25 years, one obsession.
Designer, developer, storyteller, relentless iterator, mother of two opinionated furballs, and I should probably cut down on my coffee consumption.
Some of it was in-house at brands you've definitely heard of. Some was agency-side at studios you might have heard of. The best bits were working directly with clients and teams who have to live with the decisions long after the project is finished.
I believe a brand should look like the company already is—just turned up about 15 percent braver than the day before. The best work comes from uncovering what's already true and giving it the confidence to be seen.
A career, in chapters.
Scenery Production & Scale
Assistant Art Director managing a 20+ person crew, building high-end corporate parties, massive stage designs, and interactive environments for major brands like Nickelodeon. I cut my teeth translating large-scale creative concepts into physical, modular production workflows, learning early on how to build systems that protect both the art and the profit margins.
Junior Digital & The Reality Check
First studio, first packaging line, and the first time getting the brutal kerning notes I actually deserved. I spent these years absorbing the absolute fundamentals of print layouts, identity systems, and high-end photo retouching for catalogs nobody reads anymore.
Agency Velocity & Multi-Brand Chaos
Stepping into deeper strategy and high-velocity agency pressure where the speed had to catch up to the craft. I spent this chapter juggling simultaneous identity launches, designing complex user flows, and learning how to pitch ideas to rooms full of suits without losing the soul of the work.
Higher Stakes & Leading the Room
Stepping into senior roles where strategy, execution, and communication all had to work together. I led cross-functional design and development efforts, helping translate big-picture brand goals into digital experiences that teams could actually build and maintain.
Deep in the Heart of Systems Production.
Building component libraries, templates, and scalable web systems that helped teams work faster and stay aligned. This chapter deepened my appreciation for structure—not as a constraint, but as a way to create consistency, efficiency, and better design outcomes that are scalable.
T Smillie Design. A pretty good chapter.
Back to working directly with clients, agencies, and creative teams. Less bureaucracy, more collaboration. More listening, more problem-solving, and a closer connection to the people who rely on the work every day.
Tools change. Design standards don’t.
Four Things I actually believe.
The ask is usually wrong.
Not because the client is wrong. The ask usually describes the solution someone along the way had in mind, not the original problem they're trying to solve for.
Brand is the whole game.
Color is loud. Imagery is louder. Brand is what the company actually sounds like in someone’s head. Spend the budget there.
Make it look like it was always there.
The best brand work feels inevitable. Like your grandfather sketched it on a napkin in 1958 and we just cleaned it up.
Think for the long haul.
Good websites shouldn't fall apart the moment a business grows. Think beyond launch day and build for what's next.
