Abraxas Aguilera
Graduating in Spring 2000, Abraxas made his way to Colorado to work for Solis Advertising and Public Relations as the Art Director and In-house Illustrator for the Creative Department. This gives Abraxas the opportunity to work on ads for clients such as Quest telecommunications.
Prior to his graduation, Abraxas worked as an extern for Abracadabra progressing to the position of Art Director before accepting the position with Solis Advertising and Public Relations. He also freelanced under his own company name, Abraxas Graphics.
What is next on Abraxas’ plate? Eventually I would like to do real comic books or work with for a studio doing character design.

Ana Toma
Ana Toma is working in her field of Graphic Design for E.B. Lane & Associates, the number one graphic design firm in the valley for the past three years. She currently produces menus and banners for area hotels.
Ana worked as an intern production artist for Rockford Fosgate prior to her graduation. She freelanced for Thunderbird International School of Management creating brochures, ads, Web site banners, and storyboards. Her career goals are to be the best designer she can be and move into an art director position. She hopes to own her own business in the future.
How did her education at The Art Institute help Ana? "I would not have a career without the connections I made through The Art Institute!"

Andrew Guillen
“Action Performance” hired Andrew to work as a graphic designer and dye cast artist for their line of licensed motorsport merchandise. Andrew re-creates actual race cars from photographs which are designed to the client’s specifications.
Andrew learned, “the basics of success” while attending The Art Institute of Phoenix and credits his education with his ability to get his job at “Action Performance.” For the future, Andrew hopes to gain enough experience to eventually own an advertising, animation, design business.

Carrie Ann Gralich
Carrie Ann graduated in Summer 2000 and is working out of her home as a freelancer for a sports advertising company, One Stop Enterprises. As a graphic designer, Carrie is working on automotive ads for newspapers, flyers, magazine ads, and newsletters. She is also developing logos for different product lines.

Clay Lyons
Clay graduated in Fall 2000 and is working for Fender Musical Instruments. As a Product Designer, he is responsible for developing new product concepts regarding everything from aesthetics to usability. More specifically, he creates new guitar and amplifier designs, updates current product designs, develops product point-of-purchase materials and assists in the creation of product collateral.
Clay credits his education at AiPX with helping him to determine where his strengths lie and then how to sharpen those strengths. His education also helped him gain more confidence in his design abilities.
In the future, Clay would like to set up a design team at Fender to concentrate soley on new product research and development. He feels his future lies in leading a team of designers, rather than engineers, to develop the next generation of iconic Fender products.

Daniel Mashburn
Graduating with an associate's degree in Graphic Design, Daniel started as a production artist with Outside the Box Interactive shortly after his graduation. Responsible for much of the production work of the small new media firm located in New York, Daniel is working for clients such as Coastal Amusements and Bonnell Ryan.
Daniel helped design a Web site for MIT while attending The Art Institute. He also freelanced for Deresta while attending classes. Crediting The Art Institute for helping him get a good start, Daniel states, "AI Phoenix gave me the foundation for bigger things. I would never have made it in New York and landed this job without the help of the people at The Art Institute."

Elizabeth Diethelm
Elizabeth took her HTML classes very seriously and eventually, wants to go into Web design for her career path. Currently, she works for a mail order company as the graphic designer who handles product labeling, designs a quarterly newsletter, and works on the company Web site design.
Having done an internship with “Art FX” during school, Elizabeth learned a lot about freelancing projects and how to manage time sensitive overflow projects. She appreciates the support she received as she learned interviewing skills and prepared her portfolio during the final quarters at AiPX.

Kristofer Jonson
A Graphic Designer for KZZP 104.9/Mix 96.9, Kris is working on promotions for events, posters, banners,
t-shirts, patches, and bumper stickers. Classwork at AiPX helped to prepare him for the very fast paced environment of the radio station. His education also helped prepare him to use PHOTOSHOP and ILLUSTRATOR programs.
Eventually Kris wants to own his own ad agency.

Luke Anthony Sanchez
Luke jumped into freelance work in the graphic design field while he was in school at The Art Institute of Phoenix. While in school Luke says, “ I gained the knowledge I needed to succeed and the understanding of what was to come!”
Luke’s freelance work has led to projects for “Bougard Records,” “Droppin Pills,” “Network Family,” and “Avalon” restaurant and night club. As an “advertising and design specialist” Luke creates logos and corporate identities for his clients.
What does Luke like about his freelance business? “I like to make my own hours and set my own wages! I want to grow my business into a multi-billion dollar business.” With Luke’s drive, he has a good start.

Marta Tompkins
Returning to school as an adult career changer, Marta believes that The Art Institute of Phoenix, "has given me many of the tools necessary to work in the design field and prepared me for dealing with deadlines and clients.” Marta was a star producer during her term in AiPX’s Design Studio with her design having been chosen as the logo for the Arizona State Women in Police Association.
Serving as an extern for the “National Horseman” magazine gave Marta excellent skills with periodical formatting. The “Cricket Contrast” staff met Marta during her Portfolio Review and arranged an interview the following week, hiring her that same week. The “Cricket Contrast” is a Metro-Phoenix design firm that has been in business for seventeen years. The company works on corporate identification, collateral, packaging, and Web design.
As Assistant Designer, Marta is responsible for job management, design fulfillment, and general office organization.

Melissa Walker
Graduating in Winter of 2000, Melissa has landed a position as Production Assistant for the Merica Agency. This company has been in business for 25 years specializing in advertising media. Clients include the Hilton, Summer Lind (a master-planned community in Las Vegas, NV), Cox Communications, and Sun Cruise Lines. The Merica Agency is the third largest agency in Las Vegas, employing approximately sixty people.
As an assistant art director, Melissa is responsible for making sure that the design work is ready prior to production. Melissa’s career goals are, “to use my drive for success and creativity to reach my highest point.”

Randy Dvoraic II
A Product Marketing Designer for Full Moon Interactive, Randy is creating and designing promotional items for companies such as Adobe, Intel, and America Online. Full Moon Interactive provides a vast range of design work, print work, and exhibits in the Silicon Valley.

Robin Frimet
Striving to become a Creative Director in an advertising firm, Robin is currently employed by “McCann Erickson,” and advertising agency whose clients include Mastercard, Loreal, Sprint, Gateway, and Rollingrock. The firm also handles advertising for Microsoft games.
Robin’s job responsibilities include scanning, layouts, re-touching prints, developing coupons for Sunday paper inserts, and commercial campaigns. Robin believes that her education during the Portfolio classes at The Art Institute of Phoenix were especially helpful to prepare her for job hunting. She also credits her education in Photoshop and Quark as key to her success today.

Sergio Daboub
Sergio proves that the more experience you can get while in school, the more diverse your choices will be upon graduation! Sergio interned for “Digital Dimensions” in pre-press and for “Graphic Insight” as a designer while in school. Now, he is a graphic designer who also works with the marketing department for “Fourthstage Technologies,” providing Internet solutions and services for e-commerce companies.
Developing graphics for exhibit booths, layouts for collateral, logo designs, and Web designs, Sergio appreciates the classes in multimedia that gave him the breadth of education he received, even as a graphic designer. “My education helped my direction, how to meet people, and to expand my graphic skills into areas of Web design.”
Sergio hopes to illustrate books and magazines during his creative future.

So Young Park
Graduating in Fall 2000, So Young moved to Germany and is working as a freelance Graphic Designer for Rhea Systems, a company that supplies high end technical consulting and development of software for the space industry. Rhea’s top customers are the European Space Agency and the European Space Operation Central.
So Young’s responsibilities include designing and managing Web Sites, oversee all creative projects, develop weekly and annual reports. Her experiences in the Corporate Identity class at AiPX helped So Young prepare for this position. Eventually she hopes to complete her master degree and open her own business.
Prior to graduation, So Young worked as an extern for Focus Design developing additional skills in the Graphic Design field.

Toby Konno
Eventually Toby wants to own his own advertising firm but he is getting his experience in at “Market Now” in the meantime. Working for the Web development, e-commerce company, Toby designs the layouts for the Web sites, and on some of the development of the Web sites.
Working on an externship during his last quarter for “Graphic Insight” gave Toby an introduction to employment in the graphic design field. Toby credits his education at The Art Institute of Phoenix with, “harnessing my artistic skills to use in the market place.”

Victor Delgado
Victor is employed by the Employment Guide, designing ads and laying out the newspaper for printing. Hoping to become an Art Director, Victor credits AiPX with helping him to learn the basics that allowed him to jump into this job after graduating in Fall 2000.