During my tenure at Skava–as the lead creative of the marketing department–I developed 100% of the brand and marketing creative. Additionally, I provided hands-on support and guidance to all members of our creative team. This resulted in consistent, innovative, and on-brand creative for Skava. 

As a creative partner and brand consultant I also worked with internal business prospects and outside agencies and partners. Other responsibilities included review of art purchases, researching for superior vendors, negotiating proposals, managing third party partners, agencies, and freelancers.

The work developed covered multiple areas including print, environmental and digital design. I guided each project, from the initial visual conceptualization through the final delivery to production. 


Another important part of my responsibilities at Skava included increasing our brand visibility at trade shows. Despite tight budges and challenging deadlines, every one of these events included a digital campaign, environmental design and printed support.

Because Skava is all about transformation, evolution and innovation, I suggested we use visuals consisting of butterflies. This motif enabled us to represent the constant transformation of our products and, by inference, Skava’s ability to consistently transform ecommerce experiences. 

Skava’s visual trade show transformation was successful resulting in high traffic and much praise from visitors and our sales team. Because Skava stood out from the competition, conventioneers understood the Skava story and its products potential. Some of the trade shows Skava participated in included: ShopTalk US and EU, Shop.com, Adobe Summit, Grocery Shop, and BloomReach.

I developed a series of visual announcements for the launch of MiWorld’s new MiWorld App. The app was designed to assist drivers of automobiles to improve their driving skills in numerous ways.

The announcements were posted on a series of websites shared with other clients such as MetLife, Mapfre and Himex. The project design had several challenges. The layout had to be flexible so that each product’s branding elements were retained and enhanced. Additionally, the design elements were required to be mobile friendly. 

Since I worked on the project from the initial visual conceptualization through the wireframe stage and into the final delivery of the design to the programmers, I was able to streamline the visual language seamlessly throughout the development process. 

The final outcome is a design that shared all the visuals from the app including icons, illustrations and maps. This allowed for continuity from the initial announcement posting through the delivery of the app once the customer downloaded it.

I was assigned to create a variety of communication materials for Salesforce because of my experience in adhering the brand style-guidelines on numerous projects for other clients. Salesforce was known to be particularly exacting in requiring visual creative talent to strictly follow their brand specifications.

The visuals I developed from initial concept to final launch included digital, print and environmental design. Included here are one of the Salesforce Marketing Cloud Accelerator digital catalogues I created as well as a Salesforce Client Support brochure and a Salesforce “Connect to Your Customers” themed trade show booth.

The client was particularly pleased that the final outcomes of all the tactics were both visually arresting and also followed the Salesforce brand guidelines perfectly.

I was presented with two important Astellas EU projects, each intended to increase corporate visibility. The first project required the integration of the Changing Tomorrow (CT) theme into the Astellas EU website. I achieved this by transforming the print-based CT brand design into a fully interactive design system including elements of flash animation. Interactivity in the website was also enhanced by the creation of a maping system that allowed visitors to intuitively navigate to affiliate websites.

The second project was the creation of a motivational program for Astellas EU representatives entitled Cards for Change [CFC]. My design challenge was to insure that CFC received high visibility while still coordinating with other Astellas EU collateral. I achieved this by developing an outer sleeve for the cards that retained, yet enlarged, CT branding hallmarks to maximum effect.

CFC and related materials were awarded an Rx Club citation of excellence.

As lead designer and art director on the Astellas-sponsored Transplant Experience (TE) consumer program, I was charged with enhancing the newly created magazine format for Inspire Magazine—previously produced as a newsletter. Inspire Magazine has now evolved into a comprehensive quarterly publication aimed at a primary target audience consisting of patients who are both pre-and post-transplant.

The ongoing challenge of this assignment is to deliver clinical information to consumers in as entertaining a way as possible. To achieve this I visually lightened the tone of the magazines’ ongoing support features with consumer-friendly photography and graphics in order to strike a balance with the more serious editorial content.

Since its inception, Inspire Magazine has achieved significant retention rates for the over 100,000 members of Astellas’ Transplant Experience program.

Goodwill, a well known but often-misunderstood non-profit organization, wanted an image-changing Halloween campaign that would startle and enlighten the Bay Area community.

Working closely with our creative director—from concept to execution—I strived to develop a visual message communicating that Goodwill was more than simply a place to drop off things people didn’t need anymore.

This became a campaign to educate the local community about Goodwill’s mission and history. That Goodwill was a creative and savvy place to find a great Halloween costume and, in doing so, support Goodwill’s mission to train those in need to become self sufficient through Goodwill job training and placement services. 

We strived to reboot the organization’s image with copy and images that communicated the idea of “Look like a villain. Feel like a hero!” The visuals linked to the city of San Francisco’s iconic images of foggy backgrounds, over-the-top characters holding outrageous props conveyed to bay area residents the idea that they could easily find similar fantastic Halloween costumes at any one of Goodwill’s ubiquitous Bay Area locations. 

Since the media for the campaign consisted of posters, billboards and other venues that would have to attract the viewer’s attention immediately, we strived to create layouts that were uncluttered and that would have instantaneous impact.

Holiday Gift Cards and Merchandising: These pieces were so impactful, the company saw a rise in sales during the holiday season.

Kid Times kids’ menu: By streamlining the production process for these menus, I helped to improve the quality of content as well, resulting in it being voted Best Kids Menu by Restaurant Hospitality Magazine.

Main Menu: This was a massive redesign that required hundreds of hours of work. The goal was to create a more branded menu that embraced Bob Evans farm heritage. Not only was the redesign a great success, but I was able to change the photo styles and formats to reduce the overall menu size, resulting in cost savings for the client.

I redesigned both Direct Mail and Sell Sheets: My concept was based on emphasizing the uniqueness of every child and the need for unique reading programs to cater to their diverse interests. I used illustrations similar to children’s drawings to link this to something that teachers would be familiar with. I chose the color blue because it symbolizes trust and confidence, which speaks to the product and the reasons why teachers would select these books. The sell sheets followed the design style of the direct mail piece, using a color-coded system to identify the different school grades.

I was assigned lead designer responsibilities on the Santen USA account. Partnering with the creative team, we all strove to find creative solutions that would increase Santen’s visibility in the USA marketplace. One of these solutions was the development of a design system for print and interactive communications that allows the size, scope, and partnership potential of Santen to be conveyed not only through the written word but also through eye-catching graphics.

In addition to print, I provided lead designer and art director responsibilities on a new careers section for the Santen USA website. This effort so pleased the client that the project was expanded to include a full redesign of the R&D section as well. Recently, Santen USA approached Santen Pharmaceuticals in Japan to let me proceed with a redesign of the entire Santen USA website.

I redesigned the EES brand by elevating their overall design approach. Catalog: By changing the format, my design made it easier for sales representatives to use, carry and store. I also chose to open each section with a hero shot that showcases a product feature, emphasizing its benefits. The book was color coded to identify each section in a quick way. The look of these pieces established the design guidelines for all other printed pieces including ads, posters, stationery system and sale sheets.

With the FDA approval of Provenge as a treatment for late-stage prostate cancer, Dendreon desired to humanize their website in order to better reflect their new “Patient’s First” company positioning.

Using new naturalistic appearing photos selected to mirror the demographic profile od Provenge patients, along with design elements suggesting personal communications—such as messaging displayed in a handwritten type font—I strove, and believe achieved, a clean design that is both respectful of the client’s branding but also one that evolves from a formerly cold, clinical website into one with personality, warmth, and a feeling of hope.

I was approached by members of the Tradición Peruana Cultural Center to assist them in developing a brand identity for the center—one that would be flexible enough to be utilized for a diversified series of communication efforts supporting Peruvian art, culture and tradition within the San Francisco community.

To achieve the center’s goals, I developed an overarching design concept emphasizing Peruvian national colors of red and white. Design adaptability was realized by varying color intensity and tone depending on whether the theme of the communication piece was corporate or promotional in nature.

Since the launch of the new communication materials described above, attendance to Tradición Peruana cultural events has increased significantly. Additionally, community awareness of the center as a legitimate non-profit institution has also increased—allowing the center to successfully compete for a number of local support grants.