Introduction: Hello and thank you for visiting Innovative Designs. This site has evolved a great deal in the past 7 years and you are now viewing the latest version for 2008. Besides updating the site with some of my latest work I have included this short section of biographical information about me, Daniel Fogg, the individual responsible for all the various visual designs that appear on this site.

Right Now: Currently I am very busy working on media design, interactive technology strategy and new business development pitches on a variety of projects for Microsoft as the Senior Digital Experience Designer on the rapidly growing Digital Strategies Group at Waggener Edstrom Worldwide. Previously, I worked at the Corporate Performance Company ProSight, Inc. to direct creative work online and in print as well as provide marketing technology support. Prior to ProSight I completed a broad range of design and consultation work for the NY-based Marketing company: WF360 (New York, NY). I am providing long-term technical and graphics support to Marketing Consultant and Author, Lisa Johnson, ReachWomen (Eugene, OR). I have also worked with Author Ann Crittenden (Washington, DC) and CampInteractive, Inc (New York, NY). Last, but not least, for over 4 years I taught several classes at the University of Oregon in the Digital Arts Program.

Background: Although digital art has been a major career focus for my entire life I got my big start with the ThinkQuest National Internet Challenge. ThinkQuest was started by Advanced Network Solutions as a National Contest that would motivate High School students to create educational websites. The current ThinkQuest competitions, which have now gone global, are currently operated by Oracle. In 1997 I led a team that included two other High School students to design a Website that placed 3rd in the Nation in the Arts and Literature category which included a combined $30,000 in cash grants and scholarships for the team. Part of the awards event included a trip to Washington, DC where I met celebrities like director Ron Howard (who sat at our table for the entire event) while we also got to enjoy notable political and educational speakers as well as a performance by comedian Sinbad. A year later I had the opportunity to represent ThinkQuest at the National Educational Computing Conference.

Motivated by the success of the ThinkQuest challenge, the following year I competed for the National Channel One Broadcasting Corp. Website Internship. With some luck and an enormous amount of work, my application won out over 300 other candidates and I was flown to Los Angeles to work at the Channel One News studios. While at the Channel One studios, I received a crash course in TV news media broadcasting and then proceeded to run the online operation of the Channel One News Network. At the time, Lisa Ling was a reporter for Channel One, (before her "View" days) and it was not only fun but very informative to hang out with her and the other news anchors. It was through my experience at the Channel One Studios that I found a new career focus in Graphic and Web Design.

What's the trick?: I am frequently asked How to get into business? How to make contacts? etc. There are plenty of books and online resources that will give you lots of great marketing and business advice so I won't repeat it here, and frankly, most of it is just common sense. I think my best piece of advice is that there is no shortcut to success, just lots and lots of hard work. I approach *everything* as if it must be the absolute best product and one cannot use tricks, shortcuts or half-hearted approaches to achieve success.

Approach: My approach to design is a simple one: Listen to the client; amazing artistic and technical skills; and only the best no matter the size or type of job.

Last year of teaching at the University of Oregon : The 2004-2005 school year was an extremely busy schedule that included a new class that I proposed and developed called Package Design as well as Digital Imaging and Digital Illustration. Package Design was an incredible challenge since it was a completely original class that relied on in-class examples, activities and lectures without computers (which can often be a media design instructor's crutch if you are not careful). Thankfully, the massive amounts of work and subsequent sleep deprivation paid off with a class that was for the most part a strong success. I recently finished a huge gallery show of my Students' work (mostly from Package Design) which you can view photos of here. I also taught classes in Web Art and Multimedia Design which is at its core a class on Macromedia Director. Feel free to view my Class Websites (links are in the right column) for resources, galleries, articles, links and more.

Instructional Methodology: Teachers show students the tools, provide the wisdom of experience, and illuminate the paths of intellectual and creative inspiration which lead to success. A good instructor will encourage and help guide a student's self-motivated learning towards a greater personal goal whether it be graduate school, a commercial career as a designer or a world-famous artist with galleries across the globe. My advice for students: Think Big! and approach every assignment as an opportunity to fuel your passion for art and design.