It is my very great pleasure to welcome you to my very first blog site. My name is Kevin Alexander, graphic artist and web designer. I have been perfecting my craft for nearly 16 years. It has been my life's goal up to this point to get my compiled projects onto an on-line medium. After years of false starts, setbacks, procrastination, mind-numbing ignorance and sheer laziness I am finally able to confidently showcase my full skill set for mass consumption.

My Background

Artistically inclined since my youth I found my creative outlet through drawing and illustration. My brother and I always loved Marvel and DC Comics and tried emulating the drawing styles of many of the greatest Golden and Silver Age artists of the time. Jack Kirby, John and Sal Buscema, John Romita Jr., Barry Windsor-Smith, John Byrne, Walt Simonson and George Perez just to name a few.

These comic legends not only influenced our imaginations dramatically through their drawing styles but also through their fantastic writing. My brother and I always told ourselves that one day we'd be as great and famous as those legends. Sadly some dreams don't always come true.

After high school my brother joined the military and I went to Clark-Atlanta University seeking a degree in graphic arts. My creative fire still burned even though I did not finish my studies there. In 1996 I received an opportunity to apprentice with the Staff Artist at the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System's Central Branch after years working there in a number of capacities. This was my first professional opportunity.

You can do this !@#$ on a computer? Really?

Working in the art Department for the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library as the assistant to the Staff Artist taught me a great deal about traditional low-tech graphic arts techniques. Cut-and-paste composition, typesetting, and plate-making were incredibly fascinating to learn and to apply. But my learning curve shot through the roof during that time because we were thrust into the midst of the burgeoning Desktop Publishing craze.

We began incorporating Adobe Photoshop, Pagemaker and Illustrator into the workflow along with QuarkXpress on the Mac and PC platforms. It was a heady time then. The advent of the graphical internet was upon us and I was once again in the right place at the right time. I was tapped to spearhead the redesign of the AFPL and Auburn Avenue websites. I truly enjoyed graphic design but little did I know that my reverence for IT would have it's roots in that time as well.

I left AFPL in 2001 and have since continued to work and freelance as a professional graphic designer but in 2008 I began attending Interactive College of Technology in pursuit of the CIW Web Master Certification. I found out later that the CIW certification was irrelevant to clients and employers alike so I switched my degree path to MCSA/MCSE.

Don't get me wrong. At first I didn't picture my self as geek in training but the IT field itself is incredibly diverse and challenging. It wasn't a hard sell to make the transition. Plus being a design professional with valuable high-tech skills and certifications would give me a competitive edge in the job market. (Yes even this one. *SIGH*) I am anticipating completing my CIS degree in October of 2010. That's my story up to the moment. Please feel free to leave a comment. Thanks for reading.