My name is Tim Edwards and I am a graphic designer. I like to draw. At the time it is only part time work. To pay for the groceries, I draw machines and machine parts.

   I am of Scottish-Irish decent with a small amount of Cherokee in the mix. I stand about six feet tall in the morning and five-eleven at night. I have brown eyes and brown hair which is dappled around the edges with gray. My overall appearance is apparently stereotypical of something between a small football player and a policeman. Or at least that’s what I’ve been told often enough. I can remember the first night of my Air Force basic training: Our training instructors where so convinced that I was some kind of military police spy that they pulled me to the side to ask me as much. Even after swearing I wasn’t a cop, they never took their eyes off of me for the remainder of the three month training cycle and kept the usual basic training terror tactics to the barest minimum. I have a quiet, reserved and non-aggressive nature, but am often thought of as the complete opposite because of a slight squinting of the eyes brought on by farsightedness and light sensitivity and an odd sort of smirky, one-sided smile that some see as a sure sign that I’m up to no good.

   I was a shy child, almost to the point of it being a medical condition. I think this is why I generally tend to keep to myself, do my own thing. I have since gotten over most of the shyness (a few years in the military does wonders for that problem) and my tendency to be a loner has been offset by maturity and the appreciation of the fact that good friends are an asset not to be wasted. I am an independent thinker, thickskulled and stubborn but always eager to hear new ideas and make adjustments to my own viewpoint. I was taught to be polite and to respect my fellows and I still use “Ma’am” and “Sir” when engaging others in everyday speech. I am loyal to family and friends to a fault. I have never had the temperament for drug or alcohol use and usually avoid those that do. I generally tend to be the oddball in most groups but am secretly proud of this, as I absolutely refuse to follow along with the herd. I take my work and responsibilities to those me around seriously, even when that behavior is not in style. And I can say with great certainty, that I am liked by most people that know me.

    I was born not so long ago in a very small middle Tennessee town of little relevance. Fortunately, the family moved to Huntsville, Alabama when I was about a year old, so Huntsville is my official home town. Mostly an agriculture and engineering center, Huntsville isn’t the greatest place to live for artistic types, but it could have been much worse.

   I went to Kindergarten, then on to Elementary School, just an average kid, only taking as much interest in my education as was forced upon me. Actually, I did pretty well, grade wise, until I reached High School. But like so many other kids of my generation, I paid little attention to that critical time in my life, not understanding how important it was or how often I’d look back and wish I had studied a little harder and better prepared myself for the life that would come after. I graduated quietly and found myself without a plan or any idea where to go from there.

   Without much success in the job market immediately after High School, I began to consider a military career as an option. Where this idea came from is still a mystery to me to this day. The decision came as quite a shock to family and friends as my personality and character seemed to be in complete opposition to a military lifestyle. However, two years after graduation, I took the oath and joined the U.S. Air Force. This would become a major turning point in my life. It gave me a different perspective on myself and my abilities that I desperately needed, particularly with regards to self confidence and adaptability. It allowed me to meet and work with a large assortment of people from all across the country. It gave me the opportunity to travel...to see places I thought I would never have the chance to see. But most importantly were the skills and experience that I took from my time in service. Those remain with me and have always been a strong asset regardless of what I have done since. I worked as a Maintenance Scheduler which involved the scheduling of aircraft and aircraft engines for maintenance cycles and modifications, through use of pre-Windows computers. I worked at military locations including Washington State, Illinois, South Korea, the Philippines, Germany as well as several others. I received two commendation medals and was recognized by the Air Force for designing and building two large maintenance tracking boards that were used first by Fairchild AFB, WA and then ultimately several other SAC bases across the globe. I strove to do the best job I could regardless of the assignment. My time in service was very rewarding to me and I might still be serving if it had not been for the changes that were to come. Unfortunately for me, this time was a period of extreme change within the U.S. military structure. The extensive cutbacks in personnel, the closure of many U.S. military installations and changes made to my own career field by the Department of Defense made continuing to work in the military much less desirable toward the end of my enlistment. After four years I took the option of separating and I returned to Huntsville.

   I found myself pretty much back where I started four years before.

   Most civilian employers would not take the military experience and training seriously and I was faced with the daunting task of working toward a college degree to compensate. Not only was this going to be expensive but difficult to schedule around the two jobs I had to maintain to pay the rent. But finally, over a decade later, I found myself in the position to return to school and start over in a new career direction. Because of the computer work I had done in the Air Force, I found myself taking a great interest in the use of computers for graphic design. I had always been artistically inclined since childhood. I loved to draw and paint. This interest plus several years working in the construction industry lead me to deciding on a two year program in Computer Aided Design and Drafting using Autocad as the primary tool. I saw this as a practical place to start, which it indeed turned out to be. I got my first drafting job when only one year into school, working for a local construction company, drawing floor plans and creating 3D building models for advertising. This experience plus extensive self-study, earned me a formidable knowledge of Autocad and its derivatives. From there, I decided to focus my attention on becoming acquainted with other 3D modeling applications as well as advance my knowledge and skills regarding the dozen or so graphic design programs I had already been using for several years. This work would eventually lead to a love and fascination with the graphic design industry as a whole and any thing that it could be applied to. Using graphic design and art as a center, I have found interest in sound design, the use of online, 3D virtual environments for business and advertising, web design, photo and video production and editing, writing and animation.

   Currently, I am working on attaining a Bachelors degree in some form of graphic design or 3D modeling and animation to add to the CADD degree I already have. In the mean time, I continue to study and practice with the software and tools relative to the art form.

   I think that the wide variety of jobs I’ve had in the past, including construction, farming, factory work, retail and restaurant, military and security, drafting and design and so on, give me an added advantage and perspective in pursuit of a graphic design and art career. I use everything I’ve learned along the way and add it to what I still have to learn. For me, the learning process is an ongoing experience. If it were not so, things would get boring quickly.

   I hope to advance within this career field in the coming years and will add to this bio as it happens. That could take some time however. I like to move up the ladder like everyone else but not so quickly I forget where the ground is.