About Me
Technically, I'm 23% digital strategist, 22% designer, 20% information architect, 18% media technologist, 10% storyteller and 7% project manager.* But I prefer to think of myself as 100% creative.
I've had many titles in my communications career: Art Director, New Media Designer, Broadband Design Manager, Interactive Creative Director, Director of User Experience and most recently, Digital Creative Director. Despite all the different names, what I do is pretty simple: I help brands plan and create experiential communications that get noticed, get people engaged and get results.
I began my career on Madison Avenue when I joined Ammirati Puris Lintas' newly formed digital marketing group and began developing websites and online advertising for brands like GM and and Compaq. As digital began its meteoric rise, I moved to another NYC based interactive agency, THINK New Ideas, and lead the development of award-winning websites and digital campaigns for Gillette, Logitech, and SGI.
It was my work with SGI that led me to temporarily relocate to Silicon Valley where I provided onsite design and UX direction for an e-commerce / community site being developed in support of a major new product launch. After some initial culture shock (are they actually playing street hockey out there in the parking lot during lunch?), I quickly realized that Northern California offered an amazing mix of technology, creativity and opportunity and decided to make the move permanent. I began contracting at agencies such as FCB before becoming the in-house broadband advertising design specialist at Excite@Home, one of the country's first cable internet providers.
While Excite@Home ultimately burst along with the tech bubble, I was able to gain tremendous insights and technical expertise on how broadband access and the emergence of rich media tools like flash would impact the web in coming years. With that knowledge, I headed back into the agency world as an art director at Real Branding, a small but growing San Francisco digital shop. There I developed interactive websites, ad campaigns and strategy for clients such as Smirnoff, Quicken Loans, Ditech and Lipton.
It was around this time that I met my future wife and started rethinking previously unimportant things like the standard of living, ease of access to family, and earthquake survivability rates. I soon found myself married and back on the East Coast as the Director of User Experience at Carton Donofrio Partners, tasked with building the agency's interactive capabilities, developing and executing cutting edge online experiences and infusing digital thinking into our clients' communication strategies. After almost seven years in Baltimore, I joined Crosby Marketing, and integrated agency in Annapolis. At Crosby I serve as the Digital Creative Director and lead our digital work, and strive to bring integrated thinking to all of our projects.
When I have time, I like taking photos of bizarre signs, watching films set in places I've lived, searching out restaurants that have something I've never tried on the menu and teaching my boys how to build epic lego skyscrapers.
* Varies depending on mood, project and resources available.