
ROBERT’S JOURNEY
working for The Man to living The Dream
It began in 2011
Freelancing while working full-time as a Graphic Designer, my customers were businesses who needed someone who could wear multiple hats.
It got real in 2013
Quitting my job to become a full-time independent creative, this leap of faith turned out to be the best professional move I’ve ever made.
WHAT ROBERT DOES
Photo Retouching & Photocomposition
Retouching is my speciality. See some examples on this site. In person I can share my book, which includes visuals I cannot share via my website, contact me to setup a one-on-one meeting. Some specific photo editing tasks I do for clients:
- Executing Art Direction: Matching photographs to a common theme or art direction, such as matching backgrounds across a product shoot or matching the feel of a reference image or creative deck.
- Photo Retouching: Removing blemishes orremoving color casts, balancing different light sources, Frequency Separation editing, etc.
- Photocomposition: Creative reimagining of photography, special effects. Perhaps using multiple captures, sometimes from different shoots, to create a natural-appearing result. I love a challenge!
- RAW Processing: I always shoot RAW format in my own photography. I love making big stylistic edits in the RAW conversion stage (where I find the tools more artistically tuned) before beginning detailed Photoshop retouching.
- Animated GIFs: Creating and editing source images to produce animated GIF images.
- Prep for Output: Prepare images for final output in various mediums. Examples: extending backgrounds, resample for enlargement, process-specific color manipulation.
Production Artwork, Production Design
I have done Production Design during multiple stages of my career, finely honing my skill adapting a brand or design from one purpose to another—never losing the essence of what defines the original. Consistently applying color palettes, hierarchies & brand strategies so the derivative cannot be distinguished from the original design is the name of the game. I take guidance from existing artwork needing little supervision, identifying essential design characteristics & patterns and applying this branding to new items. On the flip side, I enjoy working directly with an Art Director to achieve their creative vision artistically executed to my highest technical standards.
Graphic Design
I have developed an instinct for design over many years in the creative business. My adaptable style can be applied to a variety of design techniques. My efforts never lose sight of the main objective: Communicating with your audience—clearly, memorably and motivationally.
Web Design
I approach web design as an advocate for the end-user. Consistency and discoverability in the UI, leveraging design patterns the user intuitively understands is what I bring to the task. A natural creative problem-solver, I love figuring out how to tackle any technical situation. Typically I base my Web Design & Development efforts on the WordPress CMS platform. I don’t typically develop full-featured sites myself, rather leverage my network of developer partners to complete this task. However, I do possess the production chops to direct a development team and validate development strategies. That said, I am quite comfortable with HTML & CSS and can tackle relatively simple HTML & CSS tasks that do not require more sophisticated programming or scripting techniques.
HOW ROBERT THINKS
Workflow
Work hard & be nice to people
Anthony Burrill
This is a placeholder copy block while I come up with something interesting for this space.