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Kent was raised in the Midwest, it was there he was exposed to the arts and works of Frank Lloyd Wright. He took private art classes in his early teens and started drafting in high school. After winning several competitions, and summer jobs in construction, he decided he wanted to become an architect.

He attended the Arizona State Pre-Architecture program in ’78-79. After working in the architectural field for five years, a colleague convinced him he should look into advertising and graphic design. Because the Al Collins Graphic Design School only had classes during the day, he made the transition into private contracting. He started his first company, retaining his employer Motorola as a client. This allowed him to continue to work and attend classes.

After graduating, he relocated to the New York City metro area and for nearly 20 years he developed his graphic design skills through advertising and architecture at a variety of large and smaller commercial firms. He won awards for packaging (International Design Competition for Bulova Watches), print production (Church & Dwight annual report) and interior design (Marc Albert Shoes Showroom, NYC and Mexx Fashions Retail store, Chicago).

Now residing in Northern CA he is concentrating on his own work and continues to design for private and corporate sectors, including public art.

"I constantly look for the beauty surrounding us every day. I was introduced to the art world at age 12, and have been working with all types of materials since. With the development of computers, I found a new medium that was a perfect match. I saw first hand how the personal computer was going to change entire industries and knew I had to master this new technology. I constantly found new possibilities and exciting areas for myself as an artist with almost every new program learned. I began to understand that computers could also mimic materials, textures, natural lighting and airflow."
–kent smith

 
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