I always preferred working over school. My senior year of high school was half work study, so I left and earned class credit by working jobs. I got enough education to read well, to read manuals and such, but I was never a big school person until much later in life, so in my opinion my education was working. I learned to sell insurance door to door for Farmers Insurance, learned to be an advocate and went door to door for the Sierra Club, and Circuit City is where I learned the sell or else mentality, because selling both a computer and the extended warranty actually paid really well. I also freelanced for a law firm I met through Circuit City that became a client, and they introduced me to local newspapers. I sold insurance door to door, then magazine subscriptions, then computers, then ads in newspapers, along with understanding how legal things operated in the business world, and I also supported the family owned antique store.

My career takes an interesting turn here. I joined a small mom and pop framing business and helped grow it into a huge art company that saw substantial growth in revenue and success in Giclée art for the home furnishing industry. We did shows, magazine ads, and our own events, and we did art for casinos, department stores, and luxury hotels. My passion for art, design, marketing, and sales thrived and blossomed. What was a crammed little frame shop turned into a 50,000 square foot creative production house plus a gallery. While successful, it still wasn't big enough to hold my ambitions, and the growth wasn't enough, so when the opportunity came to work on bigger projects I was eager. I moved on to LATimes.com, helping design and develop multiple sections of the site and collaborating with reporters, photographers, and editors to publish articles. I worked closely with photographers on image selection, cropping, color correction, and the transition from film to digital, and partnered with management and producers to build workflows that transformed the film room into a fully digital studio. I served as lead designer on all animation projects and lead ActionScript developer.

At Internet Brands I worked on auto, insurance, home pricing, real estate, travel, and many other dot coms. I learned the business of the internet and built programs that supported marketing departments and generated leads. This is really where I got a deep understanding of creating channels and funnels for lead generation. I built interactive campaigns and digital design for CarsDirect.com, Autos.com, Green Hybrid, and Wiki Travel, and partnered with CMOs, directors, and project managers to create branded landing pages, banners, and acquisition campaigns for BMW, Audi, and Range Rover. I helped increase loan applicant traffic and improve form performance by refining user flows and strengthening UX, led redesigns across high traffic sites, and presented directly to CEO, CMO, and other marketing leadership. Later, at Edmunds.com, I was Senior Designer on the Creative Services team, creating executive pitch decks for Ford Fusion, custom landing pages for BMW, campaign creative for Toyota, branded ad experiences for Nissan, and sales event design for Audi. I was lead creative on the launch of a custom ad service program that increased advertising spend on Edmunds by offering automotive brands custom landing page experiences, with Ford, BMW, Toyota, Nissan, and Audi taking part. My time at CarsDirect and Edmunds gave me insight into how large brands can own big chunks of content systems.

At TBWA\Chiat\Day, one of the most iconic agencies in the world and the birthplace of Apple's original campaigns, I honed my skills in interactive design, animation, and video editing, contributing rich media for global brands like Nissan, PlayStation, and Infiniti, from animated banners to immersive landing pages. At David & Goliath I served as Senior Interactive Art Director on Cazadores, New York New York, and Kia. At Ogilvy & Mather, as Senior Interactive Art Director, I led high impact branded campaigns for Disney, Cisco Systems, Nature Made, AMPM, Wells Fargo, and Ameritrade. This included a major Cisco Systems rebrand with a 200 plus page brand guide covering visual standards, style guidance, and design system principles, along with a website redesign, the Fuel Your Greatness campaign for Nature Made, and Too Much Good Stuff for AMPM. I created the visual concepts and presentations that won new business with Disney and Tabasco, as part of a talented team that won multiple awards including the Webbys for most innovative digital campaign. My time at agencies comes and goes throughout my career, and these are the big three. You can learn a ton at agencies, and I learned building at scale and an international approach, how to work with national teams and get big projects done at a very high level of expectations. The biggest takeaway from working at large firms is how to work with other insanely talented people in the room.

I built and led my own independent creative operation through andBRAND, taking on brand strategy, campaign creative, digital production, and content development. I oversaw a range of projects for Participant Productions, where I led design work for the documentary An Inconvenient Truth and contributed to their social media platform, TakePart. I orchestrated the launch of large scale online campaigns for Wen Hair, Proactiv, and Meaningful Beauty, creating content with Justin Bieber, Julianne Hough, and Avril Lavigne. As creative director on design and photography, I led the initial launch of Proactiv, Wen, and Meaningful Beauty into international markets, translating brand goals and product details into a performance based customer acquisition plan involving A/B testing, email marketing, video, banners, and landing pages, centered around celebrity endorsements, and the campaigns exceeded expectations in Canada, Latin America, and Europe. On the tech side, I built Brand Book AI, a large scale brand strategy platform, plus CaseMobile and CampusAlert, mobile apps for campus and corporate security, and did branding for the growth hack firm M6. This is where I learned how to cut corners and really focus on what makes brands and online content work.

At Intersection I was creative lead on major out of home and geofencing campaigns for brands including NBC, Hulu, the LA Clippers, Bumble, Google, GoPro, and Universal Studios. I designed for the 70th Emmy Awards and led a major Los Angeles takeover campaign for the LA Clippers and Bumble, including a subway takeover. On the Intersection.com account I was lead creative designer and photographer responsible for out of home campaigns for brands including Hugo Boss, Red Bull, The Emmys, GoPro, and NBC, and the creative concepts were used to win large media contracts. Through Fullscreen I built launch campaigns for new show releases, performance driven creative, and social first content that pushed high volume traffic across platforms, collaborating with top TikTok creators and Instagram influencers on video content and campaign creative.

At ViSalus, as Visual Artist, I provided design, video editing, and photography to departments across the company on social media campaigns, e-commerce websites, corporate rebranding, and new product launches. I received the Vi-Guy award, an internal recognition for collaboration and teamwork, and worked closely with the marketing team on the launch of ViCrunch Cereal, a lemonade energy drink, and the Vi Model competition, with each campaign exceeding revenue expectations and both the cereal and the Go energy drink selling out on initial launch. The Vi Model competition led to over 3,000 model submissions and over 1 million people voting, and generated over 10,000 attendees, forcing the event to move to a new location. Later, at Mad Dogg Athletics as Senior Art Director and creative lead across Spinning.com and PeakPilates.com, I partnered with marketing directors and brand managers to produce web banners, email headers, social content, and video, and directed lifestyle, product, and influencer shoots. My redesign of Spinning.com, with a modern visual overhaul, integrated video headers, and mobile optimized e-commerce, led to marked performance gains, decreasing bounce rate by 65% with increases in conversion and session duration. I rebranded the online education branch, now Spinning Digital, which increased new subscriptions by 15% and decreased unsubscribing by 25%, and my MATTERS campaign increased user sign ups by 25% and current user engagement by 35%.

At Pelle Moda, as Creative Director, I was a creative content producer specializing in women's footwear, developing content alongside models and influencers. I led care marketing initiatives focused on women with disabilities and created content featured by Macy's, Nordstrom, and other major retailers, producing brand content across web, print, video, social media, and e-commerce while leading shoots from concept to execution, including casting, locations, and styling. At Eileen Fisher, as Director of Creative Content across the Pelle Moda and Eileen Fisher accounts, I specialized in social media content, brand development, photography, and web design. I managed and optimized content across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube, and partnered with a wide range of influencers on co-branded campaigns. My fashion photography and end to end production ran from storyboards and mood boards to model casting and close collaboration with makeup artists, stylists, and lighting teams to deliver refined, brand aligned visuals. A significant portion of my career has been spent inside beauty, fashion, and women led brand environments, including the Guthy-Renker ecosystem with Meaningful Beauty featuring Cindy Crawford, WEN Haircare with Chaz Dean, and Proactiv, along with Eileen Fisher, Pelle Moda, House of Sussex, Susie Coelho, Runway Rogue founded by supermodel Patricia Hartmann, State of Blue Men's Fashion, NuMe Hair, and Fashion Nova related projects.

Nuveuu is a passion project I created as Executive Creative Director to explore what happens when artificial intelligence, creativity, and social interaction start blending together in more imaginative ways. It is an experimental platform for testing ideas, creative systems, brand building, and new ways people might generate and publish original work, and I shape the vision, creative direction, and overall design. Inside it, Brand Builder helps someone build a brand in seven chapters, and the AI design system, built from a structured Brand OS framework, assembles color, geometry, and pattern into modular visual identities. Shattered Impressions LA is my art and photography exhibition with a live immersive performance celebrating the healing power of art, and my series No Soliciting, featured at the event, reflects my commitment to choosing well being over corporate life, aiming to destigmatize mental health and create space for honesty, healing, and emotional expression, including pieces like the event hoodies. Citizens Uprising pairs a Revolutionary War strategy game with a companion AI chat platform.

Creative Justice Challenge is an ongoing accountability campaign focused on disability and civil rights, and the seed for a streaming docu-drama series. I also volunteer with Tenants Together on research and advocacy.