About me...

Thank you for taking the time to find out a little about me. To begin with, I am a classically trained Art Director having attended ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California where I studied advertising & design. I also come from a family of working artists. So the “creative thing” is in my DNA.

My parents met at J. Walter Thompson in Detroit. My Mom went on to write 29 cookbooks and appeared on Phil Donahue’s show twice before she retired. Both my aunts are working fine artists who’ve taught, shown and have been collected nationally for decades. One uncle is a highly respected sculptor while another opened a Southern California animation studio where he created Elsie the Cow for the Borden Dairy Company before his studio was acquired by Hanna-Barbera. Growing up, I got brushes, paint and canvas every Christmas and birthday. I won my first art competition in 3rd grade. My first architectural competition as a sophomore in high school and my first college art scholarship as a high school senior. I won my first Belding Bowl shortly after leaving college to join Dailey & Associates as an Art Director on the $65 million Honda Motorcycle account. Over the years, I’ve won local, national and international awards for all types of clients in all types of advertising categories. I’ve won for Art Direction, Design, Creative Direction, and Copywriting.

I’m also passionate about the entire creative process. From concept generation to seeing beautiful art direction come to life, from creating incredibly clever headlines to writing succinct body copy, I eat, breathe and live this stuff? Simply put, I love what I do and the clients you do it for. I always have, always will.

CREATIVE STRATEGY

25+ years experience as senior creative lead with extensive expertise in traditional and digital advertising – delivering award-winning concepts for local, regional and national brands. Industry recognized for leading the development of multi-level campaigns in destination retail, travel & tourism, gaming, food & beverage, builders & developers, financial and automotive marketing, that meet advertising objectives and exceed client business expectations.

MANAGEMENT

Extensive experience managing small, medium, and large teams of diverse personalities and talents in deadline driven environments, establishing employee career development programs, leading cross-functional team collaboration, and developing production and supervising offshore back-end developers.

DIGITAL

I not only write copy and content, I also write code. I design for mobile first, followed by desktop and finish with tablet. I've built, staffed, mentored and trained three digital groups in three ad agencies where I was ECD. Lot's of fun. Quadrupled number of digital projects and agency wins. Made each group profitable* in the first 12 to 18 months.

THINGS I'VE LEARNED:

1. Time sheets are the most creative product of any ad agency.
2. Art Directors don’t hover, but we do have an Adobe action figure that does.
3. Tweaking will never be as exciting as twerking.
4. No matter how hard you try, you can’t polish a turd.
5. Two wrongs don’t make a right, but three lefts do.
6. And finally, there's a clear difference between homage and design plagiarism.

ECD | Pitzer Art & Design

Fresno, CA | 2018 — Present (1 yr 4 mos)

1. Guglielmo Winery — Morgan Hill, CA
2. SmartWatt — New York, NY
3. SweetLeaf Stevia Sweetener — Gilbert, AZ

Chandler, AZ | 2008 — 2011 (3 yrs 2 mos)

Prior to 2008, PA&D (Formerly Bozell/Scottsdale) focused primarily on marketing the luxury brands of Ferrari, Maserati and Bentley and the luxury real estate developments of Carver Mountain Estates and multi-million dollar homes of Prescott Homes. Post "2008 Bubble", PA&D worked exclusively with Scottsdale entrepreneurs to:

1. Design, develop and launch apps to stop cyber bullying through proprietary texting filters
2. Design, develop and launch scalable, internet-based, e-commerce AES 256 encrypted database-driven dating businesses

"Campaigns, Concepts & Copy" | Freelance & Contract

Fresno, CA | 2011 — Present (7 yrs 6 mos)

1. Catalyst Marketing Company — Fresno, CA
2. CISCO Systems — San Jose, CA
3. ClearInk — Bay Area, CA
4. Design Ranch — Clovis, CA
5. EH+Y — Santa Barbara, CA
6. 5 Creative — Fresno, CA
7. J Walter Thompson Technology — San Jose, CA
8. Jeffrey Scott Agency — Fresno, CA
9. JP Marketing — Fresno, CA
10. LAads — Los Angeles, CA
11. Lozano Smith, California's Premier Education Law Firm — Fresno, CA
12. Northwest Pediatric Medical Group — Fresno, CA
13. PointBlank Marketing — Silicon Valley, CA
14. REDLine Marketing Co. — Phoenix, AZ

MANAGING PARTNER for Bozell

Scottsdale, AZ | Aug 2005 — Apr 2008 (2 yrs 9 mos)
Formerly Pitzer Art & Design

1. Responsible for the RED Development’s $900 million CityScape project in Downtown Phoenix new business win
2. Lead creative for RED Development’s Legends at Village West new business win, Kansas City, KS
3. Responsible for the Arizona Motorcycle Safety Advisory Council new business win
4. Opened, staffed and grew most profitable office in Bozell network 2007

VP/EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR for E.B. LANE

Phoenix, AZ | Apr 2003 — Aug 2005 (2 yrs 5 mos)

1. Notable Clients: Arizona Lottery, ADHS Anti Smoking Cessation Program, CableOne, The RockResorts, Arizona Biltmore