VISIONN Creative Marketing

Marvin oversees all creative, programming and production work at VISIONN as well as working hands-on in design and information architecture. He has been designing for print since 1988 and for the Web since 1998. His award-winning design skills have bolstered projects for Microsoft, Major League Baseball, The San Francisco Giants, The Nature Conservancy, TaxLoopholes, Maui Millionaires, The Scottsdale Charros and Jim Nasi Customs.

Marvin’s forte is graphic design, information architecture and project management. He specializes in creative, intuitive design that’s simple and elegant.

It was inevitable that Marvin was to be a graphic artist. “From the time I was a kid, I spent all my spare time drawing, doing calligraphy, designing posters and painting.” That was, until he found his second love as a teenager, music. While playing in a rock band by night, Marvin’s design skills led him to a day job as a graphic artist. Back then, graphic arts involved X-Acto knives, galley type, wax, paste-up, overlays and border tape. In 1989, his employer bought an Apple Macintosh, a color printer, and an imagesetter, and Marvin was told “figure out how to use this stuff”. He did. “I had to teach myself how to use all these new tools: back then it was PageMaker, Freehand, Illustrator, Photoshop, QuarkXPress and more. It came very naturally to me and I picked it up quickly.”

After a number of years designing and managing design departments and service bureaus in North Carolina and Arizona, Marvin struck out on his own in 2000 to found Forté Graphics, a freelance print and Web design firm. Then in December 2001, Marvin partnered with Robert Smith, whose fledgling company VISIONN was just getting off-the-ground. Partnering Marvin’s design skills with Robert’s marketing background, the two expanded their client-base and services, which helped propel VISIONN to explosive growth.

Outside of the office, Marvin still shares time with that second love, music. He and his brother front a band in Phoenix called The Dygmies. They have released two CDs and are working on their third. He’s working on a solo album as well. He also enjoys hiking, good food and bad science fiction.

Favorite Movies:

• Amelie
• Blazing Saddles
• The Empire Strikes Back
• Unforgiven
• V for Vendetta

Guilty Pleasure Movies:

• Conan the Barbarian
• Serendipity
• That Thing You Do
• This is Spinal Tap
• Tombstone

Favorite Music:

• The Beatles
• Crowded House
• Elvis Costello
• The Shins
• XTC

Favorite Guilty Pleasure Music:

• Abba
• The Bee Gees
• Queen
• Styx
• The Sweet