In an effort to start really leveraging the power of A.I. I began experimenting with the guidance of a colleague of mine on how to build data scrapers, Python scripts, a virtual design department and more.

Without going into details, I experienced a series of extremely difficult life challenges. Through that experience I learned a lot about life and what it takes to persevere through it all. I began to envision a new direction and pivot for my life, profession and personal identity.

Dream fulfilled – I’ve always dreamed of creating awesome cinematic stories since I picked up my first camcorder as a kid. I invested in the RED camera ecosystem and began producing video content for my awesome clients.

Just a few hours shy of being a New Years Baby, my wonderful little girl was born and I became a dad. My life was completely changed for the better and has never been the same.

I signed a lease for an awesome space… it was always a dream of mine to establish a headquarters for the WMC vision and thanks to some awesome clients, I was able to do just that.

Weapons of Mass Creation was a business name used for freelance way back just after my college years. It’s a name that stuck with me all these years and a vision whose time had come, as far as I was concerned. Combining creative production, web/app development, video production and product development – I began working to turn WMC into a full-scale solution which assists customers with creating products and services, developing a brand experience for those products and services, and following through to developing and maintaining those communication practices for the development of a base of dedicated customers.

Redesign and launch of personal portfolio website – www.robdracker.com

Realizing that I needed sales experience in order to build business acumen, I was introduced to Seneca Data Distributors, Inc. Seneca was in the middle of a transition after being acquired by ARROW Electronics in 2014, and they needed a communication specialist to assist with the development of sales programs, marketing materials, social media development, brand development and new website development.

I have gained an incredible amount of experience in the last two years at ARROW including organizational structure, sales team support and management, labelling, barcoding and packing processes, product marketing processes and more. As I move forward in my career I am strategizing how I can combine my design, communication, human psychology, team dynamics and sales experience into an effective management role for both my own entrepreneurial efforts as well as the potential for an expanded role in another organization.

At the Tony Robbins Business Mastery seminar, I enjoyed the opportunity to learn from some top professionals in business leadership. I sat in proximity with a vast range of people – from those new to business to many who were looking to take their successful businesses to a new level. I met a couple of very high-profile professionals in investing, manufacturing, technology and intellectual property, and got the opportunity to pitch a mobile application to a client handling a Mazda mobile app. I worked with many different individuals at various stages of business success in various exercises and learning sessions throughout the course of the seminar. I can honestly say I left this experience with an outstanding map forward and a great foundation in the facets of running a business and managing teams.

At this point I had developed a solid network of clients and colleagues and had been producing regular work for a number of clients in Syracuse. I had a number workspaces built out, including a prototyping and product design studio, a home design office, a music studio and creative space at the Gear Factory in Syracuse. I fully incorporated Dracker Design Studios as an S-Corp in NYS in April of 2014 (to replace my freelance sole proprietorship previously named DrackerDesign).

In 2012 I joined a Welch Allyn think-tank called Blue Highway as a UX/UI designer performing lead interface design, human factors research and information architecture. The project was code named Project Runway, and we developed an extraordinarily robust feature set for a health data measurement and management suite that would stretch across all media from mobile to desktop to TV gateways – as well as physician and dietician interfaces.

The application was preliminarily named and branded “Root”, indicating that measurement and management is at the root of any healthy lifestyle. Our software suite was eventually sold as a library of PHP-based functionality, and much of it can be found as the source code of some major health management software suites today. It included features such as:

• A proprietary IoT gateway that included a network plan with Verizon to interface any number of required healthcare management/measurement devices with a patient’s activity. This network was designed to be managed separately from a cellular plan in order to comply with HIPAA requirements associated with sensitive patient data.
• An application market that interfaced with a number of Honeywell devices for measuring health data such as weight, blood oxygen levels, blood glucose levels, BMI, heart rate and more.
• A proprietary HIPAA compliant chat/conferencing platform for healthcare provider consulting regarding a patient’s lifestyle requirements.
• A diet planning and management platform that interacts with a patient’s health goals and updates based on hydration and eating activity for the day.
• An advertising and incentive platform to encourage healthy diets and activity milestones by providing stepped coupons and offers from sponsors.
• A progress system that allowed a patient to watch their health grow like a tree – they had a literal tree to take care of, and its growth or demise depended on consistent management and progress in order to produce “fruit” – which came in the form of various coupons, offers and incentives.

After my experience with 2nd Nature Studios, I began another internship with Cowley Associates in Syracuse. This was a great opportunity to learn about the advertising industry in Syracuse, and I completed several ad campaigns, film and photography projects and some basic website designs.

Impact Martial Arts in Clay, NY became a source of continued self-development, self-discipline and leadership skills development since I began in college. I fully credit Martial Arts with giving me the skills I needed to complete an intensive design degree and to confidence to begin doing freelance work where adversity and market conditions made employment difficult.

In August of 2010 my dedication to Martial Arts culminated in earning my 1st degree Black Belt, an accomplishment that marked the successful achievement of a very high-level goal that I had set for myself. Black Belt ethics, dedication, passion, drive and discipline have become an identifying core of how I conduct myself professionally.

I began programming in 9th grade, learning Q-Basic and some basic HTML – but after graduating in 2009 I picked up an internship with an interactive design studio in Syracuse called 2nd Nature. I picked up again on learning more advanced skills in HTML, CSS and JS/JQuery here and began to develop some web development chops.

I was always an information fanatic – but at my internship here I was able to put it into action with the organization of data into hardware workflows, software flow charts and general information architecture for various interactive design projects such as experience center exhibits and interactive product presentations.

In may of 2009 I graduated from SU with a BFA in Communication Design.

Returning to design school in the fall, I chose to find the drive and determination to succeed. To use a quote from a college mentor of mine, “Fail early, fail often and fail in spectacular fashion.” I had finally learned that failure is not the end of the line – it is the beginning of success.

After a couple years of this nagging pain in my side that I was not doing what I was made to do… my Communication Design friends brought me to meet the program leaders and I scheduled a sit-down with the creator of the program, Ken Hine.

Ken took my passion seriously. He could see the capacity in me to create new products, services, artwork, design… and to see my ideas through to creation. With no previous experience in design and a haphazard art portfolio I scratched together from sketchbooks and art classes, Ken wrote a personal recommendation for me to enter the program. It was the only hope I had and it was the only one I needed. I was going to become a designer!

Graduated from CBA in 2003. I was really excited to escape the clutches of a restrictive Catholic school education.

I found a great outlet in creative writing in a 10th grade elective course. This is a passion that endures today as I work towards completing my first book!

In 7th grade, we all had an eccentric writing teacher who seemed to have a new identity crisis or random style almost daily. To this effect, I made a fully illustrated action figure catalog in my notebook representing the various characters (and multiple personalities) of this particular teacher. They came complete with various tools and accessories. I’m pretty sure if I started manufacturing them out of my backpack that year I’d have made some serious bank. I eventually got caught, but luckily that professor saw the humor in it.

At the age of 9 I designed my first menu using Microsoft Greetings Workshop on my dad’s 80 MHZ 4mb RAM Gateway PC that hardly ran the brand-spankin’-new Windows 95.

It was for Mother’s day – my little brother and I made a menu with all our favorite breakfast items on it, then proceeded to use everything in out mom’s kitchen to make a mess preparing breakfast. I used at least one bottle of extra virgin olive oil in an attempt to fry up a single salt potato I cut into little pieces. I got bored after a few minutes and my mom ate raw potatoes with a smile.

I didn’t know it then, but this was the first thing I ever designed on a computer. Little did I know I would become a designer later in life. Really, I didn’t even know I’d become a designer until I was 20. Always listen to your younger self.

I was an insatiable building and inventing machine as a child. I liked video games and cartoons, but I couldn’t stop tearing things apart and putting them back together. Anything I could get my hands on became a science project, an experiment or a repurposed something-or-other.