Note: This webpage contains additional information to my original cover letter.
Dear Merit Embroidery Hiring Decision Maker(s):
Please consider me in your search for a Pre-Production Graphic Artist.
Making art has been a part of my entire adult life. After studying Commercial Art in high school, I enrolled in a BFA program at the U of A, later opting to complete an Art Education degree. A gallery of some of my early work highlights the fact it often uses simple graphic shapes.
After completing my degree, I joined The University of Calgary as a Communications Officer II. As co-editor of the bi-weekly, Gazette, I researched and wrote news and feature articles on virtually all Faculties and often delivered technical information to a more general audience. I also profiled new staff members and supplied photography, illustration and design skills.
After almost five years with the U of C, I accepted a position as a Journalism Instructor at Grant MacEwan. Moving to Vancouver, I joined Southam Business Communications as Western Editor for Canadian Forest Industries Magazine, providing copy on all aspects of the business including harvesting, safety and milling. I then settled with my family in Nanaimo writing stories, for example, about the development of a submersible camera for The Nanaimo Business Examiner and providing front-page stories for the Nanaimo Daily Free Press.
My Nanaimo experience also includes almost five years running a direct-mail advertising franchise, Val-Pak. As owner/operator, I helped small to medium size businesses develop direct-mail advertising promotions. Part of my duties included analyzing customer responses for clients.
As Marketing Manager for forest equipment manufacturer T-MAR Industries, my duties included conducting customer surveys; producing advertising copy, brochures and videos; and launching the company’s newsletter, The T-MAR Times. I also designed T-MAR’s annual trade-show booth and helped represent the company at the Truck Loggers Convention in Vancouver.
I continued to explore my interest in making art while teaching the subject internationally. Returning to Canada in 2012, I worked with a web designer to launch my WordPress website highlighting my creative abilities in writing, photography, art, music and video production. One of my major works is a quilt, Death from A to Z by Adam Lanza, Dec. 14, 2012 (2013), which raises the issue of gun control. I’m not exactly sure when I started using Illustrator and Photoshop, but it has been many years, and I used Illustrator to create the background graphic on which the NRA bibs were placed.
As a designer, I’ve loved the wonderful vibrant colors that embroidery offers, and have used the media extensively in my overall, clothing, shirt, jacket and cap designs. For my most recent pieces, overalls, I experimented briefly with the SewArt64 program to create my own embroidery files but soon learned there is more to this than just a couple of clicks of the mouse. I also love to design t-shirts that highlight my undeniably positive outlook on life. Here’s a gallery of some of my designs in a variety of media.
Another work involving the use of typography and my design skills was the creation of a sign for North Side Automotive in Prince George. Photographs and a video of the sign appear below.
Further examples of my graphic design and illustration work can be found in my Happy Face Series.
I’ve also used a laser engraver at the Maker’s Lab in the Two Rivers gallery in Prince George.
I believe I am an excellent candidate for this position and would like to suggest we meet to discuss the contribution I could make to Merit Embroidery and Printing in filling this role.
James Miller