Hellard Design was started in May of 2004. I have always had the desire to start my own company and work for myself, here is how it became a reality. Upon graduating high school in 1988, I went directly to ITT Tech to study Architectural Engineering Technology. ITT offered a two year program with job placement and since my goal was to start working as a draftsman as soon as I could, ITT offered the best path to get there. The classes involved basic architectural drafting along with math and structural design. Most of the drafting was done by hand in pencil, save for two short quarters on AutoCAD release 9.
Nearing graduation, I was hired by a local civil engineering and surveying firm. Although I had very limited civil experience from ITT, I quickly learned how to draw preliminary and construction drawings, mostly for big box retailers. This was done by hand with pen and ink. Then, the company bought it's first computer system, complete with AutoCAD release 10 and DCA - the precursor to Softdesk/Land Desktop. I worked long hours on my own time learning AutoCAD and DCA while still being a hand drafter as part of my regular job. It didn't take long for the company to recognize that I was more valuable as a CAD drafter.
After nearly three and a half years there, I made the jump to a larger engineering firm. I spent over 6 years in their Site Development department preparing preliminary and final CD's mostly for commercial projects. Here is where I learned the finer details of Softdesk/Land Desktop.
In 2000 came my transition to mechanical design when I took a job in Englewood, Ohio as a designer of large scale video conferencing systems. I worked my way to Director of Product Development and came up with new concepts and designs, specified and tested products and learned to use Photoshop and learned wide format printing. This job gave me the best of both worlds in terms of mechanical and architectural experience.
The opportunity to go on my own was given to me and I jumped at the chance. I had civil, architecture and mechanical backgrounds to pull from along with a strong desire to succeed. Already having a laptop I invested in the software and a printer and I was off.
Since inception, Hellard Design has worked on a variety of projects. Please contact us with any questions about your idea or project to see how we can make your dream a reality!