Creative professionals generally have a certain style that they encompase. I do not. I have a preference: a personal self image, but I do not limit myself. I love matching the style of the brand to the brand's audience. These are a couple of style explorations I've prepared. They represent two extremes. I have another that I plan on adding soon.
The Refined style is intended to show class and sophistication with a quiet confidence. Rich browns, paired with muted tans, magical cold greys provide a subtle but powerful contrast, enhancing photographic imagery and subtle script and serif heading fonts. Then, an apple blossom to accent the traditional hues in an elegant embrace.
The Vibrant style is intended to turn heads. It's inspired by the effort of finding a tradeshow booth among a sea of neutrality or scrolling through a list of profiles. It starts with a yellow and black combination, which statistially gets people to stop and look. Then an intentional variety of secondary and tertiary colors to show a multitide of exciting emotions. Vector imagery and special effects are used to enhance the vibrancy of the colors.
Inspire business growth through
Exceptional Craftsmanship, Disciplined Processes, and Tangible Outcomes.
My creative approach begins with restraint, ensuring every action serves a clear purpose and aligns with business goals, brand identity, the behavior of the people, and market relevance. As such, a creative leader should have creative skills, but also be strategically involved in the vision of the company, as well as being a brand champion within, inspiring people to become brand ambassadors across all departments... and even externally
A professor and mentor once told me the first rule of design is to "never design without a concept." Working heavily in marketing I later manifested a second: "never build a concept without a purpose." These ideas resist the creative flaw of "design for the sake of design." The same holds true for content.
With over 20 years in the field, I’ve developed an instinct for crafting visuals that resonate with audiences and faithfully express the brand, built from structured concepts that put customers in the driver's seat and allow them to experience the journey and feel the results.
"Tad built the visual and cultural identity of Isos from the ground up, crafting a brand that truly reflected who we are and what we stand for...
...He has the uncanny ability to translate ideas into compelling visuals and messaging that resonated with our audience and inspired our peeps."
I approach brand as a living, evolving entity. By leveraging CRO principles and market trends, I optimize digital platforms to enhance user engagement and generate high-quality leads that turn into contacts.
I'm an advocate for refreshing outdated visuals and content and crafting new content flow and layout strategies. "Stay relevant and compelling as you grow." My work extends beyond aesthetics; it's about positioning the brand as a leader in the industry and ensuring trust.
My recent CEO, on several occasions, described me as a "secret weapon," making the company appear larger than it really was. This interprets to creating lasting impacts in competitive markets.
As the top Atlassian Solution partner, the goal was to always stay on top. My initiative for all of our creative positioning was to keep us standing out among the competitors and showing people what it was actually like to work with us so that they would become loyal customers and outstanding advocates.
"TAAAAD! What the heck is going on with conversions? Within a month of you implementing your CRO strategies, our conversion rate went up 150%!"
I'm a creative professional with a twist: I can code and have a ton of technical expertise. Bringing creativity and technology together has always given me an edge. I love creating custom front-end solutions to ensure that websites are not only visually appealing but also strategically aligned with user interactions and styled with a consistent brand approach. Writing code that functions appropriately; designing custom modules for various platforms, CRMs, CMSs, and web apps; and executing full-scale website overhauls while maintaining functionality, I prioritize user experience and consistency. This aligns well with my CRO principles.
I also have hands-on experience with one of the pioneers of UX design that further informs my approach, as well as working with various other leaders in the industry. That, tied with my knowledge of the evolution of the user experience practice, ensures that every interaction is intuitive and impactful.
My specific blend of "jack-of-all-trades" applies to quicker and more integrated experiences and being more in-tune with direct reports and their abilities.
"Tad is smart and gets things done. He's quite knowledgable about the mechanics of UX and exploiting positive user flows for intended KPIs."
In my recent role with a top Atlassian Solution Partner, I’ve expanded my capabilities to include project management and Agile methodologies. Balancing creative execution with operational clarity demands not only the right tools, but a deep understanding of process and people. I’ve led cross-functional initiatives requiring visual strategy, logistical planning, and alignment across departments.
Managing complex, high-impact projects has sharpened a "results-driven mindset" valuing delivery and precision without compromising creative integrity. I’ve worked directly in platforms like Jira and Confluence to build workflows that support clarity and reduce friction. This structure reinforces thoughtful, dependable work at scale.
Alongside the work itself, I guide creative teams to operate with confidence, purpose, and autonomy. I believe that strong leadership is less about direction and more about creating conditions where intentional work can thrive. It takes a heavy focus on collaboration, communication, and empathy.
"Tad pushed to port the whole website onto HubSpot and was instrumental in completing this super quickly. We did a huge migration of sales, website and marketing in under 3 months. Later, he also led a total redesign of the website and all the graphic design elements, and the website came out beautifully."
A sidebar note about AI:
As any realistic professional might agree, I can't ignore the potential of AI. I'm an advocate for functional code, flawlessly branded designs, and human-centric content. AI struggles significantly with these areas and that's not going to change. While we can't rely on AI to handle responsibilities end-to-end, it has the power to amplify productivity, effectively making one specialized individual as efficient as multiple... especially as a professional specializing in multiple areas.
I've been integrating AI into my workflow since it became widely accessible, and my previous company recently adopted it at scale. AI excels at streamlining tasks: from drafting content for refinement and proofreading to brainstorming design concepts and generating partially usable graphic elements. AI does not deliver perfect results (especially for brand-critical work), but it does provide a springboard that saves time and inspires creativity, essentially cutting out the boring parts.
With hands-on experience and continued education in AI applications and prompt engineering, I've mastered ways of thoughtfully leveraging AI's capabilities in virtually everything I do. I believe the future belongs to those who can use AI effectively to navigate their processes... but don't have to rely on it.
