I worked all through college, sometimes two jobs to get by. Working at Big 5 Sporting Goods, Starbucks, Papa Murphys Pizza, and Crawdaddy’s. It was tough while maintaining a full-time schedule, but I look back with envy as I was free from most adult worries and responsibilities, I mainly worked, studied and dreamed.
During my last semester, I had the opportunity to attend Semester at Sea through The University of Virginia. I was on a floating college campus that circumnavigated the world for a semester. How lucky was I? After that, I got the travel bug and ended up attending the International College of Management in Sydney, Australia. Shortly after I moved to the Netherlands. I knew then that travel would be a part of my life forever.
My education started at CSU, Fresno State where I received my Bachelor’s Degree, majoring in Business Administration with an option in Entrepreneurship studies from The Craig School of Business.
I came from a blue-collar background and learned the meaning of hard work in my hometown of Lindsay, California. My father was a factory worker while my mother was a preschool teacher. I was pushed by my aunts and uncles to get educated and create a better life for myself.
Service Title
EDUCATION: CSU FRESNO STATE & SEMESTER AT SEA
Experience, ideas, hard work and a never give up attitude.
Goose Boy
Goose has been my right-hand furry friend for over two years helping with cuddles and industry insight.
Jay Yoder
Founder and Lead Designer with ten years of experience as a San Francisco tech in-house designer and California based freelancer.
The Team
Living in San Francisco was also a great opportunity to meet open minds that pushed their dreams far away from their hometowns. I was very intimated at first, but after a couple of years, you learn to hold your own no matter what the circumstances. If you could survive expensive San Francisco, then you could survive anything. Speaking of expensive, I lived in a closet and slept on a futon for my first five years in the city.
I learned a lot at AAU, from the principles of design, sketching, Photoshop, front-end coding, color theory, 2D animation, 3D animation and my favorite Adobe Illustrator, still, one of my favorite programs to design in .I was accepted into the AAU Spring show one year. Professors selected a few projects that stood out amongst all the different majors and classes. It was an honor for me.
Coming from a small town, I was excited to live in a big, urban city like San Francisco. There I attended the prestigious Academy of Art University and studied Web Design and New Media. Known for it’s professors in the working industry and difficult project deadlines and long study hours. 180 New Montgomery Street is where I started to get my design chops and learn that design would keep you working well into the nights.
Back in school again, I worked multiple jobs from bar-tender at The Mint Karaoke Bar (a client of mine now), Design Intern in the technology space (they would eventually hire me out of school), production artist, Lyft driver and office helper for lingerie start up ( yes, you read that correctly). SF is where I learned to hustle more than I could imagine.
Service Title
EDUCATION: THE ACADEMY OF ART UNIVERSITY, SAN FRANCISCO
In San Francisco, I learned to speak engineer (well sort of). I had a great relationship with the brilliant team of engineers and we worked side by side. One of my greatest accomplishments was building and designing a webpage during my off hours, which explained in detail the flagship software “KAZOO” side by side 2600Hz very intelligent CTO Karl Anderson. The explainer page is still used to this day.
I met many amazing individuals during my time in the Bay Area and was very happy to be a part of a great team. I even was part of a podcast in Sacramento, California, and learned a lot about video editing and sound recording. A highlight was interviewing a former Black Panther and former UFC title, contender. But, after hitting the ceiling, I decided to return to the Central Valley and start my own freelance business.
Out of art school, I interned with a telecommunications tech company 2600Hz. That internship developed into Jr. Designer, Web Designer, Head of Marketing Design, and eventually Product Designer. I spent many late nights at the office cranking on rebranding, coding landing pages, event design, and all things marketing design. I wore many hats and touched so many aspects of design and marketing.
I never imagined I would be in the tech space in San Francisco, but there I was selling my soul for digital work 😉. Below is an image of our after-party for our event KAZOOcon. I did all the design solo and with direction from our great marketing team. Badges, signage, speaker intros, sponsors, shirts, swag items, and event animations, I did it all.