Hello and welcome to my world. My name is Jeff and I will be your guide through this strange and whimsical land.

I consider myself many things. I am first and foremost a husband and a father. I love my family. They are my life and everything I do I owe to them. I have a beautiful wife, a son that speaks jibberish, a one year old daughter that is lightning in a diaper and a little boy due in June. I also remain close with my whole family, especially my mom and dad. I can always count on mom to have the answers and dad to have banty chicken eggs to dye at easter.

I am a stay at home father and own a freelance design studio called Duck of All Trades that I run from my home studio. DoAT specializes in publication layout, graphic design, illustration and more. So far I have had a little success with this business, but hope to have much more in the future. I have a degree in Industrial Design from the College of Design at North Carolina State University. I created Duck of All Trades because I love design. It is something I understand and something I am good at. Owning my own business gives me the honor of working with many creative individuals. I tend to find clients that aren’t looking for someone to design for them, but someone to design with them. I work with them closely. Their happiness is far more important than mine, so I make sure my designs are first and foremost for them. That’s the cornerstone of the Duck of All Trades philosophy. I am more concerned with the end result than I am money. I’m like Forrest Gump, mowing that grass. If I was a bazillionaire, this is what I would be doing for free.

Outside of my family, my passion is to be a children’s writer/illustrator. I don’t consider myself to be a particularly good writer, nor do I consider myself to be a great illustrator. However, I love children’s literature and that more than makes up for any lack of talent. I am experimental and varied with my illustration. I work both on a computer and by paper. My favorite subject matter is animals. I have written numerous stories over the years and hope to be given many more years of creativity to continue to pursue this passion. My favorite illustrators include Jose Aruego and Maurice Sendak.

I am also a puppet maker. I consider puppets to be magic. I am blown away by how an inanimate object can come to life in the hands of an experienced puppeteer. I find inspiration in the work of Jim Henson and his characters. I usually begin a puppet with an open mind. I make a mouth or a head or some other part of the puppet and then see what it wants to be. Again, this is part of the magic. Combine a board, some foam and a little glue and you are left with a naked mouth able to dictate what it wants to be. Making puppets has taught me to listen to my work and let it be what it will be. I have never actually been a puppeteer unless you count nigh-time puppet shows for my kids.

Lastly I can name numerous things I dislike about air-cooled Volkswagen’s. They leak oil, they smell, their lights are dim, the brakes are a pain in the nose to adjust, they’re sluggish: in short, their perfect. As you can tell, I do actually like these cars in all their utilitarian goodness. Have you ever studied a air-cooled VW? What a piece of work! Everything has a function and then another function. See that spare tire? Not only is it a spare tire BUT it also powers the windshield washers. Just an engine cooling fan? No. In the winter, they become a heating unit, recycling heat from the engine. I have a 1971 Volkswagen Super Beetle referred to as The Wild Thing. What I love most about Volkswagen’s is they teach me to find perfection in imperfection; that is one of the secrets to life.

Thanks you for allowing me to bring you into my world. I look forward to hearing your comments.