Graphic Designer, Self-Professed Mountain Bike Nut.
ABOUT ME, THE GRAPHIC DESIGNER:
My name is Brock Reinhart and I am a freelance graphic designer as well as a recent graduate from Conestoga College for Mechanical Engineering, Design and Analysis.
While I recognize that my post-secondary education is unrelated to the graphic design field, I believe that many of the skills learned in the program are very transferable. Mechanical engineering challenged me to be creative and innovative and very much enhanced my critical thinking and problem solving skills. The program also stressed upon process in design. My design skills were honed in virtually every project and/or report; where in many cases professors and classmates would comment that my projects always looked the “prettiest”. This is because I understand the role that aesthetics and branding plays in presentation and professionalism.
Additionally, prior to Conestoga College I attended Eastwood Collegiate Institute. This high school is the home of the Integrated Arts Package, and while I was never a part of that program, I did partake in many of the same classes as the Arts Package students including Communications Technology, Film, and Graphic Design.
However, it was the class in Graphic Design where I truly excelled. My projects were always within the highest percentile, and I assisted the teacher in teaching students industry standard programs such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Quark Express and Corel Draw. I was issued a special final project, which had me working with a team of other designers to help brand their High Skills Major program, which was to begin the next year. I was part of the website and logo design team for this project and awarded 100% for the final project.
In that same year I was a part of an extra curricular activity called “Clicking With Mice” – a graphic design club. This club enabled me to further my graphic design skills and I was presented with an award for my work in the club.
I have been a freelance graphic designer for years. I have done logos, websites, and print design as well as promotional videos for various companies and individuals. I went by many “company” names including Rewind Productions & Graphic Design, and AkshunTV & Graphic Design. I am now working under the name bkreinhart.com, which I am currently working on to release my portfolio.
It was my love of cycling that drew me to pursue a possible future in mechanical engineering but my love of graphic design coupled with my graphical creativity that has kept me from wanting to pursue it further.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions, comments or concerns you may have. Or, if you would like to hire me you can send a request there as well.
Please feel free to download my resume.
ABOUT ME, THE MOUNTAIN BIKE NUT:
I've always tried to be as involved as possible in the local mountain bike industry. I love this sport and I have met some of my best friends while riding my bike.
I owe my love of cycling to one person and one object: Greg Snyder and a Norco 4By. Greg Snyder was the leader of "The member's ride" at Chicopee at the time that I was really getting into riding. It ran every Wednesday night and was a night that I looked forward to all week, every week. He was always a positive guy who did the coolest tricks and was always willing to teach me more and more about cycling. His teachings got me so stoked on riding that I sold my Treck 820 and purchased the item that forever solidified my love for cycling: my 2005 Norco 4By.
This bike was awesome and was the foundation for which the rest of my riding "career" was born. I fell in love with this thing, and with it I fell even deeper into love with riding. It was on this bike where I laid out the foundation of my skill set. My first trip to Blue Mountain was on this bike. I started teaching other kids at Chicopee Ski & Summer Resort in their Mountain Bike Camps on this bike. I learned to really jump on this bike!
I became even more heavily involved in the local cycling scene when I joined an online cycling community called KWBiking.com. I quickly moved into an administration/web master role (largely at the time because of my design skill which was beneficial to the site at the time) and after only a year we had a very solid member base of 300+ members-- not bad for a local cycling website!
Later, still teaching as lead Mountain Bike Camp Counselor at Chicopee, the opportunity came to propose a bike park there. I composed a multi-page proposal which was presented to the COO and Board members and was approved to be designed by the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) and myself. Together we proposed and built the first-ever mountain bike park to the Kitchener/Waterloo area. Upon completion of the park, I partook in an advanced mountain bicycling skills clinic put on my IMBA to further my teaching capabilities. I was now able to properly teach new, intermediate and advanced riders how to approach the jumps, pump tracks and 4-cross track that our new park featured.
Since those days I have taken trips to North Vancouver's North Shore, Squamish and Whistler for Crankworx. I took part in my first-ever mountain bike race at the East Coast Open in Blue Mountain where I finished 4th. I am still riding my bike, still teaching kids (only privately, now) and still loving the sport. Myself and two of my very close friends secured bicycle sponsorships from Cove Bicycles as we go downhill racing for the first time in 2012.
(I designed a website for our team, it's a work-in-progress but view it here anyway)
I look forward to this up-coming season and riding my bike for the rest of my life!
Thanks for reading!
Brock K. Reinhart