Detailed Bio

Years before launching Markus Design Works I was a photographer combing the back roads of southeastern North Dakota. Half way through my 6-year stint of capturing the abandoned countryside on 35mm film, I learned that the best way of presenting my photographic work was through websites. It was at this point I began building websites in HTML through Netscape Composer and then later Dreamweaver by Macromedia. The only skills I have developed longer than graphic and web design is photography, and it shows in many aspects of my work. Whenever possible I use my own photography in place of stock photography. This is also true with textures or background images when possible.

In 2005 I graduated with honors with a BFA in Digital Design and an Associate degree in Business Management. I started out working at the Belleville News-Democrat newspaper in Belleville, IL as a Photo Editor and in the Pre-press Dept. where I occasionally crafted the page layouts for the Obit page.

Shortly after this I was approached by two local guys wanting to start a magazine to promote music and the Arts in the Belleville area. This is when I designed, developed, and produced an arts and entertainment magazine called “Straight-Up Magazine.” This project covered every aspect of graphic design as well as web design.

On the print side I crafted heavy amounts of graphic design, logo design, ad design, typesetting, page layout, and prepping documents for printing. On the web design side I crafted a companion website that not only functioned as an archive for the magazine, but also served as another avenue to publish articles and promote ‘Art, Music, and Culture in the Metro-East.’ This website was designed and development completely with HTML and CSS without the use of a content management system (CMS).

This was a massive undertaking but also a wonderful opportunity for me to hone and perfect my skills as a graphic & web designer. The magazine started as a 12-page monthly and ended (at this point in time) as a 40-page monthly. Having a project like this to get my start in this industry was a real privilege.

After the magazine I worked for a small web shop in O’Fallon, IL, a travel promotion company in Wood River, IL, and then an Online Ad Designer, Web Publisher, and Photojournalist at the Edwardsville Intelligencer newspaper in Edwardsville, IL. While there I published news articles to their website, designed online ads, and was lead editorial photographer for the newspaper. It was a great opportunity and position which I used to supplement my freelance graphic and web design business.

While working at the newspaper full time, I also worked evenings and week-ends designing and building websites for clients in WordPress. This period gave me the opportunity to dig deep into learning this platform which later helped land my Web Developer position at the ad agency Twist. At Twist I crafted custom coded PHP webpages to operate in WordPress. My previous experience coding webpages in .NET and Joomla also helped educate me for this position.

At Concordia Seminary in St.Louis I served as their first full time Web Designer and also as Campus Photographer. While at the Sem I made updates to their 6 different websites, designed webpage layouts, and built a beta website for their future website re-design. I also provided photographic images for the websites, newsletters, calendars, and a video project. For my photographic work at the Sem I also received the honor of a first place Award of Excellence in the category of “Photography (Photo Spread w/Article or Cutline: Magazine/Journal)” for the Summer 2015 issue of the Concordia Seminary magazine. It was an honor I greatly appreciate.

After the seminary my career path guided me into corporate contracts where I served as a Web Developer for Schnucks Markets and Commerce Bank, Web Publisher for Wells Fargo Advisors, UX Developer for New Balance, and a Software Developer for MasterCard.  During these contracts I had the opportunity to develop with more corporate level content management systems like Documentum, SDL, Sitecore, and Adobe Experience Manager (AEM). Over the years I have worked with many CMS’ even including Magento.

All the while during and between contracts or employment positions, I have continued to serve my freelance clients in graphic & web design and development. This year (2025) marks my 20th year of serving clients in and outside the St. Louis region. If you have read this far I would like to say Thank-You for your time, it is greatly appreciated. This bio section is in lieu of a conversation/interview. If you would like to learn more about me or my work, do not hesitate to contact me.

Work Experience