Where I left ofF
I was Creative Director at Designsensory where I helped build the agency for over a decade. During my tenure we went from a team of 6 to over 40 people with a sister production company, PopFizz.
In 2020, I was inducted into the American Advertising Federation’s Hall of Fame for a career of excellence in advertising.
My work was featured in Print, Graphic Design USA and How magazines, the LogoLounge book series, and in exhibits at the 1010, Downtown and IronWood galleries and is archived at the Memphis College of Art as part of the juried AIGA Ten Show.
I won the awards: Best of Show Overall, Best of Branding, Best of Website, Best of Out of Home, Best of Print, Best of Cross Platform, Best of Interactive in addition to various Judges Choice, Gold and Silver ADDY® Awards.
I have been a guest speaker at the Tennessee Hospitality and Tourism Association Governor’s Conference, facilitated Brand Camp for Knoxville Entrepreneur Center, spoke at the 2022 Maker City Summit, judged the Roanoke Addy Awards, and I’m a former president of AIGA Knoxville.
I was invited to be an adjunct professor at the University of Tennessee and Radford University, and have given lectures, reviewed portfolios and mentored young designers throughout my career.
My bachelor's degree is in Graphic Design from the University of Tennessee, and I have a minor in Studio Art. Currently, I am pursuing my M.F.A. in Service Design from Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). I paused my professional career because I wanted to create space to learn and broaden my skills to be able to tackle the most difficult problems facing our future. I truly believe we need bold, creative, design leaders that care about co-creating solutions that impact humanity and the environment in a positive way.
i went back to school to study service design. Here’s why I did it:
I had seen Broken Systems
A beautifully executed creative campaign can raise awareness and bring new customers, but if other links in the chain are broken then there can be a tremendous amount of wasted effort (including time and money). Those broken links in a customer experience create negative impressions that become lasting impressions. Customers have too many choices to not pay attention to the entire service delivery system.
i thought brand is bigger
A brand is a promise. If a company only views a brand as what customers see and remember, they’re selling themselves short on how internal staff manifest the brand, how a brand can become a beacon for decision making, transform industries through innovation and truly differentiate a business. Your brand is aligned to expectations and smart brands know what those are and how to deliver value.
I believe in a better world
I believe design can also be a catalyst for change. It requires designers to be diligent in considering who they are designing for and what they are designing. By taking a people–planet–community design approach we can design for outcomes that will impact the future for generations to come. Moving from human-centered to humanity-centered design deepens our responsibility to make a change.
learning is a priority
Throughout my career I’ve been in a constant cycle of learning. Industries change, technology changes, customers’ needs change, media and consumption habits change. At SCAD, I’ve been able to advance by learning from successful, internationally acclaimed faculty that have challenged me as a designer, an artist and a human.
collaboration is key
One of the basic principles of service design is co-creating solutions. This involves participatory research, trust and valuing the opinions of others. Learning to better facilitate collaborative research is a skill I’ve been able to study and apply at SCAD. There are many tools in our toolbox, learning what those are and how to use them is invaluable.
There’s always a dream
I came to SCAD with a couple of dreams. One is to change the world – big or small, to make a positive contribution to this round ball we call Earth. Meaningful work aligned with a passion for making a difference is the way forward. The second dream is to teach at a college level to be able to encourage and inspire other designers seeking to make their own impact.
