Hi there.

Brand as heart

Your brand pumps the essence of your organization through your teams and into the hearts of your audience. We can help you uncover and tell your unique story to the world.

• Brand strategy
• Market research
• Logo creation
• Visual language development
• Collateral systems
• Style guides

Capital "D" Design

Design thinking is a process. 1. Do something, 2. Watch to see if it's working, 3. Scheme a better way to do it.

You can start the process with any of the above steps as long as you hold true to the core intent: improvement through revision. In my work this often manifests with a significant period of research and discovery prior to ever exploring potential solutions. Getting off on the right foot (with the right data and goals) is kinda important, right?

This often results in alternating periods of collaborative creation and intense focus that creates results with impact.

Empathy

Creating solutions to problems is an intimate experience.

The key to crafting jaw-dropping work is understanding your audience: discover what motivates and why, then create something that tickles that motivation.

Experience design

In our noisy time of nonstop data, you need to quickly connect people to the content they seek. I help you to gauge the maturity, mode of work, and behavioral patterns of your audience to craft engaging, informative, and entertaining experiences.

• Full web experiences
• Software design
• Mobile via native and webapp
• Intranet architecture & display layer
• Kiosks & walk-through experiences

People, teams, and culture

I love people and building teams. Great teams face their challenges together then celebrate shared successes.

I believe that you don't have to stand in front of people to lead them. Find and hire the right people, put them in the right environment, provide them with an articulated vision of success, then get out of their way.

I'm a champion of culture and practice hiring for the correct fit - it's easier to train skills than root-out poor behaviors.

In action, I practice partnership. Tapping potential starts with listening hard. Once you understand, help uncover possibility, then work remove obstacles.

Showing, telling, and informing

Capturing the attention of your audience grows more difficult every minute. I help you craft stories that place your audience in the front row and at the edge of their seats.

• Explanatory animations
• Promotional videos
• Presentations for keynotes, speeches, and rallys
• Motion teasers & trailers
• Data visualization
• Online courseware
• Asynchronous & live events
• Training systems

Speaking your language

Telling your story isn't just about outlining the correct detail. I help craft your manner and tone to create a holistic language system that's yours alone.

• Style guides
• Brand voice compendiums
• Marketing outputs

Visual thinking

When's the last time you were deadlocked in a heated debate only to later discover that you and your adversary were trying to say the same thing only in different ways?

Visual thinking is all about breaking communication down to the essentials through drawing. It's unmatched in ability to create clarity and drive group alignment. It's easier to agree or disagree upon a picture than within a verbal discussion, right?

I've tutored and trained kids, teens, adults, professionals of all sorts (including execs) individually and in groups of ranging sizes, how to release their fear of drawing and start changing the way they communicate. Visual thinking helps you to unlock your creativity and collaborate more powerfully!

You can’t see it, but between you and your world is an interface. Every second of every day you are receiving messages through it via touch, sight, sound, taste, and smell. The feel of your shower or aroma of your coffee triggers an array of thoughts and feelings.

Coping with (and processing) this incessant stream of data forms your unique personal experience and influences how you feel, think, and act.

In visual design, manipulating this layer is sometimes referred to as brand management. I call it experience design. Every encounter people have with your brand leaves a lasting impression, and when managed well, these impressions add up to a kind of love and loyalty.

I am a journey-maker

I believe that successful experience design starts with understanding the needs, wants, and dreams of your audience. Discover who they are and what drives them. They may even allow you to lead them along their journey.

Outputs: Websites, Microsites, App design, Educational installations, Kiosk design, eLearning courseware, Game design

Presentations are bite-sized brand experiences. Great presentations inform and entertain through a dazzling display of content, setting, and tone. They provide context and clarity, all the while feeling like a gift to the audience.

Creating impactful presentations is a performance art requiring balance, timing, and an empathetic spirit. The key to keeping your audience’s attention is to move beyond understanding them, into the realm of knowing them.

I'm a storyteller

I believe at its root, presentation design is about spinning a tale. You must entertain, inform, and guide your audience through a simple three-act play:

1. Evoke - Help your audience understand. Make an impact by placing vivid imagery in their minds.

2. Inform - Tell them what, then tell them why they should care. Provide this through context that resonates with them specifically, and then allow them to connect the dots themselves.

3. Inspire - Unveil a state then show them how to take action.

Outputs: Diagrams, Presentation decks, Movies and Animations

You know those take-out menus that seem to have been written by a non-native speaker? The basics usually read fine but descriptions are sometimes a little mangled and often difficult to understand.

Holistic language is vital for a positive brand experience. Clear and consistent taxonomy, symbols and iconography, and color and spacing are all elements of Visual Language your brand requires.

I'm a wayfinder

By discovering what’s familiar to your audience and then defining it, I learn to speak their language. Build a rapport; earn trust.

Outputs: Information architecture, Style guides, Visual texture guides, Icon sets, Taxonomy development