photo shoots and directing photographers, cover and masthead design, editorial page and style design, original illustrations, acting as the project’s point of contact for sales, advertising, photography and marketing departments, and final output of publications to printer.

Print design and illustration: Design and illustrate art concepts for eye-catching covers and colorful, professional, and artistic editorial graphics. Defined all typefaces, visual direction and elements of supplement and guide editorial pages. Utilized CMYK, spot and black and white color processes on glossy, newsprint and premium paper stocks with considering each paper stock’s special requirements. Creating modern 2D and 3D graphics and editorial illustrations in Adobe Illustrator, acrylic painting, sculpture/modeling, drawing and illustration

Software: Editorial layout with Adobe InDesign, llustrator, Photoshop, Legacy use of Pagemaker, Corel Draw Suite, ImageReady, Microsoft Powerpoint. Microsoft Word, Microsoft Outlook, Corel WordPerfect Suite, DOS, Microsoft Windows. Apple Macintosh OSX, QuickBooks
Web design and internet literacy: Manually coding HTML and CSS. SSI, FTP, Command Line Access via Telnet & Security Shell (SSH). webpage cross-browser development.

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY
PATUXENT PUBLISHING COMPANY (BALTIMORE SUN MEDIA GROUP/TRIBUNE COMPANY), Baltimore, MD
Publications Designer, Magazine and Page Design Departments (January 2008 – Present)
Magazine Advertising Graphic Designer, Ad Design Department (June 2007 – January 2008)
Display Advertising Graphic Designer, Ad Design Department (March 2007 – June 2007)

As Publications Designer: In the magazine department, designed editorial for annual and semi-annual supplemental publications, regional guides and magazines including Howard Magazine and Maryland Family. Managed publications from start to finish such as the Ellicott City’s Visitor’s Guide, the Elkridge Newcomers Guide and the Holiday Gift Guide. Layout in InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator under Macintosh OSX. Report to art director, working with writers and editors, marketing and advertising departments. Finalize and output documents to the printer. Page design department duties include weekly sports layouts and newspaper coordinator/layout of North County News and the Owings Mills Times.

As Magazine Ad Designer: Designed advertisements for Maryland Family Magazine, Howard Magazine, Baby Steps magazine and various supplement publications under tight weekly deadlines. Preflight, correct and optimize PDF, postscript and EPS files using Asura and Solvero software utilities to prevent RIP complications. Assist art director in coordination of supplements and magazines in a fast-paced deadline driven ad design department. Approve printer proofs for glossy magazines and cover ads, assess final print product outcomes. Assist art director in setting and achieving supplement agendas. Assist in display, classified and real estate newspaper ad design as needed.

As Display Ad Designer: Produce newspaper display, classified and spec advertisement designs primarily using Adobe InDesign along with Photoshop and Illustrator under tight deadlines and strict accuracy requirements. Assist real estate, magazine and supplement advertisement when needed.

NEXT DAY SIGN EXPRESS, Bethesda, MD
Graphic Designer (January 2006 – March 2007)
Conceptualize and implement layouts for full color outdoor banners, signs, advertisements, trade show displays, business cards, greeting cards, posters, letterheads and other print products. Utilize various graphic programs with a specific focus in Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop in a Windows environment. Consult with customers on graphics and products, pricing, formats and various other duties. Create invoices, receive payments. Produce products using large format printers, plotter for cutting vinyl and creating pen plots, laminator, dry mount press.

BAUMGARTEN COMPANY OF WASHINGTON, Laurel, MD
Graphic Designer (September 2000 – June 2003)
Created layout and style of text and graphics for custom rubber stamps and print products. Consulted with Laurel and DC sales team and production team to ensure smooth production. Implemented designs for products including rubber stamps, business cards, and logos. Designed company form layouts, displays and advertisements. Duplicated and reconstructed complex documents in high quality, camera ready formats.

EDUCATION
BACHELOR OF ARTS DEGREE IN FINE ART, Art Concentration
Bowie State University (December 2005)
Related Coursework: 2-D Design, Portrait/Figure Drawing, Life, Drawing, Painting, Printmaking, Sculpture, Museum & Gallery Seminar, Photography I, Computer Science I, Computer Graphics I (Photoshop, Macintosh OSX). Received scholarships in Piano and Fine Arts. Dean’s list.

Site Information

Domain name provided by:
DotYou
I’ve had excellent service with dotyou. They have features that I’ve never seen from any other domain name host. They can let you use their dns system which can allow for instant dns changes or you can use classic name servers. This doesn’t work for all hosts however, Sketchee.com runs on the classic name server system while I have PrettyMagic.com using their dns system–which by the way gives me subdomains to use and direct anywhere on the web I’d like. I highly recommend it.

Hosting server provided by:
ICDSoft
(Make sure to mention sketchee.com referred you in the comments!) This host is really great. They’re support is superior to my old host, your-site.com. Don’t use your-site! They’re employees are very rude and as you’ll read in the blog they’ve insulted me several times. When I was with your-site.com I got so many complaints all the time from my users. ICDsoft is apparently run much better. The servers are running very smoothly and there has been little to no downtime. For $5 a month I get 333mb of space and 5gigs of traffic. Same cost as the old host and much more features. They helped me with info on how to tranfer hosts before I signed up and quickly helped me when I ran into problems with the inital setup. By quickly I mean hours, sometimes minutes and always the same day! When I couldn’t get something myself they did it for me!At any time of the day their support is running. I had questions late at night, early in the morning, in the middle of the day–whenever my schedule let me work on it–and they were there. That inital experience with support has made me very positive with them and the lack of server problems is refreshing compared to my old host. It’s a bargain. Search around google and you’ll find the other emphatic reviews of this host.