Louise (a.k.a. Lou Lou) always had a labor of love in making cookies, tinkering with her favorite recipes and sharing them with family and friends until they were right. Each time she shared her new creations with the world, they received high praise for turning the ho-hum cookie into greatness. 

Looking to take this hobby to the next phase, we worked together to craft a fun, neighborly brand that you would want to eat milk and cookies with. A hand-drawn, script logo set the tone for the brand to be homemade, light and airy. Crafting fun names and the stories behind the 6 different cookie offerings showed the playful side of the brand. The part we really enjoyed was concepting the packaging and messages for you to find at the bottom of the bag. Either lamenting that you had run out of cookies or urging you to buy more, these notes printed on 2-sided coasters were a nice way to wrap up the experience and help you find your way to more Lou Lou's.

A special thanks to Anthony Pichotta, Emily Mitchell and TJ Prochaska for their help with copywriting.

Concepts for Reaching Neighbors, a direct marketing firm, in need of a refresh to their existing identity and collateral. Reaching Neighbors holds themselves to the highest level of customer service while connecting their clients with targeted consumers in their area.

From this back story we created a mono linear neighborhood that reflects this personalized relationship within communities, as well as target-centric concepts, highlighting their abilities to pinpoint valued consumers.

Working with iGrow Media, we aimed to tackle the look for this vibrant new theatre in San Antonio. Inspired by the their idea of interaction and kinship between artist and audience, the intent of the branding was to not obscure the performances but to become a part of them, to show the process that goes into the end result. Creating the various color blocks and knocking the bold typeface through, the play begins to live inside the logo. 

In the process of "converging" the letters of the name until they met in the middle, we also discovered the reverse C created between the 'E' and 'R'. This twisted around 'C' became a complimentary icon for the group that celebrates doing things differently than typical theaters .

If you are in the San Antonio area, keep your eyes peeled for this group to open in a new, state-of-the-art theater this year.

SPICE kitchen + bar was looking for some strong visuals to use on their posters and ads to promote their upcoming events. Working with copywriter and wife to the chef, Jackie Bebenroth, we crafted this series of posters which helped sell out the events and make them a great success.

Alternate headlines from Tony Pichotta and TJ Prochaska.

For the 2011 Kent State Folk Fest, my agency decided to team up art directors and writers for a "shootout" to see which concept would win. Working with writer TJ Prochaska, we performed well in the early rounds but the client ultimately went with another group and their creative.

Here is my teams efforts, designed to appeal to the college crowd and introduce students to this awesome music fest. Though they may hear "Folk Fest" and think of only traditional folk sounds, there is a variety of genres that fall under the folk umbrella and they really don't know what folk music is.

*Work completed at MarcusThomas

On July 7th of 2010, LeBron James made his decision to take his talents to the Miami Heat, sending the citizens of Northeast Ohio out of bars to burn their LeBron jerseys and scream obscenities on national TV.

Wanting to leverage the large amount of national media attention covering the dramatic return, Marcus Thomas spit balled a slew of tactics to let Cleveland shine again and inspire pride in the town they love. We wanted the people of Cleveland to realize we are more than one talented ballplayer - WE are the living and breathing parts that have stayed in the city and keep it alive.

Employing traditional tactics and social media networks, I AM CLE became the anthem for inspiring pride in the city. 
OOH: variety of billboards, taxi signage, bus stop clings to name a few. 
Website: designed to aggregate all social media tagged with "I am CLE" - videos (from YouTube), pictures (from Flickr), tweets (from @I AM CLE page), as well as tips from the "I am CLE" Foursquare page.
"I am CLE" branded shirts: allow you to write in what makes Cleveland important for you.
Custom designed shirts: using software like Nonsek, users can combine their own mix of restaurants, local favorites and landmarks to personalize their shirt.
Flip off LeBron: when LeBron comes out, don't flip him the bird, flip your I AM CLE signs.

*Concept initiated at MarcusThomas, finished as personal work

Featured on DesignWorkLife

It's midnight, your time is running out and death is at the door are what I envisioned for the spring tour poster for the rock band, Howling Hour. When your time comes, we can only hope rock music plays us out. Throw in some nifty buttons made from the odds and ends of the project to go along with it and we got ourselves a deal!

Hot fun in the summer time, or so this concept goes. These designs were part of pitch to my local skate shop, West Side Skates, to create a series of t-shirt designs around the theme of 'summer' and 'skateboard'. The shirts were designed with the intent to create a premium, limited edition shirt with a higher price tag over their every day, shop branded shirts

Report to the community, focusing on their efforts to help out schools and acheivement centers within the county.

*Work completed at Mobius Grey

Branding and label design for my friends at the Wine Stash. Vintage in design with modern appeal, stashed away for years to be uncovered by who knows.

Featured on theDieline.com

NeXT was opening a new location of their popular urban clothing boutique in Coventry. Each store has a different flavor and the drive was to a young urban consumer, hungry for clothes that reflected the street and the clubs.

Running with the line, "Stop the Blandness" and a Mod/psychedelic art direction, the posters were designed to fly in the face of cookie cutter production, rewarding those who seek the original and hard to find.

After discussion over the differences in the roles of Designers and Art Directors, I set out on a long research binge to pick the brains of acclaimed design shops and agency folk on the topic. Cobbling together their thoughts and work alongside my thoughts, I created and self published this book, sharing it internally at my agency to further the conversation.

These are the people/shops I spoke to and used quotes from:
Chaos Concept Mfg. (Austin, TX)
Office (San Francisco, CA)
WINK - MPLS (Minn. MN)
Lab Partners (San Francisco, CA)
160over90 (Philadelphia, PA)

I also featured work from: Zues Jones, Duffy & Partners, Sockeye, and Markatos & Moore.

Series of posters created for Fortune 500 company, based on their core principles. Posters were hung throughout all facilities, global-wide, and led to the creation of a animated keynote address.

*Work completed at MarcusThomas

Animation done at Ringside Studios