about me
The short version.
I’m a 30-something Canadian who likes making stuff, the natural world, and going down hills quickly. My career started in marketing but has (intentionally) shifted into the world of visual and product design.
When I was around 13 I started playing in Adobe’s Creative suite- and I’ve only recently found myself putting it away to play with new toys (hi Figma!). In 2012 I left school with having specialised in marketing, advertising, and promotions, but found myself more fascinated by branding and customer experiences.
Shortly after my foray into formal education I left Canada on a 2 month backpacking trip that snowballed into 4 months, then 10, then 2 years… it eventually led me to living and working in 6 different Countries, traveling to somewhere between 20-40 more. I’ve been settled happily in Austria since 2019, but the youth in me likes to imagine that I’m still on that trip.
I make things.
I started playing with Adobe Photoshop in my early teens. At the time, I mostly used my new skills to crop pictures of my friends onto girl’s bodies.
As I grew into a more mature adult, my Creative Suite skills developed with me. I started expanding into other Adobe programs and photoshopping my friends into more complicated images.
By the time I reached college, I had added more projects to my repertoire- I made my own business cards, mocked up advertisements and websites for class projects, or helped make zines/logos for my friends.
Out of school, I worked with startups (my own and others), design shops, freelance, and (in house, for a company) as I dabbled in all kinds of layout, product, and promotional design.
• print layouts
• web layouts
• menus
• banner ads
• logos
• e-mail marketing templates
• social media posts
• style guides
• merch
• corporate video.
I write good.
As a marketing student, I was convinced I would one day write ad copy. I was inspired by David Ogilvy, Leo Burnett, Seth Godin, and Don Draper – and I’ve probably read Luke Sullivan’s Hey Whipple, Squeeze This! front-to-back more than 5 times.
But having fingers that can mash a keyboard isn’t the only prerequisite to writing well, its a craft that takes focused practice. I’m grateful to have been given opportunities to continue writing with persuasive and creative intent after I handed in my last university paper.
In my professional life, I’ve written uncountable blog articles (freelance and in-house) mostly in the fitness, outdoor, and tech industries. On the more creative than you’d imagine front, recently I’ve worked proofreading work from non-native speakers and translating German to English. It’s surprisingly satisfying to add polishes, tweaks, and flourishes to a grammatically rough piece of text.
I like going on adventures.
In 2013, I went on a typical Eurotrip to celebrate finishing University. Vacation turned into travel, then when I found a job, it turned into a working holiday, and eventually a multi-year stint of changing jobs and locations every few months to fund a romp around the globe.
At some point along the way, my travel became more focused. I didn’t just want to hop from city to city, trying fancy beers and the local doner kebap. Having grown up in the boy scouts- I knew there were cooler adventures out there than city trips . Surfing, trekking, mountain biking, and snowboarding became my new targets.
It’s tough to draw the line between the trip I set out on a decade ago and the reasonably sedentary life I live now. In 2019 I moved to Austria on a temporary work visa, planning on having a huge snowboard season in the alps. Turns out, it’s pretty nice here- mountain bike season overlaps with the ski season on both ends of the calendar, giving me year-round adventure, and the rest of the continent is just a quick train ride away. I’ve opted to put down roots, learn the language, and stick around.
