Client Relationships
Great work matters to me more than almost anything else in this job, and I mean great as in effective: based on a sound strategy, getting results, arrived at collaboratively with the client, executed with real design discipline. That standard is part of why my client relationships tend to last. I've worked with many clients for 10 to 15 years, and with a few, for my entire career, over 30 years now, across roles as both creative director and photographer. Every long relationship starts the same way: you show up ready to do great work, you get access to how a business actually runs behind the scenes, and you become something like an amateur expert in their world. That mix, doing work I'm proud of and getting invited back as a trusted partner for decades, is the whole reason I love this.
Client relationships are the whole point.
MARINE & MANUFACTURING
I started working with Skeeter Boats in 2006, while still at my last agency job. We worked together for several years on annual product catalogs for freshwater, saltwater and multi-species boats, about 100 pages total, along with microsites, trade show materials and collateral for new product introductions. We did countless location shoots across Texas, Arkansas, Florida, Tennessee, Minnesota and more, some of them up to 12 days at a time. Skeeter hired an in-house designer around the time I started my own shop in 2013, and a few years later we reconnected and I got to work with them again.
I was creative director and art director, handling photo direction on location and managing a team of photo and video crew, designers, production artists, copywriter, retoucher, illustrator and print production. On shoots, we worked with dealers and Skeeter Team guys (Skeeter-sponsored fishermen from whichever region we were in) These are real fishermen and their families who know the brand firsthand. Our client usually drove the photo boat while we directed talent and managed the shot list from the boat or helicopter.
One of the best tools I found on shoots was interviewing dealers and fishermen at dinner or in between shots, asking them to critique the catalog. How does this feel? What's missing? How could we explain this better? That feedback, from the customer and sales side, added to the manufacturing perspective, literally made our catalogs better every year. We refined diagrams, rewrote copy and updated layouts. Skeeter loved the process because it mirrored how they built their boats, listening to the people who used them.
Skeeter Boats
I began working with Century Boats on their 80th Anniversary catalog. We wanted to tell the story of a legacy brand and make it aspirational, photos that made you think "I wish I was there." I art directed the photography on location in Destin, Tampa and Sarasota, and was the main designer and art director on the project, directing copy as well. Soon after, the client told me he wanted me to lead all of their projects directly, and I began designing and managing the whole account.
A few years later I also designed their website, with the directive to make it a website version of their catalogs. It was database driven, populated from copy blocks, specs and photos for each model, so updating specs just meant a back-end change. More common now, but mind-blowing at the time. I handled catalogs, website, ads and collateral for them for several years, until Yamaha eventually sold the brand.
Initially we used professional talent for the aspirational look. We quickly learned models can't drive boats, don't know how to hold a fishing rod, and get scared when a helicopter flies backward six feet off the bow at full speed. After those first shoots, the client said no more models. He was right.
One dealer told me about a customer who kept this catalog folded in his desk drawer, looking at it daily while saving for his purchase, until he finally brought his family into the dealership with the creased old catalog and pointed to the photo, saying, "We want this."
Century Boats
Calsonic Kansei North America
I did creative direction and photography for this project, on location at multiple sites in Tennessee, Michigan and Mexico, capturing each of their North American manufacturing divisions: Electronics, Thermal, Interiors and Exhaust. The project was to create a new Website, a brand video and original photography. The goal was to support Calsonic’s effort to expand their customer base.
The look came together on the first shoot, with electronics workers in specialized clean rooms. Everyone had to wear protective clothing. Rather than just shooting someone from afar working with a soldering iron, I started engaging workers and asking for quick portraits to help show the people behind the parts and the pride they felt in their work. That direction became the inspiration behind the line "More than parts. Partnership."
This was one of my favorite projects to shoot. In addition to showing people making parts in their manufacturing facilities, we also shot in some unique high-tech testing spaces like a wind tunnel, a paint endurance room full of heat lamps used to stress-test finishes and a soundproof chamber measuring decibel emissions from individual components. We also built a temporary studio space at their headquarters and did a product shoot of all the parts that were going to be featured on the website and in the video.
Website design and photography for a manufacturer of custom thermoformed plastic components. We produced lifestyle images of people at work in the company's plant in Salisbury, NC, portraits and candids of workers with production in progress, showing the stamping and molding machines and giving a visual overview of the company's capabilities from design to finishing. I was art director, web designer and photographer. Product photos were provided.
Custom Plastic Forming
Legend Boats
When we built this, it was the only mobile-responsive interactive boat builder of its type in the world, dynamically resizing for phone or tablet. The idea was to let customers specify all the trim and color options for their boat online. The client, based in Mountain Home, Arkansas, brought two boats to Nashville to be photographed in studio. We shot a white and a black boat and all the available wheels, and using color and carpet chips, created images for every stripe and trim area, including finishes that faded from one color into another, which meant building fades for every gel coat and flake color. The result was a printable, shareable mockup that could be emailed straight to the nearest dealer, with lead management so the dealer got notified automatically once a customer completed a build.
Everglades Boats
Ad concepts for a new business pitch, in coordination with a boating photographer I worked with for years. We first worked together on Century Boats, and based on that success, we were invited onto Skeeter Boats as well, both brands owned by Yamaha at the time. Through him, we had an opportunity to create ad concepts for another marine brand using his photography. We ultimately didn't win the account, but were all really pleased with the work we developed for the pitch.
VF Imagewear
VF Imagewear was the uniform division of VF Corporation and sourced products from many of its consumer brands including Lee, Wrangler, Nautica and more. I was one of the art directors on the team and worked with VF for many years. In addition to corporate uniform programs including VF’s consumer brands, I also worked on their workwear brands like RedKap, Bulwark, Chef Designs and others.
Below are ads and mailers promoting the idea that your corporate uniform program could include premium consumer branded products. I helped with concepting the photo direction before the location shoots with a plan to help delineate and reinforce the personality of each brand. Two other art directors on our team worked on the photo direction and production of this beautiful location photography in Miami and L.A.
HEALTHCARE
I've worked with HCA over many years on many projects. At the agency I did a lot of work with HCA corporate on enterprise-level internal projects implemented at all their facilities, including the Advancing Innovation Awards, Clean Hands fighting MRSA, Code Ready disaster preparedness, Patient Safety, HCA Hope Fund and more.
I've also worked for the TriStar and South Atlantic divisions through BrandWise as both creative director and photographer, on branding and marketing projects for Orange Park Medical Center, Grand Strand Regional Medical Center, Redmond Regional Medical Center and more.
This testimonial campaign for Orange Park Medical Center below was part of a larger project including print and digital ads, TV, radio, airport displays and hospital posters. We started with a brand refresh implemented at the hospital and extended to physician practices, including an updated logo and brand standards and a positioning line of “Extraordinary”. I was creative director and photographer, and oversaw production and implementation of all the pieces. This was followed by a teams and technology campaign which was exciting to shoot because we went throughout the hospital and showed all the hospital's major service lines including full surgical teams.
HCA Healthcare
Brochures promoting unique furniture components and modular hospital rooms that speed up and increase capabilities for both new construction and remodels of medical facilities. The company’s philosophy is based on research showing that healing and recovery outcomes are significantly improved when patients are exposed to nature so their rooms and products incorporate healing colors and imagery of trees and plants even on the ceiling over the bed so patients can feel as though they’re recovering in a natural environment.
Wellness
SmartDrive by Max Mobility
The SmartDrive unit is a motorized add-on for a traditional wheelchair, controlled by the PushTracker, a smart wristwatch-style unit that interprets gestures. It gives traditional wheelchair users the convenience of a motorized chair for a fraction of the price. Originally owned by Max Mobility, the brand was later acquired by Permobil. This was a fun account because the client was constantly coming up with unique marketing ideas. One example was the motorcycle rider and the SmartDrive user each doing a wheelie. I was honestly skeptical until we got to the location and I quickly understood we weren't just promoting medical equipment, we were making it cool. We built a gigantic trade show banner, and at the show people were instantly stopped by the image. Robert Glover shot it and I art directed the photography. I worked on SmartDrive marketing for years, producing trade show designs, brochures, collateral, print and digital ads, and even helped on the interface screen on the PushTracker.
Coastal Carolina Medical Center is located near Hardeeville, SC, about 30 miles inland from Hilton Head. Like many small communities, the region didn't have its own hospital, and patients had to drive at least 30 miles for care. Province Healthcare was building this facility to serve the area, bringing both hospital care and jobs, and the community's excitement was huge. We developed an ad campaign, newspaper ads, radio spots and more, along with materials around the opening and the new logo. The idea was to showcase unique elements of the community and celebrate the people and places that made the South Carolina low country special. We traveled the region for several days capturing images and wrote a story about each landmark. The hospital loved the images so much they had the photographer make fine art prints to hang in the hallways of the facility.
Coastal Carolina Medical Center
DESTINATION BRANDING
Over the years, I’ve worked on several destination branding projects primarily with chandlerthinks with Kevin Endres as my creative partner. We developed branding concepts based on a comprehensive research package. These are brand concepts showing the direction and suggested implementation, but the real world production usually happens at the community level. In some cases, like Cabarrus County, we actually got to take things through final execution which was really rewarding seeing our concept come to life. For Cabarrus County, we worked with the Stewart Haas pit crew. We had a wonderful local photographer. He was great with people and knew all the locations we had planned. The client had coordinated talent at every location too, so we were able to cover multiple spots and build out an extensive ad campaign with multiple photo assets.
Cabarrus County, North Carolina
Rowan County, North Carolina
Marshall County, Kentucky
NON-PROFIT
Advancing Women in Nashville
Advancing Women in Nashville is a member organization that includes women leaders from 40 of the highest-impact corporate, professional services, and academic organizations in Middle Tennessee. AWIN works with three primary pillars of Advancing Community, Advancing Change and Advancing Leaders. I have worked with them for several years on a variety of projects doing both creative direction and photography. Projects have included designing event themes and materials for their annual Summit meeting, branding and event materials supporting the Advancing Innovation Awards, collateral pieces, email and web graphics and more.
Begin Anew
I’ve worked with Begin Anew for many years both as creative director and photographer starting with designing their updated identity as part of a rebranding effort. They were ready for a name that focused more directly on their mission of lifting people from poverty through education. We provided naming options and then executed the rebrand. Begin Anew provides HiSet (High School Equivalency) training, Job Skills training and English Language Learning programs—all as free services to their students. I designed their original Website over a decade ago, and then was invited to design their updated Website as well a couple years ago. We made it a multi-language capable site, so that non-English speakers could interact with it more easily. The language options are English, Russian, Spanish and Arabic. Over the years, I have also provided brochures, mailers, lifestyle and corporate photos and emotional testimonial videos featuring students, volunteers and staff telling their personal stories and sharing how this impactful organization literally changes lives.
Stories of Hope
Playlist of video interviews with Begin Anew students, graduates, volunteers and leadership.
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
Bass, Berry & Sims
I worked with Bass, Berry & Sims for over a decade as their lead art director. It was a very rewarding client relationship because they supported our ideas and were always open to doing innovative things. Momentum magazine is a great example. This was a magazine-style annual report and the articles featured client success stories with Bass Berry playing a key role in the background. I worked on print and digital ads, photo direction, brochures and collateral, newsletters, event materials, holiday cards, video content, emailers, branding and identity projects and more. Most people wouldn’t expect doing work for a law firm would be so creatively rewarding but the firm really believed in our work and saw the results. We won several legal marketing awards along the way too.
Yourr logo needs to work hard. It must be simple, relevant, enduring, distinctive, memorable and adaptable. It should be able to tell your story at a glance.
IDENTITY
