Savannah College of Art and Design
Master of Fine Arts (MFA), Motion Media Design; graduated June 2017. Thesis explored the evolution of print news infographics into motion graphics and their continued importance in visual storytelling in journalism.
University of Florida
Bachelor’s degree, Journalism; graduated December 1999. Studied editing and design in print journalism. Worked at the student newspaper, The Independent Florida Alligator as a copy editor, copy desk chief, page design, and co-editor of the Kickoff section from Fall 1997 to Fall 1999.
Gulf Coast Community College
Associate of Arts degree, General Education; graduated May 1997. Worked at the student newspaper, The Gull’s Cry as managing editor and editor, writing opinion pieces and teaching the student staff digital design from Fall 1995 to Spring 1997.
University of North Carolina-Charlotte, adjunct lecturer: Charlotte, NC., January 2023-Present
Teaching undergraduate courses in graphic design at the Department of Art and Art History at UNCC’s College of Art + Architecture. Teach Design Thinking and Typography 2. Students enact and document a design process for all their projects. Projects include but are not limited to type design, brochures, magazine design, digital design, logos, and kinetic typography.
University of Miami, part-time lecturer: Coral Gables, FL., Spring 2011-Fall 2021
Teaching undergraduate courses in multimedia design, web design, and infographics at the School of Communication. Students learn the basics of design composition and create a variety of projects throughout the semester. Projects include but are not limited to brochures, logos, digital illustrations, magazine design, infographics, simple vector illustrations, and interactive UX design. Coordinated print and online graphics between my infographics class and a graduate multimedia project in Spring 2011.
Savannah College of Art and Design, graduate teaching internship: (online course) September-November 2016
Assisted a professor in conducting an online course in storyboard design for motion media. Primary responsibilities included engaging in weekly online discussions and critiques of student work. Conducted research on various storyboard and design concepts, as well as compiled video tutorials for various design techniques.
Design Thinking
Students learn a process in creating any design project, from concept to final product. Each step of the process is highlighted with a corresponding project throughout the course. Students are given a variety of projects to which they must document their process, including research and sketches, and are expected to write a brief reflection summarizing their experience.
Typography 2
Students apply the basics of typography to a series of intermediate-level projects. Students are still expected to apply a design process and write a summary of their experience with each project. Designs meant to explore different aspects of designing with type, such as type hierarchy, creating character styles, using type as the dominant art, and exploring motion with type. Projects include traditional print products, digital media design, and kinetic typography.
Graphic Design / Multimedia Design: Introduced the principles of design and applied them to various advertising, multimedia, and general design projects (i.e. posters, brochures, and business cards). Students studied the basic design principles including color, typography, and layout; and were introduced to infographic and static web design principles.
Infographic Design: Introduced the principles of data visualization and basic infographic design. Students learned different design techniques such as pictographs, charting, mapping, and diagrams to create their own infographics. Also taught the basic techniques in Flash to help student create simple and engaging interactive projects. Coordinated graphics between my class and a graduate project to create infographics for a large-scale interactive project.
Introduction to Web Design: Students are introduced to HTML and CSS to create a series of simple projects that will lead to coding and designing a website entirely with code and some Javascript.
Visualization and Concept Storyboarding: (via teaching internship)
Students learn to visualize and design concept storyboards for a variety of broadcast television projects. Students engage in weekly discussions to explore new techniques and design concepts through various existing title sequences, commercials, and title credits.
Introduction to Flash: Students learn the basic principles in Flash animation to create simple yet engaging interactive projects. During a hands-on session, students learn several basic principles of motion and apply it to various design techniques. By the end of the four-hour course, students had learned simple Actionscript 2.0 scripting and can navigate Flash to create a simple animation.
Introduction to Illustrator: Students learn the basic tools of Illustrator to create simple data visualizations such as pie charts, bar charts, and other graphics. Students learned how to create simple shapes and text blocks, and learned how to navigate through Illustrator’s various tools to apply color, strokes, and gradients to objects. Students also learned how to draw simple illustrations using the bezier pen tool. By the end of the course, students successfully created infographics in the software program for use in their reports or web projects.
The Role of Motion Graphics in Online News Journalism (2016 graduate thesis)
Graduate thesis explores how motion news graphics, a relatively new story-telling video format for news organizations, can boost readership in today’s fast-paced online news climate. Motion news graphics can establish a need for today’s graphic news artist. They’re also a viable method for news sites to engage readers, increase coveted social media and web traffic, and contribute to a growing online news video library. Motion graphics can incorporate animations, data visualizations, illustrations, images, and video, much like their predecessor — the infographic.
Take Off with Motion Graphics (Society of News Design 2017 annual conference)
Collaborated with Terence Oliver, a University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill professor, to speak about how motion graphics are a viable method of visual storytelling that can engage and entertain online audiences.
Introduction to Adobe Illustrator (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2011-2015)
Introduced several groups of data analysts to Adobe Illustrator, teaching them how to create simple shapes, text blocks and the graphing tool. Taught students how to create several charts in Illustrator and discussed the basic design principles for data visualization. Hands-on workshop had students creating various charts and learning how to save them as web-ready files to post with online stories.
Infographics and news design workshop
(Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University’s School of Journalism and Graphic Communication, 2008):
Sponsored by the Society of News Design, we lectured on news design and infographics with a group of communication students. Afterwards, we led a design critique on the students’ portfolios.
Flash interactive hands-on workshop
• 2006 National Association of Hispanic Journalists convention
• 2007 Asian American Journalists Association convention
• 2008 UNITY journalism convention
• 2009 Florida Press Association workshop
Led half-day workshops teaching journalists the basic principles of Flash animation to create simple and engaging interactive projects. Taught basic animation principles, including simple drawing techniques to help guide the class through the program.
‘How to Make Your Covers Pop’ design session (2007 AAJA convention)
Coordinated and hosted a design session on dynamic newspaper section cover design. Invited four award-winning designers to collaborate on the session, and presented it to a group of journalists at their annual convention in Miami.
Infographics session (2007 Florida Scholastic Press Association District 7 annual conference)
Introduced high school journalism students to news infographics and interactive projects, using various examples from the Sun Sentinel. Theme was to explore what news would be like without reporters and photographers, so the focus was on visual journalism.
KarBel Multimedia, Chief executive officer and co-owner: Fort Lauderdale, FL., October 2008 – present
Creative agency specializing in graphic design, infographics, motion infographics, and interactives. Manage daily operations and collaboration with clients. Oversee company’s design and production strategies. Manage, art direct and edit the production of graphic designs, infographics, motion graphics and interactives.
South Florida Sun Sentinel, senior graphic designer: Fort Lauderdale, FL., July 2008 – July 2011
Managed and edited News Illustrated, a full-page infographic that was researched reported written and designed by the graphics department (2008-2011). Produced daily and enterprise infographics, interactives and motion graphics for the newspaper’s website and its sister television station, WSFL.
South Florida Sun Sentinel, graphic designer: Fort Lauderdale, FL., March 2003 – July 2008
Produced daily and enterprise infographics, interactives and motion graphics for the newspaper’s website and its sister television station, WSFL.
The Arizona Republic, news page designer and graphic artist: Phoenix, AZ.; November 2000 – March 2003
Designed section fronts and inside pages for news, Sunday opinion and features sections during two-year internship. Also worked as the assistant to the graphics director, producing maps, charts and enterprise projects as well as attending daily planning meetings. Hired full time in November 2002 as a news designer.
The Baltimore Sun, Page designer: Baltimore, MD., January – October 2000
Designed section fronts and inside pages for features and sports sections. Primarily responsible for helping both departments transition into a new pagination system, often acting as technical support for designers and copy editors while designing daily pages in both sections.
The Philadelphia Inquirer, Design and graphic design Intern: Philadelphia, PA., June – August 1999
Designed various covers and inside pages for the Inquirer’s feature sections and produced basic infographics such as maps, charts and text boxes. Also designed centerpiece spreads and inside pages for one edition of the Sunday Inquirer Magazine. Internship provided through the Chips Quinn minority internship program.
Adobe Creative Jam winner: Judge’s Choice for motion graphics in Adobe’s competition during the 2015 AIGA annual convention.
Society of News Design: Best of Newspaper Design (international awards): Awards of Excellence, 2004-2008: Four awards for infographics, one award for science design, and two awards for individual infographics portfolio.
SND.ies (International awards): One 2009 quarterly award for interactive tour of the Oasis of the Seas cruise ship.
AAJA National Awards: Three national awards for infographics in unlimited subjects and one award in infographics for Asian American subjects from 2006 to 2008.
Florida Press Club: One first place, and two second place awards for informational graphics in 2004, 2006 and 2010. Florida Society of Newspaper Editors: 2007 first place award in news graphics
Society of Professional Journalists, Atlanta chapter: 2010 Green Eyeshade Award for second place in informational graphics
Speaker, North Carolina College Media Association’s 2023 conference, print and digital media design lectures (UNC-Charlotte, 2023)
Merit badge counselor: graphic design, art, photography, animation, moviemaking, game design, journalism, and digital technology (Boy Scouts of America — South Florida and Mecklenburg, NC councils, 2022-present)
Professional mentor, Freshly Linked program, Orange Umbrella Student Consultancy, University of Miami’s School of Communication (Fall 2021)
Contributor, The Awesome Career Advice Issue, Design, Spring 2018 (Society of News Design)
Infographic and motion graphics guest lecture (Cushman-Wakefield “All America” design team)
Intro to Data Visualization webinar (Graphic Artist Guild)
Infographics: Creating Visual Stories webinar (Graphic Artist Guild)
Infographic guest lecture (Florida Atlantic University, 2012)
Infographic lecture for design class (University of Miami, 2012)
“How to Make Charts” lecture for design class (University of Miami, 2010)
Guest write, “Thinking Graphically,” article on infographics for college journalists (CFP, 2007)
American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA)
Graphic Artist Guild
Asian American Journalists Association
Society of News Design