ABOUT
I like designing. I always have.
I've been fortunate to apply that inclination with some stellar collaborators, including at MathWorks, VICKS and Staples, as well as non-profits and small businesses. Design is about understanding: to me it's how something makes you feel, what it says before a word is read. It can be intriguing. Or it can help provide reassurance. Every project has a grain of truth inside it.
That's the job as I understand it: gather information, find something in it I can feel and express that feeling on the screen or page. And then not lose the feeling as the project gets refined, reviewed and talked about. The spark usually comes pretty easily. Protecting it through the iterative process is tougher work.
And my work has delivered. At Staples, my designs moved product off Point-of-Purchase racks at retail. At VICKS, I led the humidifier line's packaging redesign – work that remains the foundation for models currently sold at CVS, Target, Walmart, Amazon and Home Depot. At MathWorks, I translated a complex sustainability story into a 45-page piece that was recognized by Graphic Design USA. Design drove the results.
What I bring to the table is a design sensibility that is both rigorous and intuitive. I start ideas on paper, because computers have a way of making things look finished before they are. I work closely with stakeholders to bring out what I feel is compelling about the project. The goal is that the feeling I find in the brief survives into the final piece, so the target audience feels it too.
That same instinct shows up in other areas of my life. Trying to get the right balance of foliage textures and flower colors in my garden, the perfect crunch of a bagel from my oven, and the things I hang on the walls of my studio. There's a balance – between planning and spontaneity, between what a client needs and what an audience will feel, between refinement and what made the idea worth pursuing in the first place.
That balance is what I strive to bring to every project. It's a way of thinking that I've been developing and delivering on throughout my career.
