Early Career

The son of a carpenter/craftsman and an advertising account executive, Graphic and Multimedia Design seemed as good a choice as any for a major when I entered a technical high school. By the time college came around, I’d already been designing and building websites for several years, giving me the opportunity to study Imaging and Digital Arts at The University of Maryland, Baltimore County on a full scholarship.

Given that previous experience, I was confident / arrogant enough to apply for a job after completing just one semester. When the co-founder who was interviewing me mentioned that there were two other people from my high school design program working there, I knew I was in! So at just 17 years old, I joined a fast paced web design firm and got to witness the “work hard, play hard,” dot com boom and bust firsthand, as well as the burnout that often brought on. However, in between company trips to Florida and Mexico, I learned how to be part of a team, give and receive feedback, and when & how to fight for what you believe in. The company was acquired by a subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcasting for $4.7 million, providing my first significant insight into the workings of the corporate world.

I continued to freelance during the rest of my college experience, which included a life changing semester studying abroad in Germany. Upon returning stateside and completing my degree, I like to say that I “walked across the stage and onto a bus” to fulfill a dream of living in New York.

Post College

My experience in the big city was varied, first working in both print and web at a firm that specialized in “mobile,” when that meant a specific form of Out Of Home advertising: vehicle wraps and moving billboards. I spent a few more years freelancing in design, development, and UX, and for a short time even pursued an actual pipe dream of starting a record label. New York for me was everything BUT a home, so I returned to Baltimore to see what I’d been missing.

Back home, I quickly reconnected with wonderful former coworkers and friends, and in short order was hired as an interactive designer at what was then the oldest active ad agency in Baltimore, Eisner Communications. There I built some life-long relationships with many smart people that I still lean on today.

I continued providing design, development and UX support to various clients before being recruited to join another established Maryland agency, Crosby, as Director of Interactive Design. I spent two years in that role until my entrepreneurial inklings became too much to ignore, and I finally set off on my own, officially.

The wndr Years

Inspired by my own relentless curiosity, I named my new agency wndr (read “wonder;” I was a little early on the no vowels thing in company names). We hit the ground running, as I was able to quickly drum up interactive, advertising, and branding business from so many years of building relationships as a hired gun.

Within a few months, due in no small part to the three dozen plus digital projects I’d done for indie music darling Matador records, we landed the opportunity to design and develop a custom website for creative icon and fellow Eagle Scout David Lynch and his record label. This led to winning multiple awards (including a national Addy), as well as coverage from Communication Arts and Print Magazine, among others. Eventually we were even contacted by Oliver Stone’s creative team, and ended up with the opportunity to design and build the website for his Untold History of the United States Showtime series.

wndr was originally envisioned as a “business that creates businesses,” and so during those years I also got involved in a number of startups. One of the more significant efforts was a commercial real estate data platform that could very well have disrupted CoStar’s iron grip on the industry (we did receive their customary cease and desist letter - a badge of honor in my book). There were more lessons to be learned, however, as we raised and spent $75k building a large, feature-rich platform that few were ready to use, then another $500k+ trying to pivot into finding product-market fit. I parted ways with the founding team, just barely missing out on my chance to have “successful exit” listed on my LinkedIn profile as my buyout deal fell apart at the eleventh hour. Instead, I cheered from the sidelines as the 2nd largest shareholder while the company worked for several more years to gain traction.

Despite the challenging nature of entrepreneurship, these years were where I’d felt the most comfortable in my career up until that point. Building teams, discovering opportunities, and solving problems for my clients satisfied something very deep within me. However, I’d been married for a few years at this point, and with the city literally burning down around us (Baltimore, April 2015), my wife and I were very much ready to set off on a new adventure together. Without much discussion, she suggested Richmond, VA, and I said “I’ll see what I can find.”

Moving On with renewed focus

By then, less than half of my working career had been spent employed by someone else, so I found myself asking “how does one return to the workforce after running a successful business?” I found the answer in consulting.

I had never heard of CapTech before, and chances are that you haven’t either. However, after spending over 5 years here, I have little doubt that in another 15, theirs will be as ubiquitous as the names you hear collectively as the “Big 4.”

In my time there, I helped grow the Customer Experience practice from just a handful of practitioners to almost 60 in two locations who support design efforts across 10 national offices. The company itself has nearly tripled in size in both headcount and revenue. Some of my personal highlights have been selling and executing our first branding projects, winning our first awards, developing creative office space and processes, and establishing the direction of a major rebrand. In addition to serving as Creative Director for numerous clients and projects, I’ve been responsible for hiring, staffing, various culture initiatives and supporting business development as the Richmond practice area lead.

This experience provided me with the opportunity to lay down some roots and start a family in a place that very much feels like home.

Back to my roots, but wiser and on the other side of covid

After over 2 decades of experience in a wide variety of environments, as of this writing (September ‘21), the best type of role for me is the one I am currently performing with a great team at Gannett: full-time, remote contract work as a senior-level individual contributor. Please get in touch if you’d like to discuss a specific Senior Product Designer role (earliest current availability is Jan ‘22).