The problem: Making an arts law firm look hip as well as professional. Starting as the nonprofit cultural exchange organization Tamizdat in the late ’90s, and then expanding…
The problem: Getting the Career Center the attention it deserves. In their most recent strategic plan, Carleton College placed a top priority on their career center, an office…
The problem: Expanding Jenny Arneson’s image from neighborhood mom to high-profile civic leader. In 2010, first-time candidate Jenny Arneson was running for Minneapolis School Board against a better-funded…
The problem: Time, or a lack thereof. When Marion Greene decided she was going to run for the recently vacated Hennepin County District 4 seat, she had less…
The problem: Turning a nice idea into a usable brand. When Brad Bourn challenged a sitting park board commissioner in 2008, he was a relatively unknown candidate with…
The problem: Sheer quantity of pieces, coordinated with other agencies, while maintaining coherent brand and message. State Representative Will Morgan was in the unenviable position of representing a…
The problem: None. Some projects pose no challenges. Especially projects that not only have amazing photos to work with, but when focusing on the photos is the whole…
The problem: Finding a new audience. When I took over as marketing director for this highly-acclaimed theater company in 2007, they were suffering from a declining and aging…
The problem: Getting 2,500 small business owners to make the right marketing decisions. In 2017, I was contracted by Thrivent Financial’s newly formed integrated marketing department to build…
The problem: Succeeding with “different.” In 2006, I managed the Minnesota State Senate campaign of Rice County Commissioner Jessica Peterson. Because the candidate was an old friend, and…
The problem: Amazon. Kind of. I like bookstores. Few things in the commercial world feel as deserving of good promotion more than independent bookstores. Most recently I created…
The problem: Making people care at all. In 2005, I found myself on staff on a New York City Public Advocate campaign which had a number of serious…
The problem: Making good design repeatable. The Manhattan-based guidebook publisher had published a single edition of one title when I joined their team in 2000. For the next…
The problem: Expressing a new candidate’s classiness to equally classy donors. Much political advertising is uninspiring at best, and amateurish or downright crass at worst. I entered this…
The problem: A lack of time. And a website that nobody seemed to notice looked bad. When Mark Dayton won the Democratic primary for governor in August 2010,…
The problem: Putting the whole history of a band into one small package. Something Fierce were a mildly successful Twin Cities band in the 1980s, releasing four albums…
The problem: Creating a graphic image that reflected — and supported — the campaign’s momentum. I wasn’t even in the communications department. In 2012 in Minnesota, the hottest…
The problem: Capturing everything about an organization in one simple image. I suspect there are very few graphic designers who don’t love designing logos. I certainly do, but…