Hello friends, collegues, and strangers, my name is Christapher McElheney. I am just starting in the Communication Design degree plan at the University of North Texas College of Visual Arts and Design. This blog is to document my career thru the program and put my work up for public critique. Be brutal. I fully understand the ramifications of putting work online – even asside from the fact that I have to keep this up for class – and know that the only way I will grow is thru cretique and making mistakes. That being said, keep in mind this is just the begining of my formal training.

WHAT AM I DOING HERE?

I discovered a knack for design back in my sophomore year of highschool when I started making posters and flyers for my church’s coffee shop/concerts. I taught myself html, flash, fireworks, and dreamweaver and made stuff. Looking back, some were impressive, while some were downright embarassing.

Years later I started working ‘in-house’ at a small avionics distributer here in Denton, teaching myself Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign while getting a crash course in ‘good design’ via the internet, blogs, and the helpful people on untVENT. The good thing was, what little I knew, they knew less and we’re highly impressed even though as I learned I would look back at what I had made the previous week and be ashamed. All in all, I am very proud of some of the later stuff that came from that job including a 500+ page catalog from scratch and some ads in national magazines.

During this time, I was figuring out that maybe I could make it in the commDes program and started taking art classes. With a semester of classes under my belt I tried and failed to get in the first time thru but didn’t get discouraged. I kept taking classes, read up as much as I possibly could, and checked all the blogs I could find religiously soaking up every bit of knowledge I could get a hold of. I suppose it paid off because I got my acceptance letter after my second go round and here I am – staring down the barrel of my first 16+ hour type assignment, blogging about how much I’m ready to get started and kick butt*. I guess I should get started!

YOU CAN FIND ME:
– in the tub
– on facebook
– on untVENT
– on twitter
– christapher.com

*sorry mom