Graphic Design: Life Experiance; Chuck Braman,New York,Manhattan,West Village,graphic design,digital photography,PowerPoint,presentations, book design,web design,Photoshop, Illustrator,Frontpage, background, credentials, life experience

<body> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="450"> <tr> <td> <h1>Chuck Braman's Graphic Design Background</h1> <p class="flush">I have had graphic design experience as designer and publisher of a 176 page music textbook, the designer of two textbooks published for Prentice Hall, as a freelance graphic artist working for various New York City temporary agencies from 1989 to the present, and as the designer of this web site. In addition, I have cultivated high level professional skills in digital photography.</p> <h2>Book Design</h2> <p class="flush">From 1986-88 I worked full-time on writing and designing a 176-page, self-published book, Drumming Patterns. This book, including all of its graphic elements, was designed entirely by myself on the Macintosh computer utilizing Microsoft Word 3.01, PageMaker 2.0, CricketDraw, MacPaint, MacDraw, and Professional Composer software. During the final phase of production I oversaw every step of the printing process, researching alternative methods of offset printing, selecting the paper, binding, cover finish, and visiting several ink factories in order to find the exact color I preferred for the cover. To help produce and promote the book, I read Pocket Pal, a graphic arts handbook, and How to Publish, Promote, and Sell Your Own Book. My work was subsequently acknowledged in a review in Modern Drummer magazine, which read in part, "The production quality of 'Drumming Patterns' is very high."</p> <p>Among the people who saw the design of Drumming Patterns was Mark Gridley, author of the Prentice-Hall textbook Jazz Styles. During 1990-91, Dr. Gridley persuaded Prentice-Hall to employ me, rather than use one of Prentice-Hall's in-house designers, to create the design and page-layout of his new book, A Concise Guide To Jazz, and the book's accompanying CD and Cassette. The rationale behind A Concise Guide To Jazz was to create a book which would include the essential content of Jazz Styles, but in a more inviting format that would have a greater visual appeal. To proceed I had to learn many new skills, such as copy-fitting and photo resizing and cropping, and I had to advance my general knowledge of design as well. Towards this end, I read The Macintosh Font Book, Typography for Desktop Publishers, Looking Good In Print, and Desktop Publishing By Design.</p> <p>Pleased with my design of A Concise Guide To Jazz, in 1992 Mark Gridley also contracted me to modify the design and do the page layout of the fifth edition of Jazz Styles.</p> <h2>Freelance Graphic Design</h2> <p class="flush">From 1989 to the present I have worked as a freelance graphic artist for various temporary agencies in Manhattan, for companies that include Kirshenbaum & Bond, PriceWaterhouse Coopers, Robert A. Becker, Inc., Porter Novelli, McCann Direct, GE Capital, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Times Mirror Magazine, Depository Trust, Societe Generale, Blackstone, American Express, Furman Selz, Disenbach Elkins, Showtime, Dresdner Kleinwort, Sterling Group, Dillon Reed, The Beacon Group, MTV, The Presentation Source, Fallon, McElligott, Solomon Brothers, Bear Stearns, BBDO, Thelen Reid & Priest LLP, Genecom,and Lord Abbett & Co. As a result of the demands of the graphics market of the Manhattan business community, I have developed high level skills in the design of newspapers, brochures, and especially, presentations, by means of hands-on experience, and the studying of the following books: The Macintosh Bible, Second Edition and Third Edition, and The Apple Macintosh Book, Third Edition, The Macintosh Bible Guide to Filemaker Pro, Aldus Persuasion For the Macintosh, The Macintosh Font Book, Typography for Desktop Publishers, Looking Good In Print, and Desktop Publishing By Design, Real World Illustrator 7.0, Illustrator 7.0 Classroom In A Book (tutorial, completed twice), Illustrator Fundamentals (tutorial, completed three times), Mastering Illustrator (tutorial, completed three times), Illustrator 7.0 UserÆs Manual, Photoshop 4.0 UserÆs Manual (read twice), Photoshop 4.0 Classroom In A Book (tutorial, completed three times), HandÆs-On Photoshop 4 (tutorial, completed three times), Photoshop Artistry (tutorial, completed twice), Photoshop Magic (tutorial), Access 97 Step by Step, Outlook 97 Step by Step, Outlook 98 Step by Step, PowerPoint 97 Step by Step, Frontpage Æ98 Step by Step, QuarkXPress Tutorial (completed four times), QuarkXpress Visual Quickstart Guide, Illustrator 8.0 Classroom In A Book, Creative html Design (tutorial), Creating Killer Web Sites.</p> <h2>Web Page Design</h2> <p class="flush">I first published my own web site in 1987, at which time I made a decision to focus and further development of my computer and graphic design skills in areas that would be pertinent to web site design. Towards this goal I read Real World Illustrator 7.0, Illustrator 7.0 Classroom In A Book (tutorial, completed twice), Illustrator Fundamentals (tutorial, completed three times), Mastering Illustrator (tutorial, completed three times), Illustrator 7.0 UserÆs Manual, Photoshop 4.0 UserÆs Manual (read twice), Photoshop 4.0 Classroom In A Book (tutorial, completed three times), HandÆs-On Photoshop 4 (tutorial, completed three times), Photoshop Artistry (tutorial, completed twice), Photoshop Magic (tutorial),  Frontpage Æ98 Step by Step, Illustrator 8.0 Classroom In A Book, Creative html Design (tutorial), Creating Killer Web Sites, and Web Sites That Work, all as a means of learning the three key programs for web page design, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator (both for which I received Adobe Expert Certification), and Microsoft FrontPage.</p> <h2>Digital Photography</h2> <p class="flush">In order to develop my digital photography skills, I taught myself Adobe Photoshop by reading the Photoshop 4.0 UserÆs Manual (twice), Photoshop 4.0 Classroom In A Book (tutorial, three times), HandÆs-On Photoshop 4 (tutorial, three times), Photoshop Artistry (tutorial, twice), Photoshop Magic (tutorial). In December 1998 I received Adobe Expert Certification for Photoshop 4.0.</td> </tr> </table> </body>