Designer and Ambiturner
In the beginning…
The Voom Group began with the idea that print and design should live together in harmony under one roof with a company that understands marketing and wants to add real value for their customers (yeah, we were idealists from the very beginning). But, for this dream to become reality, our very first full time employee had to be a graphics designer. But not just any graphic designer – Designing for print is no easy task and without an absolute pro at our prepress helm, any “easy” print job can be a potential production time bomb. The job title pretty much didn’t exist at the time – Creative Director/Prepress Technician, but Bud rose to the task in a fashion that rivaled the ultimate slashie – Derek Zoolander, the great American Model/Actor.
Bud grasped the concept and lead us in one of our very first of many industry firsts – we had an amazing graphic designer that understands marketing and gets what our customers really want, despite what they are asking us for, and oh by the way, Mr Gray, we need you to become an expert on color and learn about technical details like dot gain, press gripper, gray component replacement, total ink coverage, and just for a laugh, sometime later we need you to learn everything there is to know about direct mail and working with the USPS, among many other things hitherto unknown to all graphic designers before him.
Is that Blue Steel, Magnum, La Tigre, or Ferrari? Mr Gray has so much more than one look…
So, How does a Voom land a Bud?
From corporate America, previously Bud had held creative positions in Communications, Marketing, Graphic Design, Multimedia, and Video Production. These previous opportunities gave him the ultimate skill set, with his left brain creativity and right brain problem solving abilities, Bud is an anomaly in graphic designers and was the perfect person to take Voom in the direction we wanted to go. Lucky for us, the marketing genius and smarter half of Voom ownership Wendi, had been working with a great designer at her corporate marketing job, and she lent just enough credibility to The Voom name that we were able talk Bud into making a terrifying leap from the comfort and security of corporate America to work for what at the time was a one man show…
Earth to Bud…
We could have never have guessed that 13 years and 6 company expansions later, Bud would still be a driving force behind Voom’s creativity and unique and diverse product offering, but we are certainly not surprised by it.
Always up for a new challenge and ready to learn a new technique or application, We salute you er… Um, Earth To Bud – WE APPRECIATE YOU !!
Your next Orange Mocha Frappuccino is on us. THANK YOU for taking a chance on a guy with a dream and an old little 2 color printing press that he just moved out of his garage. We have come a long way together, and we look forward to where we will go in the next 15 years !
Little known fact…
Bud Designed the original and still unchanged Voom Logo 16 years ago – literally our first design job, and still in use today.
What free time?
When Bud isn’t at the office, he is at a consummate movie buff, enjoys bass fishing and hanging with his family and grandkids. (and he is always up for a walkoff)
Give thanks!
We appreciate everything Bud does and so should you! Next time you see him, say hello and give him some thanks for all of those proofs edits and format changes he helped out on, and that time you asked him for that 13th proof revision. Or better yet – you can say hi below 🙂
Thanks Bud!
Way to go Bud!
But is he a designer for ants?
Congrats Bud!!
As long as it is for a good cause. Like a center for kids who can’t read good and who wanna learn to do other things good too.