A brief history of (work) time
First there was freelance
After leaving the music industry I made my way over to agency world. I collaborated with agencies big and small, on brands like ESPN, Genentech, and Levi’s. Sadly, work from this time was lost in the great external hard drive crash of 2012.
Then there was Zendesk
I didn’t really want to work in tech, but I found this company with a great brand, run by nice people who actually wanted to help solve an annoying first world problem. I worked at Zendesk for a while – from pre-IPO through hyper growth to achieving coveted $1B status. During my time there I used every arrow in my creative quiver, and did pretty much all the jobs: Copywriter, Brand Manager, UX Writer, Creative Director, and executive leader.
From Z to A
At Asana I worked as Head of Creative, which was part of the executive marketing leadership team. Translation: I spent most of my time in meetings working on strategy and high-level creative direction. I love to get nerdy about this stuff (ask me about consistency across brand touchpoints anytime). But meetings aren’t very exciting and systems designed to scale operational efficiency don’t photograph well, so I’m using this space to show off some cool stuff my team made.
And now for something completely different
I took a little time off to work on some things I cared about for my hometown (shoutout Oakland). I also went back to my roots, doing copy, branding, and creative strategy for [REDACTED] a stealth mode startup that made me sign a really serious NDA.
I'm an OG member of The Zendesk Creative Team. We help the business tell interesting stories about customer experiences.
Over the years I’ve used every arrow in my creative quiver – from copywriting to corporate narratives, product naming to brand strategy. And along the way I’ve worked with some amazing people on some pretty great projects.
Brands within brands
Branding the Zendesk CRM Platform
A very smart person once said “everything is a platform” (hint: it was my creative partner-in-crime Erin Pinkley). When Zendesk decided to get into the platform game we needed a way to highlight what was different – the open source technology, the flexibility to build whatever you want, and the ability to help businesses grow. So we created a brand identity that would really (ahem) shine.
Expanding our brand system
Zendesk got into the sales force automation (SFA) game when it acquired Base. The product was rebranded to fit our action-based naming system (Support, Guide, Chat, etc.) and given a major glow-up. There was a new microsite, tons of digital, and OOH all over the place.
They’ve have been saying print is dead for years. And yet, people keep buying magazines—especially the people who also buy enterprise grade software. So as part of our brand awareness campaign, we started with a print-forward strategy to cut through the digital noise. We got to write some fun long-copy ads, and the brand saw a big lift in unaided recall. Really the only downside was that no one ever got to shout, “Stop the press!”
Naming
Naming is one of the most difficult creative tasks – because it makes people emotional. Good names convey the brand style and help the product stand out. Great names do that too, but they also leave stakeholders feeling happy and satisfied. At Zendesk I’ve named everything from flagship products to internal infotainment networks. But hands down the most difficult, bizarre, and rewarding experience was creating a naming system for the conference rooms in all 16 of our global offices.
We also made a bunch of commercials over the years
* Brooklyn Bros. deserves most of the credit for this one. They are totally great and I’m glad we’re friends.
Annnnnd even some multimedia interactive projects
Museum of Annoying Experiences*
* Made in partnership with Phantom London. They are awesome and you should hire them.
This is an old copywriting project
It makes me laugh. I’m putting it here because this is my website and I can do whatever I want.