brands by design

I've spent twenty plus years helping people, companies, organizations, and governments tell stories they didn't know they had in them. That's the work I love. Not the campaigns or the awards (though, those are nice), but the moment when a human or a team or a culture realizes their story actually matters and they have what they need to share it. And they realize the work they do isn't boring at all, it was just the story they were telling.

Most recently I led brand and creative for a 99-year-old infrastructure firm of 12,000 or so, helming a team of 22 design leaders in US, Chile, and the Philippines and influencing 500+ designers across four brands, three sub-brands and five market sectors, building the systems that empowered them to do their best work. Before that, I built storylab from zero and spent eight years with organizations from Saudi healthcare to the UN to BBVA to the Dubai World Expo, all asking the same question: how do we make people care about what we do? How do we design stories that move humans into action?

Turns out the answer is always the same. You find the simplicity inside the complexity. The human in the story. Then you teach people the tools to design it. And empower the confidence to tell it. That's what I do now with Innovation360: culture designing, consulting on creative innovation and narrative, keynoting and designing masterclasses in culture design, creative confidence, and storytelling for innovation for leaders from Kuwait to Bangalore to Zurich.

I'm a Cherokee storyteller, published author and former Parsons professor with 6 Grand Jury Prizes, 5 Audience Awards, 1 Best Actor, 1 Best Marketing, 1 Manager of the Year (told you they were nice:). I'm a hands-on AI practitioner since 2017 because I genuinely believe it should make us more human, not less.

I'm a unicorn workhorse perpetually looking for his herd — driven people who care about craft AND culture, frameworks AND feelings, doing the work AND developing each other.

I'm remarkably easy to collaborate with, very hard to bore and currently exploring building what's next. Proud dad of Lavender (anthropology and indigenous studies at Brown) and Moss (headed to SCAD to play lacrosse and design a better world).

Former pro touring hip hop, poplock, and break dancer. Music video choreographer in another life. Will absolutely start an impromptu dance battle on a boat in Paris if the moment calls for it…

… so, stretch out.