Hello.
I am a Creative Executive with over fifteen years of experience leading and modernizing brands, driving growth, building teams, and making change. Creative Director, brand strategist, general manager, marketing executive, whatever it takes. You can read about it on LinkedIn.
Brands i have led :
Sonos
Patagonia
Urban Outfitters
Outside
Early Majority
schools :
Yale School of Business (lecturer)
California Institute of the Arts (critic)
Rhode Island School of Design (critic)
Art Center College of Design (lecturer)
Yale University (M.F.A.)
Wesleyan University (B.A.)
works :
BRILLIANT SOUND
Brand Strategy: We Believe in Sound
Strategy always comes first. We started reinventing the Sonos brand by clarifying who we were as a company. We used this strategy to guide our work, energize and align the company and onboard new employees and partners.
Brand Identity: Brilliant Sound Visual Identity
The next step was to translate our strategy into a visual identity. We worked simultaneously on the brand identity, a full website redesign, and campaign work to make sure that our message and our voice would be strong and consistent everywhere.
Global Campaign: Brilliant Sound Your Way
With a strong strategy and identity it was time to spread the word. We launched Brilliant Sound globally in all mediums featuring artists like OutKast, Radiohead, Solange, Aretha Franklin, and David Bowie. Based on our mixed media modeling we saw an opportunity in high impact out of home and we took it.
Brand Experience: Brilliant Sound Experience
We took over 107 Grand Street in New York and built an experience that immersed visitors in the intersection of music and technology. Collaborating with artists like The National, Yano, Holly Herndon and more.
Brand Story: Inventing Brilliant Sound
In addition to bringing the brand strategy to life visually we needed to tell the story. We wanted to clearly define Brilliant Sound so it was more than a slogan. We wanted to show how the entire company worked to bring software innovation and acoustic engineering together to uplift your experience of sound.
Brand Identity: Sonic Logo by Phillip Glass
A sound experience company has to have a brilliant sonic logo. We had the honor to work with the legendary composer Philip Glass to make ours. My brief to him was simple: “Sonos is a made-up word that means sound. Please make up a sound that means Sonos.”
Read More: Variety
Brand Act: Sonos Remasters The Yule Log
We wanted to bring the idea of brilliant sound experience in every way possible. We had a lot of fun adding brilliant sound to this ubiquitous holiday staple.
Brand Act: Sonos Redesigns the NASDAQ Bell
We looked at our IPO as a another opportunity to bring our brand strategy to life. So we decided to redesign the NASDAQ opening bell. We brought in 3x Oscar winner Chris Jenkins and and Grammy winner Giles Martin to compose a new bell sound for NASDAQ that would debut on the day of our IPO. It still plays to open trading.
Read more: USAToday, Fast Company
Brand Experience: Sonos x Gorillaz
We worked with the Gorrillaz to create an epic demo of the new Sonos Playbase.
MUSIC MAKES IT HOME
Global Campaign: A Very Sonos Holiday (featuring Dee Lite)
A really fun holiday spot with a great track. Directed by Jason Koenig.
Global Ad Campaign: Music Makes It Home
Killer Mike, St. Vincent, and the National help us show how music transforms the home.
Global PR Campaign: Sonos Makes It Home
To bring our strategy to life we commissioned one of the largest scientific studies ever completed on the impact of music on the human experience. We knew music transformed the experience of the home but now we had proof.
Global Campaign: Reset the Mood
This campaign brought to life yet way that music has the power to transform your mood. Gloomy to Groovy, Heartbreak to Healing, Sleepless Nights to Fast Asleep, and Working Late to Midnight Date.
Global Campaign: Playlist Potluck
We created a global moment about the connection between food and music featuring some of the world’s greatest chefs. This integrated campaign included a special episode of Mind of a Chef dedicated to music, a partnership with Spotify, and the late great Anthony Bourdain.
Brand Content: Andrew Bird On Echolocating the Perfect-Sounding Home
YOU’RE BETTER THAN THIS
Global Ad Campaign: You’re Better Than This
For this campaign we highlighted all the relatable problems that Sonos solves.
Global Ad Campaign: Sonos vs. The Not-So-Smart Home
Poking fun at the foibles of the “smart” home.
Global Campaign: Sound on Picture on Sound
For the launch of the Sonos Playbase we showed how important sound is to some of your favorite films: The Big Lebowski, Pulp Fiction, Garden State, and Napoleon Dynamite.
OTHER GOOD STUFF
Company: Early Majority
“Lean out. Trip Out. Be Out.” I co-founded this company Joy Howard. We created the brand and the business to promote gender equality. Our goal is to disrupt the outdoor and street wear categories by making highly technical gear from a woman’s point of view (aka fuck the patriarchy).
Read more: Vogue, HypeBeast, GQ
New business: Sonos Radio
“We built a fully integrated streaming service for our owners with help from David Byrne, Thom Yorke, Brittany Howard, Khruangbin, and more.”
Read more: The Drum, The Verge, Wired, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone,
Brand Identity: Patagonia Brand Identity
Brand redesign still going strong.
Brand Action: Floda
“Introducing the world’s first intentionally Flat Soda.”
Read more: Trailrunner, HypeBeast, Joe’s Daily
thoughts :
Podcast Interview:
The Design of Business | The Business of Design with Michael Beirut and Jessica Helfand
Podcast Interview:
Scratching The Surface with Jarrett Fuller
Keynote Presentation:
Google SPAN Conference
Interview:
Hero Meets: Sonos’ VP Global Brand
There are several Talking Heads songs that really help me tap into the Sonos mission. In particular “Once In a Lifetime”.
Essay:
Designing Our Own Graves
These products embody an emerging form of inverted consumerism where the consumer provides the parts and the labor.
Essay:
Bartelby TM
Can design give people access to the void outside of choice and work that has been slowly drained from our everyday lives?
Flashback!:
Talking social media back in 2011. Awww, so cute!