About

WORK

I am a video, print and web designer/producer possessing over ten years of Washington D.C. based experience working under tight deadlines and tighter budjets. I am able to shepherd all steps of the production process, from conceptualization to design and implementation, of anything from a simple print ad to handeling your organization’s entire print and online design, social and marketing campaigns.

DOWNLOAD MY RESUME (PDF)
Metro Weekly (metroweekly.com)
Feb 2010 – Present | Multimedia Producer
Hired as a designer/producer/videographer, I wear several hats at Washington’s award-winning LGBT newsmagazine. In the past two years, I have redesigned the website, taken primary design lead of all in-house marketing campaigns, delivered over a thousand subscribers and two million views to Metro Weekly’s YouTube channel, produced/taped/edited in-house promotional videos, and produced four original web series.

DC Agenda (dcagenda.com)
Nov 2009 – Feb 2010 | Web & Graphic Designer, Producer
Created, developed and deployed a new WordPress-based website in a matter of days after parent company’s collapse. Designed logos, graphics and layouts for both print and online on an emergency schedule, designed banner and print ads, and created/ran the video department, including taping, editing and sound engineering for DC Agenda TV.

Washington Blade (washingtonblade.com)
Feb 2003 – Nov 2009 | Web & Graphic Designer, Producer
Originally hired as their webmaster, I was responsible for website development, design and maintenance/uploading for the Washington Blade and it’s sister websites (Houston Voice, Southern Voice, NY Blade, Genre Magazine, 411 Magazine and David Atlanta). My role at the Blade quickly expanded as I directed in-house ad campaigns, interior page layouts and cover designs. In my last year and a half at the Washington Blade I developed, promoted and ran a video production department called BladeTV.

SELF

My name is Aram Vartian. My first and surname are Armenian in origin, though I am only half Armenian (my father’s side) and half Irish (my mother’s). Aram in Armenian translates to “high” or “exalted.” I like the name, dislike the meaning.

I have spent 36 years on this planet. The first eight were pretty good and the seven after that rather opposite. The three or four years after I came out at fifteen were at once the most magical moments of my life and the most chaotic. SMYAL was good to me, high school was not.

So I dropped out in eleventh grade. I spent two years trying to figure out what and who I was supposed to be, met the first love of my life and then joined the Navy. Two and a half years later, the Navy kicked me out for being gay. The boyfriend stuck around. We traveled a lot, mostly to small towns that had been built at the feet of a now derelict factory. Each had a 24-hour Walmart and a sixteen bay gas station right off the highway that was always lit up like Christmas.

At twenty-five I panicked. It was the first pang of time misspent, of an adulthood delayed. I had little to show for my quarter century of life. So I set about learning web design, and a year later found myself at the Washington Blade applying for a job I had no business getting. I told them so twice during the interview; they hired me anyway. Seven years later I had my first camera in hand. It was nearly an accident. I fell in love instantly. A few years after that I would find myself at Metro Weekly, the Washington Blade’s primary competitor. I have found both my true artistic voice and a family to encourage it here. It is like no place I have ever worked and I am grateful every day for a rather charmed life in a city that I love filled with people I adore.

I’m a geek. I am passionate about art and color and light and storytelling. I love accents. I love purple. I exist in a semi-lucid state somewhere between reality and dreams on a near constant basis. I smile and laugh easily. People and their stries fascinate me. I am frequently charmed by the moment, often to distraction. I stutter, but no one seems to notice anymore. I love that.