About

My name is Ben Vanderberg. I am new a New Media specialist currently studying at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester NY. My concentrations are in Print Production, Content Management Systems, and New Media Workflow systems. I am also an active professional musician.

I was born and raised in Vienna, Austria where I attended the American International School in Vienna until High School graduation. While there, I developed a strong understanding of many cultures, grew a passion to see new sites, meet new people, and constantly learn new things. I learned from here that experiences are the most important things in life. These experiences and values define my world view today.

At a very young age, I started to become very interested in digital publishing and media. At the age of seven, with a little bit of guidance from my father, I started using Apple Macintosh computers with a scanner to color in my coloring books using Adobe Photoshop. At the age of eight, I created my own small newsletter titled “Newsamania” to document things going on in my family’s life and events at my school. When I was eleven, I became the layout designer for the Elementary school newsletter “What’s Happenin’?”. Upon moving up to Middle School, I became the designer for the short-lived Middle School newsletter, “The Middle School Monitor.”

Throughout my childhood, my family was always heavily involved in the production of the school’s annual yearbook. My father took portraits of students every year. Through this, I was able to gain access to facilities not often available to a young teenager. At the age of thirteen, I designed the opening pages to the 2001 yearbook. Two years later, he became the lead designer of the yearbook, eventually winning three awards from the publisher, Taylor Publishing, for design, content, as well as honorable mention.

During this time, I also grew a strong interest in the field of digital video. In 2001, with the release of Apple iMovie on the Apple iMac DV computers, I began to do digital video edits for various projects. I quickly moved up to using Apple Final Cut Pro. In 2004, I attended a workshop in Vienna, earning his 101 certificate in Final Cut Pro. He also did videographer for three weddings, as well as various events around my school.

At the age of thirteen, I began taking lessons in guitar. Some of Ben’s greatest guitar heroes include Richie Sambora, Tommy Emmanuel, Santana, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Eric Clapton.

After graduating from High School, I chose to defer an acceptance to RIT to attend the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford, England to study Guitar Performance. While there, I was privileged to study with such amazing tutors such as Pete Friesen (former Alice Cooper guitarist), Giorgio Serci, and many others. I gained many experiences from my time there, and earned my diploma in Guitar performance.

I am currently studying at RIT in the School of Print Media, earning my Bachelors of Science in New Media Publishing. I am also an active developer and project leader for the Open Publishing Lab, as well have developed many experiences in a variety of different areas of the publishing and printing industry.