Historic Domino Sugar Factory, Baltimore

Hello. My name is Corey Ayers, “The Graphic Design Hound”. I am a graphic designer and a recent graduate of the American Career Institute (or ACI for short), located in Columbia, Maryland.

This school was formerly called the “Johns Hopkins Computer Career Institute”

After almost one year of full-time classes, I graduated in July, 2010 with a certificate in Special Effects Design.

This certificate prepared me to enter several career fields including video editor or producer, storyboard artist, audio engineer, media production and freelance graphic designer. I choose the graphic arts field as my career option.

So, here I am, a Maryland Graphic Design Jobs freelancer.

Other Acquired Designer Jobs Skills

While in school, I have managed to become proficient with several design, illustration, audio and video editing software applications.

Here’s a short list:

• The Entire Adobe CS4 Creative Suite that includes Photoshop CS4, Adobe Illustrator CS4, and Adobe InDesign
• 3DS Max 2010 -
• Premiere Pro -
• Soundbooth – .

Working with these programs has been a fun experience and a real eye-opener. I attribute my aptitude for the graphic designer field to my determination and also the constant grinding of graphic arts concepts into my head from my instructors.

I have gone on several field excursions solely for the purpose of finding creative ways to get my work done. Trying to find the right angle, color, design, or order was all a daily part of my curriculum and no expense was spared when it came to bringing a concept to fruition as a graphic artist.

Video Production Artist Skills

In my never-ending quest to position myself as a graphic designer,  I developed a video short that attracted the attention of the staff and students. The Education director even quoted it as “The best thing that has come out of the video editor department in a while”. The film was eventually awarded the “ACI Academy Awards” for “Best Short”. It is now being continuously looped on a big screen television at the entrance to the student building.

What Does It Take To Become A Graphic Designer?

Ask ten people that question and be prepared for many different answers, however, here are a few skills to start with. Learning professional magazine layouts, photo retouching and morphing, the creation of 3D objects, environments, and characters, as well as video editing using the latest software. Then there is computer graphics generation, storyboarding and web graphics. These are only the tip of the iceberg.

What’s most important is your creative mind. The boundless creativity of a professional in the graphic arts field is really the thing that will set him or her apart from the rest!

This is my professional blog and I intend to use it to further my aspirations of being a freelance Maryland Graphic Designer with a 3D modeling leaning.