Shawn Olson started working for the Columbus Messenger Newspapers in August of 1999. He performed the duties of beat reporter, feature writer, photographer, columnist, cartoonist, and graphic designer. He even published some poems in the Messenger. Below is a chart displaying the amount of work Olson did as a Messenger photographer and reporter. Note: The "other" catagory includes cartoons, graphics, and poems.
| News | Features | Photos | Columns | Other | |
| Total of type | 152 | 211 | 1127 | 59 | 16 |
| On Cover | 10 | 65 | 242 | 0 | 3 |
| Total Pieces | 1568 |
The Columbus Messenger Newspapers is a chain of five papers in Central Ohio published by Phil Daubel. While Olson has worked for all five papers, he has done most of his work for the Westside Messenger and Southwest Messenger. The logo to the right is a trademark of the Messenger. The Columbus Messenger Company is located at 3378 Sullivant Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43204 (although the company plans to move soon). The office can be reached at 614-272-5422.
The bulk of Olson's work at the Columbus Messenger Newspapers was in the form of photojournalism. 1127 of his photographs were printed in the Messenger.
After moving to digital photography in 2001, Olson dedicated himself to learning the new and rapidly evolving technology. He has already taken over 40,000 pictures since moving to digital photography. Most of his images are archived on CD and are available for purchase.
Olson has taken senior pictures, weddings and individual portraits besides his photojournalism work. Smopix is Olson's professional photography website.
Olson also runs Collision Graphics, which is a graphic and web design company. Collision Graphics launched in early 2001. The company has worked with Prairie Township in Franklin County, Ohio to produce their newsletter. Collision Graphics has also helped political candidates produce campaign literature.
Website design is the future of Collision Graphics. The following websites were designed by Shawn Olson at Collision Graphics.
Columbus Design was designed by Shawn Olson & Andrew Penry. Olson supervised the project and designed the graphics. Penry conjured the programming and Flash animations.
Current projects at Collision Graphics are Counter-Strike map design and the Township News Network. The Township News Network launched in February 2002 as a media service to township government. That site is currently being renovated with the programming help of Andrew Penry.
Olson's design skills include proficiency in XHTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) positioning for web design. Program proficiency includes CorelDRAW 10, Corel PHOTO-PAINT 10, Adobe Photoshop 6, 3D Studio Max 4, Microsoft Word 2000, Worldcraft 3.3, Microangelo 5.5, Milkshape 3D, Macromedia Flash 5 and Corel R.A.V.E.
Olson worked as a retail associate in the aquatics department at Petsmart for eight months. He also spent a few months as a boiler repair assistant at the Gurina Company. Before that, Olson did odd jobs such as roofing, dry wall, scrapping, building a barn, taking down a barn, cutting down trees, painting and other similar jobs.