Graphic & Web Design

Bob Gray
Program Director

Bob Gray, owner of Bob Gray Graphic Design, became design director of AARP Web Publications in 2007. Before this position, he was a design editor at National Geographic magazine for seven years and the art director of National Geographic Traveler for five years. He came to National Geographic from a Washington, DC, studio, The Magazine Group, where he art directed five publications about travel, education, business and marketing. Bob also spent a year as art director of the Washington Journalism Review.

In 1989–1990 Bob was creative director at Clarke/Thompson, an editorial and advertising design studio in New York. There he directed design for magazine startups, packaging for the wine and spirits industry, and editorial promotion for M magazine, Barnes and Noble Booksellers, New York Life and McGraw-Hill. He spent seven years at Sports Afield (Hearst) magazine in New York as senior associate art director for this National Magazine Award-winner.

Bob has been a guest lecturer at the School of Visual Arts in New York and an adjunct professor at The Corcoran School of Art and Design in Washington, DC. His work has won awards from the New York Art Directors Club, Print Regional Design, Communications Arts and the Society of Publication Designers.

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Joe Comeau
Associate Director

Joe has more than 10 years of experience in graphic design, illustration and education. Prior to joining CDIA he was senior designer for the Globus Family of Brands and worked for organizations ranging from Fortune 1000 companies to small non-profits. Joe is a member of AIGA and has a background in fine art and illustration, where he blends traditional materials and practices with the latest technology. His client list includes McGraw-Hill, APC and US Sailing. Joe is also a frequent contributor to several monthly magazines.

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Al Lemieux
Associate Director

Al has over 10 years experience in web and graphic design, video editing, Flash and motion graphics. He has been teaching Photoshop, Flash, Illustrator and various other software application programs and topics in the corporate environment and private sector since 1996. He has developed original learning activities and materials for New Horizons Computer Learning Center, Harvard Business School and Northern Essex Community College. Al is a certified Adobe Photoshop expert and a member of the Adobe Flash and InDesign Users Groups in Boston. He hosts four technology blogs focusing on current trends in web design and technology, Flash, Photoshop and Illustrator. Al received his MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art + Design.

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Beth Rakouskas,
Associate Director

For the last seven years, Beth worked for National Geographic magazine. She was the design editor for the Departments section and, in 2005, played a major role in the redesign of the magazine. Since 2000, Beth has also run a freelance design business working with small businesses and non-profits on everything from branding campaigns to web sites. Prior to that role, she worked as an in-house designer for ICF Consulting, where her clients included the United Nations, the US Environmental Protection Agency, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, and Department of Housing and Urban Development. Beth graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Graphic Design from North Carolina State University’s School of Design.

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Jeremy Osborn
Technical Advisor

Jeremy has over 15 years of experience in web and graphic design, filmmaking, writing and publication development for print and digital media. He has authored, co-authored and been technical editor for several titles in the Adobe Classroom in a Book series. Jeremy has also provided in-depth training and consulting for student and corporate clients including Sony, Canon, Staples and Harvard Business Review, and has taught at universities around the US. Jeremy holds an MS from the Graduate Center of Marlboro College and a BFA in Film/TV from the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU.

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Gene Babon

As a web technology communications specialist, Gene helps businesses grow and professionals prosper. His customer-focused teaching style led to the creation of two services to help students transition from classroom to workplace: Beantown Web, his blog monitoring career and training opportunities for web designers and developers in the greater Boston area; and Web Apprentices, a service offering apprenticeship projects to designers and developers looking to practice skills while giving small businesses an opportunity to afford web-based design, programming, and database services. Genes technology focus includes XHTML, JavaScript, PHP, SQL, MySQL, ASP.NET, SQL Server, CSS, and XML.

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Kimberly Brainerd

Kimberly has been building websites since 1995. Just as the Internet was burgeoning, she picked up Laura Lemay’s Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML in a Week, read it in a weekend and since then has combined this interest in technology and visual design with her life-long passion for the arts. Kimberly’s work has included a wide range of experiences and places: from backstage at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall as production manager for the American Symphony Orchestra, to a yurt in Uzbekistan with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble; from the marble-lobbied international Sony Corporation in New York City as Sony Classical’s website producer, to a small non-profit Internet start-up building the world’s first searchable cultural events database.

As a recent career highlight, Kimberly presented a paper at the Archives and Museum Informatics’ Museums and the Web conference about a collaboration between the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, the Freer & Sackler Galleries and the Silk Road Project. In her work, she regularly uses Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, BBEdit, HTML/XHTML, CSS and sometimes Flash. Originally trained as a classical musician, Kimberly especially enjoys working with musicians and projects for the arts. In addition to teaching and advising her students, she freelances and consults on a wide range of design projects for various clients.

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Justin Gagne

Justin is a designer and educator. He is the co-founder and creative director of Velle Magazine (vellemagazine.com), an online space exhibiting established and emerging talent in fashion, design, art, literature and music from around the world. Justin has extensive experience in prepress and web design and has served as an adjunct instructor at Montserrat College of Art teaching web and technology-based courses.

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Peter R. Kery

Peter recently moved to the Boston area from Philadelphia. His teaching assignments have taken him to the Rhode Island School of Design, Massachusetts College of Art + Design, the Art Institute of Boston, Middlesex Community College and The University of the Arts in Philadelphia. He has also guest lectured at Northeastern University and UMass-Dartmouth. Peter’s client projects include: Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, transportation graphics and vehicle identities; the City of Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin Park environmental signage; Olin Partnership Architects, revitalization plan of the University of Pennsylvania reports and manuals; corporate identity for Greater Philadelphia First and Corlears School in New York City; CD and video cover designs for QVC, Helen Reddy, Bobby Rydell and Paul Sorvino; and print collateral for The Philadelphia Convention and Visitor’s Bureau and the University of Pennsylvania Hospital. Peter received his BFA in Graphic Design from The University of the Arts (formerly Philadelphia College of Art). He is principal of McSorley Kery Design, a graphic design studio.

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Joshua Korenblat

Joshua worked for six years in the art department at National Geographic, where he helped create graphics and art-based layouts. He has freelanced for Smithsonian Magazine and the Consortium for Ocean Leadership as well as many other organizations. He has an MA in Writing from Johns Hopkins University and is currently pursuing an MFA in Studio Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

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Harun Razith

Harun is a designer, educator and creative enthusiast. He is the senior interface designer at Soliloquy Learning Inc., an educational software company committed to helping children learn to read and improve fluency and comprehension. He has served as a consultant to various companies and institutions in the field of education, video game design, publishing, medicine, theatre and the arts. His client list includes AT&T, Dover Publishing, Massachusetts College of Art + Design, Courier Corporation, the University of New Hampshire and Cecropia Inc. Some of his experimental work has been exhibited at the Boston State House and The Revolving Museum in Lowell. Harun has an MFA in Interactive Design from Massachusetts College of Art + Design.

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Izabela Riano

Originally from Lodz, Poland, Izabela received her MFA in Graphics at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design and established a freelance graphic design practice she continues from abroad. She came to the United States to continue her studies and received her MFA in Studio Art from the School of Art and Art History at the University of Florida. Izabela’s teaching experience includes Drawing and Printmaking at UF and Monoprinting/Intermedia at the College of Santa Fe. As a professional artist she has taken part in residencies at the Vermont Studio Center and Santa Fe Art Institute, exhibited in various countries and received numerous awards. Izabela is also a founding member of the Polish Artist Society, Koncept. Her artwork is represented by Farrell Fischoff Gallery in Santa Fe.

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John Scott Thorburn

Scott has 25 years experience in the graphic arts. He has held various positions in commercial prepress, customer education, marketing management and electronic prepress consulting. His client list includes commercial printing companies, Scitex America Corp., Time-Life, Fortune and Sports Illustrated. Scott has worked as a senior curriculum developer at Electronics For Imaging, Inc., designing educational materials and courses in color theory, color science and digital color management. He has delivered training in North America, Europe and to online audiences around the world.

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Dan Trachtman

Dan has been focused on interactive design since starting his career at the National Museum of American History in 1995. While working as a freelance designer in San Francisco, his clients included Macromedia, Excite and Interbrand. After moving to Washington, DC, he became an art director at America Online, leading the design team for the new broadband division. His lengthiest position has been at the National Gallery of Art where he designed online exhibitions to accompany their real-world counterparts, including Dada, Dan Flavin, Gilbert Stuart, and Small French Paintings. As an art director at OmniStudio, Dan did work for non-profit clients including the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Africare and the National Wildlife Federation. As a freelance designer, he has done work for a number of organizations in the DC-area including NPR. Dan has an MFA in graphic design from California College of the Arts and has received a handful of awards for his work.

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Marie-Anne Verougstraete

Marie-Anne is a graphic designer and illustrator whose projects include work for the Boston Cyberarts Festival and a series of digital illustrations for the Houghton-Mifflin Company. Before moving from France to Boston, she was primarily a colorist of graphic novels and a museum guide and art workshop leader, but also made backdrops for an animated commercial and taught art classes. In the US, she has worked as a designer and an illustrator in publishing, advertising and the arts, has taught courses in typography and computer graphics at Suffolk University’s New England School of Art and Design and at Endicott College. Her work emphasizes color and simplicity, and she often introduces hand-created elements into her work.

Marie-Anne is fluent in English, Dutch and French, studied art and design in Belgium, France and in the US, and earned an MFA in Graphic Design from Boston University.

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Mary Wiseman

Mary’s design journey began in the Midwest and spans all the way to the Far East. In the classroom she challenges her students to excel in their design abilities and more importantly, to be inspired, creative and inquisitive. She encourages them to analyze, research and organize information to creatively solve complex communication problems in both the print and digital realms. Mary received her MA from the New School for Social Research, completing her studies online while living and working in Beijing, China.

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