Pixelworx Idea Factory

UI/UX Design Web Interface Design Visual Design Est. 2012

HELLO, I'M KEVIN, THIS IS MY STORY

Once upon a time there was a boy who loved to draw. He drew instead of going outside to play, he drew while he was in class (and got in trouble for it), he drew at the supper table and he drew on things he probably shouldn't have drawn on (and got in trouble for that too). When he grew up he was swept away by the computer age and became an IT guy. But something weighed heavily upon his brow, that love of art and exploring the infinite possibilities of his imagination through drawing. He began crafting desktop wallpaper designs on deviantArt and suddenly he realized, "This is what I want to do! I want to do design!" So he ditched his IT job and went back to school, attending the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, graduating in March 2012. He chose to follow his own path after school, launching his design studio: Pixelworx Idea Factory. Since then he has been lead designer for a startup and an emergency notification company called Omnilert. That boy, who loved to draw, doodle and spawn multitudes of gray hairs upon the heads of his parents, is me.

Contact Me

UX DESIGN

User experience design is my true passion and love. Having worked in the Information Technology realm for over 18 years, I have an instinct when it comes to how users interact with an app and how they expect it to behave. Providing a positive user experience is vital and job one.

WEB DESIGN

You send people to your web site to show off your product, your service, and your experience - so it has to communicate what needs communicating right away, to capture the attention of the viewer without a bunch of excess eye candy. Those are the kinds of web sites I design.

VISUAL DESIGN

Communicating ideas and information is what visual design is all about. I love making visual designs that improve a user's experience, that communicates the message clearly, effectively, intuitively in a design that is innovative and attractive.

MOBILE APP UI DESIGN

Mobile apps have to be designed with the eyes of a user - how will they do this, how will they interpret that? It's all about making something aesthetic while maintaining a useable, intuitive, interface while also insuring the value of the app is maintained.

I rock at what I do because...

I LOVE WHAT I DO: Not a morning has come where I didn't look forward to spending the day doing design work. I love design, I love exploring possibilities, using my imagination and challenging my brain to come up with great new ideas. It's a love story that dates back to my childhood.

I HAVE A PASSION FOR DESIGN: Whether it's a mobile app, a web site or a simple business card, I take that project to the altar of awesomeness and make sure its accurate, follows branding standards and looks amazing. I will argue against something I feel won't put the design in the best light, I will fight to insure whatever I am creating is as good as it can be.

I'M NOT AFRAID OR ASHAMED TO ASK QUESTIONS: Whether I need more information from a client or if I need to reach out to my fellow designers for help, I am not ashamed to ask for help and seek the knowledge I need to make a design shine with awesomeness. I don't know everything, but I know enough to ask questions and learn.

I AM A CREATIVE SPIRIT: I don't just do design work, I have also been a composer of classical music for over 25 years; I have authored and published three books in the fantasy genre; I have a green thumb; and I am an awesome cook - I almost went into culinary school instead of design school. I have a wellspring of creativity within me which was given to me by God - something I am very thankful for.

I AM A CHRISTIAN: Last, but certainly not least, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. My faith has gotten me through a lot of difficult times and when I am working on a design, I am working not only for my client, but also for God. So I want to make sure that I am doing the best job I can do. Having great morals and convictions comes with the territory, so I will always do my best to do what is right.

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Take a look at my resume

View Resume

Years of Design Experience

Dribbble Shots

Happy Clients

212

Design Projects Completed

My Resume

A look at my experience

EDUCATION

2007 - 2012

Art Institute of Pittsburgh

I attended the Art Institute of Pittsburgh online (nothing like doing school work in your pajamas). As a student I studied fine art, graphic design, web design, corporate identity/branding and visual design. During that time I also assisted fellow students who were having problems in some of the classes - as I had been doing design as a hobby for several years by that time.
1980 - 1983

Somerset School

Somerset School was a private school in Washington, DC for those of us who didn't do well with the public school system. During my three years there I studied some awesome subjects: wildlife conservation, marine biology, Pascal programming, BASIC programming and of course, design. I also learned how to avoid going on the school's yearly scholarship hike - something I really didn't like. I dropped out of school during my Junior year. I really never liked school. I did get my G.E.D. in 1999 however.

EMPLOYMENT

2015 - 2018

OMNILERT, LLC

Lead Designer

• Mobile UX/UI Design : Conceiving and designing apps and all associated elements for those apps. Producing flow diagrams, animated demonstrations of user/element interactions, providing assets and interacting with lead developer to insure accurate translation from design to working product, user testing, evaluation and feedback. Apple Watch design won an award in 2017 from Campus Safety Magazine.

• Visual Design : Conceiving and designing marketing materials and collateral which our customers and potential customers will see. Insuring clean and simple designs for easy viewing and digestion of content.

• Web UX/UI : Conceiving and designing web interfaces for our customer portals and administrative sites. This can include something as simple as icons or buttons and something more complex such as an entire site redesign. Work and interact with lead web developer to insure good translation of design to finished product.
2014 - 2018

WHITEBOARD APPLICATIONS, INC

Lead UI/UX Designer

• Responsibilities involved the conception and design (sketches, wireframes, low-fidelity mockups, high-fidelity mockups, prototypes and user interaction animations) of a mobile team collaboration platform running on iOS, testing concepts for good UX and insuring a proper translation of the design to code.
2012 - Present

PIXELWORX IDEA FACTORY

Owner and Principle

After graduating from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh I really had nothing to show a potential employer. So I decided to launch my own design studio and strive to find clients, so I would be able to build a portfolio and eventually get a full-time job. After three years in business I was hired by one of my clients, Omnilert, and Pixelworx closed its doors for a time. Now it's back, more as a hobby than an actual business.

SKILLS

InVision Studio - App Prototyping

65%

Principle makes it easy to design animated and interactive user interfaces. It is a tool that I often use to prototype interactions with user interface elements.
Design Systems

30%

I have only recently begun to explore design systems and their implementation. As with all things, I am always eager to expand my knowledge in areas that are weak.
HTML/CSS

75%

I have been developing web sites using the latest standards for over 5 years.
Sketch

100%

Sketch is a vector design application for designing web sites, icons, and mobile apps. It is currently my primary software for designing web sites, smartphone apps, tablet apps and user flow diagrams.
Adobe Creative Suite

100%

I have been using elements of the Adobe Creative Suite for over thirty years. I am most proficient with Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and most recently Adobe Experience Design.