Bless up!
I was born in Kingston, Jamaica and moved to The Bronx, New York where I grew up with hip-hop and finished High School. I’ve been a creative for as long as I can remember, probably a gift passed down from my mother who was a dressmaker and clothing designer. My father worked for the Ministry of Agriculture and my love of the outdoors definitely comes from summer days spent driving around the island with my dad in his Toyota FJ, visiting farmers in rural country parts.
My dream was to do something in the arts and along the way I joined the U.S. Army National Guard, printed T-shirts during college, graduated from Clark Atlanta University with a degree in Fashion Design, owned a clothing store in Decatur, GA and started BGG a content creation startup in Atlanta. During my final years at CAU I fell in love with a Power Mac and my first gig after college was as a production artist for the Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper. A few jobs later, the tools and language of design continue to evolve but my love for the creative process is forever strong.
As a life long user experience professional I serve all who interact with the experiences I work to continuously improve. I get to do what I love.
Resume
SKILLS
Creative Leadership
Over seventeen years of experience driving quality and pace as a senior creative leader. Doing so across disciplines and channels, for both client and agency, connecting top brands with their customers.
Management & Strategy
A seasoned manager with years of CX and UX experience managing multi-disciplined UX and creative teams in collaborative, results driven environments. Developing operating and engagement models that focus on outcomes. Providing solutions and global strategy for a diverse set of brands. Creating attractive cultures for enterprise product/UX departments with talent acquisition, career development and building competitive but fun environments.
Software & systems
Adobe Creative Suite proficiency, Sketch, InVision, Axure, and MicroSoft Office Suite. Wordpress. Brightcove, Tridion, Interwoven and Documentum Content Management Systems. Oracle Ecommerce, Websphere Commerce, Adobe Analytics and Media Bank system experience.
EXPERIENCE
Senior Manager: State Farm, June 2016 – Present
Responsible for the strategy and execution of product deliverables within the Digital Experience organization. Maintaining Quality and Pace within an agile product team, providing holistic solutions across products and channels. Manage continuous delivery aligned to product KPIs, customer experience and enterprise goals. Collaborating on roadmaps with business and product partners. Manage creative strategy and fully accountable for UX solutions. Fostering collaboration between the development, analytics and research teams throughout State Farm Enterprise Technology.
Creative Director: BlackGreen Gold, April 2013 – Present
Principal, responsible for the ground up development and management of business infrastructure, business development, growth, process, strategy and creative direction for this Atlanta startup. Strategic planning for new business development leading, creative vision for new business pitches and client strategy sessions with brands such as Synchrony Financial, Crown and Caliber, Conagra Foods, Delta Airlines, Coca Cola, The Home Depot, Meat & Livestock Australia and Slalom.
Managing Director: GOLDCREWS, December 2014 – Present
After acquiring the 30-year-old TV and film production crewing company 1-800-TV CREWS, I focused on business continuity, expense reduction, revamping infrastructure, developing the new brand and marketing strategy. That led to the elimination of debt and bringing the company back to profitability in only two year. I’ve been able to successfully maintain the current client roster of broadcast companies, (CBS, USA Network, Discovery, BET, VH1…) while acquiring new business delivering the best production quality and consistent customer satisfaction.
Senior Manager Online Creative – Photography & Video: The Home Depot, January 2010 – April 2013
Created a new Photography & Video department to support the expanding visual asset and content needs of homedepot.com.
· Content strategy
· Custom video content including OLA, how-to, product demos, buying guides, commercials
· Custom Photography
· Video distribution strategy
· System integration
· Product solutions
· Analytics and measurement
· Asset management system
· Develop Photography standards for digital use
· Secure vendor partners
Senior Manager Online Creative: The Home Depot, January 2008 – April 2013
Strategic head of creative, leading design vision, building multidisciplinary teams, developing department process and documentation. Fostering product relationships, managing budgets, quality and pace. Delivering solutions based on Digital Transformation goals across all digital channels. Built a productive creative studio with positive culture, establishing new standards and patterns and managing agency partners,
· Complete department restructuring
· Directing the creative exploration, review and refinement process
· Developing, mentoring and identifying new discipline expertise for the digital experience design team
· Identifying opportunities for holistic experiences across platforms
· Facilitate conversations between multiple internal creative groups to foster consistency and breed culture of channel integration
· Ensure collaboration between UX, UI and development teams to create key partnerships and begin conversations to focus UX as a part of CX goals.
Creative Experience Lead: Legg Mason, 2002 – January 2008
Lead the interactive team in creative support of brand initiatives, system and product development for Legg Mason and its many subsidiaries and affiliates. Unifying the Legg Mason story for both the internal and external constituents.
· UX and UI lead for digital and software initiatives
· Created common visual language across enterprise digital channels
· Program/Project Management
· SEO
· Analytics and measurement
· Agency acquisition and management
Senior Graphic Designer: Crosby Marketing Communications, 1999 – 2002
Creative lead responsible for vision, design and implementation of printed marketing collateral, corporate websites, trade show graphics, print ads, TV and web advertising, promotional material and package design for clients in healthcare, retail, financial services and government agencies. Clients included, Kaiser Permanente, Royal Farms, Haircolor Express, GE Capital, Washington Adventist Hospital, Catholic Campaign for Human Development.
· Strategic planning, communications and creative development
· Project management
· Creative lead on in-store brand, photography, package design, store signage and POS material
· Studio management
· Print production
· Broadcast commercial production
Art Director: Schroder Publishing, 1997 – 1998
Directed the creation of 4 tabloid newspapers. Lead creative responsible for all aspects of the newspaper creative and production including layout, typography, photography and printing.
Maintained the daily operation of creative department, supervising the design of ads, direct mail pieces and collateral produced by Graphic Designers & provide training and technical assistance on Mac platform.
Graphic Designer: The Atlanta Journal/Constitution, 1996 – 1997
Lead designer creating print ads, promotional material and collateral. Working collaboratively with account team, doing client research, attending meetings and creative presentations for product distribution through COX newspapers.
EDUCATION
Clark Atlanta University- Atlanta, Georgia
Bachelor of Arts Degree in Art
References available upon request