Graduating from prestigious Pratt Institute with honors (BFA in Art Direction) gave Matt great insight into the workings of the “classic” era of Madison Avenue. He was taught in classes in the inner sanctums of Doyle, Dane, Bernbach and Young & Rubicam, at a time when storyboards were sketched by hand with markers, type was actually typeset (if not LetraSet!), and printers received actual mechanicals from paste-up artists.

This era was key to developing a creative eye that would allow him, in the technological breakthrough years to follow, to translate traditional skills to electronic media.

Matt began his career at a succession of small ad agencies and printers, typesetting auto-parts ads in the NY Post, pasting-up Ford ads in the Newark Star Ledger, and slowly getting the experience of art directing photo shoots for products like jewelry, computers, and pharmaceuticals. He was bestowed the title of Art Director at the young age of 24, at E.J. Barrie Advertising.

Subsequently he moved on to a vitamin manufacturer called Faraday Labs, where he ran the in-house graphics department, and got his first experience running the in-house print plant, complete with 1-, 2- and 4 color presses.

From Faraday, Matt went to work at the corporate graphics agency, R.J. Martin, again running the graphics department, doing work for clients such as Volvo, Mercedes and AT&T. Here, Matt developed his skills to work not only with clients, but with a sales force of Account Executives. Here he learned to help pitch ideas, to take information and use his growing knowledge base to implement projects.

From R.J. Martin, he went on an early tech-era startup, becoming Advertising Director at an PC-clone manufacturer, Proteus (286Mhz! Wow!) creating and placing ads in national magazines like PC World and PC Week. Here Matt learned the basic and important skills of negotiating ad contracts, and of course, taking a project single-handedly from concept to creation. This included copywriting, product photography and strategic placement.

Another stop at a small ad agency, as Senior Art Director at Media Concepts. In 2+ years, Matt learned to lay out an entire 250-page trade magazine every quarter, and design for a wide variety of clients in the fields of education, retail and real estate.

With a burning interest in automobiles (Matt paid for much of his college tuition working part time as an auto mechanic/restorer) he quickly accepted a job offering as Art Director at Vette Magazine. Shortly after coming on board at CSK Publishing, Matt became Senior Art Director at the company, overseeing 5 other Art Directors, and the company’s entire magazine portfolio of 8 automotive titles. He also was the in-house, de-facto Marketing Director, creating all advertising sales support materials, live-event planning and materials, and ultimately, the brochure that enticed the buyers of the CSK itself - Argus MacMullen. With the sale of the company pending, Matt left to go to Nourison Rug Corporation.

This position was a new and exciting one, where Matt was the one-man-band charged with the company’s creative marketing efforts. From catalogs to photography to advertising to event planning /execution to wholesale and retail sales support to public relations, it was his responsibility. In the almost-12 years he was at Nourison, the company grew from $40-million to over $250-million in annual sales. Matt’s department grew also, eventually encompassing about a dozen people, including graphic artists, a multimedia designer, a web-developer, an in-house photographer and a pre-press expert.

With this wealth of experience, Matt has now decided to be his own boss, so to speak. (His wife, of course, will dispute this). The value of these past 25 years of knowledge gained is available to all who are interested - at a price, of course. Feel free to contact Matt about your needs and how he can help you reach your business and creative goals.

Wait! Isn’t that Brad Pitt?