the
hot take
hello
I’m Chris. A proud dad, husband, and surfer. I spend time outdoors as much as I can, whenever I can. I love traveling to wonderful places—sometimes odd places—to experience fresh ideas and inspiration. I’m a California native living in the San Francisco Bay Area.
I’m also a design leader, maker, team builder, educator, and writer.
And I take pictures of all sorts of things. Especially things that appear mundane but are actually quite extraordinary if you look closely.
Shot with:
Fujifilm X-Pro3
Olympus PEN E-P3
1970s era Polaroid Automatic 450 Land Camera
Plus,
I’m a bridge builder. I prioritize relationships across functions, disciplines, levels, and perspectives to accomplish great things. I thrive when I’m solving problems, taking on thorny challenges, bringing fresh ideas to life, and finding novel ways of doing things that people haven’t seen before.
Sound fun?
I have deep agency and in-house experience leading people, teams, and organizations to build smart products, unforgettable brand experiences, and design cultures that hum.
adaptability and grit
Some brands I’ve had the pleasure of working with:
let’s build something that…
turns
heads
I want to work with the best. I build and lead teams of designers, filmmakers, animators, strategists, writers, and technologists to do work that turns heads.
Medium? Doesn’t really matter. I’ll take it on. I’ve imagined and built immersive environments, massive events, brand strategies, visual narratives, learning tools, interactive experiences, products, campaigns, films, animations, identities, design systems, and a wide array of memorable brand expressions. The through line is always an intention to build belief and inspire action.
Take a peek…
Case study 01: webex rebrand
breathing new life into a ubiquitous 20+ year old enterprise brand
Case study 02: dzone
a global design and research conference exploring “intelligence” in an era of unequivocal change
“Annnd that’s a wrap! My last speaking gig of 2023 was this week and I couldn’t be happier! The Cisco Design Team members are a group of rockstars and I was so incredibly grateful to keynote at their annual dzone conference.”
Case study 03: cisco ai assistant
a collaborative assistant that weaves clarity and understanding through our increasingly complex work lives
A more in-depth look into my work, experience, and offering is available on request. In the meantime, keep going. There’s more to see and hear.
create waves
I believe designers have a responsibility to contribute good to the world. That’s not about paying lip service to “changing the world.” It’s about simply doing work that you believe in, that makes people feel something, and is worth fighting for.
In the early aughts, I published my master’s thesis entitled Aqua—an immersive experience and campaign to heighten awareness and inspire action around the interconnectedness of people with the world’s precious and fragile oceans.
I’m
out there
Having been in the game for a while, I’ve gained wisdom and a point of view that’s worth sharing.
Check out the Nodes of Design podcast for an interview I did with founder, Ravi Tej, where I discuss evocative design, the challenges and merits of remote work, and creative inspiration.
