Oregon Flora is an incredible repository of information on more than 4700 vascular plants across the state. I completely overhauled the site to clearly communicate its value, relevance and importance, redesigned the UI of its tools to make them more intuitive to both experts and a plant-loving public, and overall, made this complex dataset more accessible – even fun... [There’s more]
Who are you? What do you believe? And who needs to know it? The most effective design starts with a roadmap: brand strategy.
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Nick Fish for Portland
I consulted on two ultimately victorious political campaigns this spring, contributing foundational messaging strategy to both. Closest to home was Portland City Councilor Nick Fish’s bid for re-election against a tough, insurgent challenger.The result? A resounding 61.8% of the vote in the primary, well past the 50% threshold that would have forced a runoff in November. Now, instead of running for office this summer and fall, Nick can devote all his considerable energy to the important work he does for all Portlanders on City Council... [There’s more] -
plasq.com
After creating the UX and UI for Comic Touch, plasq's spiffy comic book cover creation app, I had a pretty good idea about who the company was and what it stood for. So when they asked me to revitalize and refocus the company's website, I knew immediately what it should say: fun. Like a comic book, but with scroll bars.Working with plasq's onsite developer, I created a bright, sunny and light-hearted UI, steeped in the visual language of classic comic books... [There’s more] -
Outdoor School for All
[UPDATE 11.08.16: The Outdoor School for All initiative passes overwhelmingly!]Since its first band of Medford sixth graders in 1957, Outdoor School’s mission has been simple: get our next generation of leaders off the couch and out into Oregon’s great outdoors. It's a uniquely Oregon tradition, and one that reflects the heart and soul of what it means to live here. The problem is that because of increasingly tight school budgets, currently only about half of Oregon’s students get to experience Outdoor School.The braintrust behind this worthy initiative asked me to help articulate exactly why it's in every Oregonian's interest to bring this to life. From a creative brief I developed pinpointing the advantages and opportunities of Outdoor School, I created branding, an introductory pitch brochure, and a leave-behind addressing funding head-on. -
Growing Gardens
Simply put, Growing Gardens teaches people how to grow their own food in their own back yards. And that's part of why I love it, and have been donating my time to it since 2011: the simplicity of the concept. With the simple act of growing your own food, you get healthier people, a healthier planet, and healthier communities. That's a lot of bang for your buck.I started donating design and production of their annual reports but quickly expanding my role into communications and brand strategy, focusing and refining how they talk about what they do and why it matters. That effort culminated in this "seed packet" I wrote and designed... -
The BTA Alice Awards
It's been an honor to support the Bicycle Transportation Alliance with strategy and creative for its signature fundraising event – the Alice Awards + Auction – since its very first edition. But this year was different: after more than 25 years, the organization was changing its name and expanding its mission beyond bicycling to walking and transit.So, really, the BTA turned to me with two projects in one: not only branding strategy and creative for the event, but for the new organization, too. -
Les Garagistes Winery
Okay, full disclosure: this is a project where the client is me. Or to be more precise, me and about 30 other people in the cooperative I run. Talk about a tough client!Still, it was a great opportunity to take my decades of design and packaging experience and focus it on something I love: making wine. So I treated this client as a real client, starting with a brand articulation and then executing it through a rigorous visual strategy – one ultimately featured in Communication Arts ... -
Portland Leaf Day Campaign
After a disastrous launch of Portland's leaf removal program the year before – without explanation, the city started charging residents for a service that had always been free – the city asked my firm to relaunch, help explain and build momentum for the program. I renamed the program "Leaf Day," emphasized the value of our urban forest and, therefore, why Portlanders should invest in it. With designer Cat Cheng, I created a logo and identity for the program, and created all the program materials for the first year, including brochure, door hangers, a poster, and one of the best online resources about the benefits of urban forest on the internet.
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Lori Mason Design
Lori Mason is a skilled textile designer with an incredible eye for pattern and detail, and was looking to take her business to the next level. We helped her articulate what exactly that meant for her, and then created a web presence to take her there.
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Zoolights
For the first time in decades, the Oregon Zoo’s signature winter festival – Zoolights – would open its doors without the attraction that for many Portlanders virtually defined the event: the Zoolights Train, offline because of an extensive remodel of the Zoo grounds. The Zoo asked us to help.
As the Creative Director that lead the design team, I thought the solution was getting people to rediscover what makes the event amazing in the first place: sharing a stroll through a stunning universe of light with friends and family during the holidays. And maybe letting your imagination run a little wild… as the star of our spot does in “If I Made a Zoo.” -
Sunday Parkways
Five times a summer, in different parts of the city, Portland closes a few streets to cars and funny thing happens: people of all ages come rushing out to play in the streets. And man is it inspiring, as I think our film for Sunday Parkways captures pretty well.
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Precision Castparts
We successfully designed and developed the first corporate home site for this multinational company in 2001, so we were honored to be asked to significantly re-envision the site over the last nine months. Leveraging in-house IT staff for implementation, we specified a CMS platform and then recast the entire structure of the site to mirror PCC’s business areas and serve its key audiences. The result is lean and focused, like the company itself.