Technically, I guess my design career got started in Portland,
Oregon in the mid 70’s. I worked my way through college at
a fashion department store in what was then termed “Display”
but what is now known as “Visual Merchandising”. I was working on a bachelor of science degree in an effort to get into medical school but the experience in design sparked my interest in set design, having worked on a few television commercials in such a capacity for the store. Everyone said, “Oh you’re so talented, Jim, you should move to LA.” So that’s just what I did. (I would have made a lousy doctor although I can still dissect your frog.)

In Los Angeles, I had the good fortune to meet John Retsek
(art director of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos). I got to work on many
projects with him for the LA Public TV station and our little
team won a couple of Emmy awards during the eighties.
 

One thing that Public Television Station did was host a lot of parties. Helping with those design
jobs gave me great experience in event planning and design. I soon found myself designing for
large scale events such as Hollywood Premiere parties like “Parenthood” and “Back to the Future II” among many others. Those were a lot of fun to do but very hard work. In my search for the next gig, I came across a job working for the Imagineering department of The Walt Disney Company. I
became what is called, a show set designer. Among the many projects I worked on for that company were “Toon Town”, Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin” and the “Small World” show for the Paris park.

In the mid 90’s, I went to work on “Universal’s Islands of Adventure”. There I got to design “Popeye and Bluto’s Bilge Rat Barge” ride. That led to another series of projects in the same vain for various companies including BRC Imagination Arts and Sony Metreon. (Designers are gypsies, like dancers.)

In 2004, I began work on a brand new project with a brand new company called The Fizzy Fruit
Company. This was a whole new experience from theme park and event design. For one thing, I
became extremely involved in the branding of a totally new product. As the only creative person on the team, I got to do everything visually from the design of the logo to the design of the web site and every other visual element of the company. This has proven to be extremely challenging and very rewarding. I continue to work with this company today but as they grow, there has become less consistent work for a full time designer. This makes me available to take on the next challenge. For a printable resume, click here.