HOWDY

J. Blanks

Long Beach, CA. 

howdybrand@yahoo.com

Education

BACHLOR OF FINE ARTS | SPRING 2007 | UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS

Major: Art Direction & Graphic Design

Minor: Marketing 

Skills & Abilities

10 years of extensive knowledge in apparel design, branding & the complete printing processes.  Including but not limited to apparel and product design, logo design, pre-press preparation set-up, marketing, trend forecasting and more. 

Proficient in current program versions of Photoshop, Illustrator, and Word programs.    

Effective team leader that works well in a team setting to help grow and gain business through the team’s ideas, designs and presentations.  

Excellent communication, verbal, organizational and time management skills.   

Career Experience

SENIOR DESIGNER and TREND RESEARCH | Hyrbid Apparel llc | 2012-2019 | Cypress, CA 

-Creates custom graphics and apparel based on sale needs, specializing in boys and men’s. 

-Works and collaborates with sales and art directors to ensure needs are met per project.    

-Utilizes trend research to generate industry leading ideas through online research and by attending relevant trade shows such as Magic & Agenda.  

ART DIRECTOR / SENIOR DESIGNER | Bioworld Merchandising | 2009-2012 | Dallas, TX

Managed and art directed boys’ business which grew 310% in the first year and a half under my lead.  

Helped Wal-Marts Boys apparel business grow, starting at only 2 apparel spots on their in store tee shirt wall to growing and holding over 14 spots nationwide generating hundreds of thousands in sales. 

Project management, working with sales and my team to achieve the best graphics and presentations required by meeting in a timely manner.

Created full trend presentations and catalogs categorized and personalized by retailer for trade shows and sales meetings.

FOUNDER, LEAD DESIGNER & SCREEN PRINTER | DF Designs Screen printing and Design | 2006-2009 | Dallas, TX

Managed and lead a full-service graphic and screen-printing shop with a small 3man crew.

Provided custom graphic designs and apparel to other businesses and customers.  

Create customer logos as requested by clients and businesses.  

ART ACHIEVEMENTS AND AWARDS

Art directed and painted murals for Mountain Dew’s DEW TOUR Skateboarding competition in Long Beach, CA. 2017 & 2018

Created all custom graphics and merchandise art as needed for the musician ‘Yelawolf’ and his touring musicians 2013-2017 (created everything from apparel designs to bus wraps for tour advertising) 

Worked with Redbull on multiple projects creating graphics for upcoming music shows and party events. Also hired to curate the wall art for the Redbull Dallas executive offices and conference rooms.      

Painted live mural art at Fader Fort for SXSW in Austin, TX for the years 2011-2012. (sponsored by Fader Magazine, Levis, etc)

Work displayed in multiple art galleries and businesses, most recently shows at CACtTUS in Long Beach, CA. and “Signs by the Slice” signpainters art show in Los Angeles, April 2018.

Created Gig Poster and Concert art for many musicians including Wiz Khaifa, Devin the Dude, 12th Planet, Mannie Fresh, Reckless Kelly, etc.