Hello! My name is Derek Miller,

and I am a digital artist.

Derek Miller started off his design career in reverse. The 2006 graduate from North Fort Myers High School Center for the Arts needed a hobby to keep his creative mind busy, so looked for options to satisfy his imaginative cravings.

With $300 in spare change rummaged from couches and coin jars, the 18-year-old teamed up with a high school classmate and randomly bought a business license.

Drastic Design, Inc. was born in August of 2006.

Looking back on his seven months as a business owner with nothing more than a couple of semesters of high school web design classes, Derek sees it as more of a lesson in life than in design.

"We were just entrepreneurs, and looked for something to keep our creative minds busy, " he says. "I wouldn't take it back. We learned how to deal with people, how to deal with deadlines, how to handle money."

Learning as they went, Derek and his business partner didn't know the first thing about the textbook definition of design. For Derek, the rules of design came naturally.

"Then, I didn't have an inkling for the rules of design. All I thought was: 'It's got be good, right?'"

His work was good - and the owners of a local printer and design firm took notice.

A few months after business took off, the printing company Derek was using saw the raw talent oozing from the flyers, business cards and various other projects the duo were pumping out regularly.

By 19, Derek was the Director of Design of a Bonita Springs-based design firm.

Using a foundation of mostly self-taught design skills, Derek was the go-to guy for any design work a client wanted from scratch.

"By then I finally started to hone my style," he says. "I think now I have more of a pronounced style, I am a very clean designer. I like white space, corporate kind of stuff."

Derek spent two years building his portfolio and gaining real world experience. What he now sees as a blessing in disguise, the company fell victim to the weakening economy.

In 2007 Derek enrolled in Full Sail University's fast paced Digital Arts and Design Degree program.

After being a business owner then an employee, he finally decided to gain some formal training in his passion.

"What's so cool about going the way I did," he says, "Is I gained experience working the real world, and now I have an education to back it up."

After two years of the rigorous design program at Full Sail, he has found his passion for print pieces and typography with a little mix of web design and video in what he calls his digital toolbox.

Now with five years of design under his belt, Derek has fine-tuned his crisp, clean and corporate style.  He has a keen eye for detail, invigorating typography, sleek lines and perfectly proportioned white space.

Article by my good friend: Caity Kauffman - multimedia journalist, social media expert and sports broadcaster.