I'm Gary Luciano. In another life, I used to be a graphic designer for 45 years.

I grew up during the space age of the '60s. I loved going to art school in Boston during the 1970s followed by being a paste-up/layout artist and art director for many retail chains' advertising departments. Here are some examples.

We did everything during the 1970s and '80s on paper by hand from hand-lettering to pencil rough layouts to pen and ink fashion illustration. I can still remember the smells of the art departments from hot wax in our waxers, spray mount, rubber cement along with the stat camera darkroom chemicals until 1990, when our drawing tables were replaced with Macs.

I apologize for the sexism used in my first
business card from 1978. I was very much
influenced by Alberto Vargas during the
1970s, when I attended art school. Times and
social attitudes were very different then.

I have created lively print and digital collateral including logo design-branding and mobile application development. I've designed brochures, circulars, retail ads, catalogs, website landing pages and direct mail pieces for major companies like The Home Depot, The Boston Globe, The New York Times and Bank of America. I retired in 2020 due to the pandemic.

In addition to my 45-year career as a graphic designer, I had gigs as a drummer with a working rock band, stand-up comedian in Boston comedy clubs and part-time instructor at a local college where I taught computer graphics and digital photography for 7 years. My marketing design philosophy was simple: show it, sell it. I am fast, focused & flexible.

Work History

CREATIVE CONSULTANT / FREELANCE GRAPHIC DESIGNER    4/2019 - present 
Rock Hill, SC 

• Developed creative strategic solutions for advertising and design production for small to medium-sized companies. Semiretired in 2020 due to the pandemic.

MARKETING DESIGN DIRECTOR    3/2009- 10/2018
Brothers Air Heating & Plumbing, Inc. (In-House Ad Agency) Rock Hill, SC
A greater Charlotte heating, air and plumbing company (a wholly owned subsidiary of American Residential Services® ARS/Rescue Rooter™, a national company) My position was relocated to corporate headquarters in October 2018.

• Solely responsible for the creative, design & production of all print, broadcast and digital online advertising for this $30+ million,175+ employee service company (from $9M in sales & 45 employees in 2009) 
• Developed an overall marketing and advertising plan while managing each task through execution
• Prepared & facilitated $1.9M annual marketing budget
• Created & designed new website: http://www.brotherair.com/, marketing collateral, new equipment sales price books and presentation folders, Brothers HVAC and Brothers Plumbing price books
• Maintained “real time” marketing efforts for this weather-driven company including switching out digital billboards, online display ads, keywords, e-blasts, radio and TV spots in a timely manner
• Set up individual tech profiles to track customer online reviews via social media
• Initiated and launched monthly online E-Blasts promotions
• Prepared all files for output using Adobe Creative Cloud (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign)
• Managed and coordinated all printed collateral (design & print on demand in-house) for all departments including set-up of digital photo studio for all products, parts and employee digital photos for business cards

In addition to being a part-time teacher for:

ADJUNCT DIGITAL ARTS TEACHER    1/2008 - 4/2015
York Technical College, Rock Hill, SC

• Digital Photography, Typography, Photoshop, Graphic Design and Composition & Color art courses instructor in a classroom and computer art lab environment. Read course review
  
   
  

GRAPHIC DESIGNER-PRODUCTION STUDIO ARTIST  2/2007- 7/2007
Bank of America/Marketing Department, Charlotte, NC

• Generated layouts, edits and PDFs for digital color printing and credit/debit card services. Updated creative and production files. Uploaded Web Views onto website. Implemented objectives and strategy with client and ad agencies (division moved to Delaware in 2007)

GRAPHIC DIGITAL DESIGN SPECIALIST    2002- 2006
Shaw’s Supermarkets (division of Albertson's), Chadwick's/Lane Bryant Online & Print Fashion Catalogs, Casual Male, SAIL/Boatworks magazines (self-employed in Greater Boston, Massachusetts area)

• Provided complete graphic services in the design departments of various companies such as supermarkets, mail-order fashion catalogs, banks, telecommunications and feature magazines (client roster available upon request)
• Created, designed & produced brochures, circulars, flyers and newsletters
• Built & corrected print pages, maintained and updated online catalog

GRAPHIC DESIGNER- MAC STUDIO ARTIST    2000-2002
The Home Depot, In-House Advertising Agency, Canton, MA (New England office closed/relocated to Atlanta headquarters in 2002)

• Teamed with merchandise buyers and sales support coordinator to create, design & produce full-color monthly catalogs, specialty tabs and weekly newspaper ads for our 200+ store division (6 million homes in 10 different markets) from layout to PDF

SENIOR STAFF GRAPHIC DESIGNER – AD LAYOUT ARTIST  
The Boston Globe Magazine, Rotogravure Pre-Press Department, Boston, MA

• Assisted in the production and layout supervision for The Boston Globe Magazine (a full-color weekly publication), in addition to TV WEEK magazine (circulation: 1.3 million)
• Solely responsible for the design direction, production and illustration of THE FUN PAGES, a weekly children’s 4-color activity section
• Created and illustrated my own weekly comic strip
• Contributed content for the creation of Boston.com website

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

• Vesper George School of Art, Boston, MA - Associate's Degree Major: Graphic Arts, Ad Design & Layout and Fashion Illustration
• Boston Globe Training Center, Boston, MA - Ongoing classes and workshops for QuarkXpress, Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator, MultiAd Creator and Pagination
• The Home Depot Training Center, Canton, MA 2000-2002  Extensive training in setting-up & launching an in-house ad agency, merchandise & marketing best practices, how to build a catalog spread, PDF and pagination workflow
• Bank of America's The Standard Register University, Charlotte, NC 2007 Online workshop and classes for Adobe CS, Acrobat, InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop

Portfolio

Solely responsible for all marketing collateral both in-house and outside commercial printing, online display ads, social media ads, digital billboards and Web-TV tags.

Here our some more examples of how my design and illustration styles show how real business can also be fun using charcoal, pencil roughs, markers, pen & ink and water colors