Experienced Design Leader, Strategic Thinker and Innovator: Bridging Ed-Tech, E-commerce, and Marketing for Global Brands
Let’s start at the beginning
I started drawing logos when the visual onslaught of skateboarding’s high-energy, visual language came into my teenage world. I was immediately organizing events and embracing the culture through every creative outlet at my disposal. What I didn’t know then was my tendency towards organization, highlighting others, and celebrating culture would follow me for many years. I recently founded ‘Tails Of…‘ magazine which investigates skateboarding and art, highlighting some of the best creatives in the subculture.
In art school, I studied architecture, and the analytical nature of the architecture education affected my creative process and laid the foundation of how I approach design. No decision is made in a vacuum. The medium and the messaging are always intertwined. At RISD, I explored all disciplines and taught myself all the design software. In between making models, I started a skateboard company that sold products worldwide. Before I graduated, I stumbled into teaching and was teaching college courses myself which led to years of teaching design.
By the end of my college career, I knew the architecture field wasn’t for me. A few friends and I moved to Philadelphia and founded SPACE1026 an art studio and gallery. SPACE1026 became a meeting ground of emerging art, skateboarding, and design and we showcased the work of many artists early in their careers. I started work as a production graphic designer in ad agencies and taught myself web design along the way. I worked as a temp designer and with each assignment, I started creating a mental catalog of efficiencies, creative process, and best practices.
Philadelphia was a great place to grow and I worked with a lot of talented people who helped me develop my skills. I was very lucky to land at Visit Philly as a web designer and quickly became the creative director, creating marketing in all media at a scale that I hadn’t dreamed of previously. This was my first opportunity to lead a team and I quickly realized the impact of design leadership. That team is still connected to this day.
My California adventure started in San Diego in what I call, “my thirteen-year-old dream job” at Black Box Distribution. I managed everything digital for several skateboard brands and started to flex my digital muscles expanding into e-commerce, social, and content. NorCal called and I jumped deeper into e-commerce, product design, and started to explore A/B testing, personalization, and optimization.
Over the years, I’ve bounced back and forth between manager roles and individual contributor roles. In my most recent role at Apple, I was an individual contributor working on global projects with a level of scale in the billions. The work itself was complex and required a system-level thinking that I enjoyed but I missed working with a team, managing and mentoring young designers and started to look for ways to get back to managing. I taught a class at CCA in the graduate interaction program and it felt good to be back in a classroom working alongside the students. Currently, I’m the Director of Design at Art of Problem Solving where I’m building a team that’s tackling multiple digital products along with in-person learning experiences.
Resume
If you want the tidy, simple resume version of my history I’ve got that for you. There’s also my LinkedIn if you want my whole history in excruciating detail.
Words
I create a weekly post that I call ‘creative links’. It covers many disciplines. I’ve been doing this for over six years. In addition, you’ll find other written gems on my blog.