The designExplorr team operates collaboratively as a student-run venture. Student-run ventures are innovative ways to provide students with the entrepreneurial experiences, resources and necessary support to enable them to begin their own businesses. To date, these participants have helped to design the brand, launch the website, create a plan for social media presence and develop three-dimensional products for educational use. Read below for more about the team and click here to learn more about the teams founder Jacinda Walker.
Members
William Davis
William is a graphic designer whose specialties also include illustration, photography, animation and web design. He is a graduate of Edinboro University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis in Applied Media Arts. Since then, William has become a motivated visual communicator with years of experience combining critical thinking, creativity, education, and technical skill to problem solve and overcome challenges at virtually any phase of a project.
Ashley D. V. Smith
Ashley is an experienced visual communicator, a customer service specialist, with a background in social media management. Ashley earned her Associate’s of Applied Business Technologies and Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from Cuyahoga Community College and the University of Akron. In December 2015, Ashley completed her Master of Business Administration with a certificate in Nonprofit Management at Walden University in Marketing.
Amber Albergottie
Amber is a graphic designer in Cleveland, Ohio, whose area of focus is designing publications, creating promotional materials and brand development. Her clientele includes an array of small and newly established businesses. She is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Art, where she obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design. When not designing, Amber spends her time reading fashion blogs, and modeling for local fashion designers.
Collaborators
About Jamal Collins:
Growing up in the inner city of East Cleveland, Ohio, I was considered an at-risk youth. I faced a lot of challenges and stumbling blocks along the way. I was always a creative kid with a big imagination, but something was missing. I always yearned for help from a mentor or an advisor to encourage my creative tenacity.
Growing up in the inner city of East Cleveland, Ohio, I was considered an at-risk youth. I faced a lot of challenges and stumbling blocks along the way. I was always a creative kid with a big imagination, but something was missing. I always yearned for help from a mentor or an advisor to encourage my creative tenacity.
Prior to the completion of high school, I really didn’t have an outlook on plans post-high school, but I was sure I didn’t want to follow in the footsteps of some of the kids in my neighborhood who had fallen to a lifestyle consumed of drugs, and crime. After visiting a local university, I was motivated to apply; I got accepted to Akron University, and graduated with a Bachelor in Fine Arts in 1997.
Upon graduation, I began my career as a graphic designer in the corporate field in which I remained for 9 years. I always felt incomplete. There I was, pursuing my career in the field of graphic design, but there was no passion!
In 2014, I started working for The Boys and Girls Club of Cleveland as an Art Instructor. BGCC changed my life, literally. My second day at work, my car was stolen by a kid from the club, but I didn’t lose hope. I wanted to reach out to the kids who were maybe living in single-parent homes, or living in an environment of drug, or alcohol abuse, poverty, and most of all, education disparity. Many kids in our society need more than a mother, and father; they need a community. I’m a part of that community.
After 7 months as an art instructor, I really wanted to expose the kids to something they didn’t know existed. I presented the idea of providing graphic design classes, and began traveling to various club locations as a consultant. Using iMacs, the kids began learning about the latest design technology such as Adobe Creative Cloud, photography, and video editing. I influenced the children, ages 9-19, to realize their ability to transform the world through design; to imagine new possibilities. I help point children in the right direction by using graphic design. Teaching children has become my ultimate passion. I’ve become their mentor.
Learn more at: www.jayworking.com