COMPANIES I DELIVERED PROJECTS FOR
PRESENTATIONS
Pitch decks are my specialty
I honed my presentation design skills while working at Walt Disney, where I had to deliver the most complex and beautifully animated decks under extreme deadlines to company’s top executives. I used the expertise that I acquired there to keep designing presentations for media and tech giants such as 21st Century Fox, Warner Bros., NBC Universal and Facebook. I craft my decks using Apple Keynote, Microsoft Powerpoint and Google Slides, along with the arsenal of Adobe CC software such as After Effects.
MOTION GRAPHICS
From inks to dancing pixels
I started my career in the world of print design, where the beauty lies in the details of a static layout — a page, a poster, product package, or anything that is covered with colored ink. As the world kept changing, I felt the need for a new challenge, and I found it in the world of motion graphics. Going step-by-step I schooled myself in the technical intricacies of using After Effects to breathe new life into my designs by making them move on a digital screen.
On top of creating animated slides for Keynote decks at Walt Disney, I have had the opportunity to create a bunch of video pieces for giants of American hi-tech industry, such as Dell, Salesforce, Cisco Systems and Hewlett Packard.
Motion graphics demo reel video
Cisco Open Stack video
Disney Publishing Sizzle video
Hewlett Packard video
Print will always be beautiful
Colored inks are still being used in this world, and you can see them everywhere you go. Until the time comes when everything we look at will become a video, there is still a need for a print designer. I learned my design craft doing print pieces, and using the classic software trio of Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. I still enjoy working on just about every aspect of the print design process — on concept, layout, typography, photo editing, production, and the press check. Printed pieces I designed range from pages of a booklet, through product packaging all the way to trade show displays.
A package of sell sheets for Disney English
A packaging design for a CD by Micheline
Promo card designs for actors in Hollywood
Typography design for Milken’s book
ABOUT RAD
RAD’S MICRO-BIO
I’m a graphic designer and art director specializing in presentations, motion graphics and print.
After coming to the US from Poland, I initially wanted to take my very solid electric guitar playing skills to the next level of proficiency. However, after discovering computers, art and design, I changed direction. I set out to build a career as a creative professional that would take me to many fascinating destinations. I worked in brand development, sales promotion, advertising, entertainment, media and publishing for some of the most high-profile American companies, overseeing an arsenal of creative solutions from concept and design through all aspects of production and project management.
As a designer, I am mostly self-taught. I learned my craft by both diligently studying books and software, and in the real-life business school of hard knocks. To broaden my knowledge, I also took some fantastic design classes at UCLA Extension and networked with a lot of like-minded people.
My experience of living in three different worlds — Eastern Europe (Warsaw, Poland), US (Southern California area), and Asia (Chiang Mai, Thailand) — gives me quite a unique cultural perspective on the way people of the earth interact, and it helps me better navigate the complex pathways of global communication.
PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
| CREATIVE |
|---|
Motion Graphics Design
Print Design & Production
Concept Development
Art Direction
Photography
| SOFTWARE |
|---|
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe InDesign
Adobe After Effects & plugins
Apple Keynote
Microsoft Powerpoint
| OTHER |
|---|
Asset Management as an art form
Communication and diplomacy are key
Creative writing, or rewriting
Guitar, electric and acoustic, pro skills
Fluent in English, Polish
I can handwrite and sms in Thai
MY MINDSET
My story of arriving in the US with a backpack, a hundred bucks and one phone number shaped me into someone who knows how to build something from nothing under any circumstances. I expect nothing, and I am ready for anything. Mindfulness, flexibility, learning on the fly and adapting to the constantly changing environment are all key to the success of the mission.
Whether it’s collaborating with an on-site team as a freelancer, working on a project for my own client, or plugging into the universe of remote work — I hit the ground running, and I hit it hard. I listen closely, I propose solutions, thoroughly prepare, and then spring into action — you will never find me pondering what to do. I will stop at nothing until the project is delivered on time, within budget, and with a level of high quality to die for. When it comes to getting things done, I mean business — every step of the way.
MY BALANCE
Most designers are there to create designs, most bureaucrats are there to manage bureaucracy, and most diplomats are there to mediate conflicts. Personally I find it that in order to successfully deliver what I am asked for in a dynamic business environment, I need to be able to master and balance all three of these skill sets. There is no “separation of duties”, and all three are critical aspects of one seamless and focused work process. Not just my knowledge and experience, but my deepest gut-level animal instincts guide me on this path.
My mind has to be able to roam free and stay “out-of-the-box” to arrive at a creative solution. To implement my design concept I may need to switch gears and activate the inner bureaucrat who will meticulously organize my media assets and technical aspects of the project at hand. And to manage the project — despite our massively digital planetary reality — I still need to successfully interact with living, breathing human beings who have cultural differences, aches, pains, agendas, and everything in between. Balance is of the essence.
MY STRATEGY
In my work process, I really do believe in a “70% preparation, 30% execution” approach. Taking some extra time to thoroughly organize the media assets and brainstorming ways to improve the efficiency of a given process allows me to get the final work done in a short amount of time that seems implausible. Sometimes it seems that “I haven’t started yet”; perhaps I may be drinking too much coffee all day.
However, once the preparation stage is completed and I have decided on a course of action, the actual battle to get the project done is now well planned and mapped out. If I prepared well, this may happen at blinding speed. My fingers dance on the keyboard and my mind is that of an orchestra conductor, fully focused, fully in control of all the staves of the score, and the symphony is playing itself out. Something that was estimated to take a week takes four hours. Jaws drop. I’ve been there, and I’ve done that.
COOL PROJECTS THAT I HAVE WORKED ON
Dell’s cybersecurity team
My role at Dell quickly expanded to
include creating and editing company’s
collection of technical white papers,
designing videos and presentations,
managing SharePoint websites, and
responding to any urgent requests
coming from the global security team.
My organizational and diplomacy skills,
a keen understanding of cultural
differences plus the ability to come up
with creative solutions on the fly
came in very handy!
Facebook Presentations
I have been contracted to assist
Facebook’s worldwide team with
their PowerPoint presentation needs.
These were elaborate data-driven
decks where attention to detail
and accuracy were a must. Working
remotely, I had to collaborate with
executives residing in different time
zones and make sure the goods were
delivered on tight deadlines with
lightning speed.
Apple Beats gig
Working at Apple Beats’ Culver City
headquarters was quite an experience.
The environment was a unique mix of
slick hi-tech and hip-hop celebrity
culture, amped up to 11 with a
relentless pressure to deliver
presentation concepts and revisions
within hours. LeBron James would stop
by, and Dre was planning a party. You
were either on a very top of your game,
or you would not last a day there.
Harry Potter Style Guides
While working at Warner Bros., I’ve
had a fantastic opportunity to design
and produce all eight Harry Potter style
guides, one for each movie in a series.
I had to plow through a mountain of
image assets, design all the layouts
and make sure everything was
meticulously organized and accounted
for. Diving so deeply into Harry Potter’s
universe was a blast of fun; now I can
totally see that Harrys’s got more
gadgets than James Bond, for sure!
Disney Presentations
At Walt Disney, I worked on some of
the most complex and sophisticated
franchise and corporate event decks
for their top executive team. Nothing
was off–limits, and many slides required
the design of elaborate animations
using After Effects. Working at the
“mouse”, I learned how to thrive in a
challenging work environment where
high-profile projects had to be delivered
on short deadlines and look absolutely
“pixie dust amazing”.
Warner Bros. Licensing
This was one of the most gigantic
presentations I’ve ever designed and
executed, and I have done it three times
in a row. A stream of image assets from
multiple teams had to be incorporated
into the sequence while being constantly
revised and ultimately turned into a
video with a voiceover. Warner Bros.
licensing show was a corporate combat
bootcamp like no other in Hollywood.
From now on, I think I can run just about
any kind of show.
NBC Universal Decks
I have enjoyed designing beautiful
Keynote decks for some of the most
iconic properties at NBC Universal. I’ve
had to come up with a series of creative
concepts for the global marketing of
Fast & Furious and Universal Monsters,
work on a bunch of Dreamworks TV
properties, and tweak some
dinosaur layouts for the Jurassic Park
franchise. I found it simply irresistible
to keep honing my design skills on stuff
so utterly cool!
Silicon Valley Tech
I established a great relationship with
a team of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs
who worked with the biggest names in
high technology. We collaborated on
the creation of corporate videos for
Salesforce, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard,
and others. Usually I had to start
with a raw script, zero assets and
minimal amount of direction. Then
it was up to me to implement my
creative vision, jump through rounds
of approvals, and deliver the goods.
Milken Conference
Michael Milken’s yearly conference has
been a “who’s who” gathering of the
global elite’s top power players. For
three years in a row, I designed and
produced the conference program’s
briefing book. During ten days before
the event, it was a war zone of constant
revisions from a myriad of sources.
I designed the intricate typography,
invented procedures to streamline the
editing, and fought all the way to deliver
a perfect manuscript by the deadline.
TESTIMONIALS
Rad is always my first choice when I’m in need of Franchise presentation designs. From basic Keynote slides to high-quality, professional and engaging animated presentations, Rad always delivers beyond my expectations, and always on time. He’s worked on materials across a variety of NBCUniversal & DreamWorks TV brands including Fast & Furious and DreamWorks Spirit Riding Free. My colleagues are always impressed at how great my brand materials look, all thanks to Rad!
Jennifer Loef Forlano
Strategic Brand Marketing Leader
Rad has helped produce several marketing videos for our clients for diverse applications such as product launches, sales kick off events and websites. Rad is a perfectionist when it comes to attention to detail and production quality, and visually imaginative when presenting complex ideas. At Mainstay we are looking forward to many more creative projects with him in the coming years. I want to wish him all the best and for any of you considering working with him, I have no reservation in recommending him strongly — he is one of the very best in his trade.
Lakshminarayanan Venkatraman
EVP, Business Value and CIO Advisory at The Mainstay Company
https://www.mainstaycompany.com/team/