No man is an island.

As I was updating my LinkedIn profile for recruiters and potential employers I began reflecting on the fact that nothing I’ve done throughout my career has been done on my own.

The headlines and copy I’ve written by myself only happened because of the great mentors, creative partners and supportive AEs and clients I’ve had. Pitching websites to clients and articulating why user behavior should drive design happened because I’ve learned from some incredibly talented UX/UI designers. Directing actors and getting their best performances in a booth or on a set happened because I was lucky enough to have worked with so many, much more talented directors than I am.

I’m humbled by and grateful for my past successes and I look forward to a bright future. I don’t know exactly what or where my next gig will be (that’s the nature of freelancing) but I know that I’ll approach it with the same curiosity, openness, passion and excitement I had when I got my very first assignment at my very first agency.

Just like I’ve done with every project since.

If you’ve got an opening for a freelance or full-time copywriter with a wealth of diverse experience and track record of success, I’d be thankful for your consideration.

Redesigning the American flag. Reenergizing sales.

One career highlight for me so far has been pitching and winning AOR for Sun-Maid against agencies you’ve heard of while I was working at one you probably haven’t. As I led the creative teams and developed our creative approach, I also helped develop the brand and overall comms strategy for the pitch. A lot of great work was produced in a short amount of time by a lot of great people with the hope of winning a classic American brand.

When we got the call that we’d won the business, the agency erupted in celebration. Champagne and booze and pigs in a blanket flowed as we congratulated one another while letting out a collective sigh of relief. All of the late nights and teeth gnashing and hair pulling paid off. It was incredible news. It was pure joy.

And then a couple weeks later we got some bad news: Sun-Maid was putting it’s branding and packaging up for a separate review. Not because they didn’t think we could do it, they knew our design capabilities, but they were worried with all the other Sun-Maid work already on our plate that we wouldn’t have time to do it. I asked the client to be included in the pitch and they gave us a shot. Against design agencies you’ve heard of. And we won that work, too.

“If you redesign that little red box it’s like redesigning the American flag. Better be careful.”

Prior to jumping into designs, we conducted focus groups across the country asking people what they thought of the current branding and packaging and how Sun-Maid could change them to resonate better for millennial consumers. We heard all kinds of crazy stuff, as you typically do in focus groups, but that quote about the American flag stuck with me.

I remember sitting in the Sun-Maid war room in the agency one night, looking at hundreds of designs taped to the wall, and thinking about that quote. As I began the process of whittling down the options and preparing feedback for the ones moving forward, I couldn’t help but feel humility and gratitude. It’s not often you get asked to lead the redesign of a true American icon. And I knew that our approach needed to be evolutionary, not revolutionary.

Not only were the redesigns embraced by the design community, consumers embraced them, along with a new brand campaign, too. And for the first time in years, Sun-Maid saw positive sales in the raisin category.

Not bad work for a guy you’ve probably never heard of. Right?

Case study: Rebranding Sauder Furniture.

While my official role on the Sauder account at Bader Rutter was Creative Director, I had my head, and hands, on every aspect of the account. From developing the brand strategy to developing and executing the content and social strategy, from creating the brand voice and developing the look — Sauder gave me the opportunity to work with teams across multiple disciplines to reshape the 80-year-old brand for the coveted Millennial audience.

Before we brought the new brand to life, however, we did our homework on Millennials. In addition to creating a psychographic profile and a detailed buyers’ journey, we shared our vision of how Millennials would interact with the new Sauder brand online and at retail.

Once we gained approval to move forward and develop creative based upon our strategic approach and understanding of the target audience, we worked fast and furiously to launch the new brand in less than a year. Traffic to the site and engagement in their social channels have significantly increased since the launch.

sauder.com   Sauder Pinterest   Sauder Facebook   Sauder Twitter

Case study: Johnson Controls launches Panoptix.

In October, 2011, Johnson Controls, Inc. wanted to launch a new product, Panoptix, at the GreenBuild trade show. Panoptix is a comprehensive, cloud based, building efficiency system. It operates on an open platform where a community of Panoptix users can create its own apps, in addition to using the Johnson Controls produced apps, to manage their building systems from any device, anywhere. And it was the first of its kind. Because this software based solution was new territory for a company known more for building hardware, like HVAC systems and refrigeration units, positioning Johnson Controls as a thought leader in technology leading up to Greenbuild was important.

In order to tease the Panoptix offering and create technology-based content, my team at Bader Rutter and I created the "What's Possible" campaign that included a Johnson Controls  blog as well as Twitter and Facebook pages. See the work here. Through those social channels and an e-mail based marketing campaign, we encouraged people to sign up on the blog, follow Johnson Controls on Twitter and like them on Facebook. Those who did received a Botanicals Kit — a device you stick in a houseplant that’s connected to a Twitter account. It tweets you when your plant needs water and again when it’s happily watered. From the campaign about the Botanicals Kit: “We think this crazy green gadget is a great example that, with technology, anything is possible. It’s simple. It’s efficient. It makes things easy to manage.”

For the trade show, we wanted to create a level of engagement with attendees that matched the Panoptix offering. It had to be technology-based, community-based and mobile-friendly. So we created the Panoptix wall. A 10x7 foot interactive wall that we ran from Twitter where we posted content about the Panoptix platform. Attendees, and non-attendees, could post messages to the wall from their Twitter accounts or by SMS. Those at the show could then touch their message, move them around, make them bigger, or shoot them through a virtual slingshot across the wall. We also used the wall for time-based contests at the show that encouraged people to visit the booth. For the booth, we designed it to be open and comfortable, and as a place where Johnson Controls could conduct media interviews.

In less than 3 days, over 6,000 messages were posted to the wall. And over 300 people signed up as customers for Panoptix, despite the fact the product wasn’t on the market at the time of the show. Our campaign generated more foot traffic to the Johnson Controls booth than they’d had in previous years and far exceeded their expectations.

TL;DR: I launched a new brand and created an interactive, social media wall at a trade show