Mike Cooke, hard at work for you.

This page is an introduction of myself to you. Be you casual browser, fan or potential employer, welcome.

Here is my resume and professional portfolio. This site is thick with galleries and comics, all my work. You're encouraged to see it all. Even embarassing stuff from my teen years (arguably a 'must see' if you ever studied Latin).

I was born in New York City, Nov2, 1966 to neo beatnik parents. Mom was the artist, Dad was the writer. I, their progeny, write and draw comics.

I moved around a lot as a kid, spent many early years in Lexinton Virginia or Alpine NY. I can claim New York City public school for fourth grade through High School. I attended PS41, IS70 (OHenry School) and the esteemed Stuyvesant High School, an honors school with a competitive entry exam.

I attended Community College and I trained for a year at The Joe Kubert School for Cartooning and Graphic Art.

For more than a decade since I've been working professionally as a Graphic Artist, illustrator and Production Artist.

My Mother's intent was to name me 'Robin Michael Cooke'. My Father objected citing his sister 'Robbie' as a reason but also suggesting the name was 'gay'. As irony would have it, my first name is Michael and I turned out gay anyway.

I'm single, currently living in New York City with my two cats. Hope to have a lover soon!

Please select one or both links below for an online portfolio in a new window.


Michael Robin Cooke
Graphic Art, Production, Illustration and Web Design.

QUALIFICATIONS
I combine technical ability with creative ability. I possess ‘guru’ level expertise with Photoshop and Illustrator. I am experienced with Quark Xpress, Indesign, Adobe CS3 including Flash, Dreamweaver and Fireworks. Microsoft Office including Excel and PowerPoint, Filemaker Pro.

I am an advanced designer, illustrator and a published cartoonist. I have color corrected art for process printing and I have created spot color separations for t-shirt prints.
I have some management experience running the art department for E-Shirt and being the design director for Mother Earth Enterprises.

I am Brainbench certified in Photoshop, Illustrator and 'Web Design Concepts': http://www.brainbench.com/transcript.jsp?pid=4487281


EMPLOYMENT

2007 to present Cat's Eye Imaging / NycTshirt Factory.com, inc.
Webmaster, Content Creator and Graphic artist,
I designed and programmed an e-commerce website for a printer producing silkscreen, embroidery and direct to garment digital prints for a broad range of garments and items.

2007 Sales Partnerships Inc.
Sales rep for SPI, on behalf of Accent Energy

2006 -2007 US Energy Savings inc.
Sales Rep, awarded for top commercial sales.

2006 Rapid Transfer.
Graphic Design and Production Art
I primarily produced existing art, formatting and creating separations where necessary. I also produced created and recreated designs in rhinestones, rhinestuds, sequins, embroidery, flock and more. 80% Illustrator, 20% Photoshop

2003 - 2004 Mother Earth Enterprises, New York, NY.
Design Director 
Manage art dept resources, assistant management of associated Galaxy restaurant and online business, design of menus, promotions, advertisements and package design of new products (Cosmonut chocolate bar) as well as layout for Mother Earth labeling of Virgin Body care products. "http://www.galaxyglobaleatery.com/"
Web master duties as well.

2002 - 2003 e-Shirt ( "http://www.99dogs.com) New York, NY.
Production Artist
Prepare all customer submitted artwork for printing. Design of new artwork as specified by customers. Produced spot color and process color artwork and separations as needed for silkscreen production.

2001 - 2002 Galaxy Global Eatery, New York, NY.
Art Director
Design and maintenance of company e-commerce websites: http://www.galaxyglobaleatery.com, "http://www.hempnut.com.
Design of restaurant menus, posters and print advertising, packaging design, corporate identity. I also provided illustration, copy writing and editing services as needed
.
1999 - 2001 MBS Love Unlimited, College Pt., NY.
Designer, Production Artist, Webmaster
I created artwork, designs for boys, girls, teens and adults, and produced separations for mass produced silkscreen prints. I personally increased productivity by innovating new and more efficient separation techniques for the art department. In addition to being creative and productive I also served as in-house tech and application support.

1994 - 1998 Acme Group, New York, NY.
Designer, Applications Specialist and Web Coordinator
Graphic Designer: Art Director and Designer of corporate identity for A.C.M.E. business ventures, including Electrical Specialty Enterprises, Wizard Communications, HS and Const, ACME ...etc.

Applications Specialist: trainer and troubleshooter for Mac OS and Windows (9x & NT) and various software applications (Microsoft Office, Filemaker Pro, Adobe Creative Suite ...etc.).

Web Coordinator: Pioneered Acme Group's internal Intranet (using OReilly Website on NT), and Internet presence.

1993 - 1994 Xyt'l Corp., Long Island, NY
Art Director
Responsible for design and copy edit of corporate brochures and business proposals, also logo and form generation.

1987 - 1989 The Grapevine Weekly, Ithaca, NY
Freelance writer/artist, "Itha-cat" comic strip
Creator of comic, manual paste-up and layout of copy and ads



EDUCATION:

Brainbench certified in Photoshop, Illustrator and Web Design Concepts. Transcript (copy and paste into browser): http://www.brainbench.com/xml/bb/transcript
/public/viewtranscript.xml?pid=4487281

Graduated: 1985 Honors math/science program,
Stuyvesant High School, New York, NY
"Gold" graduation Art award (category : Art)

Completed: 1987 Illustration, Design and Cartooning Trade School,
Joe Kubert School of Cartooning and Graphic Art, Dover, NJ

Completed 2 years: 1990 Liberal Arts w graphic art minor
Tompkins Cortland Community College, Dryden, NY