Eben Burgoon Email & Phone Number

Sacramento, California, United States

Managed 24+ public programs annually, serving ~45,000 visitors, growing high-profile monthly art and music theme parties to record highs 2000+ guests and annual family festivals attracting over 2,000 attendees each.Expanded the museum’s summer Jazz Nights and introduced new concert series and experimental programs, enhancing visitor engagement and diversifying cultural offerings.Oversaw all aspects of program logistics, including budgeting, scheduling, and resource allocation, ensuring seamless execution and high-quality visitor experiences.Developed and maintained strategic partnerships with community organizations, regional artists, and cultural institutions, fostering collaborative programming and strengthening community ties.Developed marketing and promotional tools for public programs, driving audience growth and increasing program attendance.Implemented innovative strategies to overcome barriers to arts participation, creating inclusive and welcoming spaces that empower the public and regional artists.

California, United States

Tiny Wizards is a graphic novel series made in collaboration with UK-based artist, Dean Beattie. The first book is available in June of 2021 and I have aims to produce new books through the next few years. This book series demonstrates a culmination of abilities in creative writing, copywriting, art direction, storytelling, and product design. In addition to writing the series, I also handled doing the book design in Adobe InDesign and Illustrator while co-lettering the book. I was responsible for keeping the book on deadline and within budget for a small press publication. I also shot and edited the video for the sucessful Kickstarter campaign that ultimately financed the production of the first book. I developed a print-on-demand t-shirt line and custom socks to compliment the debut issue. I did all the copywriting for the website and Kickstarter campaign, while generating press releases and solicits to regional comic book retailers. In addition to generating the 8x12" prestige edition of the printed book, I also created digital iterations of the book, sourced stock media and imagery to compliment the design, and licensed fonts and media to produce and promote the book to publishers and media companies. Utilizing my network, I was also able to partner with a local brewery to produce a beer named after the comic book series and commision to do the graphic design for the beer's label. The beer and books were sold out of the brewery throughout the pandemic as a bundle package exclusively at the brewery.In 2021, the debut issue was named in a Top 20 Best of the Small Press list from Pipedream Comics and recieved positive reviews from numerous comics and graphic novel reviewers.--Fun Fact--The first five pages of Tiny Wizards artwork was printed out at giant poster size and part of a revolving exhibition at Sacramento's Arden Fair Mall!

In 2015, I developed a series of workshops designed to empower youth to tell stories using the medium of comics and reinforce visual literacy. At first, these workshops were largely taught in educational spaces as a guest teacher in elementary schools and libraries, but soon there was demand to expand them to adult learning and continuing education venues like museums, universities, and comic conventions. In addition to teaching these storytelling and illustration workshops, I support the work with worksheets and graphics made in Adobe Illustrator and Adobe InDesign and have made solicits featuring photography and testimonials to help gather new interest from prospective clients.I'm proud to say that these workshops even caught the attention of international book festivals and comic conventions and I have now been contracted to travel to far away lands and help empower youth abroad to tell narrative stories and promote visual literacy through comic books and graphic novels.With the COVID19 pandemic, I developed a modest broadcast studio and digital tools to livestream the workshops over Zoom and Microsoft Teams. I've gained familiarity with OBS and live-streaming over Facebook and Twitch to share workshops as well.--Fun Fact-- In 2019, I was flown to the largest book festival in the world, the Sharjah International Book Festival, to conduct over 22 workshops throughout the two week event! I even participated in their world record for World's Largest Book Signing!

California, United States

As a publishing consultant for White Cat Entertainment, my responsibilities included:Graphic and book design for both print and digital graphic novels including exporting ePub, PDFs, for Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, & third party digital distribution. Website and Webstore design, management, and upkeep for Wordpress via WooCommerce.Social Media strategy for podcasts, Kickstarters, and graphic novel debuts and relaunches.Mailing list management, template design, and scheduled campaigns via MailChimp.Exporting video and audio clips for social media promotion of podcasts via Headliner and other platforms.

I briefly served as the Creative Director for PancakeBot and aided in the early product development of their all-new “FEAST(tm)” curriculum packages, developed visual narratives for curriculum-supported comic books, led graphic design and product mock-ups to assist sales and marketing, and reported directly to the inventor and founder of PancakeBot. Most of the work took advantage of my skills in Illustrator and InDesign while using project management tools like ClickUp and remote workspace tools like Slack and Google Drive.The short term contract work ended in late March.

I served ostensibly as a creative consultant for the publishing division of Starburns Industries, the Burbank-based animation studio that developed Rick & Morty, Morel Orel, Community, & Anomalisa. The publishing division served to incubate up-and-coming comic book creators as they transition into animated television. After my own series, B-Squad, was selected for development, the founders of SBI Press and I agreed to take my help to establish and create broader awareness for the publishing arm's works including retro-cassette tapes and beautiful art books. I was selected because of my industry experience and to provide my input and direction on all new projects, as well as communicating risks, in service of this new division. I was also tasked with establishing a website and online storefront for direct-to-consumer book sales and a directory of creators we wanted to highlight to both the comics industry and TV & Film industry.Other Tasks Included:+ Graphic Design for both web and print using Adobe Illustrator and Adobe InDesign+ Creating and copywriting documents, press releases, fact sheets, sales sheets, and inventory for clear communication internally and externally+ Managing social media accounts and copywriting for MailChimp newsletters for the SBI Press brand specifically+ Merchandising and shipping inventory to online store customers+ Represent the brand across the country at a dozen comic book conventions & events, culminating in San Diego Comic-Con in 2019.--Fun Fact--I helped to curate a "pizza box" special that helped to move stagnant inventory during events around the United States and would often speed-draw slices of "Pizza Rick" with custom toppings for our customers.

Sacramento County, California, United States

B-Squad was a series of graphic novels I created to hone my narrative design and focus on collective storytelling. In addition to writing and art directing the series, I also was responsible for direct-sales through conventions and speaking appearances across the country. I built and maintained a website and online store to sell the books direct-to-customers and managed 3 successful crowdfunding campaign that required me to shoot and edit video, manage community, build social media accounts, and produce graphic design and branding.With B-Squad, I really honed an my skills as an editor and art director while also developing products and merchandise to support the books financially beyond the crowd-funding campaigns and buzz generated by writing press releases, crafting press kits, and doing multiple live TV and radio interviews. I also honed my skills for comic book lettering in Adobe Illustrator and book design. I have designed and also sourced the vendors to produce the books, the socks, t-shirts, journals, enamel pins, and challenge coins. I handled most of the book design using Adobe InDesign exporting for both high-quality off-set printing with printers in USA, China, and South Korea.In 2018, these efforts caught the attention of the animation studio, Starburns Industries, and B-Squad was brought into the publishing division for development into an animated series. In 2019, SBI Press released a portion of B-Squad for their Free Comic Book Day preview and rereleased B-Squad #1 as a SDCC 50th Anniversary Exclusive at Comic Con International. --Fun Fact-- Every mission of B-Squad I used a whalebone top to randomly select which character would die and ultimately be replaced by a new character. I had made over 42 of these dice rolls to support the development of the series to Volume 8.

California, United States

While I continue to practice the artform, from 2015 to 2018, I focused on my artistic attention on sculpting with masking tape. Through the Maker Faire and maker movement, I was an artistic partner and arts educator for an interactive and social art "movement" that explored materials like masking tape and transformed them into socially built installations and sculptures.Much of my personal work was in figure sculpting and developing techniques for easily teaching methods to people of any age and skill level in any language. I also managed the graphic design, branding, and identity for much of the partnership. I often served as an ambassador and developed systems to export and create more portable shows internationally and headed or participated in shows in Lithuania, Rome, China, Egypt, and Berlin. I often handled all the booking, budgeting, and deployment of each show from 2016-2018.In addition to hosting workshops, I also was the art director and graphic designer for instruction books and created step-by-step processes that left indelible marks on the application and artform itself. I assisted in successfully leveraging shows beyond the the Maker Faire and pushed it into county and state faire circuits, as well as teaching hands-on workshops all over the world including at Pixar Animation Studios, the Exploratorium, and Maker Faires in several countries around the world.

Sacramento, California, United States

I was among the first employees of the nonprofit, 916 Ink. My work left indelible marks on the organization's visibility within the community and its reputation as a beloved literacy & arts education nonprofit in Sacramento today. As a program developer, I created a number of creative writing workshops and educational programming to empower youth literacy. My job required me to don many hats as we were a small staff in the early days. My chief role was to develop programs and implement curricula in classrooms to empower youth writers. I would also provide training and foundational knowledge to freelance staff and volunteers to assist youth writers in exploring their creativity. Additionally, I built the organization's website and online store while often assisting with managing social media accounts and marketing campaigns. I was also often an in-house graphic designer and tasked with Adobe InDesign layout and design for multiple youth authored novels. Each book release required me to employ skills for copywriting, developing press releases, social media marketing, and social networking and speaking engagements at events.I leveraged strategic relationships I'd built with critical individuals and organizations to support many of the programs beyond my own and helped gather new board members, donors, and volunteers.--Fun Facts-- I starred as a banana warrior in a short film written by a youth author and also utilized draw-less animation to animate a video about an ostrich that is still shared by the organization today. I built the organization's first "Poetic Licensing" system that even issued the former mayor a poetic license.

United States

Eben07: Covert Custodian was a webcomic I co-created and co-wrote alongside a longtime friend and artist, D. Bethel. While at first just a writing hobby, eventually the comic series had just enough following to justify it becoming a side-hustle for me and learn the ins and outs of the comic book industry.The webcomic itself was released multiple times a week, for free, on our website and then adopted a more serialized standard comic size released weekly in seasons and, ultimately, culminating in print books. We produced several books, a nearly weekly podcast. In addition to my writing duties for the comic book and blogs, I maintained the website and social media accounts, developed advertising graphics and plans for Facebook Ads & Google AdSense for our own marketing, and monetized the website using additional ad networks. Each book release required marketing and advertising plans, but also creating events and signings locally. I would often write press releases and do the outreach to gather visibility for the comic series. I also managed our appearances at significant comic book events including WonderCon and the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco.I was also tasked with branding and creating collateral like business cards, roll-up banners, and other promotional products and merchandise.Notable Skills UsedCopywriting and Blogging Creative WritingWebsite (Wordpress) ManagementSocial Media ManagementProduct DesignBook DesignAdobe Creative Suite: Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop for Graphic Design and Product Design --Fun Fact--We once pitched the concept to Yahoo! Studios as an animated series and once had a prospective customer who liked the look of our business card so much - he ate it. He said it was quite tasty.

Sacramento, California, United States

While being a "wave to the train" customer service expert, I also helped to bring our sign room into the computer age and, using Adobe Illustrator, I developed a font based on a co-worker's handwriting that allowed for rapid printing of shelf signs so that our sign room could focus their limited time on more elaborate art projects and product merchandising. In addition to helping out in the sign room, I also routinely helped as a product knowledge expert in the wine and beer section, often maintaining the inventory. Occasionally, I stepped in as the demo kitchen and prepared samples.--Some Fun Facts --I made a holiday character called "Santa Shaw" that would arrive even holiday season to share the joy of inexpensive wine. I used a lightsaber to help direct traffic in our cramped parking lot. Used a lot of velcro, ping pong balls, and model cars to make a "pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey" game called "Parking Pandemonium" that let customers get rewards for bringing their own resuable bags.

San Luis Obispo, California, United States

I was an integral part of this boutique experiential design firm's early years. We specialized in providing presentations and reports to several domestic and international clients, mostly real estate developers and hoteliers, to authentically theme their multi-million dollar projects.As the Creative Director (aka Cheif Xplorer) I was responsible for managing a team of 3 or more and work with a wide array of "Xperts" to head the development of our organization's deliverables. This included infographics, interviews, graphic design, fact sheets, and reports. These research documents were used for communication activities for our client's design teams, which included an array of architects, landscapers, and interior designers.I aided in the development of the specific and defined research design processes and directed the methods so our collective work could be presented by the CEO to stakeholders and investors. These sometimes 200+ page reports required the use of stock graphics and imagery, honed my skills in both Adobe Illustrator and Adobe InDesign, and took advantage of my prowess as both a creative writer, my eye for quirky details & art direction, and my sharp research skills. All of this work had to be organized and developed on strict deadlines as they informed almost every facet of our client's vision for their massive projects. It was imperative to form and maintain relationships to support these multi-million dollar developments and other projects' success while maintaining a unified vision that would entice the imagination of the clients and, ultimately, their customers.--Favorite Fun Facts--I helped name streets in Arizona, reseached tree houses in Costa Rica, and traced the genealogy of a family of smugglers and priests that, in part, were responsible for ending slavery in Belize and smuggling secret messages inside of cheese to Dutch mercenaries in Sri Lanka.

San Luis Obispo, California, United States

During my first stint with Trader Joe's, I worked as a crew member. In addition to occasionally working as a sign artist mostly focusing on merchandising and graphic design for shelf signs and end caps. I maintained and ordered the beer and liquor section.

Ba, International Relations And National Security Studies

Activities and Societies: Model United Nations Improvisational ComedyBA degree was focused on national security and strategic intelligence.

Education record