Nicholas Pokluda
Job: Marketing Position: Marketing DirectorI was born and raised in central Texas, coming from a home of humble beginnings where hardwork always paid off in the end. My father grew up in an old fashion farmer household and my mother was the daughter of a successful door to door salesman. Odd to think that was a real job at the time.
My passion for Graphic Design stemmed from different artistic perspectives growing up. A mixture of idolizing animations, cartoons, drawings, and movies brought out the artist in me while my analytical thinking made it evident that I needed more than just graphics. Interestingly enough, I was one of those individuals that didn't quite know what they wanted in life, but made the mistake of going to college anyway to try and wing it.
I went to college for Mechanical Engineering - a hard left from what I became passionate about and blinded by the idea that there were more job opportunities for it. Even through those glasses, I felt like I was missing something. When I realized this was not the path I wanted to take, I took a break from college and began dabbling a bit with InDesign and Photoshop. From there, I took classes and eventually became profecient in it while my knowledge continued to grow.
My break came to me when I was employed at a local financial institution here in central Texas. The current Marketing Director was in need of an assistant who know how to use the Adobe Suite. Despite only having a few classes at the time in the programs, I decided to apply and got the job. From there, I learned a bit more about the world of Marketing, and eventually did a bit of IT work on the side. While in IT, this developed my possion for the development side of Marketing. I worked on the Intranet, created/finished tasks on Dashboards, executed jobs, etc. I eventually moved over to full time marketing and started to really focus on my career.
I have held a marketing title for the past nine years, and was given Marketing Director in 2016 where I continue to take educational courses on the digital aspects of marketing. I currently assist in all forms of Digital Marketing including SEO Optimization, Search Engine Ads, Geotargeting, Social Media Advertisements, Budgeting, Website maintenance, and other duties as assigned. On the graphics side, I continually work on flyers, brochues, calendars, brand swag, newspaper/print ads, logo design, and other duties as assigned.
I am extraordinarily passionate about what I do. I love designing things from scratch and creating graphics on the side either as fun or for a side business. I am currently in school at Southern New Hampshire University where I am earning my degree in Graphic Design with a concentration on Web Development and Design. Even as my passion for Graphic Design grows, I am now wanting to branch out and focus on Web Development and Design as well.