FREELANCE
In 2011, I decided to go freelance and moved to Chicago to be closer to family. I also started a greeting card company and a fitness fashion blog. I've been a freelance writer/creative director/ brand-aid ever since, working with ad agencies, design and branding shops, innovation firms, and directly with companies on all three coasts, like these guys:
COMPANIES Ideo // One Design Company // The Office of Experience // Erich & Kallman // Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners // Leo Burnett // McGarry Bowen // Cramer Krasselt // Digitas // VML // We Are Unlimited // Shinola Detroit // Daily Candy // Hybrid Design SF // Hatch Design SF // Gotham NY // Nice & Co. SF // Knoed Creative // OKRP // Kayser & Co. // ANC Seattle...
BRANDS Nike // Apple // Samsung // Levi’s // The North Face // Porsche // Vans // Skinny Cow // Fat Tire // Shinola // Sears // Crystal Light // Pizza Hut // MdDonald's // John Frieda // Kitchen Aid // Cutter & Buck // Hannah’s Bretzel // The Eastman Egg Co. //Skyline Furniture // Four Hands Furniture // Tall Water Jeans // La Bomba Fashion // Hardvark Merino // The Resort at Paws Up // Meeting Tomorrow // Well and Co. // Utter Nonsense // Hokka One One // Girls Leadership …
I do conceptual advertising in all mediums (traditional/digital/social/emerging), copywriting, brand voice development, UX writing, app writing, brand strategy, website writing, press releases, coffee table books, journalism, product development, naming, content strategy, a little bit of comedy writing, and basically anything a company might need to get an idea out there or communicate who they are in a clear, human-centered, authentic way.
Here's a sampling of the types of not-always-advertising projects I get to work on as a freelancer:
IDEO
I freelance with Ideo and get to work on awesome but top-secret innovation and product /service design projects. For more on that, see the UX section of my site.
Nike
Sometimes when you're a freelancer you write some stuff and send some ideas and then move on to the next gig. And then half a year later you walk into a Sports Authority and see that one of your lines got executed in retail and you're like, “Hey! I wrote that! Awesome!”
Girls Leadership
Tagline, Manifesto, Ads, Social
Girls Leadership is a non-profit that teaches emotional intelligence and constructive communication skills that build courage and confidence in girls of all ages. They needed to define themselves in a way that was as powerful as what they teach to attract and motivate students, parents and donors. It was one of those projects where you get to use your powers for good, and it was an honor to work with such an inspiring group of women.
Manifesto:
There's a voice inside of you. The one that’s down deep. The one that knows what’s real and how you really feel.
When you listen to that voice, and let it out, when you speak truth to power (whatever power you’re dealing with), those words aren’t just heard, they’re felt.
They vibrate. They resonate.
People instantly feel how much courage those words took and how much more they mean and they see in that moment what power is and that the world didn’t crumble around the person who spoke them.
It starts as a whisper, that voice. But the more you listen to it and use it, the stronger it gets. And every time you open up, it shows others that they can too.
That’s leadership. That’s influence.
That’s all kinds of powerful.
UTTER NONSENSE: Comedy writing
Utter Nonsense is a game that's kind of like Cards Against Humanity plus accents. Someone pulls an accent card, and you have to figure out which of the phrases in your hand of cards would be the most hilarious when read in that accent. I helped write some of the phrase cards for the naughty and family editions. (The family-friendly version was WAY more challenging to write for, btw.) (Click the picture to scroll to the next one.)
CONTENT AND WEB Copy
I wrote for Daily Candy for a spell, and that was super fun. I covered fashion, restaurants and travel. Also here are a few of the websites I've written. For more see Websites + Content.
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SHINOLA COFFEE TABLE BOOKS
I worked with Shinola Detroit as a copywriter and creative director, and one of the many cool things I got to do with them was write coffee table books to go along with their limited edition Great Americans watches, which were inspired by the stories of Henry Ford, The Wright Brothers and Black Blizzards. Yep. That's right. Dust storms. Why? Because the story of the Dust Bowl is a story about grit.
See what I did there?
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Skinny Cow Ice Cream Packaging + NAMING
Yep, that's exactly what it sounds like. Hatch Design Company in SF did the re-design of Skinny Cow Ice Cream's packaging, and I worked with them, writing copy for the packaging and naming a whole bunch of Skinny Cow Ice Cream flavors.
