CV for Kenneth Grey

Kenneth Grey
815-A Brazos Street,  #283, Austin, TX  78701
kenneth@leftjab.com
P: 512.632.0990

SUMMARY
Senior Level Creative Director, Interactive and Graphic Designer with more than 15 years of experience working on high-profile projects across North America. Seasoned Account Manager with world class interpersonal skills. Outstanding problem solver with a laser focus on thrilling clients and product end users alike. Highly experienced, friendly but driven Project Manager accustomed to managing small and medium sized groups to deliver complex projects of varying scale and complexity on time and on budget. Excellent written and interpersonal skills.

BACKGROUND & CURRENT OBJECTIVE
I started one of the first interactive design companies in Toronto, Canada in the early days of the Internet. I grew it organically to become a successful, profitable company. Our offices in Toronto and Vancouver served a wide range of clients all over North America. A few years ago, I opened my second design studio in Austin, Texas, under a new US brand.  After 15+ years of being an online entrepreneur running my own design and development shop, I find myself missing the social interactions and other benefits garnered from working in a larger creative environment.

I  am interesting in becoming immersed in lively, vital, collaborative environment where I can be challenged and push myself creatively and intellectually on a daily basis. I’m keen to start working with some bright new people to help produce some exceptional, interesting and relevant work. I’m looking for a senior level design-centric position and I am also open to any position that may be a hybrid of sorts, crossing over into user experience design, client account management and business development.

CORE STRENGTHS
I have a strong, consistent design sensibility based on core design principals and a depth of understanding of the implementation of those design principals across digital and analog mediums.  I have designed well over 100 websites, dozens of corporate logos and all types of print collateral. I can intuitively tell when something will or will not work and why and argue that point in a concise, articulate manner. If something is wrong, I can usually figure out how to fix it - and thrill my clients in the process.  I have extremely strong writing and communication skills. I am a highly experienced team and project leader. I am an excellent client manager who can suit up in style, travel freely locally or internationally, as required. I’m a confidant, worldly, cultured, friendly, capable individual who will quickly become an irreplaceable asset to any organization that opts to make me part of their team.

EDUCATION, OTHER AREAS OF INTEREST
I am a high school graduate and I did a brief stint at The University of Toronto as a part-time student for a few of years studying English Literature, Fine Art, Art History, Architecture and Philosophy. It would however be more accurate to say that I am largely an autodidact. My areas of study have fallen mostly in the arts, with a great deal of time spent focused on all aspects of design, modern architecture, photography, fine art and literature. I am also a trained Boxer, Cross-Fit Athlete, a 78RPM-only DJ,  and a fairly decent Texas Two-Stepper. I have crossed the continent ten times by motorcycle. I travel light.

EMPLOYMENT
2011 - Present: Left Jab Creative LLC - Founder, Creative Director.
Left Jab Creative is a full-service Web design and development shop working with local and national businesses and marketing agencies, with offices in Austin, TX and Toronto, ON. The soul of Left Jab is modern, minimal, content-driven interactive design. I run the company, find and sell the jobs, manage the projects to fruition and do about 90% of the design work myself. The design workload tends to be about 75% interactive design and 25% brand ID work and print collateral design and production.  I currently work with a team of 3 contract programmers and I use freelance designers, content producers, illustrators and photographers as required.

Core Skill Set: Sales & Client Relationship Management, Project and Team Management, Information & Visual Interface Design, UX Design,  ADOBE CS5 tools (mostly Photoshop and Illustrator), Web Strategy, Print Design, Brand Design, Copy Writing, Content Creation & Editing, Infographics, Illustration, Consulting.

1996 - 2011: Pneumatic Press Corp. - Founder and Creative Director.
Pneumatic Press Corp. (a.k.a PNEUMATIC,  pneumatic.com) was one of Canada’s first web design-build shops, based in a 1,200 square foot studio in the bustling Fashion District of downtown Toronto, Canada. I sold a full range of jobs from small promotional sites to large-scale commerce sites, to large-scale national online brand campaigns for the likes of Nabisco Foods. I managed the client relationships, designed most of the sites, ( and art directed the rest), and managed a full-time creative and technical in-house staff of up to 10 members and numerous project-specific contractors.

Pneumatic clients in Canada and the US included: Kraft Food/Nabisco Canada, Microsoft Canada, IBM Canada, Anansi Press, Irwin Law, Toron Capital Markets, HotDocs Film Festival, Vancouver Jazz Festival, InSport International Apparel, Liberty Boot Co., Contact Editions, David Mirvish Books on Art, Artsuppliesonline.com, Island Blue Print.com.

Pneumatic was put gently to rest in 2011 not long after Kenneth married an East Texas girl, moved to Austin and started up Left Jab as an American limited corporation. We transitioned some willing loyal clients to Left Jab, some of whom have been with us as long as 15 years.

Prior to 1996: I lived on my own and worked from an early age and held a variety of positions in various pre-Internet fields all of which had some hand in shaping me. Always the entrepreneur, I started my first company to help support myself when I was still in high school: it was a successful pre-desktop-publishing graphic design company,  creating logos and other business materials by hand on blueline boards.

Other positions held over the years, listed from more recent to less recent: Publishing Company Warehouse Manager (Reed Books Canada, with a staff of up to 15;  2 year contract), Book Store Manager & Bookseller (4 years), Art Film Store Designer and Manager (Art & Trash Video - 2 years), Journeyman Carpenter, Bank Processing Facility Administrator (Royal Bank of Canada, with a staff of 6-10), High School Guest Teacher  (teaching Senior Level Typography and Graphic Design), Retail Clerk (art supplies, mens apparel), Landscaping Maintenance and Construction Crew Chief (staff of up to 12), Heavy Laborer (lead refinery).

PHOTOGRAPHY
I started making pictures with cameras obsessively at a very young age.  As an adult, I studied part time at Toronto’s Ryerson University and took a few select courses at Toronto Image Works renowned photographer, Ed Burtynsky’s Custom Film Lab, where I learned high-end darkroom techniques from some of the best printers around. Working in medium format and 35mm film, I explored my interest in modern dance, portraiture and candid street photography. I mounted a number of successful solo shows and have published in numerous well known Canadian magazines and newspapers.

PHOTOGRAPHIC SHOWS:

THE PEOPLE ONE KNOWS - Coming online soon! A digital portrait and text project about exactly what you might imagine, given the title. (2012- )

BEAUTY - A solo show of B&W 35mm film work on the modern dance piece of that name by the incredible Canadian choreographer, Julia Sasso. Harbourfront Centre Gallery. Jan & February 2003

Dark Haired Beauties - Solo show of Medium format and 35mm B&W portraiture. Cameron House, Toronto. (2002)

Publications - Street photography and portraits published in Toronto Life (Jan 2003), NOW Magazine (Toronto, Oct 2002, Jan 2003),Quill & Quire (Toronto, February 2002), West End Revue (Toronto, August 2002)

INTERIOR & LANDSCAPING DESIGN
Trained at an early age in landscaping design and construction, I have undertaken numerous creative landscaping assignments over the years. I also have a keen interest in interior design and architectural remodeling and I have been involved in several small and medium scale interior design projects for private homes, offices and retail spaces. My former downtown Toronto house was featured in a multi-page article in Canada’s largest design magazine, Canadian House & Home. The article highlighting some of my creative solutions for small spaces such as handmade built-in seating and storage and also highlighted my unique urban courtyard garden design.

I recently started a personal Tumblr project called GOOD WHITE ROOMS, which is an online curation of well designed modern interiors.

78 RPM DJ - DJ Give’r!
Many years ago, renowned Canadian country music signer, Colonel Tom Parker, introduced me to the marvels of pre-1955 music on shellac. I since amassed a unique collection of  old country, blues, jazz and early rock ‘n roll music that I sporadically spin on a 70’s era monophonic Califone record player in bars around town and for special events near and far. Check it out here.

A Love Letter A Day

A new personal project,…more or less what one would expect, given the name.