I have been fortunate to consult with many brands, big and small, in the way of product development, and catalog extensions. This includes working with industrial designers and product designers in service of the overall brand strategy through production and implementation.

Brands are required to adapt new methods of communication, and develop their own process to minimize risk when performing in the market. I help brands execute their creative ideas while being responsive to their capabilities.

Branding is a practice directly related to all letter forms and writing systems, this includes symbols, icons and characters. Alongside the development of written languages exists visual designation and the concept of visual identification.

Brands with a clear identity go to market with a consistent voice, a robust code of behavior. A strong brand is distinct in its identity and will perform under the many stresses of the market, in regards to direct and indirect competition.

Visual problem solving rests on wrought repetition to develop informed experience. Branding strategy looks past solving for an aesthetic outcome, it seeks to address the audience and their experience of the brand through the product itself.

Packaging and product design have absorbed the weight that advertising once had; strategy beneath the imagery. Pictures transcend cultural language, pictures are an early language.

The right picture can be anything, at the same time it cannot be just anything, it needs to be one thing, and the correct thing. Brand strategy utilizes imagery in service of design to solve real world problems.

Pictures and icons are how early humans related to one another; it is how we have governed mass populations. Even before written languages were established, we used pictures to propagate thought as a society; a human race.

The market requires a logo to perform in many scenarios, successful brands meet these challenges with a robust system of tools to continuously solve problems thoughtfully.

When a logo is on a grid, optically considered, it will be capable of communicating your brand’s value. An informed identity system performs under stress, it is responsive and adaptive.

Identity systems give brands the ability to expand and contract when expressing their message.

When all brand touch points are informed to lead customers to the main story—a brand and its logos are beyond responsive, they become responsible.

More than guidelines and if-then protocols, there is a theory and method to graphic design and design thinking. Brand strategy allows brands to adapt and (re)position themselves in an ever changing market while maintaining focus of their goals and objectives.

I spent most of my childhood witnessing pictures get painted, photos being taken, stamps being printed, and songs being sung. Drawing pictures is how I made sense of the world, being a late reader, I gravitated towards communication through imagery.

In 2006, I started my personal portfolio with the name, Embarklife. This ongoing body of work has seen many years of progress from amateur designer through graduating design school and becoming a creative professional working with brands both big and small.

I graduated (2014) from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco, with a BFA from the school of Graphic Design. Every graduating class hosts a portfolio showing where industry professionals interview new graduates. I was offered an agency position and went pro as a graphic designer that summer.

Since my time as an in-house designer, I’ve seen commercial work and production from many levels and angles. With a wide mastery of digital production tools, I held many positions from junior designer through to art director overseeing all things digital and new media. If motion, video and sound are involved, I make it happen.