Welcome to robdefranco.com. Excuse the mess, the site is currently undergoing renovations…

Meet Rob De Franco.

How cool does a drawer of old birthday and Christmas cards sound? If you’re me at age 4, that was a pretty rockin’ Saturday afternoon. My parents say I’d sit there for hours, obsessively studying each card one by one. I suppose I just really liked them – the characters, the words, the colours. Fast-forward about 25 years and I’m essentially doing the same thing. I have a really deep appreciation for good design. I love to study it.

I grew up in St. Catharines, Ontario. My folks were always very supportive of my artistic side, pinning up even my crappiest drawings. My first computer was a lightning fast 66MHz Pentium 1 with Corel Draw 3. The interest developed from “playing around” to the realization that design is what I wanted to do with my life.

I studied graphic design at Seneca College and Graphic Communication Management at Ryerson University. I love creating and hands-on learning.

Over the last several years, I’ve gained excellent insight and experience in the field. A mix of freelance and corporate work, consumer and trade, print and web, and always looking to work with interesting and passionate people. There’s nothing better than working with good people. New business owners with bright ideas and big expectations are welcome.

I’m currently living and working in Toronto with my wife Ashley and dog Dexter.

Favourite designer:
James White

I subscribe to:
Communication Arts, Layers Magazine

I use:
Adobe Creative Suite 5 (Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Dreamweaver, Flash, Acrobat Pro)
Adobe Lightroom 3
iWork 09
Microsoft Office 2008
Wacom Intuos4 Pen Tablet

I run on:
Apple iMac 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

I listen to:
Junior Boys, Hot Chip, Radiohead, Arcade Fire, Iron and Wine, Stars, MGMT

I watch:
Dexter, Arrested Development, Mad Men, Californication, Entourage, Six Feet Under