About Steve Chapman .........Life seems to go by faster and faster the older you get, and your memory seems to go even quicker. It wasn't long ago when I decided to attempt to do graphics. Close to eight years ago, I applied for a position within AAA National Office as a Electronic Media Designer I. An extremely close group of individuals, with all sorts of different design backgrounds gave me their test. Luckily, I passed it without any formal design training in Adobe Photoshop, Quark and Illustrator. Once accepting the position and a couple hours of training from the manager, I jumped in and started creating advertisements for the AAA TourBook. I learned as much as possible about CMYK printing, color correction, RIP issues, and many other obstacles that come with print design. The EMD Group allowed me to learn from others, and their experiences. From an incredible mural painter, a fantastic oil painter and teacher, who became an icon for me and taught me more than he could ever imagine, to great designers that knew "right" from "wrong". This group welcomed me into their status, even though I wasn't nearly as good as any of them. I left AAA as a Graphic Designer III, and my design was selected for the 2002 Road Atlas series. An accomplishment I mention because of the growth in my design skills. All the designers in the EMD group created several designs, and displayed them for other AAA employees to critic, however the one design I made was chosen. I left AAA to join a small company, but quickly learned that it was not as it was billed to me, so I left after 2 months. I decided that I should focus on the internet and gather a few small companies and make them as successful as I could. At the same time, I have done other work for other design companies in the area to help when needed as a freelance graphic designer. I saw the need for a designer who knew a lot about Photoshop, but also knew about the Search Engines. It became a quest to learn about Google and Yahoo and why one site was racked higher than another. I took classes to learn from others, paid a ranking company to do search engine on a clients site, and finally it sank it. Where other designers tend not to go, or even do, I would go the extra step and make my clients more profitable, and at a much more attractive price. These days I still do lots of freelance/contract work for competitors, however my client list grows weekly. I have focused on learning and creating better web sites, that are mostly about good design and more importantly, good search engine ranking. My theory is...... Your advertising dollar means as much to me as to you. So the success of your web site, brochure, business cards, shirts, hats, and other services that I offer is of the utmost importance. I do not advertise in publications, so word of mouth is all the advertising that I will do. Please feel free to call/email if you have any questions. I offer perspective clients one hour of my time to learn about your needs and wants. If you go with my services or not, you're sure to know more about the internet and the search engines before making a choice with another company. Thanks for learning a little about me, I do appreciate it!! sc |
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