Client Relationships

Great work matters to me more than almost anything else in this job, and I mean great as in effective: solving a real strategy problem, 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 I was 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 across the line. We also developed microsites, and regularly did trade show materials and collateral for new product introductions. We would do up to 12-day location shoots for each line in Texas, Arkansas, Florida, Tennessee, Minnesota and more. 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 was fortunate to work with them again.

I was the creative director and art director, handling photo art direction on location and managing a team that included photo crew, designers, production artists, copywriter, retoucher, illustrator, and print production. On the shoots, we typically worked with dealers and team guys (Skeeter-sponsored fishermen) from whichever region we were in. These were all real fishermen and their families who knew how to drive boats and knew the brand firsthand. Our client usually drove the photo boat and managed logistics while we directed talent and managed the shot list from the boat or the helicopter.

One of the best tools I found at the shoots was interviewing people informally, asking dealers and fishermen to critique the catalog. How does this feel to you? What's missing? How could we explain this better? That input was the most valuable, because it came from the customer and sales perspective, not just manufacturing. Our catalogs got better every year because of it, refined diagrams, rewritten copy, reworked talent mix, all based on real feedback. Skeeter loved that process because it mirrored how they built their boats, listening to the people who used them and building that feedback into the next model.

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 with 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 the copy as well. Soon after, the client, who I'd been working with daily on the catalog and at the shoots, told me he wanted me to lead all of their projects directly and I began designing and managing all the work for the account.

A few years later I also designed their website, with the directive: make us a website version of our catalogs. It was database driven, populated from copy blocks, specs and photos for each model, so updating specs just meant a change on the back end. It's more common now, but at the time it was mind-blowing to me. I handled catalogs, Website, ads and collateral for them for several years until Yamaha eventually sold the brand.

Initially we used models and hired talent for the aspirational look. We quickly learned models can't drive boats, don't know how to hold a fishing rod, and get kind of scared when a helicopter is flying backward six feet off the bow at full speed. After those first few 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 and looked at it every day, saving and planning for his purchase, until he finally brought his family into the dealership with the creased old catalog in hand and pointed to the photo saying, "We want this."

Century Boats

Calsonic Kansei North America

I did the creative direction and photography for this project, on location at multiple sites in Tennessee, Michigan and Mexico to capture images from each of their North American manufacturing divisions, Electronics, Thermal, Interiors, and Exhaust. The goal was to show the people behind the parts to support their effort to expand their customer base. The look for the whole project came together on the first shoot, working with people in specialized clean rooms, constant vacuum systems running, everyone in special protective clothing, moving at an incredible pace. Stopping them even briefly was a real interruption, and they were gracious about it every time. Rather than shoot the standard three-quarter view of someone at a soldering iron, I worked in portraits on the floor, something that showed them as people, not just workers, and showed the pride they brought to the job. That direction became the inspiration behind the line "More than parts. Partnership," which our copywriter wrote after I explained where I wanted the website design and photography to go.

This was one of my favorite projects to shoot. Along with the plant floor work, I shot in a wind tunnel in Michigan, a paint endurance room lined with rows of red heat lamps used to stress-test finishes, and a soundproof chamber where they measured decibel emissions from individual components. High-tech environments most people never see, alongside the everyday work of the people who kept it running.

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 the 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 available in the world, meaning you could use it on a phone or tablet and it would dynamically resize. 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, piggy-backed behind his truck, to be photographed in studio before delivering to a local dealership. We shot a white and a black boat and all the available wheels. Each boat had different trim options, and using color and carpet chips, we created images for every stripe and trim area, including finishes that faded from one color into another within the same area, which meant building fades for every gel coat and flake color. The result was a printable, shareable mockup that could be emailed straight to your nearest dealer, and the system also included lead management, so the dealer got notified automatically once a customer completed a build, even if the customer never reached out directly.

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 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.

HEALTHCARE

I’ve worked with HCA over many years and on many different projects. At the agency I did a lot of work with HCA corporate on enterprise-level internal projects that were 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 TriStar division and South Atlantic divisions through BrandWise as both creative director and photographer doing comprehensive 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 was a small piece of the over all project which included print and digital ads, tv, radio, airport displays, hospital posters and more. We started with a brand refresh that was implemented at the hospital and also extended to physician practices which included an updated logo, color palette and brand typefaces that were applied across all communication segments. I was the creative director and photographer and handled the design and oversaw the production and implementation of all the pieces. This was followed by a teams and technology campaign which was really exciting to shoot because we were showing full surgery teams in the OR and showcasing all the service lines in the hospital.

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. It was controlled by the PushTracker which was smart wristwatch style unit that interprets gestures. It was a tremendous innovation and gave traditional wheelchair users the convenience and power of a motorized chair for a fraction of the price. Originally owned and developed by Max Mobility, the brand was acquired by Permobil, a leading manufacturer of motorized wheelchairs. This was a really fun account to work on. The client was constantly coming up with unique marketing ideas like the motorcycle rider and the SmartDrive user each doing a wheelie. I was still skeptical even when we got to the location. It sounded dangerous and so far from a healthcare message. But once we started getting everything in place, I understood. We weren’t just promoting medical equipment, we were making it cool. We ended up making a gigantic trade show banner to accompany the booth design we were working on. I went to the show and people were all instantly stopped by the image. It was the client’s brilliant idea. I just helped bring it to life. Robert Glover shot it and I art directed the photography. I worked on the SmartDrive marketing for many years producing not only trade show designs, but brochures and collateral pieces, print and digital ads and more. I even got to help with the interface screen on the PushTracker controller.

Coastal Carolina Medical Center is located near Hardeeville, SC. It’s about 30 miles inland from Hilton Head. Like many small communities, Hardeeville didn’t have its own hospital. Patients had to drive at least 30 miles to get medical care including emergency care. Province Healthcare was building this facility to serve Hardeeville and surrounding communities and not only bringing hospital care, but also jobs. The excitement in the community was huge and the hospital opening was eagerly anticipated. We developed this ad campaign which included newspaper ads, radio spots and more to promote the new facility. We also worked on materials surrounding the opening and other branding projects including developing the logo. The idea was to showcase unique elements of the community and celebrate the people and places that made Hardeeville and the South Carolina low country special. We travelled all over the region for several days capturing the images for the campaign and wrote a story about each of the landmarks in the ads. The hospital loved the images so much they got the photographer to make them fine art prints to hang in the facility.

Coastal Carolina Medical Center

DESTINATION BRANDING

Over the years, I’ve worked on several destination branding projects primarily with chandlerthinks. For these projects, I typically worked 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 who was actually primarily a wedding shooter. He was super fast and great with people. The client had coordinated talent at every location too, so we were able to cover multiple spots and build out an extensive ad campaign.