Biography:

Based in the Greater Fort Lauderdale, FL area, Neil Tortorella brings with him over 30 years experience as an award-winning graphic designer, writer and marketing consultant. He has operated his own design and marketing consulting practice, Tortorella Design, since 1986. Through Tortorella Design, Neil has worked with several Fortune 500, along with small to mid-sized companies, to develop pragmatic solutions to their communications challenges. His key strength is blending branding and marketing strategy with memorable visuals and copy to create a distinctive impression in the minds of his clients' audiences.

In addition to graphic and Web design, Tortorella provides marketing consulting for independent professionals and small businesses in the service sector, to identify their best target markets and formulate smart, low-cost strategies to reach them and win more business.

A native of Southern Connecticut, he began his career as a commercial photographer in South Florida after attending the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale and the University of Miami. He has held positions as Corporate Art Director at Alo-Cosmetics, a Suburban Division Marketing Manager with the Miami Herald Publishing Company and as Director of Production and Promotion with Ohio Week Magazine.

Neil is a cofounder and management team member of CreativeLatitude.com, a popular web site and resource for creatives and the clients they serve. The site provides information about the creative process, ethical business practices, marketing and promotion and a wide array of articles, links and resources. He is also associated with No-Spec.com, a site that combats the proliferation of speculative work requests.

He is also an avid writer on marketing, promotion and business topics. He authors a popular blog, Inside the Marketing Mind. Neil’s writing can also be found on BoDo – [Business of Design online], where he’s a founding team partner and author of The Marketing Minute. In addition, Tortorella is a contributing author for HOW Magazine, a leading graphic design publication. Neil is also the author of Starting Your Career As A Freelance Web Designer, scheduled to be published in 2011 by Allworth Press.

Tortorella is featured in the book, The Savvy Designer’s Guide to Success, by Jeff Fisher, published by HOW Design Books, Cincinnati, OH and in Creatively Self Employed, by Kristen Fisher. He is also featured in Design Matters: Portfolios, by Maura Keller, published by Rockport Publishers. His work has also been featured in Pitney Bowes’ Priorities Magazine and HOW Magazine.