Morning: Getting Started
One of the things I love most about SEP is the flexibility with my schedule. I have to drop my son off at school at 8:30 am, so I usually don’t arrive at the office until 8:50am. Being able to start a little later in the day is great for me, but I know a lot of other people get in earlier and leave earlier. The flexibility is excellent! Once I get in I check my Trello board which contains all of my to-do’s for the day. That’s where I can easily keep track of what’s in my backlog, what I am actively working on, and what I’ve accomplished.
My Role at SEP
As a graphic designer at SEP, my role is a little different than being a UX Designer or Software Engineer. I work more in operations on the marketing side of SEP. One of my main tasks is to help update the website, as well as the creation of external and internal marketing materials. I am also in charge of all things media, which includes video and photography. From taking headshots of new employees to designing swag, I am a jack of all media.
Primary Tools I Use:
- Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, etc.) for graphics
- Adobe Premiere and AfterEffects for video
- Figma for design and prototyping
- Miro for collaboration
- Trello for task management
Most of these tools have actually been self-taught. I originally studied video production at Ball State University. After graduation, I lived in New York City for a few years creating over 40+ shows for a video podcasting company, where I learned how to make graphics for each of the shows. After meeting my now wife, Jenni, I moved home to Indiana where I was lucky enough to find SEP.
Learning and Growth
When I’m not working on projects, I’m learning something new. Like I said before, many of my skills are self-taught, which is one of the reasons I LOVE that SEP prioritizes Personal Development, or PD, in various ways:
- Peer Groups
- Book Clubs
- The last book I read was “Articulating Design Decisions” by Tom Greever
- One of my favorite personal books is “The Secret Lives of Color” by Kassia St. Clair
- Conferences
- In 2025, the Marketing team went to HubSpot INBOUND in San Francisco and it was AWESOME!!!
- I am currently helping a team prepare marketing materials for KBIS in Orlando
- Trainings
- One of my favorite trainings so far has been the “Emotional Intelligence 101” training
- We recently hosted an AI expert for a week to do team trainings in the office
In fact, here’s a series of lightning talks given by our guest, Llewellyn Falco. Part of my job as a Marketing Graphic Designer was shooting and editing this video.
Anyway, Personal Development is good for you! It helps you to continually grow and improve your own abilities. PD also allows you to safely explore new ideas, tools, and techniques. It helps you stay marketable and keep skills relevant in the fast changing technology industries we work in.
Where You’ll Find Me
When I’m not at my desk on the 3rd Floor in North Central (3NC), you’ll most likely find me with the marketing team in the Treehouse. It’s a small meeting room with great views of Central Perch and it overlooks the SEP Commons. Remarkably, SEP has over 50 collaboration spaces to pick from!
My Favorite Core Value
It’s funny, because my personal values I live by are…
- Be Good
- Learn Lots
- Have Fun
- Do Your Best
…and many of SEP’s core values are similar to my own. Let’s take a look!
Be Human (Be Good)
Patience, kindness, humility, and humanity are as much a part of our success as our technical minds.
Question Everything (Learn Lots)
Stay curious and push past the obvious. Challenge the status quo.
Awesome Today, Better Tomorrow (Have Fun)
Learn, teach, mentor, repeat. If you’re not learning, you’re becoming obsolete.
Do It Right, or Not At All (Do Your Best)
We build platforms for years to come. Shortcuts and “ish” are not for us.
In Conclusion
As you can see, a day in the life if a Marketing Graphic Designer at SEP is pretty awesome. There isn’t a day I wake up where I don’t look forward to coming in and tackling the next problem. I’m surrounded by brilliant, amazing people and we’re all working together to make software that matters more.
