Charles Apple

We’re offering the warmest of VizEds birthday wishes to ace designer and intrepid international traveler Tim Ball. Tim turns 28 today.

T-Ball in Orlando, August 2006.
Photo by William Couch.
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Tim has had a most interesting year. In July, he left his job as a designer at The San Jose Mercury News, moved to Bangkok to work on a high-end jewelry trade magazine.

By October, Tim had decided it wasn’t a good move for him, so he took a side-trip to London, brushed up on his photography skills and then moved back home to California.

Oh, and he blogged about the whole thing. Really well, too.

Tim celebrated the arrival of his luggage in Bangkok
two days after he did by taking this self-portrait.
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The past few months have been just the latest chapter in a very, very interesting career. Which is even more remarkable given how young Tim is.

Check this out:

1998: Tim graduates from the City College of San Francisco and goes to work as a sports designer and copy editor for ANG Newspapers, a small bay-area chain.

1999: Tim moves to The San Antonio Express-News, where he designs sports.

2000: Tim becomes Sports Design Director of The San Jose Mercury News.

2003: Tim becomes Design Director of The Wisconsin State Journal in Madison, Wis.

2004: Tim becomes News Design Director of The Indianapolis Star.

2005: Tim is lured back to the Merc as Assistant Sports Editor/Design.

2007: Tim moves to Bangkok.

Is that a meteoric rise or what? And through it all, Tim’s work has been amazingly good and amazingly consistent. Check out a few samples:

See more in Tim’s NewsPageDesign portfolio.

So what will Tim be doing now that he’s back in the U.S.? He’s opened up a small “boutique” design and photo studio, Pine Creative.

Tim shares a birthday with entertainment greats Marlene Dietrich, Gerald Depardieu and, uh, John Amos. Also, scientist Louis Pasteur, who became famous for studying infectious diseases.

And speaking of infectious diseases, today is also National Fruitcake Day. So make sure you regift any edibles you received for Christmas before anything grows on it.

Happy birthday, Tim, and welcome back to the states! Best of luck with your new venture!

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This entry was posted on Thursday, December 27th, 2007 at 7:18 am and is filed under Happy birthday, VizEds Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.