About
I am a designer/illustrator living in Jacksonville, Florida where I’ve officially been in the design business for over 10 years, designing everything for local Mom & Pop shops to worldwide clients like GE, Capital One and AT&T. I’ve helped them all with a strong sense of branding – heightening the experiences of their consumers. I’ve also been drawing all my life and loving the fact that I am able to do this for a living. Although I have a traditional print background, the last 6 years have been about living and learning in the world wide web. Focusing more on straight design and illustration, while learning more about animation and motion graphics, is the passion that drives me now.
Experience
2011 - Present
One Spark
Co-Founder
One Spark is a collective of entrepreneurs and innovators that share in the goal of taking the city of Jacksonville, Florida to the next level. We believe in the potential the city has to offer. Let’s make a change and ignite that passion with everyone that we can. There is too much talent in Jacksonville for it to leave.
2009-Present
Varick Rosete Studio
Owner, Creative
Living in the world of design consultancy available for creative direction, art direction and freelance designing and illustrating. Providing additional creative spunk to those in need, while also picking up a few tidbits about animation and motion graphics.
2003-2009
nGen Works
Co-Founder, Partner, Design Matters
One of the original founders, I helped make nGen Works one of the top web design agencies in the world. In addition to project management and front-end development, as “Design Matters,” I was responsible for taking the elements of experience and culture and fusing them together to create exceptional design experiences for the clients.
1999-2004
Tsinilas Clothing Company
Founder, Partner, Lead Designer
Asian-influenced design does not all revolve around Chinese and Japanese cultures, so I started up a t-shirt company based on Filipino themes. Taking the elements of the culture mixed with attitude and modern design looks helped make the company popular among Filipino youth around the world.
1998-2003
Husk Jennings Advertising
Art Director
Full service ad agency working with Fortune 500 companies where, in a team setting, I was responsible for concepting and creating designs for logos, brochures, collateral, direct mail pieces, websites and ad campaigns; as well as managing photoshoots and creating illustrative work.
1997-1998
Comer Communications
Graphic Designer
Ad agency where I got my feet wet managing print production first-hand. Work included layout design for brochures, catalogs and collateral pieces, in addition to logo design, website design and illustration.
Education
1992-1996
University of North Florida
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Concentration in Graphic Design
1995-1995
University of Florida
College of Fine Arts - Go Gators!
Recognition
2011
AIGA Jacksonville Communications Director
Elected Communications Director of AIGA, the professional association for design’s Jacksonville chapter
2010
Battle of the Instant Dance Crews Champion
Composed of complete strangers, “The Pussycat Trolls” win Late Night with Jimmy Fallon’s inaugural Battle of the Instant Dance Crews on live TV.
2009 - 2011
AIGA Jacksonville President
Elected President of AIGA, the professional association for design’s Jacksonville chapter
2009
LogoLounge Vol. 5
Select logos published in latest volume of renown design book series, LogoLounge. Go get one now!
2008
The Superest
Monsieur Masseur featured on popular drawing blog that revolves around the “My Team, Your Team” game where artists take turns drawing heroes, each one getting the best of the previous one to become the current champ
2008
Top Individual Bowler
Unbelievable individual two game score of 345 at SXSW ABX – Geeks Love Bowling tournament that won me an 80gig Apple iPod courtesy of AOL.
2006
Print Magazine
Client’s educational view book published in Print’s Regional Design Annual – Florida section
2006
Judges’ Pick ADDY Award
Local ADDY Awards select the nGen Works website as Judge’s Pick for its unique blend of style and design that changed its look as the seasons and holidays changed.
2005
National ADDY Award
National Silver ADDY was awarded for the Children’s Museum of Richmond website for ease of use and it’s playful interactivity for children
2005
Best of Show ADDY Award
Local ADDYs award the Children’s Museum of Richmond website “Best of Show” for ease of use and it’s playful interactivity for children
2004
Web Redesign 2.0: Workflow That Works
Book featured client’s redesigned site as an example of best practices for guiding users
2002
Mark Awards
The Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing recognized outstanding achievement and excellence in marketing from work created for AT&T Broadband
2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006
ADDY Awards
Various Silver and Gold ADDY awards given at the Local- and District-level for projects including brand design, collateral design, website design and animation